Christmas Eve

We all love Christmas Eve.  We love all the traditions at grandma and grandpa Ham's.

We have been praying hard that EJ would be able to come home for Christmas. We were so happy to hear that he got to come home!  Keith and I were commenting on how much we love having EJ around, he makes everything more fun!

Caitlyn spent the night at grandma's the night before.  She wanted to help grandma get ready for the party. She is so sweet.

Damon lost his first tooth!  

Everyone enjoyed the traditional dinner.

After dinner we all headed downstairs. 

Grandma read a poem and shared some thoughts.

Grandpa shared some thoughts and scriptures.

I'm impressed with how well the kids listen, even though I know they are excited to get to the presents. 

I love that sweet face!

We watched The Christ Child nativity story.  It is so well done and does a great job capturing the emotion of everyone. 

I had fun watching everyone have fun together and trying to capture it in pictures.

EJ and Ataiya are so funny!

I love this picture of Dante.

I love seeing this picture of Jen on the tree every year.

After the movie we acted out the nativity. Hallee and Tessa were excited about Hallee being Tessa's camel.

Ofa joined us that night and we awkwardly asked her and EJ to be Mary and Joseph, they were great sports about it.

I love reading the nativity every year. 

The kids are great sports about participating.

Next it's Bingo in the kitchen for the kids.

And Bingo in the dining room for the adults. 

Then it's back downstairs for the grab box.  The kids were excited with their new books or gift cards.

The adults are always excited with our gift cards.

Elijah had to work, so he joined us near the end. Jonah is always happy to see Elijah!

Mel was so happy to have her family altogether!

This year felt very relaxed.  I don't know if we weren't as rushed or I was just feeling more relaxed, but it was nice to take our time and enjoy each others company.

Mom and dad opened some presents. 

Caitlyn is always so thoughtful and generous.  She has been thinking of and shopping for the perfect gifts for everyone for a while now.

She was excited to give grandma and grandpa their presents.  They loved them.

My kids were excited to open their presents from grandma and grandpa.

They all loved their presents!

It was a great Christmas Eve!  

Secret Sibling

Christmas Sunday is always my favorite Sunday of the year, but it was pretty different this year.  It was our week to watch church on zoom.  The talks were really good and we did have one musical number, but I missed being at church and having a special program with lots of Christmas music. Hallee and Jonah dressed up in some Christmas clothes for the sacrament.

We did our secret sibling gifts on Sunday.  We had a Christmas lesson and watched "The Christchild" before the kids gave their presents to each other.

The kids love this tradition.  I love seeing how much thought they put into buying their gifts.  Wyatt and I went shopping for Hallee a while ago.  He knew she would love this sloth purse and Chapstick set.

Caitlyn was so excited to give Wyatt the Wreck This Journal that she picked out for him.

She knew he would love it and she was right.

Hallee bought Jonah watch bands and she knew that he would love mints.

I love that the kids are more excited to give their gifts than get their gifts.

Jonah was so generous and used all of his money to buy Caitlyn an Echo Show.  

Caitlyn mentioned once that she wanted one and Jonah heard it and decided that was what he wanted to get her. I was impressed that he was willing to spend so much.

Caitlyn was so surprised and so excited!

They all wanted to use their gifts right away.

After that we played bingo and then Caitlyn and I made crispy cheddar chicken for dinner.  

Caitlyn and Jonah made dessert together and we watched a movie that night.  It was a great family day.

Sledding

It snowed for a while on Thursday so on Friday we decided we better go sledding and enjoy the snow. Jonah has been wanting to go to the fishbowl for a while, but we have had a hard time finding it, but we found it on Friday. 

Hallee was a little nervous to go down at first, but Caitlyn talked her into going with her.

Wyatt loved to go down on his stomach.

I loved hearing the kids laugh and scream the whole way down the hill.

I was impressed with how well Jonah and Wyatt did on the snow board on the huge hills.

Caitlyn and Jonah have been getting along so much better lately.  They are both maturing and starting to have similar interests, like making fun of their parents!  

I love seeing them have fun together.

I had fun going down with the kids.

It's been a while since I have been sledding, it was a lot of fun.

It was quite the workout to walk back up the hill.

We invited Tiff and the kids to join us.  Tiff's kids are fearless and so fast!  I couldn't believe how fast they ran up the hill like it was nothing.

My kids were so happy to have their cousins there.

They all took turns going down together.

I stayed at the bottom of the hill for a little while to watch the kids and take pictures.

I love seeing their faces and hearing their screams.

There wasn't a ton of snow, but we were still able to get down the hill without stopping.

Wyatt and Jonah had fun racing.

Wyatt wasn't sure he wanted to snowboard because the hill was so big, but he decided to go for it.  He did a great job.  I was so impressed with how he just hopped right back up every time he fell.

The snow is so pretty on the mountains.  I'm so glad we were able to go enjoy the snow, you never know how many sledding days there will be each winter.