and attended the Savior of the World show at the Conference Center Theater at Temple Square, and had New Years Eve party at Darren's (hot tub, pool table, food, fireworks, and games).
Oh! And I saw the Ghostbusters car in Utah. 
Yep, 2009 definitely was a great year!
The Christus was the kids' favorite thing. Back in the days when Ross and I were engaged (and he was living in Provo and I was living in Layton) sometimes we'd meet for dates on the weekends at Temple Square. We'd meet in "heaven" (aka the Christus).
This is the Lebanon tree with lots of red lights.
Those are snowflakes, not white balls :)
The Erickson Christmas Party was held at a church in Provo. They served lunch (pizza and salad), had a Christmas trivia sheet to complete, and it was nice to visit with all my cousins and aunts and uncles. We left a little early to get to another party. (Thanks to Amy and my parents for taking care of Allen and Abby.)
That evening we went to Ross's aunt's Christmas party in South Ogden. We went to the Tobins for a brunch earlier that week and we saw on their calendar "Jon Schmidt concert". We pointed that out and said, "we wanted to see his concert in Salt Lake but we never got tickets." Then they invited us to this concert. They said that he was performing in their house. WHAT?? He's performing in your house? Yep! Shanna booked a private concert in her home, invited her kids, their spouses and her siblings and spouses for their annual Christmas party.
IT WAS AWESOME!! There were 27 people present. I sat 20 feet away from Jon Schmidt and watched in amazement at his ability. He played "Rudolph" with his back on the piano bench, his head under the keys, with his arms crossed and his leg swinging to the beat. He played another song with his big toe and his arm under that leg. He played some with swinging hips, or playing with his elbow or forearm. He turned on a orchestral cd and played along to some songs. He even created an improvization of Come, Come Ye Saints on the spot. He took requests and answered questions. It was so cool to ask him any question and hear him talk about how he didn't intend to become a musician, to hear how he wrote music, or how he'd been doing what he did for 20 years. He played "Waterfall" a request for me (Ross was nice to ask for me) and I got a kick out of his jazzy "Dumb Song". After the concert we had dinner (soup and breadsticks) and dessert (brownies and peppermint ice cream). It was fun to visit with Ross's aunts, uncles and cousins.
There is something cool about seeing a musician perform in a small, informal setting. I didn't have my camera (I left it in Provo at the other party), but the Tobins filmed him and said they would make everyone a DVD of it.
Allen is wearing his new Buzz Lightyear pajamas. Abby is wearing her new "sweet dreams" cupcake pajamas.
I stayed in my new pajamas ALL day. And we played games ALL day. It was awesome!!
That afternoon we had the Schmidt Family (13 adults, 11 kids) Christmas party at the church. We had a game of soccer, session of sword fighting (the kids had light-up swords from Dollar Tree and the adults were given long wrapper paper tubes), had a nice ham dinner, Christmas sing-along, Nativity program, talent show, cleaning time and then the present opening (most of us got pajamas). I took oodles of pictures as you can see:
Abby fell asleep right before we did the Nativity. We made her an angel anyway. Ross was a shepherd here but later he became a wiseman.
My dad is always the narrator. Amy is a smiley angel.
Following the talent show we cleaned up the party and then opened up new pajamas. The grandkids had fun playing in the dark gym (using their light-up swords and wearing their new pajamas) while the adults took loads out to the cars.
I spent most of this day quilting. A temple quilt is traditionally is made when someone gets married. My mom copies the pattern on the fabric and then we all sit together stitch all the lines by hand. At the end it looks awesome especially with the couple's name underneath the Salt Lake Temple.
I spent many hours on that quilt and the goal was to get it finished and off the boards before Christmas so we could use the family room for the holiday. In the photo we've rolled the quilt far enough that we just needed to finish the middle part.
While I was busy quilting Ross took the kids out in the snow to play. It was cute to see the kids all bundled up and see Abby waddle along. Allen liked kicking the snow and Abby now claims that green sled as her own.
That night we went to Ogden's Christmas Village and waited in line at Santa's castle. It was a COLD night! When it was finally our turn Abby rushed right up to Santa to get on his lap. She didn't say anything to him but "yeah" and she loved to listen to his soft voice as he told her to be good, pick up her toys and listen to her parents. 
This one has been displayed the last 5 years. It's in a diner and one of the snowman ordered the "melt-away chili" and has melted off the chair.
When we got home from the Ogden Lights I quilted until 4:30am with my mom. We finished the quilt and watched a stack of movies that night to keep us awake. The next day I had SORE fingers!
After the temple we went to Celeste's Kindergarten Christmas program (it's hard to remember what it was like teaching Kindergarten 5 years ago, but I'm glad I did it), came home and ate Papa Murphy's and watched the BYU game. Near the end of the game when it was 30-7 for BYU, Ross and I went downstairs and played two games of pool. I should have won the last game but I was hasty with my last shot.
It had snowed all that afternoon so the roads were wet in some places and snow-packed/icy in other spots. We drove home with caution and sleepy eyes. It was a fun-filled day.
T'was the Night Before Christmas: Santa Claus visited our house in Virginia on Dec 16th. (He'll visit again while we are in Utah.)
I Own It!!: I've been trying to get a Little People Nativity Set for 3 years now. I haven't been able to find it in the stores, I can't find it off-season (in March, when no one else is thinking about it)... and rainchecks don't work. I finally bucked up, bought one online because it had free shipping. We opened this gift on Christmas Eve.
Tucker Family Christmas Party in Perry: We were only able to stay for about 45 minutes but it was fun to see some of Ross's aunts, uncles, and cousins... and make marshmallow snowmen.
Bridal Shower & Storm: We had food (chicken taco salad and Rice Krispe Treats/Magic Cookie Bars), 
a few games (dream house, wedding dress, hot cinnamon game and count the jelly beans), and worked on a quilt. 
While we were having the shower the men were all at the groom's storm enjoying BBQ from Famous Dave's and giving Caleb advice.
Here's Annette (the bride) and Heidi (my cousin)
Morning Brunch: We went to the Tobins for a yummy brunch and got to visit with Ross's aunt, uncle and cousins in South Ogden.
