Seeing Santa!

Asher and Journey know that Christmas is all about Jesus. We've explained that Santa, just like the snowman,
is just something fun that we see around Christmastime. They still enjoy watching movies about him
 and looking for him (even in pictures) and going to seeing him. Asher calls it "Santa hunting". 

This year Journey was not shy at all and ran right up to see him. 

Asher, not so much. 

Fortunately no one else was waiting, so Santa spent awhile talking to him 

and by the end of our visit, he did give him a hug and a high five.

But then on Christmas Eve, we had a sleepover at their cousins' house 

and just as the kids were getting ready for bed, they heard a "Ho Ho Ho"! 

He stayed to read them the story of Baby Jesus' birth! 

The funniest part was when Santa's cell phone rang;

 it turns out he has the exact same ringer as Grandpa. Ha!

Columbus Zoo Wildlights

There was a break in the freezing temperatures, so we took advantage of the warm-ish weather 

to experience the Columbus Zoo's Wildlights. Over 3 million lights welcomed us into the zoo!

We arrived at 3:30 and practically had the place to ourselves. Even in the daylight, the Christmas lights were beautiful. 

Check out these GIANT ornaments!

The Manatees!

Checking out a manatee's jaw and learning about their "marching molars". When their teeth wear down, they lose the front one and the rest move forward. They continue making new teeth their whole life evidenced by the fact that they have never found a manatee that's missing a tooth!

When Journey was ready to get down, she said, "a little help here?" Haha!

After a bit our friends Shawn, Heather and Presley, who is also 3yrs old, joined us. As we were waiting for them to arrive, Journey asked me to take her photo with this sign. The pose is all hers. :)

They rode the train, pet some goats and eventually talked all of us into squishing pennies.
It was actually pretty cool. Asher loves coins, so this was mind-blowing excitement for him.

Once it was dark, the lights around the lake danced to Christmas carols. The kids sang along to Jingle Bells even though they only knew a few of the words but it was the sweetest sound! I love to hear them sing!

Before we knew it SIX hours had passed and it was closing time. It was a fantastic night!

to the Christmas Tree Farm

The day after Thanksgiving we were off to the Black Forest Tree Farm to pick out the biggest tree we could find for Grandpa's new barn!

We found our perfect tree! Asher guarding it while Daddy went to grab the saw.

It actually started snowing while we were there, so the kids had fun running around catching the flakes.

When Daddy had it almost down, the farm owner came running over in a panic asking if we had a truck to
haul that monster tree! It's so big that he wasn't able to wrap it, just had to tie it down and drive carefully. 

We used a pulley type system to hang it in the barn. The cord had a bit too much stretch in it, so we had to add a jack to lift it into place!

Whew, finally in place!

Uncle J is 6'5". On top of a ladder and with an extended grabber thingy, he still struggled to place the angel on top.

Time to decorate!

13ft tall and 11ft wide! Now THAT's a tree!