Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Christmas this year was great! We kicked it off with the annual family Christmas Eve party at my parents house. We began the festivities in the afternoon by watching Disney's version of "A Christmas Carol." The boys liked it, but thought it was a little scary in some parts. I thought this picture was so cute of everyone sitting in a row. There was a whole other part of the sectional that wasn't being used, but apparently they all wanted to sit by each other or something. Yes, that's eight people crammed onto one side of a sectional...


After the movie, the boys moved on to playing a game called "Would You Rather..." or something like that. There's a big deck of cards and each one has two different scenarios that you have to pick from. For example, would you rather get sprayed by a skunk or pricked by a porcupine. Stuff like that. The boys loved it...

Then it was on to the feast. Here's the spread...

So delicious! After dinner, we always do our Bingo tradition. If you haven't heard about this before, it's a tradition that my grandma started when I was a little girl. We play Bingo for presents. Not normal presents...mainly presents that were purchased at the dollar store. Some of them are funny, some are useful, some are totally random, and some are perfect for white elephant gifts. Everyone always looks forward to playing this every year and seeing what new & "exciting" presents my parents picked out...

Along with Bingo, my Grandma also started another Christmas Eve tradition years ago. This one was the "Talent Show." Each grandchild had to perform some sort of talent in order to receive their gifts from my grandparents. Some grandkids would sing Christmas songs, others would make up Christmas dances, or read Christmas stories, or recite Christmas poems. Well, after my Grandma passed away & the grandkids began to grow up, this tradition became lost.

But, this year, Kristin decided that this tradition should be brought back to life. The kids did all sorts of random little things. Here are my boys singing "Jingle Bells" together...or as Cohen sings it, "Jingie Bells"...

Cohen's version goes something like this, "Jingie bells...jingie bells...all the way...Hey!" That's it. He just sings that over and over and over again. It's pretty cute!

Once the talent portion of the evening was over, it was time for the presents. We always give our kiddos PJs to wear on Christmas Eve, so they opened those first & changed into them. There not my favorite Christmas PJs ever, but they were free with my Gymbucks (just like their Christmas church outfits) so I'm not complaining...

Then the kiddos moved on to opening their presents from Nana & Poppy, and they did their cousin gift exchange too...

They were spoiled rotten...

All the grown-up kids got to open their presents from my parents too. And, yes, we were just as spoiled as the kids! Thanks Mom & Dad!!!

After all the gift-giving madness was over, we all calmed down a little bit (as much as you can get kids to calm down on Christmas Eve) in order to read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 & have a family prayer. Here's my Dad getting ready to read the story of Christ's birth...

Then, it was home to get ready for Santa's big arrival. A huge thanks to my parents for putting on this party every year! I know it's a HUGE amount of work & I'm so grateful they do it because we all enjoy it so much!

On Christmas morning, I wasn't sure how it was going to work. This is our first Christmas in our new house & I knew things would have to be different from years past. In previous years, we've made our kids wait around the corner or at the top of the stairs before they can run out to see what Santa brought them. Then one of us has always been in the family room with camera in hand, to get the "first reaction" shot when they see what Santa brought them. But now, we have a big bridge that goes across the family room...and in order for the boys to get from their bedrooms to the family room, they have to cross that bridge (and hence see everything Santa has brought them). I decided that Mike should sit guard at one side of the bridge and not let anyone see down into the family room until everyone was awake & I could be down there to get the "first reaction" picture. It actually ended up being pretty cute! The boys ran out onto the bridge and just stood there looking at everything saying, "Oh! Look what I got!" and "Whoa! Santa brought you that?!?" It was so cute...

Eventually, they remembered that they didn't have to stay up there & that they could actually come down and see everything close up. Funny kiddos...

Here's Connor emptying his stocking...

And Cohen too. Yep, he's my son, he found the chocolate & was quite pleased with it...

Then we moved on to presents. We went youngest to oldest this year which meant Cohen was first...

We made the mistake of letting him open a big collection of books for his first present...

