Christmas 2007

I realize Christmas is already three months behind us, but I just realized that I hadn't finished writing about our Christmas festivities (or several things since then). And since there is currently snow on the ground, I thought it would be the perfect day to finish up before next Christmas comes and I forget about this one!

We spent Christmas Eve with my Aunt Bernice (Bonnie to us) and her family. When I walked in her house, memories from my childhood flooded back in, and I felt right at home. She has a way of making people feel at home. I cried (happy tears) seeing her pull the rolls out of the oven. (I guess this was the night before.) It reminded me so much of my grandma. Grandma's hostess abilities definitely passed down to her daughters. I hope at least a smidgen of those abilities will one day be mine.

Her family's Christmas Eve dinner tradition is sloppy joes and root beer floats. Love it! After dinner Gail and her family came and we dressed up for the Nativity. (Amazing costumes made by Gail.)

Luke, Olivia, Sean, Nathan, Warren

Megan, Olivia, Warren, Emily, David, Sean, Luke, Mary, Nathan

After the Nativity it was time for the chimes. This was so fun!

Play that funky music, White Boy!

Next was the opening of PJs!






And here's (blurry) proof that we spent real life, non-blogging time with these fine folk. I felt like I had stepped out of my computer and into their lives. They are just as fun as you would imagine, and it left me wanting to live closer to them.

We left Aunt Bonnie's and headed back to Grandpa's house to leave cookies for Santa. We had to be creative about where to leave the stockings. Grandpa's furntiture was a little displaced because of the new flooring that was being put in. We laid them in a circular pattern on the floor.
The next morning brought:

Breakfast (prepared by Darin)

Presents: this year was a pretty "skinny" Christmas (as my dad calls it) as far as gifts go, but we decided that memories at Disneyland and with family would be the way to spend this Christmas. They were still pretty happy!

OLIVIA

SEAN

WARREN

DAVID (I think I got him on the "ch" part of "Cheese")

MOM AND SEAN

After we cleaned up, we headed for the BEACH!!! It was so great to smell the beach, walk on the sand, and soak up a few rays. I've never experienced this on Christmas day, and it was wonderful! The kids started out by getting their feet wet, then they pulled up their pant legs, and before long the oldest three were drenched!

David was not a fan of the sand. Every time we tried to get him to walk on the beach he did this:

GRANDPA

SET, HIKE!

This last picture is of our little family on the day we left California. It was such a great trip! I still can't believe that I'm the mom. I still feel like a kid. The ride home was less than ideal. We hit the worst traffic EVER and went 30 miles an hour or less for the first three hours. I was about to go crazy. My kids, on the other hand, were champs. We made it to a hotel in St. George a little after midnight and took our time the next morning swimming and eating breakfast before we finished our journey. Even after a wonderful trip, there's no place like home! I felt myself getting giddy as we neared our exit. When we pulled into our garage there was a Welcome Home sign on our door from Lily and Julie. We felt so loved and grateful to be back home.