Holidays 2011

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas at home here in North Carolina. It was strangely warm outside, but we still drank hot chocolate and snuggled in blankets and wore Christmas pjs just because that's what we're supposed to do at Christmastime. We read lots of Christmas books and acted out the nativity and had some great moments talking about the birth and life of our Savior. We had fun parties with friends and played games as a little family and missed our big families in Utah a lot. 

Kimball did an awesome job learning Christmas songs on the piano, and he loved to play them as duets with me and Mark. 

Liza asked Santa for a boy baby doll, and she has taken very good care of her new little guy. At first she named him Martin (I think because we had recently read "Shoemaker Martin") but then she changed his name to Sammy Duke Hansen. She's a funny girl. 

Grant boy was super cute with his new dump truck on Christmas morning. He took big loads of all his presents and trains and candy and delivered them all around the house. 

Liza picked out this amazing set of 24 glitter eye shadows and gave it to me for Christmas. As soon as I opened it she said, "And you can share it with me Mom!" 

Grant was awake in his bed Christmas night since he'd had a long nap earlier. Mark went and got him and let him come play with his toys for a minute. It was a fun moment for me to watch Mark and Grant roll the fire truck back and forth and talk about what a fun Christmas we'd had.

Kimball got Beyblades for Christmas, and he's had a lot of fun playing with them. He also got 2 new wii games, and I can hardly get him and Mark to go to bed at night because they don't want to turn off NBA Jam. It's nice having Kimball home from school and letting him just play and be a carefree kid. I love this time of year for lots of reasons--having my family home playing together is one of my favorites.

And now it's 2012, a fresh start. I'm really excited to go into this new year feeling healthy and hopeful and happy. The past year was a tough one for me in lots of ways, but I feel grateful for what we learned and for how it brought us closer together. Hooray for the New Year with all its new opportunities and adventures waiting.