Christmas Break

We have been having a great Christmas Break at the Allen house. I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures, but I have hopefully taken enough to be able to share a little bit of what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks.  Our first big Christmas event was the piano recital that I had for my piano students.  It was also Owen's first recital and he did an amazing job playing "Jingle Bells."

The kids have also had a lot of fun playing together.  Their favorite two place to play the past couple of weeks have been our big toilet box that was converted into a play house and the indoor playground at the Chesterfield Mall.

Then of course there was Christmas itself.  Owen and I built an Advent Chain (shown here when we first made it) and counted down the days to Christmas with scriptures to read each day.  We also had fun decorating the house and enjoying our special Christmas treasures (like the books that Grandma Allen sent us last year where she recorded herself reading the stories: "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Nativity").  Christmas Day was wonderful and we spend the whole day enjoying at home with our little family.

To add to our other Christmas Break festivities, we got to play in the snow this morning.  It snowed just about an inch last night, so as soon we determined that it was warm enough for us to not freeze, we bundled up the kids and played outside in the snow.  MayLynn seemed to enjoy her first snow, but was ready to go inside as soon as she realized that although it's fun to play in, the snow is also really cold.  Owen had a blast as long as I let him play outside and he and I even walked to the park and he shoveled a little bit of snow there as well as at home.  

I hope that everyone else has had a wonderful Christmas time and I look forward to continuing to share the antics and exploits of our little family in the upcoming year.