I love Christmas and all the wonderful traditions, new and old, that come along with the season. We usually start by making Gingerbread houses with the Daines the weekend after Thanksgiving. This years gingerbread houses were some of the funnest yet. Jordyn and I teamed up to create a pretty traditional scene. She really got in to it this year and her creativity flowed. Kenlee and Jess teamed up to build the reindeer roof house. It was Kenlee's clever idea to make a reindeer on the roof of her house. She used snowman peeps as the ears and chocolate chips as the eyes. The nose was made out of a gumdrop and the mouth was red m & ms. It was adorable! Blake and Tytan and Jeff worked on a disturbed, redneck scene. They started out with broken and burned gingerbread pieces which meant all they could do to make it stand was use lots of frosting and mend the cracks. This lead to random structures and leaning towers of "tires." There may have also been a gingerbread man peep cut in half.....
This year we also tried something new, we did a craft day at Gammies. It was such a hit, I think we will do it for most holidays. This day included clay ornaments (they didn't work great but it was fun to play in the clay), delicious sugar cookies and Christmas light garlands. My dad also helped me repair and finish our stocking hanger. It has been 4 years in the making but I love how it turned out! It was wonderful!
Another tradition is for us to travel to Salt Lake to see the lights on temple square. It was the most beautiful night we had ever gone. The weather was absolutely perfect which aloud us to wonder for about an hour and a half and see far more lights and scenes then we had ever got to the previous years. The kids had a great time, this trip really put all of us in the true Christmas spirit. On a funny note, we went exactly a year ago the same day, December 9th, wonder if we could pull that off next year too.
The next tradition we checked off was the yearly trip to see A Christmas Carol preformed by The Four Season Theater company. This was their 5th Anniversary so they changed things up and it was my favorite show yet. It was so much closer to the book and really flowed through the story. I was worried that Jordyn, who has been scared easily lately, would struggle with the more accurate characters but she loved every moment. They of course looked forward to the wonderful treats at intermission too.
One of my favorite traditions is when we take the kids out and drive around Hyde Park and look at everyone's Christmas lights. We haven't had many opportunities to do our own lights on our home so we live through others lights. I believe the favorite this year was the house that had a single strand started on their roof and then it came down to a Grinch stealing it. They laugh and still talk about it when we pass the house. Tytan slept through most of the trip and then of course didn't feel like going to bed when we got home. We were supposed to wrap gifts so we had to talk really fast to get him to at least lay in his bed. Silly boy!
Christmas Adam was full of great chats, yummy pizza and lots of fun. This was one of the few years I didn't have sick kids to worry about. It was great! Everyone just ran around and were absolutely spoiled! I don't think many of us got any sleep but it is worth it to continue the tradition that my family has been doing for more years then I can remember. Christmas Eve morning we did facials and the girls got their nails painted and then Kenlee painted Tiffany and Gammie's nails and Jordyn painted mine. I was totally expecting us to get globs of paint everywhere but they were honestly meticulous, with a little more practice they will be pros. I took the kids home to nap after lunch in hopes that they would be happy for the evening.
Christmas Eve was our traditional evening with the Daines side. Unfortunately Blake had to close the store (which closed early at 6) and so I took the kids over for a nice dinner and then Blake met us there. The kids enjoyed playing and of course were spoiled with gifts. The kids opened their jammies and then left out Egg Nog and Oreos for Santa.
Christmas morning was wonderful. We had to wake the kids up around 8. They had been so tired they slept in. They still didn't give us the Christmas morning wow video but the excitement sunk in quickly. Jorydn could be seen running in circles yelling "wahoo" after she found her Cinderella and Jessie dolls that Santa brought her. Kenlee got the Jaguar Mickey blanket that she had asked for and also the palace pets she had wanted. Tytan got Captain America and Iron Man action figures. They are almost as big as him and he loves them! It is hilarious to watch him drag them around.
Around 2 we headed to Gammie and Poppy's house to open a few gifts and talk to Uncle Brady. This was the second to last call home for him till he gets home in July. It is crazy how fast this last year and a half has flown by. After our talk we had a great dinner with the family before several had to run off to other obligations. Kenlee got us all into a great game of Clue and then we headed home to get the emotional and exhausted children some rest.
We had such a great Christmas season and had the chance to see many wonderful family members and friends. I always love this time of year to focus on our Savior. I love my family and love all our traditions that mean so much to us all. I can't wait to make more memories!
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