Christmas Fun and December Family Fun Nights

We have had an especially fun December with lots of family time!  Because our traveling for Christmas is quite spread out, ranging from the weekend before Christmas all the way to the second week of January, we have had much more time to relax at home and enjoy the season.  I decided I'd include a few pictures of some things our family has been up to in December before I write a post on our Christmas Day.

Our family fun nights for December included:
1) Decorating for Christmas (Click on link for video) - Although it was on our December calendar, we actually squeezed decorating for Christmas into November, the weekend after Thanksgiving :).

2) Neighborhood Cookie/Caroling ~ Over 3 days, we made 5 different kinds of cookies (the kids made all 5 kinds!), arranged them on plates with our Christmas card, and then on a Sunday evening when people were home, we went door to door singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and handed out the cookies...then we came home and ate our own plateful :).

3) Christmas Light Drive ~ We drove through the Phalen Park Holiday Light Display.  I didn't take any pictures but it was a fun thing to do as a family that all our ages enjoyed!

4) Graham Cracker Houses ~ Every Christmas Eve we make graham cracker houses!  The past two years the boys have made one house and the girls another.  Larkyn just ate graham crackers while we made the houses:)  Just for fun, I included our 1st (2012), 2nd (2013), and 3rd (2014) annual graham cracker houses pictures too :).

Messy Sugar Fun!

love this :)

4th annual graham cracker house - 2015 - ages 5, 3, 1

2014 - Summer age 4, Colton age 2, (Larkyn 5 months)

2013 - Summer, 3, and Colton, 1

2012 - Summer age 2, (Colton 8 months)

We also had a lot of fun with these activities...
1) Christmas movies Frosty and Charlie Brown, complete with snacks!  (Because we hardly ever watch movies, the kids get so excited!!)

Larkyn's first time eating "on the couch" :)

 
2) The Holiday Train - Grandma and Grandpa K came too, as we watched the Holiday Train, all lit up for Christmas, come, park for a while, and then continue on its way north!

3) Night Trains - The Twin City Model Railroad Museum is fun in general, however during Christmas, they turn off the lights and run their trains lit by the tiny city lights.  Because it is a bit of a drive, we went during both the afternoon and the evening, with a fun stop at Keys Cafe for dinner in between!

Colton driving the trains

Santa was at the museum!

 night trains

4) Miracle on 34th Street, the Musical - Originally I had planned to take Colton to Night Trains on a Christmas Date and Summer to Miracle on 34th Street as a Christmas Date, however sweet Colton heard how much Summer wanted to come along on his date and he asked me if we could bring the whole family on his date!  Summer was ecstatic and immediately asked if we could bring the whole family to her date as well!  While Larkyn was old enough to go to the train museum, she wasn't old enough to sit through an entire theatre show yet, so we dropped her off at Grandma and Grandpa's and the rest of us LOVED the Woodbury Community Theatre's rendition of Miracle on 34th Street.  A huge highlight for the kids was looking down and seeing the pit orchestra under the stage!

I am so grateful for all the time we have gotten to spend together this month!