Arizona Christmas

As usual, the weather was beautiful for the Queen Creek Christmas parade. I love Queen Creek. I love the size of the city. I love that wherever I go, I drive past fields, farms, and horses, but if I want a good shopping center, there is one 10 minutes away. And if I want a really good shopping center, there is one 20 or 3o minutes away. We now have a hospital just down the street. The airport is close to an hour away, but I'm used to that (being from Spanish Fork). Maybe that's why I love Queen Creek so much. It's similar to my hometown without actually having to BE my hometown. Who wants to live in the same city where they attended high school?

But here I am off-topic as usual. The main reason I love Queen Creek is for THIS!!!

Santa Clause sporting his sunglasses in the parade! After the parade, we found a nice soft patch of grass to eat our snow cones and watch some of the Christmas performances at the library.
Brynn got bored and ended up with a pen and a notebook, which is typical for her.


After church today, we made treats to eat while we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
And here's another part of Christmas in Arizona. Brynn has gotten stubborn about talking on the phone, which drives me crazy because I want her to keep in touch with her out-of-state relatives. But no matter her mood, she almost always lets Grandpa Johnson sing her to sleep at night. For days she's been wanting Grandpa to sing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," and she got to hear it tonight! So here she is, listening intently (it's hard to see the phone in her hand).


And here comes Bryce. Is this normal? It's not usual neutral for these two. Either they are pestering and tormenting each other, or they are loving on each other in the sweetest, most affectionate ways. Here, Bryce is gently stroking her hair.

And puckering up to give her a kiss.

And after a while, the two of them in the same bed start to get wound up and hyper, so we move Bryce back to his crib. But not before Bryce gives Grandpa (through the phone) a goodnight kiss.

Oh, and by the way, our Christmas tree was tipped over already. I'm sure that's the first of an unfortunate amount of times. :) Here's Bryce trying to put back all the ornaments. I've just had to remind myself that this is not the time period in my life to stress over having a beautiful tree. For right now, I'm perfectly content with just making Christmas fun with the little ones. I know all too soon Marty and I will be decorating the tree by our self and reminiscing about our kid-friendly tree back when we had babies.