Why is that a problem? Well, because as many of you know, Cohen is OBSESSED with books. After he opened a big set of them, all he wanted to do for the rest of the morning was read books...

The other boys moved on and started opening presents without him...

And Cohen kept reading...

We finally talked him into opening another present...

Wow! Some clothes...

Definitely not as exciting as the books, so he went back to doing this...

And the older boys continued to do this...

Next year, I'm buying Cohen a set of books and NOTHING else. Look...he's happy as a clam...

He eventually stated opening presents, but wasn't very amused with any of them (except those darn books)...

So he read while the other boys opened gifts...

And Cohen continued to read books (this particular one was a $.99 coloring book he got in his stocking)...

I'm seriously NEVER buying him anything other than books ever again. The other boys continued to open presents...

And yes, you guessed it, Cohen continued to read...

At least the big boys enjoyed opening gifts...

Once all the kids' gifts had been opened, it was Mike's & my turn. Mike went first...

And got his beloved iPad that he's been wanting so badly. Not that it was really a surprise to him. He bought it himself & has been loading apps on it for the past three weeks. I finally had to pry it from his hands a few days before Christmas in order to get it wrapped. Can you tell he's slightly excited about it?

He's like a kid in a candy store when it comes to stuff like this. Personally, I think it just looks like an oversized iPhone...

Even Cohen took a break from his reading in order to look at the iPad. Can't you just hear what he's thinking, "Hum, something else I can get my hands on & break"...

As for me, I bought my own present too! When we moved in, we set our laptop computer up on the desk in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chair for that desk. I would always pull over a barstool when I needed to work on the laptop, but the barstools were too tall & it was just awkward. So, for several months now, I've been eyeing this chair in the Ballard Designs catalog. It's a basic chair that they make a custom slipcover for. I finally decided to get it for myself for Christmas. Here's the basic chair (with a big, fat preggo model sitting on it)...

And, here it is with the custom slipcover on it...

Didn't it turn out cute? I love it! It goes so great in my kitchen since my island is painted black & so are the legs of my table. Ignore my messy kitchen in the background. Cleaning has been put on the back burner for the past week or so.

After all the gifts had been opened, we got ready & headed out to my parents house for lunch & just to hang out. After that, I had to go into work to do the evening shows, so Mike took the kiddos up to his parents house for their annual prime rib Christmas dinner. I gave him the camera so he could take a few pictures, but he never did. Oh well! I was able to go up there for a few hours inbetween shows & eat some prime rib as well. Delish!

So that was our Christmas in a nutshell! It was a great one! I love everything about Christmas! I love the smells of Christmas. I love the sounds of Christmas. I love the sights of Christmas. I love the taste of Christmas. But, mostly, I love the feeling of Christmas! It is such a wonderful holiday to give gifts & spend time with family, all in rememberance of the birth of our Savior! I hope you & yours had a very Merry Christmas too! --Lindsay

Christmas Fun

Over the past month, we've been doing lots of Christmas activities that haven't been blogged about yet, so here's a quick rundown:

CHRISTMAS CARDS

For those of you who may not have gotten one, here's our Christmas card for the year...


The best part is that our photographer designed this card for us! As part of her fee, she designs a Christmas card too! All you do is tell her kind of what you are looking for, and she goes to town! It meant one less thing I had to worry about this year & I love how it turned out!

CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCES

Both Connor & Aiden had Christmas performances this year. Here's Aiden (doing some cheesy little grin) at his performance...


He was so funny! You could tell he was TOTALLY bored during his program! He'd sing for a minute or two and then just get bored with it & stop. Then, he'd start singing again for a few minutes & then stop. He was hilarious! We were having a great time laughing about it! Here he is doing his part in the program. He was a "Building Block"...

Connor didn't really have a Christmas program, but each grade level participated in a "Christmas Sing" at the school. Here's Connor, with the rest of the 2nd graders, singing "Hot Cup of Cocoa" and "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." He's on the 4th row from the top, second from the right. Sorry, it's the best picture I could get from my crummy seats (and I even came half an hour early too)...

