The Gifts of Christmas

We celebrated Christmas a bit differently this year.  Tia had a very important appointment in Maricopa Christmas morning, so we decided to open all our gifts Christmas Eve so she could be with us.  We had so much fun and decided that our family enjoys the festivities much more at night, than early in the morning!  We got comfy in our pj's and played Yahtzee together (the game Tia got from our gift exhange game earlier in the evening).  The kids had a hard time focusing on the game due to the anticipation of opening gifts, but we were able to hold them off until 11:30pm. 

This is what Curt surprised me with!  All my babies pictures!

I can't stop looking at them...

Can you guess who is who?

I think this might be my favorite picture of all time...

each of my kids holding their own baby picture.  It brings tears to my eyes to think that they are all growing up so fast!

The girls with their new purses, the boys in their new jackets, loving the new electric motorbike.

I will spare you the many, many crazy pictures that were posed on this thing during the early morning hours!

We all went to bed way too late, slept in the next morning and had a delicious brunch with timely visits from Grandma Charlene and Grandpa and Grandma Clark.

We all agreed that this was an awesome Christmas in every way.  We are so blessed to have what we have, know what we know, and to have each other.  By unanimous vote, we will be celebrating this way again next year.  It just seems to work with teenagers and plus, we look a whole lot better in the pictures!

P.S.  We are happy to report that the work of spreading the gospel in Florence, Italy is going well and that the missionaries serving there are happy and healthy and working hard. This was by far Tia's best and most anticipated Christmas gift...maybe of all time!

Christmas Eve

E.T. & Kristin hosted our Christmas Eve festivities this year.

The night began with a delicious traditional dinner of ham, augratin potatoes, and the works. E.T. was asked to be in charge of the program and he took his job very seriously!  He had the whole program outlined and involved each of the children with a part...piano playing, scripture reading, or a part in the nativity.  It was a wonderful evening!

Grandpa and Grandma conducted the program and shared some heartfelt experiences and testimonies.

David shared a Christmas story .

Clark played "Silent Night" flawlessly.

When I first told him of his assignment, there was a minor protest, but he buckled down and worked on the song for several days.  I think I got more practicing out of him in those few days, than the whole school semester and it totally paid off. 

The adult choir sang "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains"

(all 4 verses, I might add!)

This guy did a great job belting it out!

Clark took his part of Herod very seriously!

Good thing this donkey took a couple of motrin before the evening began.  Although his load was light, it wasn't easy on an already hurting back!  Max and Courtney played their parts of Joseph and Mary perfectly!

I think the baby Jesus was only dropped 5 times, lending some leavity to the production!

Our narrators...Anna and Robin

We were sad that Cash wasn't feeling well.

The full cast of characters

We then had a rousing gift exchange game.

It is now two years in a row of NO tears if you don't get the gift you want!

(We knew Cash was really sick when he "stole" the Barbie Christmas DVD from Courtney and Clark looked especially cute in his new headband!)

We love our family so much and are so grateful for the opportunity we had to spend this special night with them reflecting and testifying of the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas!

We miss all our family and friends who live away!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!