Traditions are great!

Last year our family started a new Christmas tradition.  Due to a "Secret Santa" exchange that Emily participated in last year, we started doing our own Secret Santa exchange.  Being that it is easier to shop with little kids at the Dollar Tree versus Target or Wal Mart, felt it made more sense to just repeat the success of last year and shop at Dollar Tree again.  Last night we went to Dollar Tree where everyone received their $2.25 to purchase their two items.

The excitement and build up for this activity this year was so huge!  The kids were so excited about making this shopping trip and picking for the person whose name they drew.  Wrapping their presents to their picked person had to happen last night as well.  So glad they enjoy this tradition!!  We will definitely make this an ongoing thing.  I do think we will stick with the Dollar Tree and not branch out to more expensive items.  :)  You can read my post from last year by clicking on Secret Santa or Great Days! in the labels on the side of the blog page.  Very much a great day!

After shopping, we walked next door to the pet store and purchased a dog tag for our new puppy, Loki.  Loki has been with us for about a month now, but he was an early Christmas present.  Had borrowed a selfie stick a few days before and took our one picture with the borrowed stick.  My family was COMPLETELY embarrassed to have to take this picture at the front of the PetSmart store.  I didn't see where this was a big deal, but thought I would share the photo (though not a good one) since it caused such an uproar.

After getting the dog tag, we continued our tradition by eating dinner out last night.  We went to O'Niels and as luck would have it--it was kids night!  All kids, 12 and under, eat for 99 cents!  Woo Hoo!!  And we all received a balloon animal.  I asked for the snowman, Emily has a teddy bear, Ryan has a laser gun, Lydia asked for a dog and Mike asked for the hot dog, in a bun, with mustard.  So cute!  All of them!  We have been there before on kids nights, but it has been a long time.  Fun night!!

The Best Day!

Have you ever participated in a Secret Santa gift exchange?  We have all participated in the "bring a wrapped gift to exchange" thing, but this year one of my kids is part of a Secret Santa where they actually drew names and are picking gifts for the person they drew.  Emily had so much fun deciding what to get the name she drew and shared this with her brother and sister.  The three of them decided we should do a gift exchange with our family.  I, of course, felt that this meant that Mike and I just needed to get gifts for the person we picked and no one else, but that idea was quickly extinguished by the kids.  They explained that we were going to do our gift exchange as well as purchase gifts for our children.  Not sure how they get off so easy as to just purchase for their name.  :)

We decided to do our shopping at the Dollar Tree.  I thought this was the best idea for "shopping alone" and being contained while doing it.  It worked out great!  The kids really did put a lot of thought into purchasing for their person and were so excited about wrapping their gifts last night.  It was too funny.  We are trying very hard to keep the persons name we drew a secret as well, but all three of them have accidentally said things a few times.  They do their best to cover their mistake, but it is just so funny!

After our shopping spree we finished our great day off by going to Boston Beanery.  Much to the embarrassment of my children, I asked our server to take our picture.  Emily, in particular, thought this was very embarrassing.  I suppose, what kind or parent are you if you can't embarrass your offspring.  :)

Prior to our shopping trip, we spent the afternoon on Skyline Drive.  We had a great day at church and then headed to Skyline Drive after lunch.  It was very cold and windy up there, but the sun was shining and it made for really great views at the overlooks.  We saw many cascades of icicles and had to stop and take a picture of one.

We also decided to walk down to the Diamond Falls waterfall, but it was pretty wet, icy and slippery down there.  We did not go all the way to the falls, but stopped at the bridge overlook to take a picture.  Was still about a mile and a half round trip (2nd half straight up hill), but did not want to risk the slipping possibility.  Such a fantastic day!!

The kids are now planning on their Secret Santa gift exchange for next year.  They are hoping to bring more people into it.  Grammy, Paw Paw, Uncle Paul, Aunt Allison, Penny, Adella . . . the names just go on and on.  :)  I love the days that we all laugh so much!!