BEWARE - this might be a long post with lots of pictures.......it's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything and while we haven't been doing too much we have been doing some fun holiday things.
First, we got our tree! Jeff found a u-cut tree farm not far from us so we decided to go search and cut down our perfect Christmas tree. Like every year it's a "hunt".......Rena never has trouble picking out a tree - only problem is that it is usually WAY TO BIG. Again this year she found her perfect tree right away......
Maleah found the next perfect tree.......getting a little bit more do-able, but still pretty big.....
YES - Jeff and Cameron found it! Our perfect tree.....
Time to cut it down! But wait - that's not Jeff! I think Jeff chose this tree farm because he didn't have to do the actual cutting - someone at the farm cut the tree, wheeled it up front, wrapped it and put it on our van. Jeff did have to tie it down though!
And for all of you that are noticing, YES, it does rain in Southern California! Not very much, but it did happen to rain on the day that we decided to go get our tree! Here are the kids waiting for the tree.......and actually enjoying the rain since we haven't seen it much since we've been here......
Time to decorate! Jeff & Cameron were in charge of the lights and the angel.....
The girls and I finished it up with the ornaments.....
Our perfect Christmas tree.....
After we were done decorating I wanted to get a picture of the kids (together) in front of the tree. Somehow it was decided that we would take individual pictures in front of the tree first. So, Rena jumped in front of the tree and smiled.......which really ticked Maleah off because she thought that she should be first. Here are the individual pictures..........
And where is Maleah????.....
Finally, her turn.....
Our holiday fun has also included Gingerbread houses. We put this house and tree together one night.....
We have also made foamie gingerbread houses, went to a gingerbread making party at our community clubhouse and Maleah got to make a tree at school. Our house is very well decorated with Gingerbread houses this year!
Maleah has been making a lot of Christmas things at school, but this is probably her favorite thing so far - her reindeer antlers. She wore them for 2 days straight when she brought them home.....
We've also been doing some fun non-holiday things. We've gone to the beach.....
Rena was very upset knowing that her sandcastles were going to be destroyed before we made it back to the beach. We had to take a picture to remember them.....
Rena had another flag salute where she finally got her award that she didn't get last month (that she should have gotten). It was a long month waiting for that award.....Way to go Rena!
Jeff is still on the hunt for a rock for our yard......(huh? You ask.....yes - he wants a rock!) Every time we go anywhere he's watching the side of the road for a rock that he can bring home. He found several that he wanted to stop and get on our trip home from Indio, but I wouldn't let him do a U-turn on the mountain.
So, when we went for our Christmas tree he found this rock (hmmmm.....maybe that was another reason he chose that Christmas tree farm) on the mountain. We pulled over so he could examine the rock. Sure enough he wanted it and was sure that the two of us could lift it into the van. Well, while we were on the side of the road a car drove by......very slowly.....as it kept driving I commented on how they probably thought something was wrong and that I was going to be embarrassed when they came back to help us. About 2 minutes later here comes the same car back, I'm smiling and laughing as I walk towards the car to let them know that we are fine.....BUT they continue driving (slowly) and lean out of their window and start taking pictures of us and of our van...........didn't even ask if we were o.k..............and it really wasn't obvious that we were trying to take the rock -- we were just standing there on the side of the road. After all of this Jeff decides that we aren't going to be able to get the rock into the car and we re-load and drive away - without the rock! About a minute later we pass a police man heading the opposite direction as us -- in the direction of the rock -- we couldn't help but wonder, did that car call the police on us for taking a rock and is it illegal to take a rock off the side of the road???? Here's Jeff with the rock that got away.....
And big news.......Cameron lost his front top tooth.....
That's it for now - more holiday fun to come later.............
Checking out all of the stocking things before moving on to all of the other gifts.....
Maleah "rockin' out" with her new princess piano.....
Rena "rockin' out" with her new boombox and Hannah Montana CD - in her new dress!
Cameron immediately started building once everything was open. The only clean spot he could find was in the hallway....
We had a nice Christmas Day! We all got a lot of nice gifts and had fun opening them and playing with them throughout the day. Jeff did all of the cooking - making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and prime rib for dinner.....it was all delicious! We spent most of the day at home playing with our new toys and relaxing, but we did visit a couple of neighbors in the afternoon and then spent part of the evening next door with our neighbors and their family. 
Later in the afternoon we went to a candle light Christmas Eve Church service. The kids are all dressed and ready.....
After church we went out for dinner and then came home to get ready for Santa's visit. We sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn and we left Santa 3 cookies, a glass of milk, 9 carrots for the reindeer, 3 Christmas drawings and a note telling him to take it all!
