Tis the Season

Anyone who knows me well know that I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!  I always always have and I think I always will.  I'm not one of those people who stress over the baking and the gift buying and the wrapping and the crowds.  I actually thrive on all of the chaos and love it all!  This year was no different!

Because I'm so very smart I prepared our Pre-Christmas fun before I went to Hawaii so it would all be ready for me when I returned.  The house was decorated, some gifts were purchased and the Gingerbread House kit was bought and ready!

Unfortunately TJ wasn't home but the kids and I had a BLAST decorating the Gingerbread house and having a dance party to Christmas music!  Seeing that I have some OCD tendencies, I was very proud of myself for relinquishing all control of the Gingerbread house and letting my kids GO FOR IT without any bossing and demanding from me.  It was actually very liberating and the House turned out just the way a Gingerbread House decorated by a 9, 7, and 4 year old should!

So I kind of lied a bit...I actually insisted that I do the roofline icing.  This pictures was pre house decorating and as you can see the trees were beautifully done.  Unfortunately I never did get a picture of the finished product.  Weird, I know.

I love this kid!  Even though he's not looking up I still think you can totally see the excitement on his cute little face.

Jack dancing with Reecey.

Reecey snackin'

We were lucky enough to be able to stay home for Christmas this year for THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!  In the past we've either traveled for the entire break or we've had Christmas Day at home and then jetted off somewhere but his year we called in re-enforcements in the form of the Brinkerhoff family and stayed home the whole time!  It was wonderful!  In fact, just yesterday Jackson told me that he LOVED staying home for Christmas and can't wait until next year when we stay home again!

A lovely Christmas Eve dinner at Tucanos in SLC!  YUM!

LouLou and Lindsay!  Hot mama's!

Teej and LouLou (his madre)

Me and my Reecey!

After dinner we headed over to Temple Square for a quick peek at the lights.  It was a very quick peek since by the time we got there, found parking and walked over to the temple grounds it was about time to go pick up TJ's sister Ali from the airport!  We were able to see the nativity presentation though and that is the most important part!

The Salt Lake Temple!  BEAUTIFUL!!!

Walking to Temple Square

Reece was not a happy girl!!!  She was a little fussy and clingy with me since the last time she saw her Papa he took her back to Denver with him.  By the end of their visit though she was quite content to sit with him!

The Nativity Scene

After Temple Square we headed back to our house to open the traditional Christmas Eve Jammies!   Then we watched Grinch, read the Christmas Story from the Book of Mormon this year since we had just heard the Bible version at the Temple and then told our traditional story of Teach the Children!  After that the kids went to bed and enjoyed the sugar plum visions!  (btw...what are sugar plums?)

Christmas morning arrived and we had a lovely time with presents, scotch stew, undercooked cinnamon buns and Dr. Pepper!

Then came Christmas Dinner!  I'm not a big fan of Ham dinners so we went for the Turkey dinner instead.  That would make 3, yes 3 Turkey dinners prepared by me since Canadian Thanksgiving in October!  Good Times!

If you look closely at this picture it really is kind of silly!  Cute, but silly!

The kids table!

Even though this is totally overexposed I think its hilarious!  This was Reecey's uniform.  Onesie, socks, new shoes and new hat.  She paraded around like this for a long time!

Natalie and LouLou passed out after a long day!

Last year Utah got a lot of snow.  Even though I didn't live here I came in February to house hunt and there was tons of snow.  In all my years living in Utah I had never seen that much snow in the valley before.  This year we are again, getting a ton of snow.  These icicles were hanging from my roof!

Then came Natalie's birthday.  We celebrated by having Tacos for dinner, a yummy cake and presents!

While she was waiting for everyone to come into the family room to open presents she was standing there like this.  She looked so mad.  It was funny!

There's the happiness!

Then came the day of Sledding.  We have a total kick butt hill by our house so we went out and had a blast!!!!

After a fun filled day of sledding, a game of Monopoly that we never did get a chance to finish, even though me and Teej were kicking butt, and the news that Coach Mike Shannahan of the Denver Broncos got FIRED, we headed out to a celebratory dinner at Red Robin!

And that my friends pretty much wraps up Christmas 2008!  Like I said before I love Christmas time and this year really felt the spirit of Christmas!  I'm so grateful for the birth of our Savior and the chance we have each year to spend it with our loved ones.  

Now on to 2009, where many fun and exciting things will happen and lots of not so fun and exciting things will happen so remember to stay tuned!