Christmas 2011

NOTE: Christmas is a big event, so this is a big post with lots of pictures!

I love that Ross works for a school district (with the exception of the pay, of course) because that means he gets lots of time off for Christmas break. Consequently, we get to do lots of fun stuff together! On one of his first days off, we went out to dinner and then went to see the Festival of Lights. The line of cars to get in was really long, but moved really quickly and was worth the wait. Once we got inside, I got Leah out and let her sit on my lap while we drove around so she could see the lights better. She liked the lights, but even more she liked playing with everything she could touch and climbing all over me in the front seat. Now I know why having a toddler strapped into a car seat is such a great idea (other than the obvious reason of safety). Here we are with some of the lights out the window.

Friday night we went to spend the night at Ross's mom's house. We enjoyed a fun pizza dinner together and even got a surprise visit from Stuart's family (Ross's brother) when they stopped by to carol for us and drop off a yummy treat. Leah loved being able to play with her Grandma Leslie and we all really enjoyed having that one-on-one time with her before the rest of the family came the next day!

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional dinner, Nativity and opening of presents with the Leslie family at Ross's mom's house. We had a fabulous dinner of various Mexican foods and some very yummy tres leches cake and Mexican hot chocolate for dessert.

Here are some of the actors patiently waiting for the Nativity to start.

The angel built him a cushy bed of pillows in the corner.

Here's Grandma with this year's "Baby Jesus" wrapped in her swaddling clothes.

Here's the innkeeper and his wife explaining to Joseph that he had no room in the inn, but that they could stay in his stable instead. I loved the solemn look that Isaac had on his face while his dad was talking to him. He was really in character! In case you can't tell, that's Mary riding on the donkey (a.k.a Ross)! Actually, Ross was happy to not have a speaking role.



Leah as "Baby Jesus" laying in the manger. She wasn't really keen doing it either.

Here are the shepherds.

The Angel and Narrator.

Tricia always does a great job of accompanying us on the guitar.

The shepherds coming to worship the Baby Jesus. Leah really didn't like all the attention and wanted to bail.

Here's the wise men who came bearing gifts.

Look at this wise guy!

After a fun evening with the Leslies, we came back home and got ready for Santa to make his visit. Here's some pictures I took after all the gifts had been put around the tree.

 

Christmas morning!!! We slept in until Leah woke up around 8:00 am and then went down to see our presents. Church was at 11:00 am, so we just opened a few things, had breakfast and then got ready for church.

After a wonderful, musical sacrament meeting we came back home and enjoyed a Christmas brunch while Leah took a nap. Then we finished opening up our gifts. Leah was pretty good at the gift opening thing. She liked to rip the paper off, but fortunately would only open gifts if we told her too. I probably could have put more gifts under the tree before Christmas and she would have left them alone, but I didn't want to risk it.

Helping Daddy open his gift.

Leah loved playing with her toys. She loved (and still does love) putting all these wooden pieces from their wood box to that shoebox on the right. Not really what they are meant to do. But it keeps her entertained for a long time!

A family picture after we opened all our gifts.

After opening all our gifts we drove up to my parents house to have Christmas dinner and exchange presents with my siblings' families. Here's Leah opening her gift from my parents with help from her aunt MoMo.

This year, my mom made pillowcases with their names on them for each of the grandchildren. They boys all had sports themed cases and all the girls got this cute ballerina print. They also gave them a nice poem about a year when Santa gave a special pillowcase as a Christmas gift. And each of the kids got some candy too. Leah loves candy and will ask several times a day for a "treat."

 

Some of the kids playing with the fishing game that we gave my niece and nephew.

My niece, Makynlee, got a toy four-wheeler for Christmas. There's a button on the handle that you push and the four-wheeler will move by itself. My sister showed Leah how to do it and she had a ball "driving" herself around. I posted a couple of short videos of her doing it.

I love the look on Leah's face at about 12 seconds into this second video. I don't know if you can see it in the video, but she turned around and looked at everybody with a jaw-dropping grin!

I also love the look on Makynlee's face when she realized that Leah was playing with her four-wheeler! So funny!

On Monday night we thought we had this great idea to go up to Temple Square and see the lights. It was a good idea, but thousands of other people also had the idea. It was really crowded, but I'm still really glad we went.

We had the two little girls bundled up and stuff in the stroller together. Overall, they both did pretty well. Maykynlee would mostly just get upset when her beannie would slip over her eyes and she wouldn't be able to see any more.

Here's me and my sisters waiting for the Nativity to start. By the way, my sister Melyssa made all the beannies that we are wearing!

Me and Ross.

The little girls loved seeing the temple all lit up. "Temple" is on of Leah's favorite words to say and she recognizes pictures of temples when she sees them.

It was so crowded downtown, that we couldn't find a place to park near Temple Square. So we drove a couple blocks down to park and then rode the Trax train in the free-zone and got off at Temple Square. Here's me and Leah waiting for the train to go back to the cars.

Here's Baby J with her daddy, Jason. I call her Baby J because she looked so much like her daddy when she was born (and still does). They had her bundled up with so many layers that my sister joked that she was like the little kid in the movie "A Christmas Story" that couldn't put his arms down.

Leah with her beloved Grandpa and Grandma.

After we got back from our adventure, we enjoyed some hot chocolate and yummy homemade sourdough scones with chili and cheese while we finished playing "The Logos Game." I was winning when we left, but I think I ended up in about last place!

On Tuesday we enjoyed a nice visit from my best friend, Lesley, along with her husband, Brian, and their two children Hannah and baby Seth (whom we met for the first time). Then we packed up all our junk and headed back to our house so I could help with the young men/young women mutual activity that night.

It's hard to imagine that all the Christmas festivities are over for another year. I love this time of year! Spending so much time with family and friends just about makes enduring the cold weather of winter worth it!