Christmas Cheery Stuff

WARNING: LOTS of pictures ahead. :) I probably should have broken this up into three different posts, but let's face it, what are the chances of me actually remembering to post THREE times?? :) Hence, the long post.

We had a fantastic Christmas, and here are a few of our highlights:

Holland loved acting out the nativity story with just the four of us, because then she got to be like three different people.

On the Friday before Christmas we had the Jensen Family Christmas party, and it was lots of fun. Here's all the grandkids doing Grandma's pass along game to a poem/story she wrote. Very cute.

The kids are showing off their cool new hats Aunt Maria made them:

Then after the party, we swung by Holland's birth family's house and had a very nice visit with them. I love this picture of David (birth grandpa David, not my David) reading the kids 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. It actually made me teary, it was very sweet.

Holland and Zoe (Kearsten's little sister, so technically Hol's "aunt!"). She LOVES Zoe!!

Holland and Kearsten striking Holland's pose. Its gotten to the point now where I have to beg Holland to do other poses when I take her picture. :) But its still cute.

I loved visiting with them. We sure love Hol's birth family, and are so grateful for them.

On Saturday night, we had our annual Christmas Eve party with my family, and this year it was at Darcy's house. It was so fun, we had a yummy dinner and a program and played games. Darce tweaked how we do the nativity story a little--we used the grown-ups instead of the kids and did it while singing a song--I loved it. Very short, sweet, and a lot less chaotic. :)

I love this picture of Darcy and Ryder--they were playing while Mark was reading from the scriptures--oops. :)

Darcy had all of the grandkids sing a couple of songs, which was so cute. And Holland sang Silent Night by herself, then we had a couple of piano duets.

Getting ready to play our white elephant gift game (I love the flying Ryder):

Hol and Syd:

Holland, very happy with her gift from the game--a snuggie:

After the party, we tracked Santa on Norad about a bazillion more times, and when he was getting closer to Utah (Ok, it was really like Kentucky, but we told the kids that was really close), the kiddos went to bed.

They didn't wake up until 7:30 on Christmas morning, which I am grateful for. I'm sure the days of 5am Christmas mornings are coming. :)

I made smoothies while the kids played with stuff from their stockings, then we got down to present opening!

Ryder broke out some chocolate from his stocking really fast, but since it was Christmas, we let him. :)

Ryder with his new Woody doll:

Hol got a walking puppy, which I think is a bit freaky. :)

Ryder finally got some boy dress-ups! No more princess dresses for him!

I love Holland's face while opening her American Girl Doll.

My boys putting together some car tracks:

Another dress up? Sure, why not, you can't have too many, right? :)

Taking her new scooter out for a spin:

Santa gave the kids some sling shot animals in their stockings that make noise when you sling them, and they LOVE them:

Since we do our big family stuff the days leading up to Christmas, we just kind of hang out by ourselves on Christmas day, playing with all of our new toys. We got back in our pj's after church to more fully enjoy the day. he he. We had a great day--I think I played Operation like 12 times, so what can be better than that? :) Then I made a turkey dinner which we ate by candlelight--so so fun. It was a wonderful Christmas, and I'm still a little sad its over. But at least we have New Years to look forward to....:)