This Christmas

Oh, how I love Christmas. Several of my siblings were together in Utah this year, which made me miss being with them. But I love that we've established our little family traditions and can enjoy time relaxing and being together.

CHRISTMAS EVE

We baked treats to deliver to friends. 

Monster cookies, homemade oreos, and pretzel turtles.

Yum!

The rest of the family made me cut down 

the number of people we delivered to.

They didn't want to spend the whole afternoon driving around town.

It was an overcast, slightly drizzly day.

We mostly just dropped the cookies and ran.

But we did carol in 3-part harmony for two friends.

Then it was time to head home and start cooking up our 

Christmas Eve Feast!

 So, so, so good!

Then we headed upstairs for our annual

Christmas PJ Jumping Photos.

Caroline called this her "kitty jump" 

Sibling gift exchange

Priceless 

On a recent work trip, Andrew was able to

make two t-shirts at an Avery facility in CA.

I had planned to make Whitney a Wicked/ballet shirt.

Worked out well that we could give each of them a shirt we made.

We also did the Nativity, but I forgot to take pics.

 The calm before the storm.

Ready to open!

We told the kids they could wake us up at 6:30.

But then after they went to bed, I snuck in their 

rooms and turned off their alarms, hoping they would

sleep in. Ha! Didn't work. They knocked on our

door at 6:30 on the dot.

Best reaction of the day:

Whitney seeing her electric guitar 

She is learning to jam!

And loves it.

 B loves shoes and expensive clothes in brand

names I had never heard of until he told me about them.

He picked out almost all of his own gifts this year.

And he likes them! :)

 Andrew had been battling a cold all week

and by Christmas morning, it was bad enough

that he felt like he shouldn't go to church.

Poor guy. 

Whitney, Brandon, and I sang in the choir.

I accompanied Whit while she sang a special

number with the missionaries.

AND I was surprised to find out that I 

would be accompanying the congregation 

on five or six other hymns throughout the service.

On the organ.

Yikes.

It went better than I thought it would.

 Since church fell on a Sunday, we only had sacrament meeting.

 When we came home, C promptly changed back into her PJ's.

There were Lego stables to be built. 

And new games to play.

Like Pie Face 

And Code Names.
A new favorite.

Unfortunately, with Andrew's cough and cold,

we had to back out of our Christmas Brunch with friends.

So sad to miss out on that tradition.

But Kelly DID bring some creme brulee french toast

by the house on her way out of town. Yay!

On Christmas night, we got to have the Sister missionaries

over to use our wifi to talk to their families.

It was awesome!

What a special night to share with them.

And we closed out the night with

peppermint cheesecake.

Wonderful Christmas!

Grateful for Jesus Christ and that we can celebrate His birth.