Christmas Eve was very enjoyable for us. We spent it with the Jacobs' side of the family. Christy was our gracious host. We had one of our traditional Christmas Eve meals of home made clam chowder, shrimp, and corn bread followed by one of our favorites, Norweigian Ris Krem with a yummy raspberry sauce. We followed the meal with putting on the Nativity Scene.
Dan made a very POWERFUL HERRAD, but could not bring himself to have "every baby boy killed". He instead opted to have them all "banished".
Tracen kept telling us he wanted to go home which is unheard of especially when we are Sammy and Riley's house. He finally confessed that he was worried we would miss Santa...
So we checked on the radar to see where Santa was at that very moment.
...and much to their delight, the BIG MAN did not dissappoint.
Christmas morning was, as Tracen gladly exclaimed, "This is the most MAGICAL Christmas EVER!" (Just what "Santa" needed to hear)
They were very pleased with their loot.
TRACEN'S FAVORITE: the way too many Transformers that mom and dad have to transform every few minutes (what was Santa thinking?) He is actually figuring them out now and is getting to be quite fast at it.
TYLER'S FAVORITE: "Look mom, my very own kitchen!" Much to daddy's surprise. He has been begging for one of these since the first moment he saw one in the store. See it wasn't just mom's (I mean Santa's) idea. Dan and I have been "invited to dinner" for some very gourmet meals at Tracen and Tyler's house several time now. They even took us to see the circus once for FHE.
TATE'S FAVORITE:
"Balloon, Balloon, Balloon!" That is all he cared about.
DAN'S FAVORITE: The pull-up bar the kids and I splurged on for him.
DEE'S FAVORITE: The movie MAMA MIA!!!! (this is seriously my favorite movie)
We had our traditional EGG NOG FRENCH TOAST with FRUIT and HOT CHOCOLATE for breakfast.
We then headed out. We visited with (GREAT)Grandpa and Grandma Waite for a bit first since they opted to stay out of the weather this year.
We stopped at Grandpa and Grandma Jacob's for another quick visit and then headed up to the Stratford's (my parents house).
We had a scrumptious dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks. (so "Christmasy")
We then went downstairs to begin the PRESENT OPENING FEAST! My parents usually get a bit crazy at Christmas. My boys were truly delighted with their loot and have already gone through two remote control cars. GRRR!
Every year for Christmas my parents give the family a vacation somewhere. Last year it was a week trip at a fantastic cabin in Bear Lake including snomobiles and skiing! So fun.
This year we will be utilizing our very own amazing Stratford cabin for two different trips. One winter with snowmobiles and skiing and one summer with four wheeling, hiking, and water skiing. THANK YOU! The best gifts really are ones where you can be with the family!
DAN and DEE'S other FAVORITE GIFT: The complete, fully put together to the every detail... 72 hour duffle bag kit for our family! My dad is very proficient and knowledgable with preparedness. He truly does not miss anything! We are so excited for the jump start on our emergency preparedness.
OUR FAVORITE GIFT WE GAVE: All of us on my side gave my parents a personally made hard bound book. My amazingly talented hubby wrote a poem that described how my parents met, dated, fell in love, got engaged, wedding, honeymooned, had each of their children and so forth. It included pictures of everything that I plugged in as well. It is hard to describe, but it was amazing. My parent's seemed to really enjoy it. We made it at Shutterfly.com. If you haven't checked out this site yet, you should. So many ideas!
A few other little traditions we have on my mom's side (Waite Family):
The kids all dressed up for a picture of the Nativity Scene.
Every year since my grandparents first grandchild was born, we have been getting our picture taken by "THE SANTA" . He is now 33 years old. He belonged to MY great-grandma (Ruth) Bunting. They started this tradition so we could see how each of us grandkids had grown each year. We have kept this tradition going even now as we all have our families of our own. Our pictures have been made into a SANTA BOOK (scrapbook) that my grandma keeps.
Here is our picture for this year. The original one that we actually dressed up for didn't turn out, so we had to retake it on Christmas morning when we were in our cozy's.
For New Years Eve, we went up to my sister Melanie and Ty's new house in Mountain Green. It is so beautiful, by the way. We had pizza, played Halo (actually the guy's did), and we had planned to play many games, and the girls watch Mama Mia, BUT we ended up just sitting around talking.... said a quick HAPPY NEW YEAR... and then continued chatting it up until around 3:00AM! So PERFECT!
We then all slept over...
and (per request) had EGG NOG FRENCH TOAST, HOMEMADE SYRUP, SCRUMTIOUS THICK BACON, JUICE and 3 or 4 CHOCOLATE TWIX BARS (ok- just Kenzie and I had those- we were just sooo hungry).
We then went sledding across the street from May's house and had so much fun! (sorry no pics of that) THANK YOU so much for hosting! It was a lot of fun!
Sorry it took so long to get this posted, we do hope everyone had a wonderful HOLIDAY! Now... back to real life... which in a way is kind of nice.
They think they're so TOUGH! (notice the Harry Potter wand?- just in case)
.jpg)
