A White Christmas

On Monday, we got to have our big outing with Grandma and Grandpa Dennis.  I checked the kids out of school early to attend.  Libby felt so special.  It was her first time being called over the intercom to check out of class.  We drove down to the Gateway in Salt Lake to the Build A Bear Workshop.  The youngest of the cousins were invited to attend.  They all got to pick out their favorite animal and then we proceed to fill them with stuffing, gave them a heart, and washed them in the bathing area.  Ollie loved squeezing his animal!  Libby chose a girl reindeer and Gage got Rudolph.  Natty picked a Apple Jack from my little ponies.  I was surprised at how good all the kids were at staying together and not running wild around the store.  It was a great afternoon!  After we build the animals we headed over to Cindee's house to have dinner and play.  Cindee and I made some churros.  The kids played together for awhile and then we headed home to see daddy!  I love my parent's tradition of doing an outing instead of a present on Christmas Day.  It gives us a whole day to celebrate.    

I brought my nice camera and then realized my memory card was missing!  So, I had to use my phone instead. . .

Christmas Eve Eve (got that?!) was a big day.  I was able to attend three parities!  Good thing Cord wasn't at work!  He stayed home and helped with the boys all day.  What a good daddy!  It started with helping with Natalie's school class Christmas party.  We made gingerbread houses.  I took Gage and Oliver along for this one and they thought it was fantastic.  They got to decorate their own houses.  Although, Oliver didn't let much of his candy get past his mouth onto the graham cracker house.  Natalie spent a lot of time making sure her house was beautiful.  Every inch of it was covered in sweet candy.  She is an artist.  I love her crafty creations.  It is always fun to spent time at the elementary school.  The kids are adorable.  And Natty looks so cute smiling with a giant tootsie roll in her mouth...

Next, I headed out to Ogden for the Get Away Today Christmas lunch.  We met at Javiar's.  I sat with Jenn and Kim and we had some nice conversation as we ate our yummy meals!  Everyone at GAT is so nice and friendly.  I love being a tiny part of the company.  I had to slip out a bit early to head to the next event of the day.

The Utah Dance Academy Teacher Party was at another Mexican restaurant on the other side of town.  The girls I teach dance with are all cute and fun.  We had a great little get together.  We exchanged gifts and had a nice lunch.  Since I already ate, I ordered the fried ice cream.  Holy Smokes!  It sure was tasty.  It was kind of fun to order dessert, because I am always too full after I eat out to try dessert.  I love my cute dance studio family.

That night, we rounded up our kids and took them out to Smith and Edwards to buy our family gifts to each other.  We drew names and let the kids pick out gifts for the person they chose.  It was pretty much chaos.  Gage wanted to look at stuff he wanted and he made sure that Natalie knew he wanted a gun.  He ended up seeing the gun in the cart and then couldn't stand to not play with it.  He had to wait CLEAR until Christmas and it was driving him insane.  Libby saw her gift from Cord too.  I think we might have to split up next time so there aren't so many opportunities to peek.  The kids loved buying gifts for each other though.  It was fun to help them get in on the gift giving.

Christmas Eve, we wrapped presents and got everything finalized for the big day.  I let the kids wrap their gifts to their cousins and the gifts for each other.  The packaging wasn't perfect, but they sure had fun giving it a try.

That afternoon, we headed out to Ogden to go on a hike with Jenn and fam.  Gabi stayed home to watch our kids.  They all love cute Gabi.  We hiked up to Waterfall Canyon.  The night was beautiful.  It wasn't too cold.  We kept a great pace and made it to the waterfall in time to get some photos and enjoy the beautiful frozen ice before we had to head back.  I love it when the water is frozen.  It looks so magical.  On the way back down the canyon, we experienced the most beautiful sunset.  The whole canyon was glowing in pink light.  It was like we had put on rose colored sunglasses.  It was incredible.  Then, the sky changed again and the sunset was on fire.  It was the most brilliant orange that I have ever seen.  I couldn't help but gasp and exclaim at it's beauty.  I have never seen a sky so vibrant.  (We talked to people later who saw it too that couldn't believe the colors!  Nature gave us a beautiful Christmas gift.)  It was a lovely hike!  On the way home, I was starving, so we stopped at Chili's and ordered some food to go.  I got a big ole hamburger and loved digging into it.

