SLC

We went to SLC twice in December. Once to watch a Neil Diamond concert. Dad bought us tickets for Christmas. It was so much fun. It snowed the entire time we were down there. The kids loved it too. Their first babysitter was Bryn. She brought activities for them to do, she brought popcorn to pop. She played with them the entire time and the kids loved her. They were all up when we got home, all dressed in princess outfits.

The second time was to go to a Jazz/Maverick’s basketball game. Charley and Kara went down with us which means not enough seats. Jacquelyn stayed in Pocatello with Emma overnight. They had fun playing with each others Christmas presents, but she was still sad that she couldn’t go down with us to see Kyree. She kept asking us if Kyree asked “where is Jacquelyn”. She loved to be involved and doesn’t want to miss out on anything fun. This time they had two younger girls watching them. We took down a gingerbread house for them to put together, they watched Wall-E and the girls were still up and going strong when we came home. We had a good time with and thank Ryan and Darci for their hospitality. It’s always good to see family.

Christmas

We had Christmas with Grandma/pa Lewis on the ,before Grandma flew off to Texas for a few weeks. Ryan and Darci were up for the weekend so we all got together for an early Christmas. The kids kept asking after that if Christmas was over - nope just the beginning for them. They basically got three Christmases.

Christmas Eve was a great day. We have made it a tradition to spend Christmas Eve day with grandma/pa Christensen. We start with a big, late breakfast with sausage, grandma’s famous buttermilk pancakes, eggs, fresh juice with the juicer. Then we opened presents. The kids, of coarse, couldn’t wait for this part. With the new Wii games we all headed downstairs to play them. Later came the sausage dip and shrimp rings. We all felt bad for Kaylee because she didn’t feel good – the life of the party was in her bed trying to get better.

Christmas Eve Evening we spent quietly at home. We watched “the Greatest Gift” – the DVD put together for the ward party. We read Luke 2. We answered question after question. Devin wins the questions of the night award. He wanted to watch that DVD over and over. We read Christmas stories and then got a plate of chocolates ready for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The kids were very ready to go to bed and fell asleep right at 8:00.

Again, the kids slept in on Christmas morning. We thought that Jacquelyn might wake up a little earlier, but everyone woke up at 7:00. Jacquelyn and Haylee were even talking for a while before they came and got us. We told them the night before that they had to come and get us before they peeked in the living room. I had breakfast already made, but they begged us not to eat breakfast until after they saw if Santa had come. So, they peeked in the living room and were so excited to see their gifts from Santa and a stocking full of presents. They played with their Santa presents for a while and then decided to open the gifts in the stocking. It was amazing. They were in no rush to open more presents. They enjoyed each of them that they opened for a while before opening more. We didn’t finish opening presents until 10:00 and it wasn’t because they had a lot. We had a fire going and it was just so cozy and relaxing – a great room to be together in. After we finished with presents we played games and watched a movie until we had to leave to go to Great grandma/pa Christensen’s house for dinner. We spent a few hours there eating a nice dinner, playing the thimble game, talking, and eating berries and ice cream.

A video to come - too many pictures!

Santa Claus

We went to Grandma/pa Christensen’s house for FHE on the 22nd, ate dinner, and then to our surprise Santa Claus knocked on the front door. The kids were smiling great big, but a little shy. Haylee couldn’t stop laughing at one point. They didn’t know what to think. He sat them each on his lap and talked with them for a minute and then gave them a present – they each got a Christmas book and a treat. Afterward, Haylee said that he wasn’t the real Santa because he didn’t have gloves on and his hands were “rotten”. Who knows what was going on in her head. Jacquelyn asked over and over, “Do you think he really is the real Santa?” She wanted confirmation from us and whatever we said she would believe. Cody and Andee didn’t like him much. Cody was fine just watching him and talking on someone's cell phone. So much fun!

