We had a VERY eventful and exciting Christmas season this year. It seemed to be going non stop, but in the enjoying-every-minute kind of way.
Because of Bria's baptism, Grandma Martin got to come up and visit all the way from New Mexico! She was so much fun to have here! Not only do the kids always love her visiting, but she was a tremendous help getting Christmas ready (like wrapping, wrapping and more wrapping).
We had so many goings on, that when I sat down to write this post, I realized there was NO WAY I could sum everything up in just one part. I think I can do it in three. Here's the first part:
Trimming the Tree:
We usually have a Tree Decorating Family Home Evening every year. The kids LOVE it! Our tree is super simply. Pretty much just ornaments. But, it's a fun family tradition to decorate.
Our newest Family Member:
We were very blessed to get a new member of our family this year. His name is Snowic. The kids got to name him themselves. Bria wanted Snowflake and Max wanted Sonic (in homage for his love of all things Wii). We decided to compromise and combine the two ideas.
He's an Elf on the Shelf delivered straight to our house by Santa himself. The kids were having a hard time behaving before Christmas, so Santa sent an Elf to watch over them. Every night, Snowic would fly to the North Pole and tell Santa just how good the kids were during the day. Every morning, the kids would wake up and find Snowic somewhere new. It was so fun! The only complaint I had is the kids were really excited and woke up earlier and earlier every morning to find Snowic.
Snowic played all kinds of tricks on our kids; including, but not limited to, drawing funny faces on our family picture, drinking all of the syrup, making a snow angel in our sugar and even cutting out very intricate snowflakes. We definitely got a mischievous elf.
Mountain River Ranch:
While my mom was here, we wanted to do some fun Christmas things. She was so nice and treated us all to a visit to Mountian River Ranch. It's a ranch that is pretty close to our house. During Christmas, they have a fun dinner show that even includes a horse drawn sleigh ride. And their food. It was amazing! That was a really fun night.
Temple Square:
Last, but not least, we finished up our visit with Grandma at Temple Square. We haven't been in a few years and Grandpa has never been. As her Christmas present, Grandma flew in Grandpa and Orion just to spend the evening at Temple Square. It was a very memorable experience. I love going to Temple Square at Christmastime!
No trip to Salt Lake is complete without a doughnut run on the way home. I think Logan might be a little worn out. Poor guy!
We had a ghost picture "outtake". Dave had the shutter speed on slow and Bria happened to walk right in front on the camera. It's quite strange that she had zombie arms. It wasn't on purpose.
