Christmas 2011

We have been so fortunate to be able to go to my parents each year for a long Christmas vacation. This year was no exception.  We left on the 18th; arriving 5 days before everyone else (except Morgan) and stayed until the 29th.

Before everyone else arrived:

We attended a concert with my parents.


Did major grocery shopping.  We eat a lot.

We planned fun Christmas Eve and Christmas Day games.

We went swimming at the aquatic center. I need to get Boston into swimming lessons asap. She had so much fun!

We watched football and drank margaritas at Chili's.

We visited my high school BFF and her twins. Who I must say are dang cute.

We were introduced to painting snow. Thanks Grandma (and Pinterest). The girls LOVED it.

 And making ice cream cone Christmas trees.

Then... everyone arrived.

We (meaning Morgan & Tiara) wrapped ALL of the presents.  They literally spent hour upon hour wrapping presents.

Christmas Eve was spent grazing over our buffet of cheesy shrimp dip, shrimp cocktail, hot wings, buffalo chicken dip, cordon bleu and pastrami sandwiches, artichoke jalepeno dip, stuffed mushrooms, oranges with dip, rocky road fudge, a delicious trifle and a yummy lime drink.

We played an easy yet amusing round of name that Christmas Carol, by acting out the titles like charades.

Followed by a contest to see who could rip a piece of paper, behind their back, into the shape of a Christmas tree the best.  We all voted. It was a 3 way tie between Laura, Sundee and Mike. It was really a fun game!

We ended the night watching Home Alone and bringing up all of the presents.  I don't know about you, but I have never seen so many presents!

We started Christmas morning at 7:30. That is pretty darn early for our family.

We do stockings first, followed by the breakfast of champions: Homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate.



After we were stuffed, we opened presents.  After about an hour of doing our traditional one-at-a-time method we realized we needed to speed things up.  Casey passed out the rest so we could actually make it to one o'clock church.

Braden was roped in to singing in the choir, my mom was the pianist, Morgan was the page turner and Tiara sang with the young women and played her violin. 
It was a very nice program. (even if Boston woke up half way through and screamed at the top of her lungs... oh and then yelled "Noooooooo!" when I asked her to fold her arms for the closing prayer.)

After church we made a delicious ham dinner, complete with a birthday cake for Jesus.

Christmas night we played Minute to Win it games.  Super fun.

Wafer Face. Putting a Nilla Wafer on your forehead and seeing who can get it to their mouth using only facial expressions.

A cereal box puzzle.

 Cup stacking.

 The nativity puzzle.  We've had this wooden puzzle for years. At some point I did hold the record for being able to put it together the fastest. But, I lost.  Winner: Sundee

 Oreo Stack.

Ornament Balancing

 Ping Pong Ball Bouncing

Ping Pong Drop

After Christmas, we enjoyed time at my grandparents ranch in New Harmony.



We also put together puzzles, baked, and of course, worked on cars.



Went shooting

Played with babies

Played games.

 

And did a LOT of chatting.

I am so thankful that we have all been able to get together for the most part.  We missed Garrett's family this year, but almost always we are all home at the same time at least once a year. That's saying something with there being 8 kids!

Thank you mom and dad for housing all of us, and making everything so fun. You guys are awesome, and we love you!

December

My picture taking during December was sparse. But here is what I remember of it...

I tried to do some "Christmas Activities" leading up to Christmas. I did not prepare enough to do a full on Advent Fairy thing... maybe next year.

A few things I remember:

• Making and decorating sugar cookies
• Coloring a picture of the nativity scene
• Going to the Cerritos Town Center and listening to Mike Hardey and Brigham Welch play music from their Christmas album.
• Getting a Christmas Tree
• Disneyland, and staying for the snow and fireworks.
• Making cute hand print trees in Nursery.
• Dinner and cookies with the Peterson's.
• Decorating the house and tree.
• Getting new shoes for Tot Lot and loving them so much, we had to sleep in them.
• Lots of dance parties by the light of the Christmas tree to Darlene Love's, All Alone on Christmas. Lots.

