I bought tickets months ago for Pullen Park's Holiday Express because we had such a great time there last year. This year the Schmutzes came along with us, and we had a really fun night riding the carousel and the train, visiting Santa, helping the kids make Christmas crafts, and seeing the fun lights. It just happened to be about 65 degrees outside that night too. So Christmasy. :)
I loved helping out with the kids' holiday festivities at school the week before Christmas. I was able to go read Christmas books to Liza's and Kimball's classes. Liza's teacher sent me this picture. I love all those little kids (some of them are all dressed up for Grinch Day!).
I was in charge of our Sunday Christmas program at church (since I'm the ward choir director) and even though I was super nervous about it all, the whole program went really well. There was a beautiful spirit there. As a little reward for my choir members, I wanted to host a Christmas sing-along. So I invited the choir and their families and anybody else in the ward who wanted to join us to come to my house last Sunday night. We sang Christmas songs from the hymn book and the children's primary book. We had cookies and talked and I think everyone had a good time. My house was sure messy when it was over, but I loved the night. I love the spirit that comes when we sing about the Savior.
And Christmas Eve and Christmas Day finally came and were especially happy this year. My kids are at such great ages. Grant was so diligent at turning over our Christmas countdown blocks every day leading up to Christmas. He could hardly wait for the kids to get out of school and for the big day to come. We had a nice dinner and party Christmas Eve at the Preece's house. We had an awesome talent show there. Kimball played "Silent Night" on the piano and performed a neat magic trick. Grant showed off his "Captain Grant" defensive skills as he used his home-made shields to block all the balls Mark threw at him. Eliza made up a gymnastics/dance routine to a Piano Guys song and looked so grown up out there performing it for everyone. As has become tradition, Mark and I performed the "Gentle Jesus" song. I love the talent show tradition on Christmas Eve. When we got home that night, my little family acted out the nativity. They were pretty hyper by then, but it was still the perfect way to finish off our night.
Christmas morning was super fun. Kimball and Eliza and Grant gave each other really fun presents this year. They were all so happy with their gifts from us and from Santa and from the their grandparents and cousins.
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| Harry Potter legos, a basketball hoop for his room, and new Duke gear made for a happy Kimball. |
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| Grant got new superhero toys, and yes, they did make an appearance or two in my nativity scenes. I love his imagination. :) |
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| New basketball shorts! Grant thinks it's so cool to be twinners with Kimball. |
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| Matching jammies for Liza and her baby Heidi. That was her special gift from our trip to the American Girl doll store in NYC this fall. |
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| Santa brought this girl an art easel and supplies, and she spent the entire day (seriously) at that easel. Her favorite things these days are making art and playing school, so this was a successful gift! :) |
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| I'm embarrassed to admit that I let the kids buy Mark this gun for Christmas. It's the gun from the Despicable Me movies that makes oh so lovely tooting sounds. You can only imagine how much fun they've all had with that thing. Sometimes I have to make it mysteriously disappear for my sanity, but it is really funny to hear the kids and Mark laugh and laugh about that thing. |
I loved Christmas. We stayed home for two solid days just relaxing and playing and watching Christmas movies. I even got to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" all the way through for the first time in years. :) We missed our families far away though. It was fun to facetime with them during some of their parties and talk to them. I hope it works out to go home to Utah for the holidays sometime soon. I miss our big family traditions. But I have enjoyed taking from these traditions and creating our own little family traditions over the years too. Happy times.
Mark and I celebrated our 12th anniversary yesterday (hooray!), and then we spent today at the Duke basketball game all together. The Preeces came, and the Burgons even drove up from Charlotte to join us for the game. Great game to be a Duke fan! Very fun day.
Thanks for looking through this awfully long post. We love and miss you all!
