The Reed Family: Christmas Fun!

We've been super busy since Thankgiving. Christmas activities fill our schedule in December and while it seems exhausting at the time, we wouldn't change it for the world.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, my dear friend Meggan from way back in our college days (she was the first new friend I made at college and then we pledged the same sorority!!) came to visit for the weekend with her family. They were really here to do the Polar Express in Calera, but they spent a good bit of time with us too! We were so happy to see them!!

I think Harrison has a little crush on Avery!

4 of the 5 kiddos...sweet baby Aiden was somewhere being loved on I'm sure!

Harrison and I went to church one Wednesday night and made a nativity set. It was so much fun to have this special one on one time with my little bud, and I thought the nativity turned out really sweet. We'll have it forever I'm sure! (I just wish I could have gotten Harrison to wear something other than an Auburn football jersey, but I'm quickly losing the battle on clothes.)

We had breakfast with Santa at our church (and Harrison's school).

Harrison has a really sweet group of little friends! Santa's lap was FULL!!

I had lunch with Hudson at school and then volunteered at Santa's workshop, where the kids packed up food and snacks for those kids who aren't as fortunate over the Christmas break. It's always a good time and something that I think is very important for our kids to understand!

We picked out our real Christmas tree! We have a large artificial one, but we started getting a real one last year in addition to it, and I fill it with all the Christmas cards we receive. The kids love picking out the tree even though they were really in short supply this year (not a lot of good ones!). I feel like I can actually appreciate and enjoy all the Christmas cards we receive when they are on display.

Carol took the boys and I to see The Nutcracker! Hudson was thrilled as you can see! Ha!

This next one was after a little bribing. I really enjoyed the show, and I think both boys did as well, but Hudson was being too cool for school and said it was too girly. Oh well, they need a little culture in their lives!!! Thank you Migi for taking us!

Hudson had a big school project right in the middle of all the madness where he had to pick out a book that he had to read to the class, pick out a "wow" word which he would have to explain to the class, and do a book report that consisted of completing 4 pages of questions. He also had to give the whole class a souvenir to take home with them. It was a bit much in my opinion, but Hudson actually liked doing it. It just wasn't something he could totally do by himself. I'm proud to say he got a 98% on the project, which is mostly based on how well he presented it all to the class, so he did great!

He read a book called The Gingerbread Pirates, and so we made little gingerbread ornaments for the class. It was actually really easy to do and we had a lot of fun! Definitely recommend for a good Christmas activity!

Hudson decorated them with glitter pens and we put ribbon on them to hang from the tree. They smelled delicious too!

Margaret had her annual gingerbread house and cookie decorating party and it was so much fun as always!

We had my work Christmas party a couple of weeks ago! I'm not sure I could do what I do without this group of girls below. They make all the long hours and stress bearable!

Then the next night, we had our Sunday school Christmas party. Again, not sure what we would do without this awesome group of people! We love them all!

We went to the Alabama Theater with the Reed family (and extended fam too!) and saw A Christmas Story. The boys had never seen it and they loved it, however, I really wish they had played the edited version where they say "fudge" instead of the other word!!! Thankfully, I think we played it off really well and the kids have already forgotten about it.