Vegas Holiday Activities 2013

We've been able to do a lot of fun holiday activities while Ti's been here. I'm grateful for that! On our annual Family Day we went to Town Square to watch Frozen with the kids. Afterwards, we gathered around the giant Christmas tree in the Square for their evening snowfall. We drove home to Christmas music and made hot cocoa at home to end the night. I'm so glad the kids started this family tradition. Didn't do any Black Friday shopping, but had a special day with my family instead.

This weekend we went to Ethel M Chocolate Factory for the first time. It was awesome!!! They have a cactus garden out back that was completely decorated in Christmas lights. I have been complaining about Vegas not having a worthy display of Christmas lights since we've moved here and I finally found a spot that's amazing!!! And it's free! Before leaving we went to look around inside the factory and were pleasantly surprised to find a walk through of the factory. We got to see how the chocolate was made and received free samples as well. The kids loved it. I loved it!

Yesterday we spent the day at home. We had pizza for lunch and listened to Christmas music while we hung up the stockings and decorated the tree.

Although we have to say goodbye to Ti Tonga today I am grateful for the holiday memories we were able to build with him. This is so much more time than we had with him last year. For that I am grateful.

-kiki

Happy Holidays!

Christmas 2011

Me and Ti talked about spending Christmas in Vegas this year. We wanted to go to Salt Lake, but because Fatu's wedding was the next weekend, we decided that it would be best to stay home for the Holidays. As Christmas grew nearer we each felt like we wanted to be around our families on Christmas day. So we changed our plans and agreed that we would be going up to Utah. The kids had some Christmas gifts that were already under the tree so I let them open them the night before we left.

They wrote Santa a letter telling him that they would be in Utah and left him their Grandma's address so that he could find them.

And he did!

The stocking were filled with lots of treats

Stocking Sweets

We had Christmas breakfast with the Fangupo's (yes we open presents before we eat haha). The boys were so excited to see more cousins.

Of course we went and visited Ren as well...

She had her own tree that was decorated in her favorite color {purple} It was even lit up with lights.

We went up with my Dad, Beans, and Misi

Everything lit up at night! She had candy cane lanterns that made cool star patterns on the grass, there were Christmas trees that lined her picture and a snowman that would glow and play Christmas music. And her little candle holders too.

Jonathan & Sia stopped by with their kids while we were there.

The kids were out of school for winter break so we let them spend that week in Salt Lake and me and Ti drove back to Vegas. Even though we didn't have the kids for a week, there wasn't any relaxing. I was running around trying to get everything we needed for the wedding. Time flew by and before we knew it, we were driving back up to Utah for Fatu & Brittainy's wedding.

Teacher Appreciation: Smore Kits

I didn't realize that the boys last day of school was on Friday, until Thursday. So I scrambled to get gift ideas together for their teachers. Thursday Mote had a pack meeting for scouts so I didn't have any time to work on the gifts. Friday when I got back from work I went straight to bed and woke up at around noon. I got to Walmart at around 1pm and made it home by 2 o'clock. I put these quick smore kits together and was at the school by 3pm. JUST before the bell rang... phew!

Check out the customized white ribbon!
I got them in the mail just in time to add them to our gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Builders

Does anyone else love World Market as much as I do?! They are running specials every day for the holiday season. Last week their gingerbread house kits were 50% off and I had a 15% off coupon that I got to use on top of that! I should've known that they would go quick. Me and Ti got there at around 1pm and we got the last 2 kits. When we picked up the boys from school they were so excited to find out we would be making gingerbread houses. We've made them before in Salt Lake, but never here in Vegas. The cashier at World Market said that she learned from experience that if you glue the house parts together and let them dry overnight, then it's easier to decorate the next day. So we followed her advice. The kids weren't too happy about that part, because they were antsy to decorate their homes with colorful sweets. But our patience paid off. The home was sturdy enough the next day to where we could focus on embellishing without shingles or walls sliding off. Instead of us spending more money on extra candy for the homes, we whipped out the Halloween candy that hadn't been eaten and used those treats for added detail on our homes. We split up into 2 teams. Ti was in charge of Siope and Nic's house and I was in charge of Mote's house. We let the kids choose exactly how they wanted to decorate them. We mainly did all the piping and they put all the candy in place. It was so much fun to spend time with the boys and continue another holiday tradition. Merry Christmas!