The Erdmann side doesn't get together for Christmas anymore. (It causes Grandma too much stress, and we are a very large family now, so it's hard lining up places and schedules.) This meant we had to make a separate trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Erdmann to give them their Christmas gift. Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa Wilson live practically around the corner now, so we headed to Mapleton early to see the Erdmanns for a bit before heading to the Wilsons.

We actually arrived at the Wilson party a little late. Typically that side of the family is notorious for late starts, but it seems they started fairly close to on time. I was impressed. We walked in in time for some dinner and to grab a couple pass-along gifts before opening time came.


After dinner and pass-alongs, we had our program. Henlie sang Jingle Bells (with some help from Mom). Then it was Christmas carols before my reading of the Luke 2 story and Silent Night. This year, instead of Grandma's big scriptures and a flashlight, I remembered I had technology and pulled it up on my phone. Backlighting for the win! ;)

Then it is time for presents! Andrew skipped his turn since he was napping (we go youngest to oldest). I went a little bit mama bear on everyone because there was lots of noise and talking. The whole point of turn-taking is so everyone can watch and see what everyone else got... besides, less noise makes it more enjoyable anyway ;)


After presents, it was time to gather our things, change into our Christmas jammies, and head home to bed :)

Christmas Eve morning, we met up with Matt's family and Brian and Melody's family at the zoo to see the animals with their Christmas enrichments. We started the morning off in the parking lot enjoying doughnuts, bagels, milk, and chocolate milk before heading into the zoo.

The rest of this post will pretty much be pictures unless I recall something I really want to share. Because, really, the zoo it just looking at all of the animals ;)




I love going to the zoo! Next it was home for a few hours before we headed to Mapleton for a family party!

December 23rd, our advent calendar sent us to Sip-N for some hot cocoa (and fries lol) and then down to the Payson temple to see the nativity. We didn't get out til late (for us, like 6:45pm or so) and the weather was bitter cold. We parked at the temple and quickly made our way to the nativity, snapped a few pictures, and headed home. I hope next year we can go earlier in the day because the nativity was backlit and hard to take pictures of. Also, I could go for it being warmer, too :)

Here are a few of the pictures we took :)

After playing at the Museum of Natural Curiosity, we headed over to Brian and Melody's new house for the Hadfield Christmas party. We ate yummy dinner and had a wonderful lesson by Grandpa Hadfield. There was music and chit-chatting and general hanging out with family fun times. Matt met up with us there after work. Henlie was gone most of the evening playing with the kids downstairs in Munchkin Land (the basement is a glorified craw space. Perfect for little bodies. Great for storage. Not so great for grown people to stand up in haha. I asked Mel for a tour since we weren't around for the Halloween party they hosted. Their new house is so fun :)

Monday, Dec. 21st, Michelle graciously gave us a ride to meet up with Devan and Kayla, and Camile and the girls at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. We gave Jason and Camile a Thanksgiving Point membership last year for Christmas, and they can bring guests, who get 50% off admission. Way more economical that way ;) We were all heading to Lehi that night for the Hadfield Christmas party anyway, so why not make the most of our time and go play?

We hadn't been since before it officially opened, so we didn't get to see the water area. We ducked in there for a few minutes to see what there was. After playing with a topography map, we headed to Kidopolis. Can I just interject that having more adults than children makes it SO nice!

The kids had so much fun at all the different shops and things. We still had plenty of time before we needed to head to Brian and Melody's for the Hadfield Christmas party, so we started to head to the jungle. On our way out, I remembered we hadn't hit the music room yet! We played in there while Danica and Camile hung out in the itty-bitty kids' garden.


We hung out in the jungle for awhile. This is where multiple childless adults came in super handy. Devan and Michelle ended up taking Charlie and Henlie on the temple run/climb thing that goes up and above the jungle. The babies and the rest of us just hung out wandering around and weighing ourselves in comparison to various animals. :)


Then it was time to head over to Brian and Melody's for the party! Thanks to Michelle for driving us since Matt was working, and thanks to Camile for both suggesting the idea and getting us in for half off! It's always so much fun to hang out with family, and Henlie just loves her Charlie friend :)

On December 20th, McKade had his 13th birthday. We celebrated with peanut butter bars and presents.

And then there was the standard Sunday night hanging out :)



Happy birthday, Uncle 'Kade!