And a Happy New Year at the Farm!

The Thursday after Christmas we got to go to the farm in Idaho to have an "un-Christmas" gift exchange with the Kings and celebrate New Years.  For a while I thought we must not really be in Idaho because it was SO warm!  But Idaho did not disappoint...it got to the point where my nose hairs were frozen while walking from the van to the house.  We did some crafts, played with Uncles and Aunts, and the boys had the greatest time playing Mario with Grandma King!  It was fun to see the little cousins start to become great friends!  We sure have cute kiddos and neice and nephews!

It was a MAGICAL Christmas!

For the first time since we've been married, we decided to try sleeping at our own place on Christmas Eve.  It was great to start this on our first Christmas in our new house!  On Christmas Evening we went over to Abuelitos and Tia Ery's House and had dinner and a little bit of music social.  Then when we got home, it was time to get ready for Santa.  The boys helped set cookies out for Santa and told me what to write on the note. 

 It was a Christmas miracle and the boys stayed in their room not coming out even once after we said goodnight.  They did not want to mess around with the chance of getting no presents from Santa!  Christmas morning was just MAGICAL!  I just love the excitement that the boys have.  They would have been so content with their stockings and the things Santa brought them.  After a while, we had to remind them that there were still presents under the tree to open. 

 I love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday and we get to go to Sacrament Meeting on Christmas day.  As always it was great and a perfect way to remember the birth and life of Christ.  After church, Janet and Ray stopped by for a few and then we headed to Grammy's.  More fun was had with gift exchange, yummy dinner, and our new tradition, Christmas BINGO!  We wrapped up random things from our houses (lots of cheap of free things from couponing and other assorted items).  If you got BINGO you could unwrap a gift or steal one someone already unwrapped.  The best was when Steph opened the jar of "brand" peanut butter (she hates peanut butter!) Tyrel ended up stealing it from her.

The Joys at Christmas Time

December was full of many Christmas JOYS!

1.  Decorating the Tree--As always the boys had so much fun!  Logie had about a 6"x6" area where he put ALL of his ornaments :)

 2.  Candy Countdown!--Grandma King is so great and always makes us a countdown with candy for each day.  We also read a scripture to go with it.  This arrived in the mail on the day when the power was out all day...very timely!  This is pure Christmas JOY!

 3.  The Lights at Temple Square--I don't know how much joy really happened here!  It was too cold for the boys and I think it's something grown-ups enjoy a lot more than kids. But we did have JOY spending time with our good friends, Bobbi, Brendan, and Tristan!

 4.  Tyrel's Birthday--at our family party, he was surrounded my nephews and sons to help blow out the candles.  This year we actually went out on a date for his birthday and saw "The Forgotten Carols" with Janet and Ray...had a great time!

5.  Nativity Gingerbread Housese--the idea was right, try to focus a little on the true reason for JOY, but the planning provided little joy in the making!  Never again will we do this unless we are better organized!  We will build the structure beforehand and then sit down with the boys to decorate it/eat all the candy.  We ended up using a hot glue gun the covering it in frosting!

 6.  The Christmas Pageant--Silas was asked to be a wiseman in the Christmas pageant for our party at church.  This is Logan dragging all the extra "gold" around the house.  Silas was the CUTEST little wiseman, too bad the pictures are fuzzy!  This was a great reminder of the JOY the Savior brings as we watched the humble little children act out the story of his birth.

7.  A Visit with Santa--No scared kids this year :) They went right up to talk to Santa.

8.Sunday Best By the Tree--I LOVE my handsome boys!!!

 9.  The Mini-Van Express--saw this CUTE idea on pintrest.  We provided tickets for the boys to ride on the Mini-Van Express (like the Polar Express but not).  The van was decorated, had Christmas music playing, and popcorn for snacking.  They stopped at Aunt Styfe's work to do a kind deed and she gave them some hot cocoa.  We drove by the Nativity story display around the temple, saw some sweet light shows in the area, and stopped at Teebo's to watch a video from Santa, revealing if the boys were on the Naughty of Nice list...it was a hit and a fun memory...maybe a tradition?