{Christmas 2012}

We had a wonderfully quiet Christmas this year.  It was low key, with nowhere to scurry off to.  Ryan's Mom & Greg made it back from Williamsburg (which was awesome) to spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day with us.  The kids loved having family here to share the holiday with.  We even got a treat.  A light dusting of snow, when we weren't expecting any snow at all.

Christmas Eve we played a rousing game of Apples to Apples.  We decorated sugar cookies to leave out for Santa.  We opened up our pajamas and took some pretty embarrassing pictures under the tree (I am protecting the offending parties by not posting those particular ones).  We read from the scriptures the story of the birth of the Savior.  The kids had fun using our puppets to help tell the story.  The kids ended the night by writing their thank you letters to Santa.  Then finally it was off to bed.

Our eldest child had a hard time sleeping this year.  I think he was up three times between 3am and 6:45am. At 6:45 he finally went downstairs with his sisters and then waited for the rest of us to make it out of bed.  The girls got American Girl dolls.  They were REALLY happy!!  Can't you tell by Lauryn's hair!!  Wyatt got a little iPod shuffle so he can leave Mom's alone.  That kid loves music and listens to it each night while going to bed.  Ayden got laser tag sets (which I didn't get a picture of for some reason) and Legos.  He is pretty easy to please.

By 7:45 all the gifts were opened and we were wading through a sea of wrapping paper and ribbons.  The kids were playing blissfully with their presents and Ryan, I, Margaret and Greg were able to open our gifts in peace.  Then we enjoyed breakfast and sadly had to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa.  We really enjoyed spending time with them.

We feel immensely blessed and fortunate this year.  We are happy and healthy and have far more than what we need.  Merry Christmas!!
 

{Temple Lights}

 We love visiting the temple at Christmas time.  It helps us remember that the real reason for the season is our Savior, Jesus Christ.  This year the kids, especially Ayden and Meysa, were excited to see the lights.  Ayden and Meysa helped put up lights this fall in preparation for the Holiday season.  The picture below is the tree that they helped wrap in lights.

The little guys were excited to find trees that they could blend into.  It's like "Where's Waldo?  The color edition".  Nerds!!  We came home when our toes were frozen and had some hot chocolate to warm up.  We hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!

{Gingerbread town}

Grandma & Grandpa stopped by our house on their way to visit Williamsburg for Christmas, and we roped them into helping us build our Gingerbread town.  It is better to make a town than one house because then everyone gets to have their own home and the fighting stays to a minimum.  I should have timed how long the homes lasted before they were stripped of the decorations and the chinking started to fall apart.  It would have been under 24 hours.  Wyatt was the biggest offender when it came to looting, the little booger.  I guess the memories are what are suppose to last a while, not the houses.  We are excited that Christmas is just around the corner and that we get to spend it with family this year.

{Paul Cardall}

 We love Christmas time.  I know shocker!!  We love the things that we only get to do at Christmas time.  Living where we do, we get to do things and see things that are pretty cool.  Last year the two older kids went to a concert at the Washington D.C. Temple visitor's center.  It was Jenny Oaks Baker, a fantastic violinist.  The kids loved it, so did I.  This year when the schedule came out for this season's concerts we found another one that we really wanted to go to.  It was Paul Cardall.  I love piano/instrumental music and Meysa is taking piano lessons, so I thought it would be the perfect thing.

We got to the visitor's center early and checked out the new renovations that they have been working on.  When we saw that people were getting in line we hopped  in as well and hoped to get a good seat.  We actually got seats in the 2nd row just off center.  The kids and I were excited to be so close.

After a few songs, Mr. Cardall commented on how many kids were in the audience.  Assuming that most of the kids were taking piano lessons he said he wanted to have a couple of them help him write a song on the spot.  The auditorium lights came up a little and he picked Meysa and Lauryn out of the audience.  As the girls were walking up he asked if either one played the piano.  Meysa said yes, she did.  Lauryn said no but she was going to start soon.  Mr. Cardall then asked Meysa if she had a song she would like to play....she said sure.  So she sat down in front of a full auditorium and played her Christmas recital piece, "Deck the Halls", perfectly and without hesitation!!  When she was done, the place erupted in applause.  Mr. Cardall said that what she did took guts, and that she did an amazing job.  The girls then got to the task of picking out a few notes for him to put together a song on the spot.  Of course the song he came up with was amazing.

When it was all over and Paul was bowing he had Meysa and Lauryn stand up again for another round of applause.  Meysa had people stopping her as we were leaving, telling her what a great job she did.  We stayed after just a bit in order to get a good picture with Paul for the record books.  It was a great night and one we won't soon forget.  I think Meysa has decided to stick with piano!!

 

{Holy Batman, Robin}

Random post.  As I was fixing Lauryn's hair this morning in the bathroom, she excitedly proclaimed..."It's Batman".  Confused I looked around the bathroom expecting to find one of the boy's Batman toys.  What I was not expecting was to find Batman embedded in Lauryn's smile!!  It was a fun and interesting way to start our day!!