December

Only one month behind now!  As you can see I'm loving the collages for catching up a lot of photos.  On to December!  It's been several years since we made gingerbread houses so it was time to try them again.  I bought two houses this year, one for the boys and one for the girls (I'm pretty sure there was a lot of fighting involved in our last attempt which is why it's been several years).  Having two houses was a big hit!  The boys came up with some very creative  ideas like an ice pond, a bird bath, and Santa sticking out of the chimney.  Not to be outdone, the girls made an igloo, an owl, and two reindeer.  We declared both houses winners!

Adam also celebrated his birthday this month.  Only one more year until a very significant birthday (cough- 40- cough!).  Adam was a very good sport this year and let me plan a neighborhood Christmas party on his birthday.  Instead of doing neighbor gifts, Jodi Goodrich and I invited the whole ward boundary to a neighborhood party where we shared treats with eachother, had hot cocoa, and donated to the St. George Soup Kitchen.  It was a cold, drizzly night but with some fire pits set up outside, everyone had a great time.

On Christmas Eve Eve (we call it Christmas "Adam"), the cousins all came to our house to reenact the nativity.  Baby Van Niederhauser made the perfect baby Jesus, being only a couple of weeks old.  Audrey loved holding him as Mary.  Justin and Mikaera were narrators, Dallin, Marcus and Truman were shepherds, Tali, Whitney, and Uncle Ben were the wisemen, and Troy, Rani and Eva were angels.  Justin and Whitney also accompanied a few songs on the piano.  It was a very cute nativity, and some very creative costumes, involving Star Wars robes and light sabers!

After the nativity, we headed into the kitchen to decorate Christmas cookies.  Big mess (which is why we did it the day before Christmas Eve) but a lot of fun for the cousins to be together.

On Christmas Eve, we took our family and drove up to Pine Valley in search of some snow.  It was actually pretty dry all through Central and Pine Valley so we headed off on a trail and finally found some good snow (and subsequently got our van stuck).  We had a lot of fun sledding and everyone loved the hot cocoa at the end.  I loved going out to Brick Oven for dinner afterward so I didn't have to cook or clean anything up that night!

On Christmas morning, we were informed that poor Audrey had been throwing up all night in her bathroom, but Whitney wouldn't let her come get us because we told them not to leave their rooms until 7:00 am. Bad parents!  She perked up for the presents but then was so sick the rest of the day.

Some of the kids' favorite gifts this year were a new cell phone for Whitney (she hasn't stopped texting), bikes for Justin and Audrey, and Lego sets for Troy and Dallin. Since it was Sunday, Adam took the kids to church at 1:00 while I stayed home with sick Audrey (and actually Dallin since he fell asleep right before it was time to go).  I heard the choir did a great job that day, but I was snuggling on the couch with Audrey holding a bowl in front of her chin :(

Webb cousins drove down from Salt Lake later that day and we ended up having a nice Christmas dinner with them, and Grandma and Grandpa Webb as well.  We played with them for the next few days and enjoyed some gorgeous days in Snow Canyon (again!), local parks, and our backyard.  All in all, a very busy, fun-filled December!