CLARK PLANETARIUM

A few weeks ago, I had a Christmas luncheon at work. While I went to it, Mike took a long lunch and watched the Aiden & Cohen for me. They headed over to Clark Planetarium & played for awhile. Here's my boys on Mars...

And on the moon. I thought this picture was funny because it looks like Cohen is doing a "moon jump"...

And, of course, they had to play with their favorite toy there. I'm not even sure what this thing is called, but it is two stories tall & balls roll down the tracks & then get carried back up. The kids can turn knobs & levers to switch the tracks, make the balls stop, etc. My boys always love it...

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY

About a week ago, our ward held it's annual Christmas dinner & party. It was such a great time! And, it was catered by Magelby's Fresh! I have NEVER in my life been to a ward party that was catered! But, it was delicious so I'm not complaining!

At the end of the night, Santa stopped by so the kiddos could chat with him. I'm so glad he came since we hadn't done the waiting-in-line-for-four-hours-at-the-mall thing yet. Connor told Santa that he wanted Star Wars guys, specifically a "Droidica." Ummm...too bad the "Droidica" he wanted was discontinued years ago & is extremely hard to find! That's why Connor decided to ask Santa for it...because the ELVES could just make it. Oh heaven help me! Thank you Amazon for saving the day...

Aiden asked Santa for a Cars Color Changer Set & some Color Changing Cars...

And Cohen asked for, what else, Toy Story stuff. He was so big! I thought he would cry & want to get off Santa's lap, but he sat up there & had a nice conversation about Buzz & Woody and the whole Toy Story gang. I felt bad for the people in line behind us...

A NIGHT IN SLC

Each year, my family gets together to go to Salt Lake City for dinner, shopping & to see the lights. We decided to bag the lights this year & just did dinner and shopping. We went to Trolley Square like we always do and went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I love that place! After dinner, we explored Trolley Square a little bit. The boys found Santa's sleigh...

And, later, we found the cutest reindeer I've ever seen, my sweet niece Ella...

It was a fun night, as always!

ZOOLIGHTS

My station was a sponsor of Zoolights at Hogle Zoo again this year, so we got free tickets. Yay for free! We picked Mike up from work last night & went to Noodles & Co. for dinner. Can you believe I even take these four into public? They are wild animals ALL THE TIME...

After we had warm food in our bellies, we headed to the zoo. Apparently, everyone else decided to head there too! I have never seen that place so packed before! Some of Santa's reindeer were there. We didn't get very good pictures because of the crowds, but if you look in the background, you'll be able to see one of the reindeer...

Cohen got some special treatment from one of the docents. She let him go past the railing & feel an "actual reindeer antler." He thought he was pretty hot stuff...

After that, we walked around and looked at all the lighted animal displays. Zoolights is always so cute! They do a great job with it. There was pretty thick fog last night, so you'll see little water droplets in all the pictures...

Connor wasn't too thrilled with Zoolights. He was expecting to see more REAL animals. We had to explain that many of the zoo animals don't like the cold & so they weren't in their normal places. He thought that was lame & kept saying that he wished it was summer so he could see some REAL animals, instead of just the animal LIGHTS. But, we finally found some real wild animals. Here they are...

Yes, wild indeed! We walked pretty much the whole zoo & were frozen to the core by the time we were done. But, despite being cold, the boys had to play with the water feature at the zoo entrance. I don't know what else to call it, it's a big stone that rolls in a pond of water. The boys are always drawn to it in the summer because they want a chance to cool down. But, apparently, it has the same captivating powers in the frigid wintertime too...

After that, we took three cold, wet boys back to the car & headed home to homemade hot chocolate & "Frosty the Snowman." It was a fun night!

So, those are the random Christmas activities we've been doing this holiday season! So excited for Christmas Eve tonight & Christmas tomorrow! It's going to be great! Hope you & your family have a Merry Christmas! --Lindsay