Family Time for Christmas! Part 5 (Christmas Day)

We LOVED having Christmas at home this year. The girls were at such great ages. They understand the true meaning of Christmas and why it's important to keep it a Christ-Centered holiday. The magic of Christmas is just pure when it's in your childhood home.  We really soaked it up this year.  Christmas morning was definitely magical and full of happy smiles and laughs. After opening gifts at home with just us and the girls, we went up to Nate's parents for more family time. The tradition is that we read the story of Christmas from the Bible, then we open presents from each other and Grandpa and Grandma.. Waffles and ice cream usually follow which is a fantastic tradition.

This year for the daughters and granddaughters, Valerie bought us all tickets to see The Nutcracker in 

Salt Lake City. We all rode the train, ate dinner at Olive Garden, then went to the amazing Ballet. All the girls absolutely loved it!

For the guys, Scott took them all to Tucanos, then to a movie.

I loved having the experiences as gifts. It was so fun to spend time together doing things we normally wouldn't.

Once all was said and done, everyone was pretty exhausted.. all for good reason.

Family Time for Christmas! Part 4 (Christmas Eve)

Every year, Valerie throws an amazing Christmas Eve Party for the family... and sometimes friends who join us.  Hailey has this special way with little kids. That is, kids smaller than herself. She takes them under her wing and they just love her so much.  She has a special gift that way. Same with animals.

After we all stuffed ourselves with yummy food and we played games, Nate got attacked by Monika and Rachelle got handed what she thought was a chocolate covered raisin, when indeed it was Benson's poop, it was then time to open pajamas!

Every year, it is so fun to see what pajamas everyone comes up with.

This year, our family's theme was Superman.

Once the pajamas were opened, we realized how incredibly late it was and we needed to get the girls home so Santa could stop by our house. The girls put out their cookies and milk, as well as a carrot and then off to bed they went.

Once they were in bed, Santa came and spoiled the heck out of them.

 

Family Time for Christmas! Part 3 (Family Pictures)

Nate's parents have a friend in their ward who is a photographer. He was kind enough to come take pictures of us all on Christmas Eve.  

Family Time for Christmas! Part 2

Goofing around with Cousins! Life doesn't get much better than having your cousins as your closest friends!