Christmas came and went

 

Christmas came and went. We woke up to blue skies. I tried not to be jealous when Mother told me it was dumping snow in Utah. I'm glad they had a white Christmas, I bet it was magical.

 

Well. At least we had our Avengers to entertain us.

 

Two days later we went up to the snow. We were supposed to go with family, but they cancelled on us so it was just our little family.

 

We had a good time, just the six of us.

 

The boys got out all their angst by crushing this ice.

 

It does feel good to break things.

 

The snow wasn't very fresh, but we found that this suited us because all we needed was a little slope to sled down. We ended up using the road and it was perfect for our little riders. Lots of strangers joined us and we had fun meeting new people.

 

This is how me and the girls went down the hill every time.

Christmas Eve

 

God gave us families

To help us become what He wants us to be.

 

 

This is how He shows His love

For the family is of God.

 

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We hope yours was too.

That night we put out the presents and I remembered a Christmas Eve five years ago when we after we put out the presents, I went and had a baby.

 

As I laid my head on my pillow that night, I thought of my beautiful children and my kind husband and our comfortable home and this amazing Earth and Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, and I told my Heavenly Father how grateful I was for it all.

Christmas Eve Eve

 

On Christmas Eve Eve I took the kids out for a bike ride. We ventured off the paved trail to find some spears.

 

The kids raced ahead of me and I trailed behind them lugging Juliette and my stroll and taking pictures along the way.

 

Finally I abandoned the stroller and carried Juliette on my hip. She squirmed and dived for the ground, longing to sink her knees and bum into the moist earth and get herself soaked.

 

By the time I caught up to them, the boys had already found their spears.

 

We ventured further into the wood, stopping to marvel at the big oak branches and little pools of water along the way.

 

Moss grew spontaneously everywhere I looked, and gratitude filled my heart for a loving Heavenly Father who has been sending us rain.

 

That night I prepped the house for the Christmas Eve dinner that we would be hosting the next night. Since sparkling cider was on the menu, I was knew that we must fit everyone in one room so that the adults could monitor the children and clean up spills right away.

 

Sticky floors are  my worst enemy.

 

I think this is the first time I've ever really used my wedding china. Boy did we feel fancy.

 

Costco's Christmas bouquet's were so pretty this year. As I sat deliberating over which bouquet to bring home with me, a man walked up to the flower display and grabbed the first bouquet he could reach. As he walked away I called after him, "You are such a guy...you didn't even look at all of them!"

 

He turned and laughed at me and said, "Hey, they all look the same to me!"

 

I love chatting with strangers during the Christmas season.

 

Oh. And my Christmas tree fell over one day. Not cool.

Cozy Christmas

 

The women in my church came over for a craft night. We decided to make these reindeer  and temple silhouettes.

 

We also decided we needed hot chocolate and appetizers and desserts.

 

I hung some pretty ornaments over the island for the occasion.

 

This is my friend Emily's picture of Mary and baby Jesus. I should get one too, I decided, since I have my Charlie the Christmas baby. This picture reminds me of us.

 

I made my reindeer silhouette out of glitter paper.

 

On Christmas Sunday I grabbed a picture of the kiddos. They did a great job singing the Christmas songs.

 

After I took the group shot I started walking in the building and Charlie said, "No, Mom! You need to get a picture of just me and my brother!"

 

And then Edmond insisted I get a picture of just the girls.