After dinner, the kids got to open a gift.  It was a christmas puzzle.  We spend 20 minutes putting it together.  Oliver got to work on his little shape puzzles at the table because it was too hard for his little hands to help with the big puzzle.

We ate christmas cookies and left a treat out for Santa and the Reindeer.  We did a little nativity story with felt characters and then I read the kids a few Christmas stories from books the girl's had checked out at the library.  It was a nice little relaxed evening at home with the people I love most in the whole world.  The kids all went to bed really well.

Cord and I were able to set things up and were nestled in our bed before 11.  Nice!  I was almost too excited to sleep and I had crazy dreams all night long waiting for the special day to begin.

Everyone who was dreaming of a white christmas, got their wish!  We woke up on Christmas morning to a winter wonderland.  The snow was the icing on the cake to our beautiful day!  I think the kids were as excited about the snow as they were their Christmas gifts.  They had a great time unwrapping treasures and playing with their new toys.  I got surprised with some special gifts from Cord.  Oliver was mesmerized by the train.  He saw it going around the tracks and was content to just watch it.  We had to really persuade him to take a break to open his presents.  Natalie was most excited about the plum jam she found in her stocking.  She jumped up and down exclaiming, "I got jam, I got jam!"  Ha.  Raiding my mom's storage room was worth it.  :)  Libby was calm and deliberate like usual.  She doesn't show a ton of emotion, but she was happy with her loot.  She is a little sweetheart.  Gage was enchanted with the whole process.  He was sweet to help Oliver open his presents.  He got some 3lb dumbbells and gave us all a show as he worked out his muscles.  It was hilarious.  I was very proud at how kind they all were to each other and I heard so many thank you's.

Cord used the reindeer bag again!  It is a great tradition.  I wonder how long that cute little bag will last?

The kids played in the snow for a quick few minutes before we had to get dressed and head to my parent's house for our Christmas Brunch.  It was a delicious meal and everyone participated in making it happen.  Too many cooks in the kitchen on Christmas morning isn't a bad thing!  After our feast, we had a beautiful program.  We decided not to exchange gifts this year between families.  We all have more than we could ever need, so the gift exchange felt a little bit forced.  I didn't miss it at all.  We did give mom a sweet new canvas camping tent and gave dad a wireless speaker.  They do so much for us that we wanted to show our love back!  Mom and Dad gave all the families a bag of goodies from Trader Jo's.  Libby was excited about all the salsa we got!  I guess all I need to do next year is buy my kids food.  It seems to be their favorite.  He, he, he.

The program was excellent.  Sheldon played a song on the trumpet.  Jake played Silent Night on the guitar and Cindee sang.   Ryan's kids played the piano.  Jenn's family recited the entire Living Christ proclamation while Savana played a song in the background as they spoke.  I was so impressed that they had memorized it all.  It was a beautiful moment.  Matt read a short Christmas story from the Ensign that his friend's father had submitted.  My cute little family used our Nativity Puppets and shared the story of Christ's birth.  I got a little emotional reading the script.  Mom read a short poem and then we were done!  It was a great program.  I loved it.  We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games and snacking on treats.

At 4:00 we headed over to spend time with the Belnaps!  We kicked things off with food. Always a good way to start!  Lorna had prepared a whole spread of stuff to try.  After everyone arrived and had a chance to fill their bellies, we started our gift exchange.  There were many sweet and generous gifts given.  I was most excited to give Lorna the mission plaque that Cord and I had ordered for her.  It was fun to see her reaction!  After all the presents were opened, we spent a few hours just being together.  The kids played and watched a movie.  Cord set up our new karaoke machine and let the kids sing their hearts out.  Oliver sneaked treats off the table all evening.  It was a great night.

Natalie got a headache and I worried that she was getting sick, so we headed home at around 9:30.  Later, we found out that she had influenza.  Luckily, we got her on the medication soon enough that she recovered quickly.

It was a Christmas like they sing about in carols.  Merry, Bright, and White.