mid-December to Christmas Eve

After getting some rest from our vacation, we headed out to visit the fam on Dec. 19th. Tony was showing pictures from my camera and decided to get a little wacky with it. First he got a shot of Eric, Jordan, and himself (at a bizarre angle from holding the camera)

and then of me demonstrating the "gang sign" I flashed at the camera on the way down Splash Mountain on our last ride.

It was Christmas Eve before we knew it. The kids had been doing Santa advent calendars and the beards were now white and fluffy!

(Christian made me take a second picture of his, the little joker)

We wrapped our little gifts for the a white elephant gift exchange at my parents' (the first of many, most likely). I had seen the idea for the cute snowman wrap (gummy pandas were inside) and Faith did such a great job bringing it to fruition!

The nativity play was wonderful, as always. Christian got to be Joseph this year. The angel (Sierra) is delivering a message to Mary (Lily).

What a cute couple!

The whole gang. Brendon was a shepherd and Noah, his sheep.

The three wise (wo)men: Faith, Celeste and Alaura.

My cuties!

Christian's white elephant gift was a box of gag items from the dollar store. It included a thing that sqirts you when you sit on the potty, fake soap that has a fake fly attached to it, a whistle that made a whoopie cushion type sound (which he calls a "tootie whistle") and these crazy fake teeth.

He cried and cried over having to put it in the gift pile and then threw a big fit when Celeste chose it. She was soooo sweet, she traded Buddy for the votive candle holder he had. Later in the game Faith stole the candle, but I think all the kids were happy about what they ended up with. But none more than our little guy!

Afterward, we commenced with our annual family tradition of driving by Doctor John's, but first we swung by the Roy City offices and admired all the lighted trees.

There was even a sleigh where another family was taking pictures. They obliged in taking our family picture.

Unfortunately, there weren't many cars {to laugh and point at} in the parking lot of Doctor John's, probably due to the fact that we drove by before 9 p.m. The kids put out a great spread for Santa and the reindeer and got nestled snug in their beds. 

The reason for all the additional snacks, over and above the cookies & milk requisite: for the six months prior to Christmas, Buddy had been commenting about any food he deemed delicious enough, "Santa needs to taste this!" And in fact, he remembered that he wanted Santa to try the green Miracle Salsa with avacado, tomatillos & anaheim peppers that we got at the Kaysville farmers' market. He was quite sad that we didn't have any to share. What a thoughtful little guy!