Christmas Eve, Eve

As our family continues to grow we often find ourselves thinking about what routines, rituals, and traditions we want to incorporate into our lives. As Christmas approaches traditions have been especially prominent in our minds. A few things we really love to do around Christmas are: drive around and look at Christmas lights (we miss temple square in Salt Lake City!!), make yummy treats, serve in the ward and community, read Christmas stories (thanks to Gerry and Janice for sharing a binder full of them), and sit by our cozy netflix fire while we open gifts or watch a Christmas classic.

With Christmas only a few days away, we've made good progress. Surprisingly, Christmas lights are hard to find in residential neighborhoods around here, and we are not inclined to spend $20 to go drive down an overly decorated street or raceway that resembles a blend of Disney's "Its a small world" and the Vegas strip on steroids. However, as were searching for things to do in the area we stumbled across a little Bavarian themed town called Helen (about an hour and fifteen minutes from us) that was decorated for Christmas and full of eateries, chocolateries and so on.   Here are a few shots from our trip.

                             

As an aside, Anderson has become increasingly more fussy in the car and we can hardly drive an hour before he is whooping and hollering in t he backseat. Most drives get extended because he only seems to want to eat when he is starving, even if mom offers at an earlier time. Our pleasant drive through the mountains of Georgia was slightly marred by the sound of the screeching eels in back.

Together, we decided we would cook three of our favorite treats that we don't often make: Lemon bars, Walnut Squares, and Muddie Buddies. We also decided to get a little more frugal and creative about our Christmas decor. See our escapades captured on camera below.