Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve...This year we went to the Miller's for a fun family dinner and Christmas Eve festivities. And of course we were not disappointed. After dinner, we gathered in the front room so that Duane (aka Uncle Papa) could read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and the Nativity story from Luke Chapter 2. Leah loved the Grinch story so much, that she started reciting all the words she knew with him. Then the kids each got to open a gift. They all got the perfect Christmas Eve gift...new pajamas all around!! Leah loves the pajamas that Aunt Nana (Mary Ann) picked out for her.

When we got home from the Millers, we got Leah ready for bed and then read "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the account of Christ's birth in 3rd Nephi. When Leah finally fell asleep, Ross and I got to work wrapping presents and getting ready for a visit from Santa.

 

Leah thinks that Santa says "Yo! Ho! Ho!" (she watches a lot of "Jake and the Never Land Pirates") so that's what she wanted to write on her note to Santa. I thought that was funny.

 

Christmas Morning...I love that Leah sleeps in late, even on Christmas. So Ross and I got to sleep in and rest until at least 9:00 am. Even after she woke up, we had to remind Leah that it was Christmas and that there were presents downstairs waiting to be opened. But it didn't take long after that for her to catch the spirit of the day and get excited.

 

Leah loves her new "Cougar Y Bear." She says that he and Kermit are best friends. And now the three of them do everything together. She even insists that Kermit and Cougar Y Bear go to church with us.

Leah also loved the Mickey table Santa brought and the dishes she got from Grandma Leslie. I'd say Christmas morning was a success at the Leslie house.

Later Christmas Day...After a yummy Christmas breakfast, we got ready to go to my parents' house for a couple of days. It's hard to say if Leah was more excited for Santa coming or for being able to go to Grandpa's house after Santa came. (Pretty sure she was more excited about going to Grandpa's.) She was also excited to get to open more presents.

Before dinner, we watched the cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Leah loved the book so much, I thought she would enjoy the movie. Grandma Tucker and Walt stopped by for a visit and enjoyed dinner with us. Then my mom tried to convince my nephew, Cameron, to dance for us, but he wouldn't without a stage. So believe it or not, my mom let the kids use her table as a stage. They thought that was SO FUN! I hope we haven't started any bad habits.

Then we loaded up and drove over to Grandma and Grandpa Putnam's for a visit. I was so glad we got to go see them for Christmas. I love those two so much! I love Christmas time! There is so much excitement and so much time spent with family. But the day always goes by too fast. It will be fun to celebrate again next year when Leah understands the excitement even better. Plus we will have our little boy who will get to experience it for the first time. I love it!

December Activities

Now that Leah is getting bigger and can appreciate and enjoy the Christmas season even more, I tried to do more things with her this year to make it fun and special. One fun thing was going caroling with some of our Putnam family. We got in the car and drove from house to house. She didn't quite get what was going on, but was very excited for the yummy treats and hot chocolate that were waiting for us back at Grandma and Grandpa Putnam's house. Everyone had a great time and we all agreed that we should do it again next year. Here's a picture of Leah enjoying cookies with Kynee and Kaylynn.

Another fun thing was getting invited to a gingerbread cookie decorating party at our neighbor's house. Our wonderful neighbor, Bonnie, read the kids the story of the gingerbread man and then had big cookies for each of the kids to decorate. Leah LOVED this activity! The other kids lost interest and went to play with toys, but Leah just kept decorating. I think her cookie had more sprinkles and frosting than anyone else's.

One day, we got quite a bit of snow. So we got bundled up and went outside to play in it. She thought being out in the snow was pretty fun. But she kept putting her hands down in the snow. And needless to say it wasn't long before her hands were too cold and she was ready to go back inside.

She even wanted to try to do some shoveling. But the only place to shovel was the grass. And the snow was so heavy, she could hardly get the shovel to move. Of course, we had to end the adventure with some hot chocolate. The whole adventure (hot chocolate included) took less than a half hour, which was fine with me.

We even made sugar cookies one night. I let her help a little with putting ingredients in the mixer and cutting the cookies out. When we got to the end, I let her play with the extra dough and rolling pin. She thought that was great and had a grand time getting getting all dirty from the flour.

The Sunday before Christmas, Norma, Brian, William and Sierra came over for dinner. We had a delicious spread of Mexican food including, enchiladas, burritos, rice, beans, chips, salsa and guacamole. And for dessert, we frosted some sugar cookies.

Norma's family had our family for the sibling gift exchange this year. So they brought over our gifts to see us open them.

Leah was so excited to open the pomegranate that they got for us! She loved showing it off for the camera.

