Christmas

As usual, we had a wonderful Christmas. Our kids are at a wonderful age for enjoying all the magic of Christmas. They were so cute and so excited. We wrapped every possible little thing separately, so it looked like they had a lot of presents. Anna came up to wake us up and said, "Mom, there are a hundred presents down there. Come on!" There really weren't, but if she thought so, all the better. Sophie really got into the opening of gifts. She kept grabbing and opening whatever was closest--didn't matter whose it was. We had a great morning trying out all the new stuff, and then headed down to exchange gifts with the cousins and have dinner with the family at my parents. Great day!
T with the "not your average" remote control car that Santa brought Thys and Mel--can you guess who drives it the most??? It is waterproof, mudproof, and who knows what else, so it's been out for many a spin in the snow. We won't tell what "Santa" did to get this car.

Only Santa would be crazy enough to bring a girl an over-priced remote control dog. Her reasonable mother and father, on the other hand, gave her rollerblades with all the protective gear.
Soph loves her pillow pet--she mostly loves that she got the same thing that Thys and Anna got!
The aftermath.
Thys trying out the new Wii game.
Anna learning the ropes of LiteBrite in the privacy of her room where the little sis can't "help." Did you all have a LiteBrite back in the day, or was it just me? I was sooo excited when I realized they were still around!
Mel getting the new weather station all set up.
Soph with her new doll that zips, buttons, buckles, etc.

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve. Usually we go down to Orem to my parents, but we were the only ones who were not with the in-laws (however, we would have loved to be with Bupa and Mimi if possible). So instead, my parents came to our place. We decided to have prime rib since we had a small crowd, but the cooking time got messed up, and we waited quite a while for our meat. So, we read Christmas stories and decorated Santa's cookies. After our dinner was finally cooked, we ate and then went downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. We were worried it might be crazy, but it was really nice. It was a nice "warm" evening, as far as winter evenings go, and we parked easily right by the Trax stop at Gateway (we had to ride the train of course). As we walked down the Trax stop the trained pulled up, and we hopped on and rode to Temple Square. There were really not that many people at Temple Square, at least no more than any other night. It was perfect!Sophie and Grandmas working on a cookie. Don't think that this little girl is going to miss out on ANYTHING Thys and Anna do!


Anna decorating cookies.
Thys decorating cookies.
Cute little Sophie in her apron.
All of us at Temple Square

And More Holiday Fun

Anna is our tradition child. If we've done it once during the holidays, we have to do it every year. We varied the gingerbread house tradition by doing a train (for Mr. T). But as usual, we had a great time, and we ate more candy than we put on the train!


Anna sang with the 1st grade in the school Christmas singing program. It was cute!
And then they had a little ballet performance for Christmas. . .
Sophie. . . oh my. What a two-year-old she is becoming. Here is her latest invention of how to NOT eat in her high chair. This was all her own doing. Resourceful little pill. . . .
Becky's program was entertaining as usual. We do love Becky so much! She is so good to us and to the kids. We almost missed the whole show because something was wrong with T's eye, but Becky said the show could not go on without Thys because he was her best singer. So we snuck him in at the last minute and hoped that he didn't interact too much with the other kids. I think we were safe. No one, not even Anna or Sophie, got pinkeye or whatever it was. Thanks goodness!
MR. T the elf.
Anna the reindeer who is almost too cool for all of this (but deep down she loves it all).
Once again, Sophie wasn't really part of the official show, but she took Thys's reindeer hat since he opted for the elf hat. She was sitting with us, and when the kid started singing, up she went to stand with Anna and the other kids. She is a funny little girl.
I don't know why the kids look so somber when they are singing, but they were really happy and sang really well! It is all so cute!