The Joys of Christmas

I just love Christmas time so much! It was pretty busy this year, but so fun to see all the friends and family.....

We kicked off the holiday by going to see temple lights. I swear it's just not Christmas without that. We went with our very awesome friends from the ward, the Kurtzeborns. Here are some shots of the night (courtesy of Holly)...














Then it was on to a few days before Christmas. Abe's parents were so kind to take Aidan for a day to let us get some last minute shopping done. They started a new tradition this year to make a gingerbread house with him. He was so proud of his work!
...and after we got enough good pictures of it he figured it was time to eat!




Next was the big get-together at the Marbles (my family). With everyone's schedules being so wacky, we had to do Christmas there the Sunday before. The kids loved it because that meant more than one day of presents. We had a nice dinner and then all the kids opened presents from the grandparents. And the big gift for them was from my sister Becky and her hubby. They got the kids a big trampoline to keep at Grandma's house. That was a big surprise. And they all just loved it!

Of course anything Spiderman made Aidan happyWe also had a gift exchange with all the adults. That's always a fun and interesting thing. Alan and his fiance Dawn won the prize for most sentimental gift. They put pictures of EVERYONE into little ornaments for the tree and gave them to Mom and Dad. Of course Mom cried. I love you Mommy!

And finally, Christmas day! I did a lot of recording with the video camera, so I didn't get many still shots. I regret that now that I've discovered there are no pictures of Tanner on Christmas day. Poor little guy. Lots of video though so we'll still remember how cute he was :) We had a lot to do that day so I made sure everyone was up by 7. Here's a sleepy Aidan opening his stocking.

After we opened presents and played a little bit we rushed over to Abe's parents house to open more. Of course Aidan got completely spoiled and just didn't know what to do with everything. They got me a Magic Bullet and I've had fun making lots of fun stuff. More of Abe's extended family came over and we had a big breakfast. Yummy! We hung around for a couple of hours and then went to Abe's grandparents' house for even more presents. After about an hour of visiting there we ended the day at my parents' house. I just couldn't go a Christmas day without seeing them. Some time around 11 we finally made our way home. Whew! What a long day!!


We were just so blessed this year with everything. Even if you took all the gifts away there was so much to be joyful about. Amazing friends, incredible family. So much love. It just doesn't get any better than that. I hope everyone can be equally blessed and have a great new year!!