What's Up With The Wheelers: Christmas in the Air

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a lovely celebration. Ours has been breath-takingly cold, but magical. Since it will probably be a while before I get our Christmas day pics posted, I wanted to share some photos of the days leading up to Christmas.

Snow! Annika was so excited to bundle up and play in our first snowfall. Jason was just as excited about the snow, anticipating the inches accumulating at the ski resorts.

Trampolines are fun in any weather.

In the beginning of December, the kids had their big Christmas concert with the International Children's Choir. You can see Talia in blue to the left, and Brooklyn playing cello to the right. As a veteran choir member, Brooklyn also got to perform with the bell choir.

And here's Eli, debuting as Snoopy in Snoopy's Christmas.

On the home front, it was time for decorating.

We were excited to have a mantle for all our Christmas stockings.

We also pulled out our lovely Christmas dishes. They definitely made leftover night more palatable.

Photos with Santa! We actually met this Santa while crashing the 27th Ward Christmas Party (we technically belong to the 27th East Ward.) While we didn't live in our O Street rental for long, we made some great friends that have outlasted our move.

Annika's requests for Santa varied depending on the day, but I think this time she requested a dolphin bath toy and a stuffed guinea pig. Hopefully she wasn't referring to Spark.

Jason had an important role in planning our 27th East Ward celebration--a neighborhood service project. Only Jason could figure out a way to make his task of designing door hangers involve power tools.

Well-done!

At the service project, the neighborhood collected coats and assembled meal kits. The kids' favorite part was the candy bar. A good portion of this lot eventually ended up mounted on our gingerbread house.

As long as we are on the subject of church, Jason looked splendid as he narrated the Primary Nativity.

One weekend we took a day trip to Logan to listen to Grandma Susie and the American Festival Chorus perform with Gentri. The concert was fantastic, but getting to see extended family was just as great. In this picture we have Uncle Arnie, Susie, Grandma Hansen, and Uncle Ron.

After the matinee performance, we came back to decorate sugar cookies that Aunt Brianna had made.

Such tasty fun!

Amazing chef that she is, Aunt Brianna also made these delicious Swedish krumkake. We ate these after watching Eli's Christmas Special with Five for Fighting, but more on that later.

There's never a lack of tasty treats in December. Here's Annika at the library during the Teddy Bear Tea Party sponsored by Moka Gourmet Chocolate.

Our family's guests of honor.

Hard to argue with chocolate dipped cinnamon bears.

We went caroling with neighborhood friends and gathered back together for hot cocoa and train time.

A bit sugared out, we made our own neighbor gifts lighter this year.

It wouldn't be December without holiday concerts at school. Here's Talia performing on the violin for the first time.

For living a mile and a half from Temple Square, you'd think we would have gone to see the lights more often. Lots of traffic and poor air quality held us off for a while, but we made it eventually.

While there, Eli lost a tooth that must have wanted a closer look at all the sparkling lights.

Temple Square is always more fun with friends.

Moving on, right before coming to Omaha we found ourselves without power for 14 hours. This pole around the corner explains why.

Getting ready for school, our candles definitely came in handy.

Since no power equated to no heat, Annika and I headed to the Leonardo after preschool. I really enjoyed their temporary exhibit on all things hygge--cozy and warm.

Annika wrote a Christmas wish for Santa: "I wish for Santa to bring me a real swimming pool. I also wish for him to bring me a pet dolphin." I'm sorry to report that he didn't deliver on either.