Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007 was yet another insanely busy month. We had a great time though! We quickly recouperated from Jared's brief run in with vomit, and were able to enjoy our time with a lot of our family. We went up to Maren and Clarke's for Christmas Eve (that's Michael's sister, hubby and family), where we were also joined by Michael's other sister Julie, and brother David and their families. We had a nice dinner and a fun time making gingerbread houses and re-enacting the nativity story, but it was shortly lived, as we had a horrible storm that night! We were hoping to spend some time just hanging out, but as soon as the plows came through the neighborhood, Michael cut it short and said,"Let's go. We'd better follow the plow if we want to get down the mountain." His sister lives in a gorgeous North Salt Lake neighborhood overlooking the valley, and its really steep! So we made the trek home going about 30 mph on the freeway.

Of course when we got home we had to get our plate of cookies ready for Santa. Believe it or not, there is a cookie under what is guestimated to be around a one inch thick layer of frosting and sprinkles. Our tradition is to let our kids open two gifts on Christmas Eve which are always an ornament and pajamas. Each ornament is based on something that had to do with that year. Unfortunately, our Christmas letters aren't the only thing that's way behind this year....(actually, its now considered a New Year's Newsletter). Yes, we procrastinated the ornament. So, all we had were jammies. Superman for Jared, Batman for Gavin and warm fleece jammies for Scott that say "I like dirt." They're boys!!! Getting the kids to go to bed was a breeze and Santa came! The kids had a great morning. It was fun to watch their excitement. We still don't know why, but Santa always has a hole in his bag and leaves a trail of candy from the boys' room to the tree.......the boys are perplexed. We had a great morning together as a little family and totally enjoyed relaxing and hanging out with the boys. It was great! Later that evening we went over to my sister Kenna's house to have a big dinner with my other sisters Kristine and her kids, Kelly and her family, Mom, Dad, Gee and Kim. It was a good day and we are so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm glad my kids are able to understand why we celebrate Christmas - although Gavin is still sure Santa is still somehow involved in the nativity (at least Jared gets it). Merry Christmas everyone!