December Fun

Christmas Celebrations: Christmas is always a fun time of year as we celebrate Christ's birth. We started off the month with our Stake "Night in Bethlehem" activity which was fun and helped to bring the spirit of Christ into the month. Our ward Christmas party, "Christmas Around the World" was the following weekend. We enjoyed dinner and a fun evening learning about Christmas celebrations around the world. And of course decorating the tree is always a favorite December activity...Other December Festivities: One of Tyson's friends in our ward was in a Children's Theatre production of "The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever". Several families in our ward joined together to attend a Saturday matinee performance. The play was great and the kids enjoyed sitting with their friends.

School was in session until December 23 this year which helped those final few days before Christmas go by in peace! I volunteered at Alyssa's holiday craft day which was fun and Emily had her DARE (Drugs and Alcohol Resistance Education) graduation...Christmas Eve: On December 24 we had our good friends, Scott and Jenny Archibald, and their family over (Jenny is my running buddy that I ran the marathon with). We enjoyed a yummy dinner (our tradition is salmon) along with lots of yummy desserts. We read and performed the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew with our all-star cast...
Tyson "wowed" us with some magic tricks......and we sang Christmas carols accompanied by Alyssa on the piano or Blake on the guitar (sorry the photographer failed to take pictures of this event).

Then the traditional opening of one present (pajamas) on Christmas Eve. Every year it surprises me how excited the kids are to open the present since they already know that it's pajamas. I do try to find some pajamas that they will enjoy, but it still amazes me! This year Tyson accidentally got the "wrong" present and ended up with a cool "hoodie" and shirts on Christmas Eve. He had to wait until Christmas to get his new pjs!Christmas Day: On Christmas morning we get up no earlier than 7:00 (not early enough for some kids and too early for Kaylee) and read the book "A Night Without Darkness" together before heading downstairs to the tree.The gift highlights were: Kaylee - ski boots, Twilight shirts, Zune accessories (her mp3 player). Oops wrong order...Twilight shirts definitely were the #1 hit!Tyson - snowboard, boots, and bindings, a cool watchEmily - a cool mp3 playerAlyssa - a gymnastics balance beamEmily and Alyssa also enjoy their roll-up balance beam from Grandma and Grandpa. It lays right on the ground and is easy to transport!Blake & Cheryl - weren't supposed to get much due to our extravagant Thanksgiving vacation, but I ended up with a new running GPS since mine was having troubles recharging (thanks, Santa, for not sticking to our "arrangement"), Blake was happy with several books that were on his "wish list" and a book about MesoAmerica which was an interesting read after visiting the Mayan ruins in Mexico. Oh, yea, and a nice warm BYU fleece blanket!We enjoyed playing Cranium Family Edition (at least 7 times) on Christmas day...thanks Bryce and Staci...we love this game!!After-Christmas Fun: Blake & I waited until after Christmas to spend our Christmas cash from Mom and Dad and some cash from my employer. We hit the New Years sales and scored a bargain on an Entertainment Center cabinet to clean up the mess of cords around our TV - I should have taken a "before" picture so you could see the transformation! On December 29 we headed to Duluth where we spent a few days skiing at Spirit Mountain with a group from our old ward. Tyson really enjoyed having his own snowboarding equipment and not having to rent this year. It was fun to watch the kids improve on their skiing and boarding this year! I tried to avoid renting equipment this year and had decided to use my old equipment from high school since the boots fit just fine. We took one trip up the tow rope with Alyssa before heading to the lifts to make sure she was doing OK. Then Blake and Alyssa were going to take another run on the tow rope hill while I ran into the lodge real quick to get something. As I was walking to the lodge I thought my boot was making a funny sound as I walked on the pavement. At first I kept walking but then eventually looked down to see that my boot had fallen apart! I'm glad we took the run on the bunny hill first and that it didn't fall apart while I was skiing down a bigger hill (not that any of the hills are that big in Minnesota compared to Utah skiing, but still it would have been an interesting fall and an interesting trip down the rest of the hill!)
Kaylee's favorite part of the trip was playing with the babies...
We had a great time skiing and boarding and hanging out at the hotel. It's a nice little get-a-way! We headed back home on December 31 to get Kaylee home in time to work.

New Year's Eve: Kaylee got off work at 7:30 and then prepped herself for the New Year's Eve youth dance. Blake and I drove the kids from our ward to the dance (about a 35 minute drive) and then went to see Marley and Me at a nearby theater. At midnight we were just sitting in our van in the parking lot of the church waiting for the dance to get over which was a little odd - no fireworks or silver ball for us!

Tyson enjoyed a gathering with the youth at one of the bishopric counselors house playing games and Guitar Hero. Emily and Alyssa enjoyed the night at our Bishop's house playing with their friends, Emily and Mandy Johnson and sleeping over at their house.

Even though we didn't spend the night together as a family, everyone got to do something fun and had an enjoyable night!