Christmas festivities!

This year was filled with tons of fun holiday activities! I think the highlight was Paytons school musical. Each year the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes do a winter musical. This year it was called the Littlest Christmas Tree. It is mostly singing, but there are some speaking parts as well. The kids try out during class and Payton got the lead role of Santa Claus! We were so proud of him! The other speaking parts had one or two lines and he had 10 that he had to memorize. We worked hard and practiced almost every day! He looked so adorable in his costume! They all did so good and we were so proud of him! I think at the end of the musical, my sister, my mom and myself were all crying! (Shocking, I know!)
In November my mom and I took the kids to Branson for the weekend to go to the Old Time Christmas at Silver Dollar City. I have never been to Branson, (not that I remember at least, apparently I went as a child). But, it was a really pretty area and I am sure it would be a lot of fun in the summer! The Christmas lights and parade at Silver Dollar City were so neat. We booked a lunch with Santa and that was a big hit for the boys. Unfortunately, with Justin working mandatory weekends during the holidays, he didn’t get to go with us.
One of the other fun things we did was go on a hayrack ride through our neighborhood! Our subdivision puts it on every year. Santa was there and they had a hot chocolate bar!
We had a really great Christmas this year. The boys are so into everything Christmas related. Easton loves the lights and trees and Payton is all about Santa. Easton really got it this year that Santa was coming to his house. If you asked him what he wanted he would say, Choo Choo, Elmo, both! On Christmas Eve we were tracking Santa on TV and Payton was so into it! He had to find a globe so he could figure out exactly where they were talking about! It was so fun that the boys were so into everything. It really makes the holidays so special. After we did our thing on Christmas morning, we went over to my moms and celebrated over there as well. I was worried that the boys would not last as they were up late on Christmas eve and then the long day on Christmas, but they did great! I was actually really impressed with both of them. Especially Easton, I was sure that he was going to be tearing into presents and such, but he always waited his turn and did so good!