Christmas 2014

It may be a cliche, but it is true that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.  Everyone is a little kinder, and no matter how secular Christmas seems to become, I still believe that because Christmas is about Christ, the Spirit is there in all of it.  Even if people don't admit it, Christ is the reason we love Christmas.

The older our children get the more exciting the season is but also the busier it gets.  Preschool parties, Kindergarten parties, Young Women's parties, Ward parties, etc.:  it all adds up and sadly makes the season go by a little faster every year.  We took down the decorations this Sunday but I can still enjoy the season a little bit longer as I remember it all in a blog post...

Christmas Eve was pouring rain.  It was gross and yucky but it was supposed to change to snow, which it did not and so I was grumpy-but only a little because it's Christmas!  As we did last year, we went to our friends' home for Christmas Eve dinner and had a fabulous time.  The food was amazing and the company delightful.  All the kids put on a Christmas Nativity for us and it was the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve.  We got home way too late (9pm) and so Santa had to stay up a little extra late to get everything ready.

Of course Christmas morning began early...

...but look at these faces! Their excitement was the best. 

 for as long as we asked Amelie what she wanted for Christmas she said "a highchair for my baby doll."  She was so excited.

We spent most of the rest of the day leisurely opening and enjoying our Christmas gifts.  I think the best part about not going anywhere on Christmas day is being able to enjoy presents in stages.  We opened a few, then stopped to play, then repeated the cycle.

 Emmett was the least interested in opening gifts.  In fact, he cried when we gave him a present to open instead of the screwdriver and scissors he so badly wanted.  We eventually stopped trying to make him open his presents and so he only opened a few on Christmas and finished the rest the next day.

Yay, we got a picture with all 5 of us looking at the camera! (Amelie is pouting because Emmett ripped her toy out of her hands seconds before the camera took the picture.)

 Unfortunately, Liam had a nasty cough and developed a fever by late afternoon.  Fortunately he had already built his Lego sets so he was ok with taking it easy.

I made lasagna again this year and although it was delicious, it made me miss being with my extended family.  On the whole I love staying home on Christmas morning but by late afternoon it starts to feel a little lonely.  We were invited to a friend's house later in the day but because of Liam's fever we stayed home.

The rest of vacation has been really low key.  I say "has been" because we are on our 3rd snow day so vacation hasn't ended yet!  Spencer took a week off work in addition to the days he got off for the holidays.  It was so nice to have him around-it felt like a real vacation for all of us.  We planned on doing a few fun things and even a quick trip to visit Spencer's sister, Jeni, but sickness pretty much kept us hanging out at home.  We still enjoyed playing with Christmas toys, playing family games, getting a few organizing projects done, and of course Spencer spent lots of time working on the basement.

A highlight of the vacation was my parents visit, and that deserves its own blog post.