 

A little video here ... If you listen close, you can here Boston trying to sing along.

Christmas and New Years

The drive to Cedar was actually really nice! Both girls did really well, and with 2 stops and Brighton actually sleeping for about 50 minutes, we made it in about 7 hours with just a minute or two of crying.

When I was packing for myself, I was so proud that I fit all of my clothes, shoes, etc. into one bag. So where did all this other stuff come from? Oh yes, we have kids. (and maybe I brought up some crafting supplies including my Cricut)

 

One of the first activities on the list was making a gingerbread house with the cousins. Brighton wasn't into decorating as much as she was eating. But Ashton and Dax had fun!

Christmas Eve we had our usually buffet which included: Carnitas, Sweet Pork, SUPER delicious authentic Corn Tortillas, Rolls, Guacamole, Salsa, Jalepeno Artichoke Dip, Crab Puffs, Bean and Cheese dip, Shrimp Cocktail, Rocky Road Fudge, Cream Puffs, and various other chips, crackers and candies.

Christmas morning started a little earlier this year. (8am!) We start with stockings, followed by a huge breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, bacon, ham, (we didn't want to miss a part of the pig), hot chocolate with whip cream of course, and orange juice.

Then comes presents. After you open your present you go get one from under the tree for someone else and so on.  Eventually I think Brighton was going every other time. My girls were so spoiled by their grandparents!

One of the best gifts of the day. Our families favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Vacation.

Casey didn't fly out until the 26th, so we saved our "sibling gifts" for when he got there. We draw names each year, so we thought it would be nice to wait for him to open those.

I was SUPER lame and asked for money. Adam and Charla were so creative and turned 50, $1 bills into a bouquet of flowers with a butterfly fluttering over them. Charla said it served me right to ask for money and told me it would take me hours to undo them all...which it did, I think almost 3 to be exact.

 

Brighton (when not being dramatic) had so much fun playing with my brothers. I think Adam was her favorite, sorry Garrett, Casey and John!

This is Casey in this picture, not Adam, just so you're not confused ;)

The days after Christmas were filled with shooting...

It was freezing, freezing, freezing, but we had a good time.  Braden got a clay pigeon thrower, so he got to test out his new shotgun (that he got for our anniversary last year).

Guess who?

Don't worry, it's just a pellet gun.

Casey, Dad and Adam. I just love my dad's face.

I didn't get to shoot Casey's gun, but it was so quiet and didn't kick at all. Now that's a gun for me!

I am SO awkward. I haven't shot a gun for a LONG time, and I seriously suck at it.

The guys did a ride over by Kanab one of the days. Notice there isn't any snow! While CA was getting rained on, so was Southern Utah, it didn't snow until several days after Christmas, and only a few inches.

The girls got to craft and be girlie.  Brighton's hair has gotten so long!

We spent hours making cute necklaces and bracelets thanks to my mom and online tutorials.

Of course we went bowling one of the nights.  They even had shoes that fit Brighton. I was dying over how cute she looked.

Brighton bowled for about 4 frames, and then occupied herself on the horsies. Morgan was nice enough to join her :)

New Years Eve was spent eating at Milts, a steak house up the canyon, and then vegging and chatting.

Ashton was so excited to have Braden show him his Star Craft 2 secrets.

Another fabulous picture of my dad. My mom just loves it when he does stuff like this!

Scamps and Bike. 

(Sundee's nickname has been scamps her whole life, and Brighton calls Mike, Bike)

John and Alexis.

Casey 

(sans his gf Laura)

Charla and Morgan

ME!

(Notice cute necklace that we made)

Then there was shopping.

Riding horses and visiting with grandparents.

And we ended the trip with a 102 fever. Brighton just gets random high fevers that never turn into anything. So weird.

The drive home wasn't quite as pleasant. It included about 4 stops, took us about 9 hours, with Brighton refusing to sleep AT ALL and several hours of crying.  But we survived and are glad to be home.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years as well!