Tucker Familly Christmas Party

 

We just enjoyed a great weekend! It started on Friday when we met up with Ross's mom and his brother, Don, for some really good barbecue. Boy, was it tasty! The occasion was that it had been five years since Ross's father passed away. Ross really enjoyed being with some family members on this day; and all three of them agreed that it was hard to believe that it had been five years already.

On Saturday morning we had tickets to see the BYU men's basketball team take on #6 ranked Baylor. I was a little worried about how we would keep Leah entertained through a whole basketball game, but as it turned out, I had no reason to worry. She LOVED it! When the crowd cheered, her arms started waving. When the music was playing, she was jumping up and down and dancing. She loved looking for the cougar. And she actually slept on my lap through most of the second half. Of course, it also helped to have plenty of crackers for her to munch on to keep her entertained too. BYU had a great game and actually was winning most of the game. It was so fun to watch. But they had a rough patch in the second half that they never fully recovered from and ended up with a very disappointing 86-83 loss

Right after the game, we headed north to enjoy another family Christmas party. This time we were with my extended Tucker family. Our family has gotten big enough that we've been having the party at a church. This is nice for space, but it is hard to keep little ones like these two contained. They especially enjoyed playing on these stairs. They went up them a countless number of times and would have played on them all night if we had let them!

After dinner, we dressed the younger kids up in costumes and let them act out the Nativity. Here are some of the cute little angels.

Mary, Joseph and the narrator.

And look at these handsome little wise men.

There were some shepherds too, but we didn't end up with a picture of them on our camera. Too bad! Here's another picture of Leah with her grandpa. When we told her we were going to see Grandpa, she probably said his name over and over again dozens of times. She loves him so much! She is definitely a Grandpa's Girl.

 

Leah opening her gift from Great Grandma Tucker and Walt. They gave her a cute fleece outfit.

After the gifts, we enjoyed some impromptu Christmas song singing. The Tucker family typically isn't known for our melodious singing. Luckily we had some music playing to help us out. But actually, looking back, the singing was one of my favorite parts of the evening. Looking around the room at the people I love and singing about our Savior's birth really helped me feel the Spirit and kind of choked me up a little.

Before we left I made sure I got a picture of my dad with his siblings. So here's my dad's generation (spouses included) along with my grandma and her new husband Walt.

Then the spouses (except Walt) stepped out and we got another picture. So it was just my grandma with her spouse and children.

Just before cleaning up, my grandma showed us a song that her and Walt recently performed with their senior center. Here's a picture of them singing and dancing - however, by the end they had run out of breath and were just dancing.

So a busy weekend, but a lot of fun. The only thing that would have made it better was if BYU had won that game, darn it!