Christmas time is here!

This Christmas season is officially in full swing here at the Daniels' house. Both Zac and I LOVE to get into this holiday so we have so much fun together this time of year. Teagan is of course game for any festivities and makes it so fun for all of us. This is a LONG post since I have 3 weeks worth of fun to put up. :)

Zac started putting up Christmas lights back in November. He thought there would be too much snow after Thanksgiving, and we've all been pleasantly surprised that the snow has been scarce (cold temperatures are another story). He started with 11 strands of icicle lights we bought on craigslist and last weekend added a few more sets that his parents gave us. You could say our house is brightly lit. I LOVE it and I LOVE having a husband that I don't have to nag and beg to put up lights. He is more excited about it than I am and beats me to the punch. He even put on his "ugly Christmas sweater" to put the lights up, I actually think he is quite dashing in it. :)

That nasty Idaho wind really gives icicle lights a run for their money! It's constantly blowing the lights into the rain gutters and making sections break. We're excited to go shopping December 26th for lights that don't hang! Zac gets up to fix them all the time and some sections refuse to be fixed or stay fixed...

We set up our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I love it so much. I love how Christmasy it makes the whole house feel!

One of our favorite family traditions is making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Every year we make them some time in December and then we blow them up with firecrackers on New Years Eve. The boys are especially fond of this one! Zac's, as usual, is our crowning jewel, he has mastered the art of home making! He was REALLY excited to get his picture taken. :)

My favorites were the little candy people that Teagan made after he got bored of house building. They were so awesome, I love his creativity to no end. He is my light!

Teagans (left), mine (middle), Zac (right)

Just yesterday we went to Zac's parent's Christmas party and had a blast. I hope it becomes a yearly tradition because we had a ton of fun. It was an ugly Christmas sweater party with yummy food (honestly the BEST bacon wrapped steak and carmel I've ever eaten), white elephant gifts, and lots of games.

We had a blast picking out our ugly sweaters together a few weeks ago, I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while. The best part was wearing them to our ward Christmas parties and getting a lot of confused looks and stares....hehehe.

the white elephant gifts at the party were hilarious. My bro and sis-in-law got a yoga mat and richard simmons work out video, priceless! I got the freakiest looking Mrs. Claus ever, so fun!

My camera was being super fuzy so this is actually the best picture I got of the group...I'll have to wait for my sis-in-law to give me the pictures she took with her nice camera. Just know that we were quite a sight with all of the festive sweaters!

One of my favorite new traditions that we started this year is a random acts of Christmas kindness countdown. I saw the idea on pinterest and thought it would be an excellent way to help all of us get into the Christmas spirit. Each day until Christmas we're doing a random act of kindness. We put one on each paper of a paper chain and made them when my nephews were over.
So far we've taped quarters to candy machines, left cookies in the mailbox for our mailman, taken in extra shopping carts at the grocery store, called and wished a special sister a happy birthday, and given a grocery store gift card away to a random person. Teagan was unsure at first (he really wanted to USE the quarters), but now every day he reminds me and asks what we are going to do nice for someone. He really has gotten into giving which makes my heart happy and I have to admit that changing my focus is helping me get my priorities straight too. :) I'm really excited for the one a few days before Christmas where we take balloons to the mall and hand them out to little kids. I think Teag will love it!

Another favorite family tradition is making, decorating, and delivering sugar cookies. We've done this every year since we've been married (6 years in 2 weeks!) and I honestly love it. Sharing it with Teagan is so fun too, he gets so excited and makes every Christmas tradition worth it!

Everything is my favorite at Christmas, but I've loved our nightly christmas devotionals. We've been teaching Teagan a scripture from the Christmas story and then we sing a couple Christmas songs around the piano before Teagan goes to bed. I think this is probably my favorite. I love Christmas music and I'm grateful for two boys who will sing with me, even though ding dong ditching and blowing things up are probably the more exciting traditions. Here is a video of the song Teagan made up for his scripture that he memorized, love the song and love him!

Merry Christmas to everyone!