An Old Fashioned Christmas

From NovDecFavorites

Mom had a fun idea to have a party with her family at Heritage Park where my sister works during Christmas and during the summer. It is such a neat park and just gorgeous at Christmas time! It's like stepping back in time. The park is dedicated to the early Utah pioneers and has a whole little village reminiscent of the times when they first arrived. Our party was in a beautiful and quaint building - it was so Christmas-y. (o: We had fabulous food, but even better company. This was the first time I got to see some of my extended family on my mom's side. It was wonderful to catch up and reunite with aunts, uncles and cousins I will get to see more often now that we are here! I was having so much fun visiting, we didn't really get to go out and see the park, but that's okay with me.

From NovDecFavorites

From NovDecFavorites

Angela and my cousin's little boy, Izak are both in kindergarten. Cute second cousins. (is that right?)

From NovDecFavorites

We were privileged to get our very own personal performance by Christine and her fellow Heritage Park carolers. They were wonderful! It's amazing how such a small group can sound so good acapella. Very impressive and fun! (Christine is on the left.)

From NovDecFavorites

From NovDecFavorites

Angela got a big surprise when in the middle of "Up on the Housetop" the carolers got to the "Ho Ho HO - who wouldn't go?" part and then they kept asking, "Who wouldn't go? Was it you?" And Christine scooted right over to Angela, with the rest of the group right beside her and asked, "Was it you? Why wouldn't you go?"

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Angela just FROZE with all the attention drawn on her - it was hilarious! (o:

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My cute cous' Megan and uncle Mike. What a wonderful night and reunion!

Our Merry Little Christmas!!

Note: I am annoyed at all these big spaces and can't figure out the problem - it is driving me nuts! Sorry - this will require more scrolling...

From NovDecFavorites

The layout of our new house was a little tricky. Our tradition Christmas morning is that the girls come in our room and then we all go down to see what Santa left together. The girls had to walk past the room full of goodies to get to our bedroom this year, but they are so good - they blinded their eyes as they came downstairs and ran to our room still. They may have peeked a little, but they put on a good show of surprise when we walked into the family room together!

One funny thing Natalie wanted to do this year was try and "catch" Santa on our camcorder. We set it up before she went to bed and when we went back to look at it, we actually caught something! We heard Santa coming in the door with his big boots, and bells jingling. Then, that jolly old man is so smart - he must have seen the camcorder because right before we thought we'd see him in the camera, he must have turned it off! Maybe we'll catch him next year! Natalie also left several sweet notes for Santa. She is always so thoughtful.

From NovDecFavorites

Santa left a gymnastics mat! A big hit in our house that day and since.

From NovDecFavorites

Pillow Pets were all the rage this year. Natalie and Angela wanted one so bad it hurt. Sarah bought one with her birthday money a month before and her jealous sisters literally cried that they didn't get one too. They had to wait for what felt like forever, which made it so fun to see their reaction when they opened them up.

This was the first picture I took with my new present. I know - can you believe it? Another camera! Bill* knows I love camera stuff like some women like jewelry. I got a 5D and feel so fancy now!

From NovDecFavorites

All the girls got bean bags with their names embroidered on them from Santa. Sarah is sitting in hers above. She was very excited about her sewing book and kit that I put together for her with fabric and everything. (It was a pretty cute gift set if I do say so myself. (o: )

From NovDecFavorites

Angela and her long awaited Pillow Pet. She is also wearing her new Naartjie head band kind of kooky. (This is a new store my sister in law introduced me to that has the cutest kids clothes.)

From NovDecFavorites

Angela asked Santa for a moving bear. The only moving bear I'd seen is Teddy Ruxbin, which was big in the 80's. So I don't know where the idea came from. Well, what do you know? Santa knew right where to find a moving bear, thus granting this 5 year old's wish. What a guy.

From NovDecFavorites

We got a fun visit from Bill's* parents on Christmas. It was such a treat for the girls to share all their fun presents with grandma and grandpa. They even brought a little present for Twilight. So sweet. (o: Twilight LOVES Christmas. She runs around and hops in all the paper, ribbons and empty boxes like nobody's business.

From NovDecFavorites

After a wonderful morning, we got to head over to my parents' house for more fun! Christmas back home is the BEST! Mom made wonderful food, as usual! And the house looked so festive!

From NovDecFavorites

Grandma and grandpa and aunt Ann came too! Everything was perfect. Even our favorite Christmas show "A Christmas Story" was playing in the background!

From NovDecFavorites

I love this cute picture. Even though it's a little underexposed - it just captures one of the things I love about being back. My kids are getting to know my extended family that I love so much. It makes me happy.

From NovDecFavorites

The pretty snowflake lights hanging in the front yard at mom and dad's house.

From NovDecFavorites

This was one of my favorite presents I found this year. Isn't that the cutest monster doll ever? I found it at The Quilted Bear - where people sell homemade gifts. It looks like Sammy appreciates it too!

