Merry Christmas!

Christmas was really fun this year! The kids could hardly wait for Santa. Jade got the sand she asked Santa for and T got a priate sword! Their Uncle David and Aunt Tiffany and their cousins Grant and Turner got them lots of cool toys and some really stylin' clothes! T put his sweater on right away.
After we did our thing here, we went to Grandma & Pa Pa's to see all the Aunts and Uncles. Jefra made me an amazing set of picture albums of the kids. Some are in black and white. Christmas has alway been my favorite time of year, but this is the first year I have not been able to go to sleep. I even woke up first, but instead of getting the kids up right away I enjoyed the quiet. Then I got them up! Jade is going to be like me, she just grunted and rolled over!

Christmas Eve

We got together at Rick and Kristina's house this year for Christmas Eve. Their house was like stepping into a Southern Living magazine! (One day I'll have that- when I'm 70!) We had dinner and sang Christmas Carols. Uncle Rick's family always got to open one gift Christmas Eve, so they gave the kids a gift to open. It was a Hungry, Hungry Hippo game. Of course they had to play it right away. T was awesome and got almost every marble, but Jade was so dissappointed with losing, that he shared his with her. Jade had a good time dancing with everyone, while T just sat back in Pa Pa's lap and listened to stories. Jade took the picture of mom and me.

Jefra's Birthday

We celebrated Jefra's birthday at Mom and Dad's this year. The kids helped her open her presents, which was great practice for Christmas! PS- Jade took these last three pictures.

Meeting Santa!

This year's Ward Christmas Party was really fun. Jade wouldn't participate in the Primary play, she was supposed to be a sheep. But she enjoyed watching as did JT. It was so packed, we had to sit in the back even though we arrived fairly early. Everyone was asked to bring a dessert, and apparently EVERYONE did!!! Desserts lined both sides of the Cultural Hall! Jade was so excited to see all those sweets. After the play, everyone got dessert and bells sounded announcing Santa's arrival. To my amazement, both kids wanted to go see Santa. I knew T would, but I knew Jade wouldn't.

JT had a great time talking to Sants. He put his hand up with his pointer and pinky fingers up and said, "Hook 'em Horns!" They talked for a while, and T said he wanted cars, and Hi-yah!s and told Santa "spiderman". After their chat with Santa, we went home and I made calendars with a picture of a kid sitting on Santa's lap, a picture for Christmas Eve and a picture for Christmas Day. We talked about each of the pictures before they crossed off a day. I also made rings to help them count down the days. This really helped. The other papers in the picture are from Jade and T's primary class. Jade taped them up there. She likes to be the mom too!

Decorating for Christmas

Jade and T had a great time decorating the tree. We put the Caroling Bells on (a string of about 28 bells that wind around the tree and chime out varies Christmas Songs- these are my Gamies from when we were little) and I'm about to go insane, but the kids are having a ball with them. We've also been replacing lots of stolen candy canes. The kids also love the fishing elf ornament (also from Gamie). We used lots of ornaments that were left over from out tree forest we made the first Christmas we had in Tx. These ornaments are the huge outdoor kind. Our tree wouldn't have won any awards, but it was fun to decorate!