Let's just roll this all into one.
Practicing for Christmas mini sessions for my photography business:
Ward Christmas party.
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I really emphasized to Ruthie that Santa will bring her one toy and she shouldn't be greedy and make long lists, so when Santa asked her what else she wanted, it caught her off guard. I wondered if she thought it was a test.
Carousel rides at the mall.
Cutting down our tree at Stokoe Farms.
Hay ride out to the trees.
The hunt. We had a hard time agreeing on a tree. James and Ruth each had to prepare a short speech about why they liked their respective trees and then we all voted. James won. Ruthie cried. Family fun time!
Shaking and wrapping the tree.
Christmas morning! We have a relatively small Christmas, but it looks even smaller here because the ping pong table and Lego table were not assembled. The kids all helped us to do that afterward which the loved.
Ruthie got a DS!
James got new DS games.
Matching jammies I made!
A table tent I made for the kids.
Claire got Frozen dresses. I LOVED watching her serve "tea" in her Anna dress.
The downside to electronics as Christmas gifts.
The aftermath.
Back to when we bought our tree. We decorated it and our house all that same day!
It was a GREEN Christmas this year. Here we are on Christmas eve enjoying the 55 degree day! Claire was really worried that we couldn't have Christmas without snow.
Christmas Eve tradition of opening and playing a new game: Life.
Christmas Eve tradition of staying up too late doing final wrapping and arranging of gifts!
Elsa wand from Grandpa and Grandma.
The ping pong table from Grandpa and Grandma was the perfect motivation to clean up this part of our basement (we're determined to do the rest soon!) and has been lots of fun!
This 3-4 year size Anna dress fits Rosemary surprisingly well, except the length. Here's to growing UP and only UP.
Assembling the ikea storage units to put under our old kitchen island as a Lego table!
Somehow I neglected to take any pictures of Grampy and Oumi or our early Christmas celebration. We had a fun weekend with them and they brought a nearly complete collection of state and US territory quarters (with D and P versions of each) for EACH kid! Also a stocking full of goodies including a whole box of sugar cereal for each child (that's what we prefer to candy in stockings) and it was one of the kids' favorite parts of Christmas. Last year, they had given us a playset for the backyard and to continue to help us make our backyard more fun and functional, their big gift to us this year was to contribute to our savings for a patio out back. We are really hoping to be able to do that in the Spring!
We feel so blessed to have so many loved ones in our lives and to have all that we do. We are grateful for the birth of our Savior and strive to follow His example more this year!
