Christmas and a photo-shoot

This Christmas flew by. I couldn’t even catch my breath, and then it was over. The funny thing is that we didn’t even do much, yet it felt like we were busy every day. I guess we were busy… busy watching Christmas Movies. We must have watched every single Christmas movie made. I’m a movie-Nazi every other month of the year, but in December I let it all go.

Both Jefferson and Grant participated in Christmas musical productions, and they both had speaking parts. Here’s Jefferson before his production. He is Bob, Santa’s mechanic. Isn’t he cute?

I was able to get a free ticket from a girlfriend to see Manheim Steamroller in concert. I was the happiest I’ve ever been… besides going to the Billy Joel concert. Really, Billy Joel and Manheim Steamroller are my favorite artists in the entire universe and it has always been my dream to see them. Now that I’ve seen them both in concert, I have no more reason to live.
You would think that I would bring my camera on such an exciting night. Instead I had to steal this poor-quality photo from google.

Then my dear friend Susan and I planned the Ward Christmas party. This just about did me in. Shawn had to spoon feed me for 2 days afterwards because I could not move a muscle, and my brain power was empty. A slight exaggeration perhaps, but it really was exhausting! 

For Christmas Eve we had our good friends, the Ross’ come over to eat. We also had my mom and the missionaries joining us.
I made enchiladas, and Maggie made the most delicious taco’s (her family’s tradition). We had enough food to feed my entire neighborhood. It was a huge Mexican feast that only got nibbled on. Oh well.
After dinner we had the kids act out the Nativity story and we sang songs. 
I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone at the table together, but I forgot. By the time I remembered to take a picture, Shawn was gone (taking the missionaries home), so this is half of us.
 

We opened 1 gift (pj’s of course), set out milk and cookies for Santa, then quickly got to bed.
While the big kids were getting into bed, Kennedy found the plate of cookies and snuck 1, then 2. She licked the frosting off of all the cookies before I had the heart to stop her and put her to bed.
 

Jefferson reading Christmas books to the baby


On Christmas morning we had some very happy boys and girls.






It certainly was a Merry Christmas!

We felt so lucky to have my mom visiting us for the holiday. We were hoping that my brother Ian and his wife Clarissa could have come also, we really missed them. It just wasn’t as fun without them. But one of these years we will all be together!

I tried taking a picture of my mom with her grandkids, but wasn’t very successful. This is the best shot I got….

It was high-time I took a ‘good’ picture of them all together! So, on one of the days she was visiting, we went out to the park and took some.
We had a little too much fun, and I had a great belly laugh watching my mom on this teeter-totter.
 

The kids cooperated well for some great pictures!