Christmas Day

Christmas Day was wonderful. This year, of course, Christmas was on Sunday. I loved the beautiful Sacrament program done by our ward choir. It really invited the spirit and helped us remember our Savior and feel of His love. What a special way to have Christmas be focussed on the Savior!

Because we were up so late at the Christmas Eve festivities, our kids slept in until 8:30. Michelle and Ella came in and woke us up and woke up Aunt Suzy....We decided to let Gabby sleep. So Michelle and Ella took turns opening gifts.


Just have to comment about this one quickly. Michelle helped us wrap some of the gifts for Christmas. She was wrapping them very carefully, and then she began to wrap a gift for Gabby and was doing it a little sloppily. Alfredo said something about it and she said, "It doesn't matter...it's just for my sister." So Alfredo decided to wrap one of her gifts as terribly as possible...with part of the box showing, with part of a wrapping paper roll on it, etc. We all had quite a good laugh about this.



Santa was quite tricky this year. Usually Santa leaves his gifts unwrapped and out for the girls to discover right away. This year when the girls awoke, Santa had filled their stockings and there was a gift for Gabby wrapped in Santa Claus paper. But Michelle and Ella didn't seem to have anything from Santa. When they were nearly done opening gifts, Michelle commented that maybe Santa didn't give them any gifts. But then she discovered a note...and Ella found one too. It said, "'Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' This is especially true with spiritual things such as following the Savior, but this year it is also true for the gift I give to you. Seek it and ye shall find it. Santa" It took a minute or two to figure out what Santa had meant, but then the girls figured that maybe he'd left the gifts near the fireplace downstairs so they rushed downstairs to see... and to their great suprise and delight, they found electric scooters...just what they really, really wanted! Thank you Santa!


Right about then, Gabby woke up so she opened her gifts, and Alfredo, Suzy and I opened our gifts. Alfredo gave me a beautiful outfit as well as the softest bathrobe and slippers ever. Gabby was thrilled that Santa gave her a Disney princess castle. She also got a Lalaloopsy doll with pink pigtails, art supplies and several Disney princesses.



After church, we went to my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Phil's house. We were able to visit with them and my grandpa. My Uncle Brent and his kids came over as well (unfortunately, his wife Diane had to work.) Great, great day!!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite holidays. I really enjoy our traditions.



We always put out luminaries...to guide the way for Santa, and more importantly as a reminder of the Light and Life of the world, our Savior Jesus Christ. This is a tradition that started when I was a teenager or perhaps even a tween, and it is one I've continued in my own family. (Although there are years in Utah where it is a less pleasant tradition in the freezing cold than it was growing up in Arizona). This year was a very mild Christmas Eve, so it was nice. Plus, my sister Suzy recently moved to Utah and was able to spend the weekend with us and be a part of our celebrations.




Then we read Luke 2 and the girls open their Christmas pajamas. It is nice to spend time remembering the true reason for the season. Several years ago, my sister made us a nice advent calendar that includes a scripture to read each day for the month of December, leading up to Christmas Day. Each scripture either tells of Christ's birth or is a prophecy foretelling of his birth. It is nice to have that daily reminder of the reason we celebrate.




Then we dress up fancy and head to Alfredo's aunt's house for their celebrations. They have dinner around 11 or midnight and then open gifts. They stay up most of the night.... we stay until around 1 AM. It is nice to spend time with them, and the girls have a great time playing with Alfredo's cousin's kids who are the same ages as Michelle and Ella.

Christmas Lights

Drove around last night to see Christmas lights. Went first to Taylorsville where the Night Before Christmas is displayed.



Then headed to Murray for Christmas Utah, supposed to be the biggest individual light display in Salt Lake. It was impressive to see faces on the trees talking to each other. My favorite part was when the garage had musicians playing on it. Also, Santa appeared to be standing at the window waving to everyone. Very, very cool house. Michelle was expecting something even bigger, I guess, and also didn't like the music choices playing while we were there, so she was a little disappointed. But I thought it was pretty cool. However, I would definitely get out and walk rather than sit in the tremendously long line of cars trying to get to it.




Then to SugarHouse to visit Christmas Street and to see the street with the retelling of the birth and life of Christ. That was my favorite, but they were all very cool.



When I was a little girl, my dad would always take us to see Christmas lights. My whole family usually went (my mom, sisters and I), but my dad would read the paper and find out where the best displays were. My sisters and I would count houses with lights, sometimes having a contest who spotted more...other times just trying to make sure that we saw at least 100 or 200 houses with lights. It seemed so magical. It still does. It's one of many things I love about Christmas time. :)

Elf Scavenger Hunt

We had a cute friend over to play on Tuesday. The girls were so excited and there was a ton of giggling. Our friend is only four...a little older than Gabby, but she has been in my Sunbeams class and we all adore her. So we decided to head to Gardner Village to do the Elf Scavenger Hunt there.





You print off a list of a dozen elves to find. If you find them all, you get a free candy stick from Sweet Afton's. So we bundled up and searched. We found most of them pretty easily, but there was one that we somehow missed and had to get help to find. We took a break for a bit because we were cold and got a little treat from the Bakery. Then we found the last silly elf...an elf rollerskating with a plate of sugar cookies in his hand and headed home. It was a fun time. There was a lot of giggling and some of the elves were quite fun to see.