Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

I love Christmas time even though it seems like the hardest time emotionally for me!  I love spending time with family most of all! Every Christmas Eve we get together with my parents and siblings and read Christmas stories including the story of the Nativity told in Luke 2, my brother sings while my Sister in law Annalee plays the violin, and we open one present (pajamas).  It is the highlight of the Christmas season for me. This year my mom even had goodies for us and a nice warm bowl of chili!!  Yum!  

 My mom and my nieces, Sydnee and Karlee listening to a story.

 Mark singing and Annalee playing the violin

 Niece Karlee dancing and singing. She is SOOO CUTE!!

 My dad reading a wonderful Christmas poem that his Stake President wrote.

 All the kiddies in their pajamas by the Christmas tree.

 Mark, Annalee, Karlee, and Sydnee

 Roy, Stacie, Kelvin, Aaron, Jessica, & Samantha

 Me, Kent, Austin, Benjamin, & Cameron

For the last couple of years we have been able to sleep in a little bit before our kids finally woke up to see what Santa has brought.  We normally have to wake Cameron up and we have a hard time getting him to be interested in opening his presents.  This year was A LOT different.  Our little Cameron decided that he would get up at 4:00 in the morning.  He came and woke Kent and I up and told us that Santa had come and wanted to open his presents. We told him to go back to bed and we would get him up in a couple of hours.  Well at 4:45 (yep, 45 minutes later) he was back in our room wanting to open his presents. We decided to get the other boys up and have our Christmas morning (since we knew we would probably be woken up every half hour if we didn't). As soon as the boys were playing with their toys, Kent and I went back to bed and told them not to kill each other.  We got up a couple of hours later and went on with our day.

We have kind of made it a tradition to spend the morning with Kent's family having breakfast and enjoying being together and then we have Christmas dinner with my family. It was really nice this year. We had a nice breakfast at Kent's mom's house. His sisters came with their families and we had a lot of fun visiting with them. In the afternoon we left for my parents. We had a nice dinner and then did our annual, going around in a circle opening presents, tradition. I LOVE IT!!  It's so nice to see what everyone gets.

It was a very nice Christmas. I'm glad all the stress that comes with Christmas is over and I'm looking forward to a New Year.  Hoping that its A LOT better than 2010 was!

Christmas Morning - bright and early!

 Cameron trying to help hand out presents

 Cameron opening up his present from Santa

 He was so excited!

 Benjamin opening up his present from Santa

 Austin opening up his present from Santa (or at least a piece of it...Santa tricked him)

 Ben opening up his other present from Santa

 Austin figured out Santa's trick!

 Ben opening up a present at Grandma Green's

 Austin opening up his present from Grandma Green

 Cameron opening up his present from Grandma Green

 Kent and I watching the boys open up their gift from the McCullouch's (Kent's sister)

 Ben wearing his sheriff badge

 Cameron wearing his sheriff badge

 Austin

 Coleen opening up her gift from us with Zack in the background

 Rob and Brandon

 We went and saw Grandpa Green on Christmas Day too!

 Niece Karlee and her beautiful butterfly barbie

 Jessica and my mom

 My mom made each of the grandkids a pillow. They all LOVED them! This is Samantha holding hers.

 Even Kelvin LOVED his!

December - Part 1

December is such a busy month!  But it's an exciting time of year too.  Here are pictures I've taken so far this month of our activities.......

School Sing-in
The boys' new school does their sing-in a little different then their last school.  Instead of each class preparing a song or two to perform, the whole school sings different Christmas songs. It was a lot of fun. It kept Ben really entertained too.  Austin's class signed a few songs so I got a few pictures of that.   

Our Wards' Breakfast with Santa
Our ward had a fun Christmas breakfast this last Saturday and then Santa came. This was the first time the kids saw Santa this season......

Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta!!
I got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta concert.  Kent and I took Austin and Kent's mom, Carolyn.  It was a very fun evening.  We went out to eat and then took trax in to Salt Lake.  We were in the Tabernacle for the choir concert but it was still WONDERFUL!!  Austin's new favorite vocalist is now David Archuleta.  He truly sounded angelic!  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was wonderful too!! We can't wait for the cd to come out.  These are pictures of us waiting for the concert to start.

 Smith Family Christmas Party
One of my fondest memories growing up is our Sunday get togethers at Grandma & Grandpa Smith's house and then Christmas time get togethers with all my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. Now that Grandma and Grandpa have passed on, we have been having our annual Christmas party at Uncle Dave's and Aunt Sherry's. It's always a FUN time.  I thought this year was extra special.  It was nice seeing my Uncle Dave looking great after a difficult surgery and some health problems. There were a few family members missing but in general it was nice being all together.  Another special thing that happened at the party this year was Santa Claus.  I was very touched by this Santa!!  He sat all the kids down and explained the symbols of Christmas and explained to them that Christmas isn't all about Santa coming and presents, it's about Christ.  It was very touching....He was such a CUTE Santa too!!  I wondered how much the kids would really listen to Santa but I'm finding out that they really did listen. Cameron came up to me yesterday and told me we needed a STAR in our house. When I asked him why he said it was because it's a sign of Jesus' birth.  I have been trying all month to engrave in my kids' heads what Christmas is really all about.  THANK YOU SANTA for being the one to get it into their heads!!!  Here are some great pics of our wonderful evening.

Kelvin

 Cameron

 Jessica

 Aaron

 Sammy

 Austin

 Ben

 Karlee

 Annalee & Sydnee

 all the kids

 all the kids

 all the kids

 Cousin, Nate....he is on the naughty list!!

 My cousins, Jeremy & Jonathan

 My cousin, Julie and her family

 These are the wonderful hosts...Aunt Sherry and Uncle Dave.  Don't they look great?!?!

  
David's Grave & Dinner
Every year for the past 3 year we have made a night out with going to David's grave, driving by Christmas lights near Wheeler Farm, and going out to dinner. Here are some pics of us at dinner....

 Part 2 will be Christmas and the rest of December!!