In addition to the pomegranate and a game our family wanted, they found a book all about the TV show MASH for Ross, and some yummy chocolate treats.

We did some other fun activities that I don't have pictures of, like going to a Utah Valley Handbell Choir concert and to the "Festival of Lights" in Spanish Fork.

Leah loved decorating our Christmas tree and showed it off for anyone who came to visit. She also loved counting down the days to Christmas with the advent calendar Grandma Putnam made for me. She was so excited every day to put a little ornament on the tree and talked about how excited she was that Santa was coming after all the ornaments were on the tree.

We watched Christmas movies and TV shows. Leah's favorite by far was "Mickey Saves Santa." I'm not sure I can count how many times she watched it.

We read Christmas stories together a lot. Leah's favorite was Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." She now has most of the story memorized. We also read stories about the birth of Jesus and talked a lot about how Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus's birthday. And every night Leah requested that we sing "Away in a Manger" as our bedtime song. She also wanted to sing "Jingle Bells" every chance she could, especially if she had a bell to ring while she sang it.

One thing we didn't get to do in December that I wish we would have was a visit to Temple Square to see the lights and to City Creek Center to see the candy displays. Ross got to go to Temple Square with the youth for mutual, but Leah and I missed out on that.

2012 Tucker Family Christmas Party

(Love this picture! These girls LOVE their aunt MoMo.)
Last weekend we had a couple Christmas parties. We started the day with a yummy breakfast party with our extended Tucker family. Just as we sat down to eat we got a surprise visit from two special guests.

The three little girls watched intently from a safe distance on their Grandpa's lap! The kids loved this visit with Santa. He did a magic trick, read them a story, and even gave them all balloon reindeer before having each of them sit on his lap to get a goodie bag. Here's a picture of my grandma Tucker enjoying Santa with her great-grandchildren.

Leah did surprisingly well with Santa (as long as Grandpa was nearby). She even talked into the microphone to answer his questions.

She smiled really big right after I took this picture (what terrible timing, huh?). I also snapped a few pictures of some of Leah's cousins talking to Santa.

 Leah was really excited to swing at the pinata!

My camera battery died at this point. So I didn't get any more pictures of the fun activities like the bean bag toss through the snowman (for which Leah had incredible aim...I didn't know she had such a good arm!), making homemade ornaments and the impromptu dance session at the end.

That evening we had a party at my parents' house with our immediate family. The party got off to a late start when my dad was called off on emergency bishopric business. When he got back, he shared with us President Thomas S. Monson's Christmas train book. He then talked about how important it is to give to others at Christmas time and the need to have faith in our lives. After my parents gave us their special annual Christmas letters, we opened our gifts for the family gift exchange. Then we had cake and ice cream for my birthday before leaving for home. It had been snowing most of the day and the drive home was not fun at all (especially with Leah complaining most of the way that she wanted to go back to Grandpa's). But the time we were able to spend with family was very special. I love this wonderful time of year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week we celebrated my birthday. It was a good day. Leah and I slept in even later than usual. We didn't have anything planned, but after we got up and got moving I decided we should do something fun for my birthday. So I took her over to the local mall for lunch in the food court and then let her ride some of the kiddie rides that I know she loves. I snapped this picture of us eating lunch. I love her big cheesy grin with a mouthful of food. What a cutie!

We sat and ate our lunch where we could watch the carousel. Leah could hardly sit still long enough to eat. She was so excited to go on the carousel. You can tell by the pictures that she was SO HAPPY to finally get to ride. Sheer delight!

 Then I let her ride a couple of the other kiddie rides. Here she is driving a train and a bus.

This is the cute message that my sweet husband left on the table for me. It made my day when I came downstairs and found it waiting for me!

 That evening Ross's mom came and watched Leah so Ross and I could enjoy a nice dinner out. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, The Olive Garden. There's not much better than a nice dinner full of yummy carbs! After that we went back to the house for presents and dessert. Leah was insistent on helping me open my present and cards.

And of course she helped me blow out my candles. These delicious chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel and topped with toffee bits and a caramel cream frosting were baked by my wonderful neighbor, Bonnie. Boy were they ever good!

Birthdays now seem a bit different than when I was a child. I used to get so excited for my birthday to come and to get a year older. Now the idea of getting a year older doesn't sound quite so exciting. But having so many people stop by, call, text, send cards, or leave messages on Facebook to wish me a happy birthday makes me feel special and makes getting older a little easier. Thanks to all my family and friends (especially my wonderful husband) for making 35 another great birthday!