what to do? what to do?

one 'problem' with being all finished with the christmas prep is that we didn't have much to do today.  i was focused on catching up with some of the house jobs that didn't get done this week with the extra christmas work.  matt was 'playing' with a new 'toy' (post to come later) and the kids were just torturing themselves with the presents under the tree.  they have them sorted by recipient, size, order to open, etc.  they won't even let me put more under the tree.  i have to just pile them to the side for them to sort and process before they can go under the tree.

it has been just pouring here and the rain has melted all of our snow.  so the kids worked on making their own snow slopes in the house.

somehow daddy has gotten tasked with the gingerbread houses every year.  we haven't graduated from a kit - yet.  this one works out perfectly because it is four small houses and everyone can make their own.

and here are some semi-finished houses...

madelyn pouting that she can't open presents yet.

mason, always generous, is showing me one of mine.

 then maddux decided that he could beat the camera shutter - and he did most of the time.

mason got in on our little game of peek-a-boo too.

maddux joined daddy in an online finance lecture.

since it was very warm (for winter) we decided to go out and see some light displays.  we ate a very early dinner and headed out.  maddux was asleep before we left the neighborhood! several of the light displays were on the same fm station this year (at least i don't remember them being on the same station in previous years).  i had told the kids we were going to go "like 10" places.  madelyn kept count and demanded 10 before we went home.  unfortunately, one of the ones didn't have their lights on last night!  it looked impressive though, even all dark.  here is one of the 'dancing' displays.

madelyn almost wasn't willing to count any displays that weren't set to music but i explained not all displays were set to music.  reluctantly, she was willing to count non-musical light displays.  we drove around trying to find enough to go home.

we were able to find six that met madelyn's standards.  we told her that one of the large displays was near church and we would wait to see it on christmas eve.  she is willing to wait but we had better deliver on four more impressive displays!

waiting for christmas is hard!!  love.