Some Christmas Things

I always get behind in blogging during the holidays; too much fun stuff going on to sit and type for awhile.

Here are a bunch of random pictures from our month of December.

We decorated gingerbread cookies . . .

. . . and graham cracker houses . . .

 . . . and sugar cookies.  We typically go through a lot of sugar in December.

The grandparents flew out for Joshua's baptism, and to celebrate Christmas with us.  Unfortunately, the stomach bug hit my dad during the night of the 23rd, so we went to do our usual Christmas Eve activities without him.

In the morning, we went bowling with friends from our old church congregation.

And then went to play dodgeball with friends from our new church congregation.

And then Nathan decided it was time for him to be sick too and so he threw up all over me as I was trying to get him away from those around us.  Sorry to all our dodgeball playing friends who were exposed.

We went home and he fell asleep for several hours and then seemed just fine the rest of the day.  I started feeling nauseous though, and was stuck on the couch for about 5 hours.  We decided to postpone our usual ham christmas eve dinner and go with something simple, like pancakes and eggs.

We did the usual Christmas Eve pajamas and then the kids showered and put them on.

We also like to do sibling presents on Christmas Eve so that they aren't overshadowed by the other gifts on Christmas Day.

This year the kids really loved wrapping up presents for each other.  These presents appeared under the tree early in the month.  I had no idea what they were wrapping up.  Turns out some of them were pictures they had drawn, and some were toys they just didn't want anymore.  Nathan especially got lots of little plastic toys from his siblings.

He also got these pencils that look like drumsticks from his brother Joshua.  Very appropriate for a little boy who likes to bang on things.

Joshua also gave Jason this letter, which we thought was pretty cute.  It says "Daddy, please have a very meery Christmas."

Grandpa was feeling well enough to join us for a Christmas Eve music program.  The kids played some Christmas songs for us on the piano and violin and we did some singing together.  Christopher did some interpretive dance while Maren played the piano.

Then we read the Christmas story from the bible and sent the kids off to bed.  I was feeling well enough to help wrap presents.

Christmas morning came but Grandma was sick now too, but fortunately none of the kids were sick during the night and grandma would be the last to get the bug. The kids opened stockings and a box of sugar cereal. We ate breakfast and then started on the presents under the tree.

The favorite present of the day was Maren's new iPod.  She had asked for my old iPhone, and that morning at breakfast Jason had pulled her aside and told her that he didn't want her to be too disappointed so he was warning her that she wasn't getting my old phone.  She was thrilled when she opened the iPod.

The grandparents gave the kids coupons for tickets to Disneyland when we go out to visit them in the spring.  They were extremely excited about that.

That night we had our ham dinner with grandpa, but grandma still wasn't feeling well enough to join us.

Even though some of us got sick, we still had a nice visit with the grandparents.  When everyone was feeling better, the men worked on some projects around the house and the girls went shopping.

After my parents left, we drove to Jason's parents' house for Christmas part 2.  The boys all got superhero outfits made by grandma and some other fun presents as well.  We are very spoiled by family.

We had a great December and I can't believe it is over already!