Christmas Gifts!

My favorite Christmas pictures are of our family opening gifts from each other.  The giver is always so happy to see the recipient open their gift.  I love how happy everyone is.

Esther gives Jonah popcorn for his present.

Hannah gave a poem to me about being the best mom.  I like homemade gifts from my kids more than anything.

Esther was so happy to give us her present she made at school and we love having a reminder of her little hand.

We had such a wonderful day.  We stayed in our pjs all day and played game after game.  It was a wonderful Christmas.

Finally Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning Orange Julius!  Before we can see what Santa brought we have to make and drink our orange julius.  The hardest part for the kids is waking up Scott who doesn't want to get out of bed!

Then we have a family prayer before lining up on the stairs.

Santa always leaves a note by the plate of cookies we left for him.  He always reminds our kids to be good and thanks them for being good kids.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

This year was an off party year, but Hannah managed to have 5 friends over and we took them out to eat.

Hannah loves green and purple.   She picked out a Princess and the Frog birthday cake.  You are never too old for princesses!

December Christmas Traditions

 I love the entire month of December!  We have so many traditions that help us focus on Christmas.  I love the spirit of the month.  My favorite tradition is baking all month preparing to take treats to our friends: poppy seed bread, butter cookies, sugar cookies, toffee and fudge.  Next year I need to remember to take pictures of all our treats when we go Christmas caroling.  Watching Hannah in the Nutcracker has been one of our December traditions.  Hannah was in the party scene, a rat, a Snowflake and a Russian dancer this year.  She has been in this production since she was 6.  Next year Esther gets to be a mouse!

We love watching the ballet and the music puts on in the Christmas spirit.

 

A tradition at our elementary school are the Christmas decorations.  We are blessed to live in an area where we can go to a public school that allows Christmas decorations!  These two pictures show some of the things in the hallways that are put up over Thanksgiving break.  We have a wonderful custodian who spends four long days decorating the entire school!  I didn't take a picture of the ceiling which is filled with stars hanging down throughout all the halls.  It is wonderful to have that Christmas spirit at school.

Another tradition: Baking and decorating sugar cookies with our friends.  Each year the kids invite a friend over to help.  We get creative and delicious cookies!

New church clothes for Christmas and a picture in front of our wonderful tree.  We pick out our tree the Monday after Thanksgiving but this year they were closed and we had to go on Tuesday.  The kids were upset that we couldn't stick exactly to our normal tradition. But it turned out fine and we decorated on Tuesday.

I need to take a picture of all our Nativities around our house.  Esther loved playing with all the different sets.  One day I found the Nativity in our entryway had 4 baby Jesus', 3 Marys, and countless Wise Men.  Everyday Esther would rearrange and play with the various Nativities.  It was great to see her recreate the story of the Savior's birth throughout the month.

 

 

On Christmas Eve day we make Gingerbread cookies to give to Santa.  This has been our tradition for years mainly because none of my kids really like Gingerbread cookies and will leave enough for Santa to eat!

Our Christmas Eve Nativity is another favorite tradition.  We act out the Nativity while Scott reads the Bible.  Then we sing Silent Night and the kids take turns playing their Christmas piano pieces.

 

Every night during December we read a story and scripture about Christmas and sing a Christmas hymn before family prayers at night.  Christmas Eve is then Luke 2 and Matthew 2.

After our Christmas Eve program the kids get ready for bed.  This is the only night of the year my kids are eager to go to bed!  They brushed their teeth in record time.  All 5 sleep in Noah's room downstairs.  They played games and talked.  Finally lights out at 10 but I could hear their voices throughout the night.  This is their big sleepover and they love it.

 

Flag Football!

Ezra as the quarterback, you can tell they don't hike very far apart in this league!

Ezra was running for a touchdown.  He really got into football this year and had fun.

Jonah loves, loves, loves football.  He makes up plays and  I get Detailed Play by Plays after every game.  Even if I watch the entire game, Jonah rehashes every down, every carry, every defensive move.  Jonah loves competing and is very intense.  He had a great coach who is a junior in high school.  He put in a ton of time and effort with Jonah's team.   They took first place.  It was a great season and beautiful warm weather.  Jonah also plays football at recess and is just as serious during that as his games.

Nobody expected Noah's team to be any good and they shocked everyone by winning their first four games and they took 2nd place.  Noah is ready to play tackle football next year.

Scott and Noah with the Demangones

Hot Air Balloon Weekend

View from our backyard Sunday morning. 

The first weekend in November is my favorite.  We watch the hot air balloons lift off every morning and on Saturday night the main street is closed to let some of the balloons light up.  This year on Friday morning after my kids went to school, I went walking with some friends along the rim trail.  Saturday morning my kids and I went along the trail to watch the balloons. Whenever I look out over the golf course or the lake and see the balloons, it reminds me of the beautiful place we live in.  We are so blessed to live in such a naturally beautiful area. There weren't as many balloons this year as the past few years.  They come so close we can talk to the pilots and they always say hi and are friendly.

Thanksgiving

 We had a great Thanksgiving with all our Larson cousins.  We ate at Little America.  Our kids love being with their cousins and run around like best friends.  We miss out being so far away.  We stayed with Cory and Sarah, who take such good care of us and we are so thankful they let us crowd up their house.