I will now take you on a whirlwind tour of our Christmas 2015, buckle your seat belts!
The kids had their last day of school for the year on December 18th. That night, we decided we had better get ourselves downtown and look at the lights! It was a "Red Tree Year," my favorite!
It was fun to see everything all lit up. The kids had a great time, but unfortunately we had a deadline so we had to cruise through the lights pretty quickly. We had time to see a little of the Nativity story, walked all around Temple Square, up the Main Street Plaza, and even down through City Creek to the Gallivan Center. Silly kids:
We were on our way to see:
It. Was. Awesome! I seriously laugh so hard at these shows.
The next day, was the Day of Christmas Parties. No joke, 3 parties, one day. Haun family party at 11:00 a.m., including lunch and visit from Santa. Ward party with snacks and hot chocolate (and a visit from Santa) at 3:00 p.m. Finally, Zaugg Family party with Dinner (and...a visit from Santa) at 5:30. Ready, set, GO!
We had to bring treats to the Zaugg party, so Cora and I made these Christmas Tree brownies:
After we ate lunch and caught up with cousins and aunts and uncles, the Big Man made his annual appearance. Here he is with Cora:
Daxton was very excited to see Santa!
And Arden, despite being a worldly 9 year old, in still firmly in the Believers camp this year (hooray!)
I somehow didn't do a good job of taking pictures at the other two parties, but let me tell you that I may have set a record for number of calories consumed in a single day. After sitting on the "real" Santa's lap at the Haun party, Dax loudly announced to all the kids around him at the ward party that the Santa there "HAS A FAKE BEARD SO HE ISN'T THE REAL SANTA BUT HE IS JUST SANTA'S HELPER" may have earned a few dirty looks from nearby moms. Sorry everybody! By the third Santa-go-round the kids were a little less enthusiastic, but went through the lap routine to earn a treat.
A couple of days later we got some more snow! This time we actually had time between shovelings to build ourselves our first snowman of the season! Arden got cold and went inside pretty quickly, but me and the littles finished it up and he was pretty tall!
A couple of days before Christmas, we headed up to the golf course and went sledding! Here is me and Cora, ready to head down the hill:
And here is Cora and Arden, making the trek back up the hill, which is the hardest part of any sledding expedition. (You will notice no one is pulling sleds...that is because I am carrying them all.) Cora is still excited!
Dax had a great time, running up the hill, sliding down the hill, running up the hill, sliding down. Oh, the energy of this kid!
Dax had also been insisting that it was imperative to his survival that we see the new Star Wars movie. Preston got to see it with his whole office, so a day or two later Dax and Arden and I snuck out and watched it. It was pretty good, but I was shocked by the shocking thing that happened, that I won't mention just in case you are one of the 3 people in the country who hasn't seen the movie yet. Dax soaked it in through every pore of his skin and has barely thought of anything else since. I get questions all day long about Rey and Kylo Ren that I do not know the answers to. (My burning question is this...how on in the world could the offspring of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher look anything like that Kylo guy???).
Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve! I had been furiously shopping and wrapping while watching cheesy Christmas movies from the Hallmark Channel, and it was close (as it is every year), but I was ready. Cora wrote a last-minute letter to Santa, asking for something she hadn't mentioned previously. No fair, Cora! Oh well, Santa had already made that teddy bear you were asking for a couple of weeks ago. The letter was cute anyway:
Arden had written a letter to Santa about three weeks before Christmas and left it near the fireplace day after day. She is so adorable:
I asked Daxton if he wanted to write another letter to Santa, but Dax doesn't enjoy the writing process as much as the girls, and preferred to keep testing Santa's cookies for him instead.
After a traditional visit to Grandmas for pizza and eggnog and movies, we got home and got the kids all snug in their beds.
I love Christmas Eve after everything is finally ready and in its place, with not a creature stirring....my three little believers snoozing away upstairs with visions of sugarplums dancing. Oh, please, Santa, can you bring me a time-pauser for Christmas?
Then, wham! BAM! Christmas morning hit! It was still pitch back dark outside when we started the festivities. Cora seemed okay with her Teddy Bear from Santa:
Arden got "Hair Chox," and promptly colored her hair a festive shade of blue, but not before I got a picture of her:
Dax wouldn't hold still long enough to get a good picture, but he got a bunch of "Jurassic World" dinosaurs, which is what he had been hoping for. After we unwrapped all of our family presents and had some breakfast, we headed over to my mom's house for more celebrating and presents! I didn't take any pictures! I must have been too busy enjoying the moment (or just slacking off).
After some lunch, we headed to my Grandma Wilson's house for a quick visit, and some more present exchanging. Grandma was all dressed up in her Christmas sweater, and her home was all decorated. She is doing much better lately and scares my mom sometimes by trying to walk places without her walker. Here she is, looking beautiful and festive:
After that, we headed to Grandma Zaugg's. The main attraction there (besides more presents) was Grandma's Christmas present from us...Little Lulu! She is a Yorkie-Poo (or, as I call them, Yorkie Doodle Doo), which is a cross between a Yorkshire Terrier and a Toy Poodle. She is teeny-tiny and stinking adorable. The kids could not keep their hands off of her, but she somehow survived the day:
After visiting with Grandma and some cousins, we were getting kind of pooped out, and decided to head home by way of the Layton Lights. It was a fun (but pictureless) end to a wonderful Christmas! We weren't done celebrating yet though, because the next day we were off to the cabin! But that is a post for another day. Merry Late Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
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