Christmas 2012

We spent Christmas with Jesse's family this year. It was so fun to get everyone together and I believe that my kids and I were the only ones to get sick at all and I got the worst of it. Unfortunately, little Kylee burned her hand on the fireplace but thankfully we had nurse Jesse to the rescue and he brought some stuff from work to help with it. Other than that, it was a wonderful Christmas and I think everyone had a great time. The kids had so much fun playing together and they were all sad when it was time to go home.

On Sunday we all frosted sugar and gingerbread cookies together. The kids had a ball. Notice Atreyu's cookie that he dumped an entire bottle of sprinkles on. I'm pretty sure Grandma ended up throwing it out. They turned out to be excellent cookies!

On Christmas Eve, we acted out the nativity and almost everyone dressed up for a part. Lydia and Alora both wanted to be Mary, so we had two Marys this year. Some of the pictures are kind of blurry but you get the general idea.

I have started the tradition with my kids where they get to open a present of pajamas on Christmas Eve. I forgot to take a picture of the kids helping Baby Bri open hers but Atreyu opened his after his bath and was very excited!

Christmas morning was, of course, crazy and wonderful! It's fun having so many kids around at Christmas. Atreyu got a Thomas the Train set from Santa and Cambria got a turtle that can be filled up with balls. She wasn't too interested in it but hopefully she will enjoy it as she gets older.

All the kids were so good to share their toys with each other. Ryan's truck was a big hit with all the kids.

On Christmas afternoon, some of us went out behind Grandma and Grandpa's house and went sledding and playing in the snow. Atreyu had fun going down the hill with Cam and Jenny and then he, Lydia and Alora made snow angels.

We had excellent food all week long. It was nice splitting up meals so that one person didn't get stuck with everything and it gave a good variety. On Christmas Eve we had turkey and ham and Alora wanted one of the turkey legs. She went to town on it!

I just thought that these pictures were sweet. Cambria wasn't feeling good and we couldn't get her to calm down. Seth offered to take her and she fell asleep. Seth called it the "stranger effect" and it really worked.

We really had a great Christmas! I am thankful that we are able to celebrate the birth of our Savior every year and that we can take extra time to focus on Him, His life and His love for us.