Christmas

This early morning face shows some of the excitement that we felt over here this season. This Christmas was the first one in a while where I felt completely prepared in advance. Maybe it's because I (together with Santa of course) did all (well 90%) of our shopping online this year. I mean are you kidding me? Online? I still can't even believe that is possible. Well believe it Kristi because that is exactly what you did. And it worked like a charm. Amazon prime. Delivered right to our front door step. You can have a baby, soak him in, enjoy the family, and get your Christmas shopping done all in the comfort of your own home! Anyway, here are some of the things we did on Christmas Eve. And Day. And a little afterward too!

McKay wrote a letter to Santa to put with the cookies.
It's so cute how he asked if Rudolf was real. He is sure Santa is but maybe not the reindeer!

We also acted out the Nativity. We were a little short on shepherds and angels so we were lucky the neighbors were willing to come over and fill in. We have the best neighbors! Their 3 darling girls jumped right in and played the parts beautifully. Our kids did a great job too. They were a little distracted but it worked just fine! Although I must say that our baby Jesus couldn't have been more angelic! Holding him in my arms this Christmas has added another dimension to celebrating our Savior's birth this year. What a tender mercy!

Soon after, the kids got into the pjs my parents sent them and we had a sibling gift exchange. I think I was nursing the baby and didn't take pictures. But it was fun to watch the kids give each other gifts. We had them pick them out at the dollar store because McKay and Lyla paid for theirs with money they've earned. Cubby got a toy snake, Lyla a bouncy ball with glitter and a fish inside and McKay one of those hit-the-ball-that's-attached-by-a-string-with-the-paddle things. Dollar store or not they loved those gifts.

I didn't notice until now that Lyla snuck one of Santa's cookies. Smart girl! But why do these pictures look so grainy?
Bennett's first Christmas!
Noah and I peeked in on the kids before we let Santa bring the gifts.


The next morning Santa left their stockings in their rooms to buy time for the parents to sleep a little longer. He has done that for a few years now but it doesn't seem to help yet. We even put a clock in the room and told McKay not to come out until the clock said 7:00. But 6:10 rolled around and we had kids in our room asking for us to open stuff from their stockings. To be honest though we didn't mind. We were actually awake spying on them trying to hear what they were talking about. Santa also put a sheet up in front of the stairs so that they had to wait for us to go down and open presents. Our plan was for them to wake us up by singing carols by the stairs (a tradition Noah had growing up) but they aren't quite ready for that either. But to their credit Lyla had them singing Taylor Swift's "Romeo Tay" as Lyla calls it.


Was I nursing again here too because we don't have many pictures of opening presents either!?


Couldn't resist!


Then we had the traditional eggs Benedict for breakfast but cut out the asparagus in exchange for strawberry banana candy canes I saw on Pintrest! Mmmm!

After breakfast and clean up we headed to church with our bags packed in the car. We drove for 11 hours to the snow right after church. The kids changed into their pjs in the bathrooms at the church (at 1pm) and we were off! On the way we google + ed with Noah's family. Another amazing thing that I can't believe is possible. We were driving in the car while not only talking with but watching through video with all 9 of Noah's siblings and his parents. Some were in NY, some Arizona, some Utah, California...and the sound and video was so clear. WOW! I wish I had pictures of that. I'm sure someone got some. Did you guys? Anyone?

When we got to Noah's parents place they were actually in NY with Talmadge and Anita who just had their first baby but we got to hang out with Charity! She was in town and is a party to be with!

So we used our time to see a lot of great people. We started with this group plus the Millers but they had already left.
I couldn't leave out a picture with Brandon in Aja's snow suit.

Did some sledding in the record low snowfall. This is Park City and they barley had enough!
Then we spent a couple of nights at East High School for an alumni tournament. Noah's year won the whole thing! Nice trophy and all! Awesome team.
McKay got so into it. He was sitting on the bench with all the players during the game asking questions and cheering them on.


We also got to see some other friends from Noah's high school. Great, great people!

And we got to do some temple work with Noah's mission president's family and the Millers. Incredible experience.
We had lunch after and had Baby Bennett meet half of his namesake. This is the Bennett family. Exceptional people.
And last but certainly not least we got to hang out with Saren and her great family. More with them coming up! But I'm getting too tired to keep going tonight. Good night!