Christmas!

We spent Christmas with the Dea family in Nebraska. For days, the kids played with their cousins and had a blast. We had a fun fondue cheese and chocolate dinner on Christmas. Christmas day, Steve made a delicious prime rib. Dan made a yummy ham, and everyone else made the side dishes. Rachael's twice-baked potatoes are heaven and Joni made three types of pies! We ate well. We also realized we were far too busy eating and playing to take many pictures. Here's what we got.

Christmas Eve: The kids performed the nativity while Papa read from Luke 2. It was a bit of controlled chaos, as the best nativities always are with six kids age 5 and under...

Joseph (Gavin), Mary (Ellie), and baby Jesus (baby doll)

Some more of the performers: a wise man (Hunter) and a shepherd (Owen)

Action shot

The whole crew! Including another shepherd (Preston) - Dallas is still too small to participate.

Then there was the performance portion of the night. Each family was asked to prepare and perform a musical number. We did Jingle Bells,  complete with the kids jingling their bells. Each of us took a phrase to sing and we joined together on the chorus. I thought it was pretty cute :) I didn't include the video, but here's one picture.

Christmas morning! The kids loved everything about the magic of Christmas.

We loved playing games and hanging out all day. And like many people, we played Pie in the Face - hilarious!




Just a lot of fun at Christmas!

December Festivities

In December...

We decorated for Christmas.

We took pictures in front of the tree.

We visited the Penguin House - basically there's a house where the family fills the yard with Christmas inflatables and they open it for the public to wander through. They have fake snow blowing from the front porch and a movie set up on a big screen over the garage. It's an annual tradition to go one night for Family Night. This year did not disappoint!








We took a ride on the Polar Express at the ward Christmas party.


We visited Santa. We also played at his Wonderland.

Hunter would have been happy right here all day.


Dallas was indifferent.


Ellie  wrote her first letter to Santa of the season.

We wrote and mailed letters to Santa.


We did a Christmas craft.

We baked holiday goodies, including our annual gingerbread boys and girls and frosted/decorated sugar cookies.






And suddenly...it was Christmas!

Thanksgiving Trip

We took a trip back to Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. In an effort to keep Ellie's motion sickness to a minimum, and for our own sanity of traveling in a car with three small children for 18 hours, we drove through the night. Actually, Steve drove through the night. He was a rock star for all the driving he did on this trip.

The trip out seemed to go relatively quickly. We only stopped once for Ellie to throw up, so that was progress. When we got to Snowflake, we spent four days reconnecting with Steve's sister Shauna and her family. We played games, watched movies, took trips into town, went swimming, and had dance parties. We also battled pink eye, ear drainage, and runny noses.

 Spencer and Dallas playing some tunes

Pool time!

 Aunt Shauna and Dallas

The kids loved the kitties

 "Jumping" on the trampoline

 Hunter practicing his driving skills...

...and learning to play the ukelele

We were so excited to take two days to head back down to the valley! We stayed the night with Steve's old roommate and his family. It was fun seeing old friends and eating at our favorite places that we miss. A highlight was re-introducing the kids to the Mesa Temple where we were sealed. The Christmas lights were up, and while the big reveal wasn't until Thanksgiving night two days later, we were lucky to be there right when the lights turned on that night. We were enchanted! It made me wish we were there every December to keep the tradition of visiting the temple lights and music program.

When we returned to Snowflake, we met a new friend who came to stay for Thanksgiving. She had served in our nephew Spencer's mission. She and Megan made empanadas one of the days we were there - YUM! Everyone pitched in and cooked and baked in preparation for Thanksgiving. Our brother-in-law Ashley's parents came over for the meal. Along with the rest of us, we had a crowd of 17 people for the meal. And what a tasty meal it was! We were just full enough to taste the desserts and come back later for more.

It was bittersweet leaving to return home. We know we'll see them again in a year or two, but it's not often enough! Add to that the LONGER return trip, snow and ice, more vomit and me being sick with sinus pain, coughing, sore throat and congestion, and we were trashed when we got home. It was worth the trip for sure, though!