Christmas Day 2009

Boy did Santa Claus come to town this year. Luckily our kids were good as gold most of the year. Cali is finally at the age where she can really appreciate Christmas.  Not just for the gifts and Santa Claus but she really has taken the story of the birth of Christ to heart.  Lately she tells me all the time that she misses Jesus. I love these sweet little moments when you realize that your kids listen to you and believe in the beautiful meaning of Christmas. It truly is a magical time of year.

     Christmas eve is the one night a year that our kids actually run to bed. After leaving cookies and milk by the fire place they finally got to head upstairs and go to bed. They were so excited that I  don’t think they were able to really go to sleep. This year we got wise and told Andrew he could not leave his room before his alarm clock said 7:00 a.m. It actually worked great and he came in our room at 7:01.  One of the traditions I always did with my Dad’s family was to have everyone gather on the stairs for a picture before presents.  I have carried that over to my children and they seem to put up with it rather well.  Before I let the kids run wild to their gifts, I was asked by Nina and Papa(the kids grandparents) who live in Texas, to call and leave the phone on speaker so they could hear the kids on Christmas morning. I thought this was a great idea since they didn’t get to spend Christmas with us.

               

As you can see Santa was very good to the kids this year…..                                     

The after math……..

 

Once we all got dressed for the day, it was time to go see the cousins at grandma and grandpa’s house.  It is a tradition to have dough dogs (scones) and ham and juice for breakfast. Craig’s mom does this for us every year and it is a tradition our families really enjoy. After breakfast another tradition we have is to gather all the kids by the big tree and take pictures…

 

    

      

Then the kids got to open there very large stockings from Grandma and Grandpa

Then onto the basement for present opening….

I feel  so blessed to have had such a wonderful Christmas.  Even though it is a herculine effort to get to Christmas …in the end it was all worth it. We were especially blessed to have Jan home from the hospital and able to share that special day with us.  I am so blessed to live close to Craigs family.  What fun memories we get to build with them.

Our countdown to Christmas

December was a whirlwind. It went by so Fast. Here are a few of our highlights counting down to Christmas....
This year Andrew was finally old enough to participate in the after school ski and snowboard program. This is what’s so wonderful living by the mountains. The kids actually get picked up by a bus at school on Fridays and they take them up to the ski resort Snowbird. They do it for 5 weeks and they get snowboarding/ski lessons for 2 hours. Then I go and pick him up at the school when they are done. This has been a great experience for Andrew. Hs grandpa was able to gift this to Andrew and we are so grateful. He has had such a fun time. He has already improved so much. He was very nervous about getting put in a group that was too advanced but he quickly made sure they knew where he was supposed to be. This is his first time getting on the bus..

      

 

One of the Saturdays in December we had the ever popular neighborhood breakfast with Santa. The day kept getting changed so we showed up a week early the first time. We decided that would be a Mc Donald’s breakfast day. When we finally made it to the right Sat. the kids were first in line to see Santa...

 

   

                               

One of Our Christmas traditions is to go eat dessert at a fancy restaurant named La Caille.  The kids love this because they get dressed in fancy clothes and it’s like eating at a castle.  It is a beautiful place and its decorated to the max with lights. Grandpa got the 3 little girls matching dresses.  They never had any little girls so now they get to spoil the grand baby girls with dresses. This year were were especially grateful to have Jan with us to celebrate Christmas.  Most of you know that she was very ill through summer and in the hospital for 3 months.  We are so happy she was able to go with us. She is recovering more every day and we are so fortunate to be close to her. We were able to spend a lot of time helping her with decorating and wrapping presents.  I enjoyed spending the time with her and my sister in law preparing for Christmas.

     

Andrew & Cali outside the restaurant

    

      John and Jan                 Andrew and twins                     My sister in law and I 

 

 

               Craig and I                                       Ms. Lindsey                 Jacob & Grandma

 

 

Sydney  Cali and Hailey     Jan and Alan

 

 

 

We also got invited to go see the Lights at Thanksgiving point by good family friends the Taylors. They   are long time friends from when they all lived in Saratoga, CA.  Lanae organized an amazing night for us and the kids.  We got to go on a tour of the lights in an enclosed bus!  I say this with excitement as it was freezing and we saw other people in one that was open to the fresh frozen air. The lights are very cool and I highly recommend it.

 

                                            

              

                              This is  Lanae with her grandchildren

           

After the tour of the lights we went in for some cookies and hot chocolate.  What an amazing night.  Thank you to the Taylors.  We love you guys!

 

 

Christmas eve: We had Craig’s parents over for Dinner.  I made Ham, Rolls, cheesy potatoes, green beans and my Grandmas fruit Cocktail whip cream salad.  In other words it was a feast

                                                                                                                      

              

After dinner we headed over to Laura’s for dessert and Stories

I made Homemade cinnamon rolls and we had cookies and cheesecake. Then the kids opened their one present(C-mas P.J.’s of course) and we read the story of the birth of the savior and the night before Christmas.    

 

  

     

 

One thing I learned this year was you can never be too prepared for Christmas.  I started Shopping in October.  It still takes me the whole month to prepare.  I am so grateful for my family. Especially my children who give me the most joy in my life.  I love to see how excited they are for the magical day of Christmas.  As stressful as it all is I have to stop and smell the roses sometimes because I know it won’t always be like this. My babies will grow up and leave me someday and I hope to teach them traditions they will carry into their families.

 

Christmas pictures coming soon