Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & New Year's Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to my mom & dad's for their dinner and nativity. I decided to try my hair curly, but it was a pain and although I thought it was fun for a change at the time, I'm hating this picture!

 

Lots of delicious appetizers including bacon wrapped water chestnuts, crab rounds, spinach dip with bread, and cheese balls.

 

After a great dinner of ham & funeral potatoes, the kids got dressed up for the nativity.

 

None of the kids volunteered to be Joseph, so Jordan got assigned the role :)

 

After my mom & dad's we visited with Braeggers. When we got home, we let the kids open one present each. Buddy really didn't know what the gift would be. Surprise!! Pajamas!

 

Tony had some temporary insanity and changed the "mandatory sleep until time" to 5 am! Of course, the kids were in our room at exactly 5. They were excited to see that Santa brought them exactly what they asked for even though his note said that Christian only narrowly escaped from being on the naughty list: LEGOS.

 

Faith gave this great coupon (which I have since found must have some unwritten restrictions on it),

 

and Buddy gave me this. Whatever it is, it's awesome!

 

From us, the kids got the Airzooka guns, remote controlled helicopters, and these big beanbags.

 

Skittles got the monster-sized bully stick (which Buddy calls pee-pee sticks since they are made from smoked bull private parts).

 

After Tony & I had a nap, we went to my parents'.

 

We got to hang out with Eric while we were exchanging gifts :)

 

and Joy's family got there just before we left. (My mom likes to stagger the families so she can see all the kids and grandkids open their gifts.)

They gave us so many great things, but the best of all were Lagoon passes!

 

Next, we went to Tony's parents'. Lots more great gifts and fun hanging out with that side of the family. Faith and I got lots of gift certificates to the Shakespeare Festival!

 

We visited with my grandmas on Christmas Eve, and after Braegger's we stopped by to visit with Tony's Grandma Mitchell.

 

While we were there, Santa texted Tony to say that he had missed two gifts in his bag and had stopped by our house to deliver them. He even sent a picture of the presents under the tree on the text! We came home to see that they were Furbies. The kids were thrilled, but I say that Santa's in trouble--those things are SOOOOO annoying!

 

The kids had fun playing with all their gifts that next week home from school. We got all dressed up in our jammies, and Tony even wore some Santa boxers that he'd gotten for two bucks at the after Christmas sale as a joke.

'

We ate ribs, played games and rang in the new year!

December activities 2012

We did lots of fun Christmas activities in December. We started out December 1st by going to Scrooge at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. This was Buddy's first time and Faith's third (although her first time she didn't sit through much of it. Tony ended up leaving and driving her around while Tam & I enjoyed the musical!). Here are the kids with Jacob Marley.

 

On the 9th we went to Journey to Bethlehem. It was cold, and we basically butted in line in order for the kids to hang out with Sarah's kids (we waited in line and in their chapel for over an hour and this saved us another 45 minutes) but we really enjoyed it. We love making the "journey" and being harassed by Roman soldiers, finally arriving to see the Christ child.

 

On the 13th Faith had a Christmas ballroom recital at the school. All of her grandparents & her Tammy came to see her!

 

December 18th we pulled the kids out of school for a winter "staycation" and rode the rails into the big city!

 

We started off by taking the kids to a music & laser show at the planetarium. The kids had been jealous of Tony & my experience with this type of show from our anniversary date, so we decided to treat them. This one was set to Christmas music and was really fun.

 

Of course, while we were there we had to visit Mars,

 

and the Moon!

 

We did a bit of shopping at the Gateway, then took the kids to eat at Tucanos. Christian LOVED collecting all the meat from the swords with his tongs and they ate pretty well. Good thing since the place is a bit pricey for us!

 

A bit more shopping, and then we went to see The Hobbit in IMAX. We loved it, and Christian managed to sit through three hours of movie with no peep breaks! A Christmas miracle!!

After the movie, we had to run to catch Trax or risk missing our Frontrunner connection. We were a bit worried that we had missed it and would be either jogging several miles or spending over an hour in the cold night waiting for the next one, but luckily Trax was just a bit late and we made it home, safe and sound.

 

After school on the 19th we went to Boondocks for some bowling,

 

ate at Chuck-a-rama and then drove through the lights at Thanksgiving point.

 

We warmed up by the fire,

 

visited the reindeer,

 

and watched part of a cool ice carving demonstration.

 

On the 20th we picked up the kids a bit early from school and went to Station Park in Farmington. We watched the awesome fountain,

 

did some shopping, ate at Panda Express and then went ice skating for the first time! Tony wanted to keep his body undamaged, so he didn't try it, but I held the side wall as I made two passes around the small oval and the kids skated for hours. Luckily there is a small glass building nearby where Tony and I watched while keeping warm.

 

 

Faith wanted this cute Rudolf bun in her hair for her school Christmas party on the 21st.

I took most of the day off work and Tony & I volunteered at Christian's kindergarten Polar Express party.

 

Right after school we went to Salt Lake and saw My Big Fat Utah Christmas at the Desert Star Playhouse. The kids and I loved it, but it was not what Tony was expecting and he absolutely HATED it! Their plays are very silly, full of crazy songs, lots of slapstick humor and pokes at the LDS lifestyle. At least most of us enjoyed ourselves!

 

After the show, we went to This is the Place park for their "Candlelight Christmas" event.

 

We got to see more reindeer,

 

and the kids got a "visit with St. Nicholas."

 

They had some fun activities like writing a letter to St. Nicholas and then burning it in the fire so the ashes can carry on the wind--all the way to the North Pole,

 

and making a beaded candy cane.

 

We got to enjoy the most amazing group of carolers! I was very tempted to just follow them all around the village.

 

It was very quiet and dark, with the windows being lit by candlelight. It was so peaceful and really helped us bask in the spirit of Christmas. The most special time of the night was when we visited the live nativity. The baby representing baby Jesus was only two weeks old! They were really out in the stable with the animals nearby.

 

This is our first visit at Christmastime, and we all agreed that it would be a new family tradition to visit every year. We absolutely loved it!

We stopped by the planetarium before heading out of Salt Lake because the kids hadn't stopped talking about some Airzooka guns (which just shoot a big poof of air) which they'd seen on sale there. They won't be a surprise gift, but a good one! Buddy just had to get a picture of himself in the Hoberman expanding sphere toy :)

 

We finished up the evening with some delicious nuggets.

 

On the 22nd we did our holiday baking and put together some plates for the neighbors. We have such a fun time with this! I love how the kids' Santa cookies turned out. I didn't even help with those beyond mixing the dough!

 

Our "melting snowman s'mores" were a bit of a fail, so they did not get dumped on shared with the neighbors.

 

Tony got more free clear wrap from Temkin, a producer of plastic bags and such that he delivers to at work. The kids loaded up the goodies in their wagon and made some special deliveries!

 

Earlier in the month, the kids decorated a gingerbread house,

 

and made these darling gingerbread trees at the sleepover with Tammy.

 

Here's some artwork the kids made: