And So, This is Christmas

This is our little Christmas Celebration.

(In a nutshell)

Christmas Eve we decided to go out and about.

Cord started off the day going on a snowy mountain bike ride with Kevin.

He said it was great.  It sounds kind of scary to me...

When he got back, he took the kids and I went on a hike to Waterfall Canyon

with some of my family.

It was rather slippery, but so beautiful.

The river was frozen-over so we got to walk/skate across it.

Once we reached the top, the waterfall was just a big mountain of ice.

Way cool.  It was so nice to get out and enjoy a little bit of sunshine.

 

That evening the kids and I made some homemade pizza's.

Nat's was a star and Libby made a snowman.

 

Then we put together some little Christmas crafts.

 

Cord and the kids made a pile of pillows and went crazy jumping and sliding.

Can you see where Daddy is buried? 

The kids were in bed by 8:15 and finally asleep by about 9:15.

Libby "Just kept thinking about Santa."  So it was hard settle down.  

I remember the feeling!

Christmas Morning was a blast.

Cord, of course, was excited to wake the kids up from their slumber.

He patiently waited until 7:30.

It didn't take Gage long to figure out that there was cool stuff under all that paper.

He thought that was pretty fantastic.

I loved watching him open his train.

His face got all excited and he said, "Choo CHOO!"

 

Libby is a crack up too.

She gave us some pretty awesome faces as she opened her gifts.

This is the, "I can't believe it's a real cheerleader outfit!" look.

 

Natty is always so good to be happy for everyone else.

She is gets excited for every gift that is given, not just her own.

It is so sweet.

 

Cord pulled through and used the "Reindeer Bag" again for one of my gifts.

This guy has been around since our first Christmas together.

It's tradition, and I look forward to seeing it every Christmas Morning.

 

After we opened our gifts and got a little bit of play time in,

we dressed up and headed over to the Church to sing some carols 

and hear the Christmas Story from the Bible.

It is nice to have a spiritual reminder and focus on the Christmas Story.

Our kids were a bit out of control though.

Kind of hard to sit still on Christmas, but they did try.  Sort of.

How bout' them boots?  :)

 

After chruch we scooted out to my folks house for our traditional Christmas Brunch.

It is seriously one of the best meals of the year.

We exchanged some gifts as a family and did some enjoying of each other's company.

Next we headed out to the Belnap house to have dinner and do more giving.

We all did quite a bit of getting as well.

It is always fun to see what is hidden under all that wrapping paper!

And that is a little peek at our Christmas.  It really was just lovely.