From NovDecFavorites

Cute Sarah in her new scarf and wearing her flower barrette from aunt Chrissy.

From NovDecFavorites

I was so excited when I found these little kits to do the Mentos/Diet Coke explosion. I had to get them for my brothers and knew they'd want to try them out right away. (o:

From NovDecFavorites

Funny how entertaining a little "explosion" can be! It was a big hit and since I have two brothers, we got to watch it twice!

From NovDecFavorites

We finished off the evening playing the game I bought for my sister - Quelf. It is pretty silly and we laughed our heads off. The older kids really liked playing it too. I love my family. What a perfect day.

Christmas Eve - Home For Christmas!

From NovDecFavorites

We were excited to experience our first Christmas back in Utah! We knew it would be much busier than we were used to, but we couldn't wait.

Kelly and Lisa were our amazing hosts for the Christmas Eve family get together. We got together earlier in the day and had lunch and an afternoon full of fun activities.

From NovDecFavorites

Could Angela make playing Bingo look any more fun? Woohoo! (o: The kids all had fun putting marshmallows on the cute Christmas pictures. Lisa was so sweet and even had wrapped prizes when they won! No wonder Angela was so excited. (o:

From NovDecFavorites

Lisa was very clever. The prizes that the kids got for Bingo were the next activity! The girls all got cute water bottles they could paint and stencil. This was a huge hit! Aunt Lisa is the best!

From NovDecFavorites

I just love this adorable picture of Anna. Kelly used her like a puppet to conduct the talent show. The kids (and adults) were laughing their heads off.

From NovDecFavorites

"Up on the Housetop" was Natalie's number. After getting sick and not getting to perform at my extended family party, she was thrilled to have an audience for her newly learned song. She got thunderous applause.

From NovDecFavorites

Kelton and Lisa played a really pretty duet. Most of the kids did some kind of cute little talent.

From NovDecFavorites

Grandma finished things off with a pretty primary song and her cute visual aid to help us remember the words. She is so clever. The kids pulled strings behind the board that lifted up pictures of parts of the nativity.

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Just hanging out! What could be better?

From NovDecFavorites

This was one of my favorite memories of the day. Kelly and Lisa put together this entertaining lip sync with the kids. They sang that Chipmunks Christmas song - "Christmas Christmas time is here . . ." We laughed until we cried. Then the cousins got turns trying it out.

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I think this one's of Kelton. (O:

From NovDecFavorites

And no party is complete without a little Guitar Hero. (O: Corbin was an amazing dancer. There was also a treasure hunt for the kids led by Travis*. Even with his funny rules about crawling, not running, not pushing or yelling - somehow there still ended up being an injury. (O: We had a very full and FUN afternoon.

In the evening, because it wasn't too late, we were able to do our fondue tradition and have time for the girls to open their traditional Christmas pajamas and . . .

From NovDecFavorites

From NovDecFavorites

The traditional Transformers from dad! (o: They had fun playing with these until bedtime.

This was one of the first years, I had almost all my wrapping done before Christmas Eve! It made for a nice, relaxing night as we waited for Santa to come!

Night on the Town!

From NovDecFavorites

What a wonderful new tradition we get to have being back in Utah!! We were so excited to show the girls Temple Square at Christmas.

From NovDecFavorites

We decided to get dinner first and it wasn't hard to decide where to eat. The Lion House Pantry! We had been here with my mom and Christine last March and loved it. It's a nice, casual atmosphere - the girls love that it is cafeteria style where you pick what you want. The only problem was that it seemed like everyone else in Utah had the same great idea to eat there. We waited in line for about an hour. Outside most of the time. Luckily, we were bundled up. And one of the Lion House staff came out with homemade butter mints to help ease our pain.

From NovDecFavorites

This was after about 40 minutes of waiting. Don't they look thrilled? Ang always smiles for pictures -what a sport!

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Ahhhh - it was worth the wait. We had a lovely dinner - such good food!

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Then we were off for the main event - temple square lights.

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The main nativity that has the story from Luke 2 play over load speakers has been completely updated since we were here last. It was really nice.

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We love to go see the Christus in the visitor's center. We also watched a short film about the nativity in the warm building.

From NovDecFavorites

This was the time of year Kent* and I got married - it was fun to reminisce and even walk right by and take a peek at the room we had our reception in - in the Joseph Smith Building. I still remember the amazing Christmas decorations, the huge tree in the entry and all the Christmas lights outside the windows. It was such a beautiful place for a reception. Good times. (o:

From NovDecFavorites

From NovDecFavorites

Natalie LOVED all the horse drawn carriages - we'll have to reserve one next year. She really wanted a picture "with" one.

From NovDecFavorites

From NovDecFavorites

This ally reminded Sarah of something from a Harry Potter scene! (o:

From NovDecFavorites

This was right outside of the room where our reception was held 14 years ago.