Family Christmas Fun

After Thanksgiving, we sat down as a family and decided a few things that we most wanted to make happen in December. I knew with rehearsals for our choir performance, things would be BUSY and I wanted to make sure that we could still make our favorite traditions happen.

We missed a couple on the list. Whitney wanted to make homemade Christmas ornaments, which didn't happen. And Caroline REALLY wanted us to have a night where we pretended the power was out and we have yet to do that, either. (Since that's not necessarily a HOLIDAY event, we could do it late.) But we did have a lot of Christmas fun!

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

My classic little house

B's creation: a Twitch logo with a Santa hat

(it has something to do with gaming...)

Whit's usual candy-packed creation

Andrew's Christmas wish:

Panthers win Super Bowl!

Caroline made two houses this year.

This one is awesome!

She's 7!

The whole village

NATIVITY

We made some new friends at church, Travis and Amanda. We had them over for FHE the Monday before Christmas. Caroline was in charge of the lesson and she chose to act out the Nativity with them.

The shepherds were sore afraid.

They made it to the manger and found

an adorable baby Jesus.

SUGAR COOKIES
The Activity Days girls made and decorated sugar cookies to deliver to the two fire stations nearest to the church. Each girl was in charge of bringing two dozen cookies.

Whit and I had fun baking them.

The girls met at the church to decorate.

LOTS of frosting and sprinkles!

They caroled for the fire fighters.

Check out that cookie!

Whoa!

Sugar rush.

Cheese!

Fire fighters are so nice.

Every time we've visited a fire station,

we've had a good experience.

OTHER TYPES OF COOKIES

One of the things on MY list was to deliver treats to friends.

The rest of the family agreed...on one condition...

CUT DOWN THE LIST.

Last year we spent about 4 hours delivering cookies 

to the nether regions of our ward boundaries.

We cut the list way down....

and still were gone about 3 hours. :)

Don't they look yummy?

They were delicious!

CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER

Crab legs, popcorn shrimp, homemade rolls,

corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, asparagus,

Grandma Cuca's yummy red jello salad,

artichokes,

and homemade peppermint cheesecake.

Oh.

my.

goodness.

Too many good things to eat!!

COOKIES FOR SANTA

Caroline has started questioning the existence of Santa this year.

Very vocally.

But that didn't stop her from leaving cookies and note for him.

FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT

SIBLING GIFTS

One of my favorite traditions.

Warms my heart to see them serve each other.

Whitney painted pictures.

A portrait of Caroline.

C said "It looks great...except you forgot the gap in my teeth!" 

 A Twitchmas pic for B.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Santa cares about our children's oral health. :) 

 The moment of anticipation!

Whit and I are going to WICKED!

Yippee!! 

B's new ipod 

My new mixer!!

Perfect for me now that I've started making more things from scratch!

(I exchanged it for a beautiful light turquoise one. Can't wait to use it.)

We went to Tom and Kelly's delicious annual Christmas brunch.

Then spent the rest of the day at home relaxing and playing games.

Our gift from Amy and Dave: Qbitz.

One of Care Bear's gifts: Twister

Love, love, love this special time of year. I love being with my family, serving my friends, and all of the fun traditions that we share. But I am especially grateful for the chance to celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. We sang "What Child Is This?" during the stake musical program. The altos are resting at the beginning of the song and come in on the line that says, "This, this is Christ, the King!" That moment was so powerful for me, sharing my testimony through song. I'm grateful for the blessings I enjoy every day because of that miraculous birth.