December 29th, Matt's cousin Trevor got married in the Salt Lake temple. The reception was held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Well, being December, this also afforded us the perfect opportunity to see the lights at Temple Square.

We arrived and met up with Matt's family and headed into the reception where we enjoyed chatting with extended family and eating Mexican food :) Then we wandered outside to see the lights. The fam had to leave earlier and I don't know how much of the lights they got to see or not because they took the train up. But after we said goodbye to Grandma, we wandered around until we had seen most everything and were rather cold :)


Then we headed back to City Creek where we were parked. We got to the fountain just in time for a show, so we watched that. It was pretty neat seeing fire and water together! After the fountain show, we ran into Braden and Michelle and headed down to the parking garage with them.


I'm so glad we got to go see the lights. And it was so good to share in Trevor and Cierra's big day. We wish the best for them in their new life together as a family :)

December 26th was the Covalt Christmas party. We reserved the condo clubhouse at got things set up for some dinner. Grandma bought pizza, so we ate some yummy pizza and cheese sticks for dinner while chatting with the family. 

Sharon brought a piñata, but the only kids were Henlie and McKade haha. Grandma Covalt took a couple swings at it as well. They finally got it open, and with a little help from Sharon.  


Darryl and Kris Ann brought a whole bunch of fun-taped PVC pipes. Turns out they make a fun group game!


Again, it was another successful party getting to spend time with family :)

It snowed for Christmas, so Henlie told Charlie to bring her snow clothes so we could go play. Unfortunately, we didn't get over to Grandma's with enough time to play before dinner and presents. Fortunately, they were spending the night, so we went over to play on the 26th. It was also convenient for it to snow again since Henlie had just gotten new snow pants.

The girls played and made snow angels. We hooked a sled up to Grandpa's four-wheeler and drove around sledding. Matt made me take McKade around, and we went for quite awhile until my thumb was frozen :) Grandma got out a couple of other sleds and the kids sledded down Grandma's drive. Mocha had a great time running all over the place. Andrew, well Andrew ended up taking a nap. haha


Then it was time to warm up and get some lunch before the Covalt Party that night :)

The day finally arrived, Christmas! Matt and I decided not to "do" Santa as gift-bringer, but this year, Henlie was all about the Fat Man and wanted to know if Santa was going to be coming to our house. Ah well. Thank you, rest of the world and Christmas shows haha. By 12:30am, everything was laid out and ready for the morning. (Truthfully, it was only so late because I stayed up late and was all.... oh yeah, guess I should do that :))

Henlie was up before 7am, although that's not necessarily unusual. I made her wait to go to the living room until Dad was up and I could get there first to video her entrance.

Dad started off with stockings. Our tradition has now become an orange (usually a clementine or mandarin) in the toe and a crap-load of candy. (Stocking stuffers are the bane of my Christmas existence.) This year's ornaments from us from Peru were little, so I also stuck those in the stockings. Andrew was kept fairly content being given (or taking) pieces of candy (still wrapped) and trying to eat them.



Then we moved on to presents. Presents don't take too long since we have vastly downsized Christmas. Having one year being fairly broke sure helped with that haha.

Henlie got two RSL shirts, two pots of Play-Doh (orange and pink), some new bath crayons, a Clifford sticker book, snow pants, and a brand new bed! Grandma and Grandpa Erdmann also gave both kids handmade teddy bears. We got Andrew and Henlie a set of alphabet magnets as well. Andrew also got a couple of new onesies.



Matt got a new RSL shirt. I got two RSL shirts (Henlie and I have one that matches :)) Matt also owes me a massage at our chiropractor's office. He was going to buy a gift card or pre-buy it, but he didn't get around to it. I still need to schedule it :)



After presents, it was time for breakfast! We had our traditional caramel cinnamon rolls along with some turkey bacon and scrambled eggs. The Biggs' side wasn't gathering until later, so we had some downtime. Daddy and Henlie put together her new bed.


Finally it was time to go to Grandma's. We had McKade this year. He's been doing percussion, so Matt got him some nice earplugs. We also got him an Amazon gift card so he can buy a kindle book or two. As we've been unpacking, we have accumulated a lot of bubble wrap. We brought some over for the others who were moving to use if they wanted, and McKade always would take some and pop it. So....since we got him such a little present anyway, we wrapped it in lots and lots of bubble wrap for funsies. 



I think the highlight gift for the kids was the Grandma's Playhouse. Grandma made all of the families with kids matching playhouses. (Parents got the bonus of a new folding table and chairs!) That and the fake snowballs were lots of fun for the girls to play with. We also called Jackie and Curtis in Korea on the computer. Christmas is the best :)



Eventually it was time to go home and head to bed. It sure was nice being able to sit up on a bed to read Henlie bedtime stories :) Cinco thought the new bed was rather nice, too :)