Winter Tales

This is one of the reasons I love blogging. I don't find the time anymore for scrapbooking and journal keeping. It's so much easier to do it all at once. At the end of the year I have that years worth of blogs printed into a book. I often see the kids going through the books or asking me to read them. It's so fun to relive the memories.

This was a funny picture Alexander drew. You can tell he really likes Star Wars, especially the computer games. This is two Jedi fighting a monster. They have gold/silver stars because in the game they have different color stars next to them based on how difficult of a fight it will be.

Another Alexander picture. I had him write Santa Claus a wish list. He wants; dice, candy necklace and candy bracelet (and that's his name on the stocking

The past two years we went up to the mountains and cut down our own Christmas tree. This is always a fun family activity. This was also the plan this year but apparently they only gave out a very limited number of permits. We didn't realize this and tried to grab a permit the morning we wanted to cut one down, they were all gone. We couldn't go home empty handed so we were forced to pay the ridiculous tree lot prices.

We took it right home to decorate it with our meager decorations:
(yes, Jake's playing his computer game while we decorate the tree)

One day we will invest in decorations, and especially a star for the top

That night we had a Christmas party at church. Santa came to visit :-)

Jake was sure mad at me for telling the bishopric member who called to ask that 'yes he wouldn't mind playing Santa Clause, he's done it before'. I now know, it is worse torture to him than going to the store Ross. He dislikes it so much he decided it was a good incentive to lose weight. Then I won't get asked anymore! He did forgive me and after the party he commented how he was glad he could do that. As some of the families brought their kids to see Santa he realized he was the only Santa some of these kids would be able to see so he was glad he could do it for them ... that doesn't mean he ever wants to do it again.

Evelyn is such a fun and happy little girl:

 

Evelyn loved helping me wrap presents. She really wanted the tape and would get mad when I would have to take it from her. She was laughing so hard as she unwound it.

 

We celebrated a nice quiet Christmas with just our little family. And we all loved it. It's fun that we now have our own family traditions.
For Christmas Eve dinner we had a big breakfast feast. I had fun with french toast. I used pumpkin bread, banana bread and really thick cinnamon bread. Plus, can't forget the buttermilk syrup.

After dinner we watched some church Christmas videos and talked about the real reason for Christmas.

Then we all opened new pajamas and gifts from grandma.

 

 The kids all got capes that grandma Stevens made. Alexander was especially excited:

I then tried to get a picture of the kids in their new pajamas. It went like this:

Evelyn was done with the whole thing and just wanted a bottle and her bed:

Next in our new family tradition ... popcorn and movie in our new pajamas:

After we finally got the kids settled down it was time for mom and dad to get to work creating Christmas magic:

The kids each got a special favorite cereal:

I was truly grateful for the abundance of gifts that surrounded our tree this year. What a tremendous blessing!

It has been a very mild winter with very little snowfall. As we were setting up Christmas it began to snow. It snowed all night and we were all excited to wake up to a white Christmas.
Winter really is beautiful:

The next morning was all grins and laughter:

They had fun opening the giant box aunt Hailey and uncle Cameron sent:

 

She kept triple checking there was nothing else in the box:

Thank you Hailey and Cameron. The kids were sure excited with everything:

 

Present opening chaos is a lot of fun!

I was so mad Jake's one Christmas gift surprise got ruined. The past few years have been super lean financial wise so we weren't able to give gifts to each other. This year I saved here and there to get him something fun. I ordered it online but never got any shipping information. One day the doorbell rang. I didn't rush to the door, I wasn't expecting anyone or anything. Jake answered it. There stood UPS with his present with big bold letters on it stating what it was. Oh well, he was still happy with his knife. After the surprise was ruined I bought him a silly gift, a fog-free shower mirror. I wrapped that up and gave it to him on Christmas. He looked perplexed and politely thanked me for the gift. But I couldn't hold my laughter in any longer. I gave in and gave him what I knew he was really expecting.

We have decided to keep Christmas giving minimal. The kids each got 2 toys and 2 things they need. Pajamas and underwear were the needs this year.

 

But I couldn't resist getting the boys some slippers. They love these fun character slippers. Sadly, they don't come in bigger sizes so they will have to get boring slippers next time.

 

Breahna got a bunch of fun wooden animals. She loves animals so I was excited when I found these quality toys for a good deal:

I was super excited about the fun present I found for Alexander. As you may have noticed, he's a big Star Wars fan. I found an Operation game, Star Wars style. Working on fine motor skills and having fun at the same time, score!

 

a friend gave Alexander a blanket they happened to find at the thrift store for a few dollars:

 

Christmas dinner was again, just our little family.