SHOOTING THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE, polar bear swim, CHRISTMAS EVE FUN!

Every year at Christmas, rather than throwing away the rock hard shell of our gingerbread house, we take it out in the boonies for target practice.  This year was no different.  EVERYONE looks forward to it.  The Carroll's, and my dad joined us this year...

We started out shooting the houses from way back where I took this picture.  After awhile we decided to walk over and survey the damage...

We stayed a little closer now - we say it was for Jace ;)

Then Sarah and I went to town on those houses.

We changed it up to something a little more powerful - and there was basically nothing left of those houses when we were through...

Here we were going after clay pigeons situated in the trees and bushes...

Then we moved onto the shotgun and shooting clay pigeons out of the sky...

Once again Bryan tried to throw crazy stuff he thought I couldn't hit...but I did!

When we got back home, the kids quickly changed for the Polar Bear Swim!  It was 47 degrees in that pool...

I only took the one picture.  I was shooting video instead.

That night we started with a beautiful dinner.  My mom set a gorgeous table, and my dad made his famous Clam Chowder.  It is the best I've ever tasted!

After dinner we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", "The Polar Express", a special Christmas story that Sarah read to us, and then Mark read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.

After that it was time for our traditional Christmas Eve presents - a new pair of jammies and a book!

After that, we met up with some friends in our ward to join in their special Christmas Eve tradition...biking around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.  We all had our bikes decked out with blinking strands of Christmas lights.  We were quite the sight to see!  The kids got to choose their 3 favorite houses (as far as decorations).  They knocked on the door of the people they chose and awarded them with a loaf of yummy bread, explaining that they had chosen their house as one of the best decorated in the neighborhood.  Such a cute idea!  I hope we do it again next year!!

After biking we came home, changed into jammies, and sprinkled "reindeer food" on the front lawn so Santa's reindeer would be guided to our house and have something to snack on while Santa was inside our house.

Then it was off to bed so sugar plums could dance in their heads!