I guess I will start with Christmas Eve...Conwey's family has a tradition every Christmas Eve they have a big Mexican dinner...enchilada's are the favorite and Conwey's dad dresses up as Santa, he has all the kids come sit on his lap give a kiss, and get a present. It's such a cute tradition. My kids love it. We had it at our house this year...it's always pure chaos but lots of fun. Rach and Jimmy came too. We found out Conwey's sister Summer is going to have a baby and she is so sick she couldn't even make it. We missed you Summer! I always miss my family too. When I was growing up we would all sleep in the same room together on Christmas Eve in sleeping bags...it was so fun.
First let me say that I got a phone call the night before, that one of my close friends father had been out shoveling snow the night before and fallen. Had to go to the hospital for stitches, when he got there they gave him a cat scan to check everything out and realized he had a tumor pushing on his eye (which may have been the reason for the fall) they then rushed him in for emergency surgery and he passed away. He went in for stitches and didn't come home.
My heart aces for my girlfriend. Her father was such a HUGE part of her life. They lived right down the street from him, he was always around and helping with the kids, she talked to him every day. She was actually watching Jackson when we found out about my mom passing away.
I just cried and cried because I know the pain she is going through right now.
Especially a few days before Christmas! Now every Christmas that is what they will all think about.
I couldn't help but think of Conwey's sweet dad. He is such a rock in their family. I just felt so blessed to still have him. Actually to have everyone in their family. The whole day I couldn't stop thinking about it so right before we ate dinner I had to tell everyone what I had been feeling. (you don't understand....I NEVER talk like that in front of such a large group) but I just felt so strongly that I needed to share what I was feeling.
There was a special feeling in the air that night. We got a knock on the door and the missionaries (about 20 of them were outside caroling....Conwey's mom was in tears...)
Then this year instead of exchanging gifts with each other we decided to donate to a charity...so each of the kids stood and read about what that donation would mean to the people we gave it to. Surprisingly I think they actually got it.
Then on with the Santa....
No one is too old to give Santa kisses....
Or too young.....
This is Santa's first Great Grand-baby!
The glisten in the kids eyes when they see Santa is always so sweet to me....this is Conwey's cousin Skye and her two sweet girls.
There were lots of cousins running around....Nicolas and Sienna
Noah and Sienna....
Conwey and SiennaSo on to Christmas morning.....
I always make a monkey bread (thanks Steph Wallin for the yummy recipe ) I make it every year....
Sienna came first...running in.....
Then Jackson...and Coop
And finally Hunter...
We had a nice Christmas morning...we didn't go overboard on the gifts and everyone was super happy with everything they got.
Sienna got a lot of pink and a lot of Polly Pockets (her favorite)
She even loved her pink soccer ball from her dad......The boys got a ping pong table that goes over the pool table from Santa and have been playing it ever since....
So then we had our white elephant gift exchange with Conwey's family...it was fun although I thought a few fights were gonna break out over the rules of the trading game...who knew there would be such good white elephant gifts!!!
Can you say TIRED!!!!
Can you say CUTE!!!! (both Paige and baby Valentine)
Can you say Cousins.....typical cousins....
Handsome....
Proud new parents...Madie and Drew
Sisters Madie and KirbyThen we were off to the Movies...we haven't ever gone to a movie before on Christmas day. It was a lot of fun (except for the rude lady sitting in front of us that I almost got into a fist fight with because she was so rude to my mother-in-law)
On the way in Sienna and Noah were holding hands...it was cute.
And pretty much held hands the whole rest of the way....
So on the way home we asked the kids what they thought about it this year...donating to a charity and doing white elephant, going to the movie, etc...they all said you know we liked it a lot. We are glad to give to the charity, and it was fun going to the movie, and we really didn't miss getting the presents we usually do from grandma and everyone....Phew! We accomplished what we wanted to and I think ALL the mom's that do all the shopping agree (and the dad's who pay for it) I think we may be on to something!
And we actually did it! This year we made it out to see the Temple lights! It was really really crowded but we walked around and it was a great night to talk with the kids about the true meaning of Christmas.
