Christmas sneaked up on me fast this year. No real downtown between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Making Christmas a hectic one. Prior to my mother in law’s visit from New York my kids had a stomach bug and just as they were on the mend a few of us got colds. Between the sicknesses we were not able to get much homeschool accomplished. Plus there is the Christmas shopping! I decided to do very little store shopping this year, dragging 5 little ones in tow from store to store did not sound appealing to me so I decided to do mostly on on-line making it much simpler. We take a break from the craziness each year by going and seeing Christmas lights. Every year my husband and I load the kids in the van and go to a local neighborhood that has blocks and blocks of homes decorated with Christmas lights. We park the van and walk up and down the blocks and enjoy them up close with other families.
My family loves this time. This year it started off a bit rough with grumbling and crying from one of our children who forgot his jacket and didn’t want to settle for wearing my jacket. About 5 minutes into our walk my husband questioned where we should finish our walk of turn around and leave. Thankfully our son caved and decided to wear my jacket. With all of his grumbling he only wore my jacket for a small duration and then didn’t want to wear a jacket at all, don’t you just love moments like these? Heavy sigh………. It wasn’t funny at the time but looking back I laugh. With 5 kids there is always bound to be some kind of drama but this time is precious and I look forward to every year.
This is our 1st year having 5 kids – our newest baby’s name is Joy so I just had to take a picture with her in front of the Joy yard sign!
My kids constantly ask to see Christmas lights even when it’s not Christmas! No matter how many times my kids see the same Christmas lights year after year they never get bored. It’s the oh’s and the awe’s. I love these ages because of the innocence and wonder in their eyes. My husband and I cherish these moments because we know as they grow older times will change.
Sprout calls these experiences “Holiday MOMents.” Planning a Christmas outing with your children and the child (ren) has a melt down, Christmas crowds while shopping, filling out Christmas cards and actually mailing them out and the list continues can be so stressful! The kind of stress where you cannot wait for this time of the year to be over with and back to your normal schedule. Sprout hs a fun way to share those Holiday MOMents with friends and family. Head over to and upload your holiday photo’s Sprout Holiday MOMents and make some of your MOMent pictures for special keepsakes.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
I really love Christmas lights too – a great way to get into holiday spirit! Beautiful photos!
My fondest childhood memories are viewing the lights at the City and County Building in Denver, Co. We would have to drive, get in the line of hundreds of cars slowly moving past the building, and sometimes, if the weather cooperated, we could actually get out of the car and walk the path to meet my parents on the other end! There is nothing like the lights of Christmas to warm up a cold night and a wonderful holiday! Happy New Year!
that tree is awesome 🙂
wow. 5 kids on outings is a lot of fun! and like you did, you have to just roll with the punches sometimes when kids make up their minds about something – like the coat thing. I have the exact same issue with my youngest saying that he is never colds and fighting to wear shorts in the snow. 🙂 Congrats on your new baby JOY!!
No matter how old my kids get we always go out and look at Christmas lights!
What a fun way to remember the holidays with your family.
I love all the beautiful lights. It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas.
Jackets always seem to cause issues. We were out the other night, and I had to give mine up to my daughter who forgot hers.
This Christmas was crazy for me too! My baby boy got RSV a few days before Christmas and was really close to be hospitalizied. I thought for sure that I would not be at home with my daughters for Christmas.
Best MOMent ever!
We didn’t go around with the kids seeing Christmas lights this year but we did do the Polar Express in its place. Maybe next year we can fit it in. Like you we also did 90 percent of our Christmas shopping online. It was too cold to haul kids around. I only have two, so doing it with five makes you one strong mama!
we love looking at holiday lights. there’s some gorgeous displays on the way home from gymnastics so the kids love going even more!
the Holidays are my favorite time of the year. We love looking at Christmas Lights, and we found some great ones in our area that were sync’d with each other and with a radio station. These are the moments we cherish.
LOL – Things certainly never go perfect but I also appreciate all the special little moments and memories we make during the holidays. And my youngest refuses to move until his jacket is zipped up all the way – there is NO way he can wear it unzipped.
We also love to go check out the Christmas lights in our area. And it’s something my family (6 kids) used to do when I was a child. It’s great that you are able to do this and your children will remember it long into their adulthood! 🙂
Thank you for sharing.
Those lights and decor are fabulous! Loved seeing the pics Thanks for sharing! Happy New year! xo xo
This is such a sweet post. I also love these holiday moments.
Having special moments with your kids that you will all always remember is so important, whether they are holiday or not.
The tree is beautiful!
Love your Holiday Moments! Awesome.
Holiday moments are so precious and can last a lifetime. Thanks for sharing some of yours.
There is just something so magical about seeing all the holiday lights. I love those special family moments!
All your decor is so lovely! I really wish our yard looked like that!
That sounds like a great holiday moment. I think looking at back at my most memorable experiences other always has been some added dram to them. That’s what makes them interesting
Driving around different neighborhoods to see all the holiday lights is one of my favorite family traditions! We don’t get out of the car though, it’s usually way too cold! lol
What beautiful lights! We had a really crazy and hectic Christmas as well!
My grandkids love seeing the lights of Winterhaven in Tucson. They look forward to it every Christmas. For 2014, I’ve decided to take photos of all the fun things I do with my grandkids throughout the year write a memory on the back of the photo and put them into a Memories jar. Then, at the end of the year, we’ll go through them together.
Oh my gosh, I love the Joy sign, and the fact that your little baby’s name is Joy! That is so cute!!
That’s a really sweet post. We do Hanukkah but this is sweet
We never even got our lights hung up this year! Made me sad…but now can I count that as my MOMent ( or lack thereof?)
Had to laugh about your son not wanting to wear mommy’s coat, but glad it all turned out okay!
Awww I love your pictures! I just made a few of these myself. So cute!
So perfect that you took a picture with Joy by the Joy sign. Lovely photos!
I really love your Christmas lights. They make me want to go all out next year. Happy New Year to you!
I liked the photos in this post, they looked happy and fun, not like Christmas rush at all.
I love the photo of you and your little one in front of the Joy sign. What a special memory! Seeing lights is one of my families favorite activities!
Beautiful lights! We take one night every year and drive around to see all of the houses decorated. I love the bonding time with my family.
I love hearing all about family moments during the holidays! We didn’t go see any Christmas lights this year, I am so disappointed!
Those holiday MOMents are the best. For us it includes cookie baking and reading the Christmas story on Christmas morn. Love it!
We really need to put up lights on our home next year! I so enjoy driving around and looking at them all. This was our first year in our new neighborhood and there are some pretty spectacular displays around.
Our family enjoys this time of year too. With me being in school full time and with my business, I didn’t get any downtime either. I am looking forward to the new year.
Your Christmas lights are BEAUTIFUL! Merry belated 1st Christmas to Joy! Such a lovely name! 🙂 I haven’t hung lights in years. I just use bows and boughs. This makes me want to pull out the lights again! 🙂
very sweet MOMent. i’m sure your holidays will be filled with lots of JOY next year too
Your lights are beautiful. I love your MOMent
Those are some awesome decorations! Christmas is always crazy around here, too!
My children love to look at the Christmas lights. We have made a Christmas Eve tradition of riding around looking at the lights. Just a note I have 5 kids too. Great review
Great moments!!! What beautiful lights. That tree is really cool!!