The next day the kids got letters from Santa in the mail. They were ecstatic. On the back of their envelope it said, “It was good to see you last night”. That was the icing on the cake that made them all believe they saw the real Santa at grandma/pa’s house. Jacquelyn carried her letter around for the entire week. They got a letter from Rudolph as well. She read her letter to everyone she saw. She picked it apart, read and re-read, found a spelling error, and laughed while she read certain parts. We read Devin and Haylee’s out loud and Devin said “cool” and went on playing with his trucks. Haylee was a little more excited than Devin and she was excited to tell a few people that she got a letter and she told daddy what she remembered hers to say.

Christmas Parties

We attended our annual Lewis FHE/Christmas Party at Cindy’s house. We had our traditional soup dinner and then we had an ornament exchange.

We attended our ward Christmas Party. They did a great job. It was Christmas in Zarahemla. They served a Mexican dinner – the decorations were amazing as always. They had a piñata for the kids (Devin and Haylee got trampled on and someone took all of Jacquelyn’s candy out of her hands. They were all crying while walking back to the table to get us. Don’t worry, Deloy hooked them up with an entire bucket full of candy.) They put together a Christmas video. It was so good. Our kids watched it with great intent. The activities committee do such a great job with the ward activities. We are blessed to have such great people in our ward.

Sleigh Ride

Our Christmas present this year from Mark and Cindy was to go on a Sleigh Ride and eat a prime rib dinner. We drove up past IF a little ways to this ranch. The ranch was set up like an old western city. There were Christmas lights everywhere. We went into one of the buildings while we were waiting for the sleigh’s to get ready. We sipped on cider and talked. They said that night was the first snow they’d seen so we were the first ones to actually use the sleighs instead of wagons with wheels. It was so fun going through their fields. They had different scenes we passed by. They had “Santa’s house” all lit up and decorated, they had a reindeer stable we passed by, Christmas in the city scene with lit up people ice skating. We crossed a bridge/river on the sleigh. It was so fun. Then we went to the big barn and ate dinner and watched a little show – two guys joking around, singing, and trying to be funny, but a little cheesy. Very good dinner, very enjoyable evening with the family. It is something we will have to do again. The kids enjoyed a sleepover with Grandma/pa Lewis.

More Pictures to come (when I can get ahold of Kaylee's camera)!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful day. We traveled to Utah this year. It was so nice to see some of Tanners family that we haven’t seen in a few years. We had our thanksgiving dinner at the church.

The food was great and plentiful. Uncle Paul gave a little speech and you could tell that there was a lot of thought put into it. He did a good job. He was talking about how we as a nation are so blessed, we can basically get whatever we want, etc that we have no right to be grumpy, but a lot of us are. What a good way to put it. There is no reason for us to be grumpy. We have so much to be thankful for.

A little bit of basketball was played before and after dinner. Cody loved playing with the many balls that were flying around. He would hold a ball and watch the guys shoot baskets. Then he would jump up and throw his ball – like he was trying to shoot it into the basket. It was so cute.

He also found the vegetable tray to be reachable. He stole half of the cherry tomatoes before dinner even started.

Devin just walked around watching everyone and when he saw something he might find enjoyable he jumped into it. The nursery was open and he had fun playing in there.

Jacquelyn hung out with the adults, she held the little babies, helped set the tables, and even watched Cody when he was getting fussy. Haylee was running laps around the church in circles, smiling the entire time, coming back to us each time telling us how many laps that was. She ran 22 laps, and was actually sweating a tiny bit when we sat down for dinner. Jacquelyn and Haylee made a new friend, cousin Rachel. They followed her around like a little puppy dog. She was so nice to them and made them feel like they were so special and included with the adult activities.

Suzy had the right/left game ready for us to play after dinner. Uncle Steve read the story of the Grinch and every time he said “Grinch” we passed a wrapped gift to the left and every time he said “who” or “whoville” we passed it to the right. The kids had a lot of fun with that one.

After the church we went to Suzy’s house and hung out. Some people took a nap, Grandpa read stories to the kids, some people watched TV, and the rest of us talked and munched on more food/ate dessert. It was a very enjoyable day, even the drive there and back.