December is always a busy time. Before the Christmas holidays, there are few more events that took place this year that I wanted to make sure got included in our blog. I played in a community performance of the Messiah. We had weekly rehearsals and I was the only horn player. It was fun to meet some new players and to get to play my horn. We had a few performances, but they were at our church, so no pictures could be taken. I grabbed one picture during the warm-up before our final performance.
We had our Ward Christmas Party in December and the Relief Society was in charge, so I was over the program. We did a Mexican Fiesta complete with tamales for dinner, a pinata, and talking about the Las Posadas tradition. It was fun for everyone. Here's a picture of the girls after their turns hitting the pinata. And the primary sang a few songs during the program, and they did a great job singing.
Our Ford Focus died in December. Tyler tried leaving for work one morning, and it just didn't ever start again. He found a new used car that week and so I took a picture of the girls with the Focus before they came and towed it away. I had a harder time with this than our last vehicle change, but the Focus had been with us since 2003 - longer than any of our kids! We brought three of our four kids home from the hospital in it. We've had it so long that I was convinced that the girls were going to learn how to drive in it and it would have been "their car." But alas, it wasn't meant to be, so I took one last picture to remember our Focus.
On December 15th, Tyler and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner after Tyler brought home these beautiful flowers for me. He also likes to get the traditional gifts that go with each year and for year 16 it's flatware, so he got me new, fancy silverware with a pretty box to hold it all. We ate at a new restaurant with yummy pastas and pizzas called Toscas, and it was delicious.
We spent one evening with the Kasallis family celebrating Christmas together. We exchanged gifts and had a dollar white elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun as kids picked presents excitedly only to open a silly dollar store gift. Some of the favorites was a selfie stick and a framed picture of AJ.
School went all the way to December 23rd this year. We left for Utah that night and drove half way to our usual hotel in Farmington, NM. We luckily got there early enough to swim in the hotel pool. That was until someone else got sick in the pool area, so we left very quickly and spent the rest of the evening watching a movie in the hotel room. I took a quick picture while we fueled up the next morning to post on Facebook, showing that we were half way to Grandma's house.
Once at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we waited for the rest of the family to get there and we ate food, visited, and played games. The first time I pulled out my camera was for the Nativity that night. We put the older girls in charge of the production and making sure every grandchild has a part and a costume. Taryn played the part of Mary this year. She was so cute! She even rode in on the donkey, who was played by Jacob.
Tessa and Julia were the angels, and Aubrey and Lucy were sheep. The story of the birth of Jesus was read while the kids acted out their parts. It was cute. Abby was one of the three wisemen. Here's a picture of everyone together. They did a great job!
The kids also unwrapped their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas. All of the girls were matching this year and they even matched the moms. They were super cute, super comfy pajamas.
Taryn and Lucy were inseparable again when we were together. You could always find them playing together. They were so cute! I took a selfie with them after they put on their matching pajama gowns.
Christmas morning, all the kids were up before Grandma and Grandpa. We made them wait so the adults could sleep a little longer, but we finally got everyone up so Santa's gifts could be opened first. While waiting for everyone to come down, I had a picture taken of me with the girls in our matching pajamas. I also grabbed another picture as everyone snuggled together to stay warm while trying to wake up.
Here are my girls in front of their Santa gifts and stockings. The bright flash from my camera was hard on their barely awake eyes.
Christmas Day was on Sunday this year, so after opening the stockings and Santa gifts, we got ready for church. They only had Sacrament meeting, so after going for Sacrament, we came back home. I made sure we got a family picture before letting the girls change back into their pajamas. I loved how we were all in stripes together.
Tim and Lora and family showed up Sunday afternoon. Here was my first picture of a majority of the grandkids together before we started opening the rest of our presents. I loved getting group pictures of as many grandkids together as I could. Everyone was hanging out after presents too and before our traditional talent show, so I took a picture then.
Aubrey's talent was playing the guitar with Uncle Tim. She strummed while he played and they both sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Tessa performed her Kids Excel dance for her talent. I videoed her performance but didn't take any pictures. Abby and I played a duet on our horns, O Come All Ye Faithful. Tyler recorded that too, but no pictures.
The older cousin girls also prepared a group number for the talent show. Abby and Halley took turns playing the horn and flute while the other girls sang the song, How Great Thou Art. It was really good for having decided, prepared and practiced the entire thing in less than 24 hours.
We love being with family and doing our family Christmas traditions. The kids love playing together and getting to spend so much time together. It's always sad when it's time to head home. It was a quick trip this time, but we loved every minute that we were able to be together.
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