Christmas 2014 in Utah

We finished off our year of 2014 with celebrating Christmas with family in Utah. We ended our family vacation with the drive up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We love getting together there because everyone comes and we are all together in Grandma's house and are able to visit, play games, eat food, relax, and let the kids play. 

The roads were nice and clear as we drove, no snow surprisingly, but it did snow Christmas morning so we had a white Christmas which the kids loved. My girls had to get out and play at least until they got too cold, which didn't take very long.

Aubrey enjoyed playing with my phone and spent one afternoon having a photo shoot of everything in Grandma's house with the help of her two assistants, Taryn and Lucy. I had to delete a lot of pictures that were so close up of whatever she was shooting, that you couldn't even tell what it was. Here were some of my favorites of her helpers.

Everyone got matching pajamas to open on Christmas Eve again this year and they all looked so cute in their stripes. Even the Moms had stripey pajamas. The Dads had shirts that said they were on the naughty list this year which was pretty funny.

Christmas morning is always fun with everyone together. Santa always comes through and gets everyone what they asked for. Here are my girls with their Santa gifts - tablets for Abby and Tessa, a LeapPad for Aubrey, and a cash register for Taryn.

We did the traditional pinata with each of the grandkids getting a turn to hit it starting from the youngest. Here are some shots of our girls taking their turns. We of course have to divide the candy out later to make sure everyone gets their fair share.

 

The grandkids also put on the nativity with the older kids in charge of putting it all together. Tyler seems to always get cast as the donkey. And here are two of my angels. I pretty much love Taryn's pose. We always have a lot of angels with all the girls we have.

We also had our annual talent show. Everyone does something and this year my girls were prepared in advance. They had been practicing their numbers weeks before we left on our trip. Taryn and I did a duet of Jingle bells. I sang the verses and she sang the chorus. It was cute, but since I was in it, no picture. Aubrey sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Tessa sang a song also. She sang All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth which was awesome because she had the missing teeth for it. Abby performed multiple times. She played Silent Night on the piano while singing it in Japanese. She also did a duet on the piano with Anna that they prepared a couple days before Christmas and she did a singing duet with Sara that I think they prepared the day of the talent show.

 

The exciting event of the weekend was going ice skating. My girls had never been before but were excited to try. They were definitely frustrated at first, but with the help of the little pushers and sometimes from Grandpa and Mom and Dad, they were getting the hang of it by the end and said it was fun. Tyler, who is not a skater, was also a little nervous about going but he picked it up quickly and was great at helping push the little ones around. Taryn thought it was awesome because she just hooked her feet under the pusher, held on by her arms and just took a ride-no work required for her!

 I thought it was a lot of fun except for the scabs we ended up with above our ankles from the boots rubbing against our legs. Abby, Tessa, and I had it the worst and getting it wet in the shower was like torture. I felt really bad because I gave Tessa a hard time who wouldn't shower because she said it hurt, but I didn't realize how painful it really was until the next morning when I took my own shower. I had to apologize to her because she was right - the water on it really hurt!

Since we spent quite a bit of time at the rink, the kids were getting creative and really finding ways to skate and have fun. They all said they'd go back and do it again, painful legs and all!

 We drove home after the Christmas break and spent the rest of the school break at home as a family. We did New Years on our own and had fun playing with our new toys from Christmas and playing games and eating appetizer foods all day and night until the New Year came. I also got a New Year's Eve present - a new phone after my old one decided to take a swim in our freezing cold pool. I was not happy about it, but luckily I was up for an upgrade so it didn't cost to much. I have learned to leave my phone inside the house when I clean the pool now. Lesson learned!

Abby made it to the new year again and Tessa was super close. She asked for some of the bubbly drink about 15 minutes to midnight so she could try it and then fell asleep missing the New Year by like 10 minutes. We had a great 2014 year and can't wait to see what the year 2015 will bring.