familylife: Christmas 08 recap

What whirlwind we've had the past 3 days! They were all wonderful, but BUSY. So here is a little recap of this year's Christmas. We hope it was a good one for all of you too!

Day 1: Christmas Eve

We spent the day cleaning (preparing for the huge mess Christmas Day always brings!) and getting ready to go to Grandma Julie & Papa John's house. Over there we enjoyed a great dinner with the Hunsaker clan, read the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures and of course exchanged gifts. We discussed some awesome new traditions to start next year and I hope we actually do them. Especially wearing the ugliest Christmas sweaters we can find!

But before all that we went sledding for a little bit in an empty lot with a hill in Grandma & Grandpa's neighborhood. Chloe didn't know what to think about being totally bundled up.

Here's what Chloe thought of reading the scriptures instead of opening presents...

The kids all got totally adorable jammies with a monkey theme. The photo is missing Gavin who would having nothing to do with the photo op. I'm surprised Chloe didn't join him in the protest!

Day 2: Christmas Day

We got up early, as usual, probably like 6:30am :(. Chloe usually wakes up then and I go in and get her to go back to sleep for about another hour or so, but of course that day G jumped right up the minute C made a sound. It wasn't long before Hayden heard stirrings and was up too.

This Christmas our kids got spoiled with a capital S. Man, Santa really came through for them! G got the Barbie Dream House and some Barbies, H got a cool new bike that looks like a dirt bike, an Imaginext firestation & engine and a domino set, and C got a princess scooter, her own REAL pink vacuum and a xylophone. Plus all the other stuff we got them. What a haul!

Chloe wasn't as into it as the other 2. I think she's too used to going back to sleep until 7:30, but she opened a few presents.

After breakfast we sang Happy Birthday to Jeremy (yes, poor guy was born on Christmas Day!) and gave him his presents. I'm not including a picture because he would kill me :).

Then it was off to Grandma Terry & Papa Phil's house. We were excited because this year Jimmy & Tiffany came up from Arizona, Mariah & Avalon (we missed Josh who had to work) were up from Nevada and Kevin is home from his mission. All my siblings home for Christmas for the first time in quite a few years!

The kids in their cute Christmas pjs from Grandma.

Avalon wondering if we can finally open presents

The kids got spoiled there too with totally cool Playmobile and HSM3 toys. After all the gifts and some snacking we decided to make the most of the white Christmas and go sledding. We rouned up some of grandma's floaty pool toys and headed to Carmichael Hill.

What a blast! There were quite a few people there, but it was sooooo fun! I went down with Chloe once who kind of cried most of the way down, but then was mad that we stopped. Then I took Avalon down. She and I tipped over on the lobster and we ened up sliding down on my side, but laughed all the way. Jimmy and Hayden also had some adventures trying to stay on the lobster. Here is Jeremy trying to help them get back on.

I wish I had more photos, but I was having too much fun and was trying to keep Chloe from falling down the hill most of the time. We went back to the house to warm up and enjoy a delicious meal!

Day 3: The 26th

So the next day we met my family at the mall for photos. Yes, I went to a mall studio for photos! But that's what you gotta do when this is the only the time the family is together (minus 1 member) and it's freezing outside.

Anyway, we enjoyed lunch together after the photo session and then went ice skating. That was a blast too. I'm more out of shape than I was in college (big surprise!) so I had to go slower than I used to, but I still loved it. Poor H had a tough time, but didn't get too upset. He quite after a little bit to hang out with TT and C at the video games. G was pretty much a natural and Avalon was good too, with Jimmy helping her much of the time. Grandma Terry and Kevin were pros and Mariah admitted she actually liked it after awhile. Jeremy did great for his first time and fell only once when he tried spinning around to tell me that there was a lady who had split open the back of her pants! LOL!

We ended the day with a birthday party for Jeremy over at his parents' house. I wish I had pictures of that to share, but I couldn't find my camera! It was a nice family time where we all hung out and then played the game Boxers or Briefs, a family favorite.

We are so grateful for all of our family and that we got to spend so much time with them this holiday season. The long days were worth it, for all the memories we made!