December started off with a couple of "snow days", even though this is really all the snow we got. The kids still went sledding and wanted to build snowmen and drink hot chocolate. And seeing how last year, we only got that one snow very similar to this one, I decided we had better take advantage of any snow we get.
Aliza didn't really want anything to do with going outside in the cold. I can't blame her. It's not my favorite thing either. But the others played for hours and the neighbor kids even came over to play too.
Here we are starting to get in the Christmas spirit.
Dallin's class invited parents to come make gingerbread houses with them. This was such a fun activity to do just one on one with him.
You can hardly make out the house under all that frosting and candy!
Carmen had another band concert. And this year she got to play in two groups. She played with he 7th grade concert band, and then in an early morning jazz group that met before school. Both groups sounds really great.
Carmen with her good friend Jasmine.
Charlotte's class did an amazing rendition of Scrooge. I was impressed at their little play!
Carmen's friends got together and made gingerbread houses before their friend Lucy moved to England for the next 6 months.
These girls are each so great and fun to be around.
Every Christmas season we try to make it up to Afton to see this live Bethlehem Village. I really love, David tolerates it and the kids could really do without it. But I still make everyone go. And we somehow never seem to spend enough time there to truly see everything and take in the message of Christmas, but we try.
Those are real camels that they have there and you get to pet them!
This was everyone's favorite place to visit because they taught about making bread and then you could sample it. And it was really good! We ended up buying some at their little store.
In the midst of everything Christmas, we got to go to the airpot to welcome home one of our favorite babysitters, Anna, from her mission in Russia.
And I took this picture as proof that David really does have a soft spot for Koda...sometimes.
Wow, I didn't realize how many gingerbread houses we made this year, but here are some more. Oma and Poppy always come over to decorate houses and sugar cookies with us. Oma brings all the supplies, so I love this even more! This year everyone got their own house to decorate.
I love that my mom makes it a priority to create traditions with her grandkids. And I love that we live close enough to make it happen.
All dressed for Christmas Sunday.
And a big group of us got together to go caroling to the Bishops house. We wanted to give them a good send off before moving to England. But it sort of snowballed into caroling at a lot of different families in the ward. This particular family wasn't home, so we snapped this picture of us all on their front porch and said "wish you were here!". They got a good laugh out of that.
Sugar cookie decorating with Dad. They were making a plate for Santa.
And Christmas morning arrived bright and early for us. I think the kids were up at 3am. We were definitely done with presents before the sun was even up.
Charlotte finally got her much anticipated Hatchimal!!
And the big family gift was this air hockey table, that is really fun to play! Aliza pretty much beats everyone. She's the campion in our house.
We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family at my cousin Jenny's house. This is always a fun time, seeing the family that lives close.
The kids always act out the nativity and it this year Charlotte got to be Mary and Aliza was the angel. Carmen, I think was the star, but forgot to go out when it was her part, and Dallin never wants to participate....
And that's a wrap for 2017! It was a long year full of fun and challenges. Yet, we feel blessed and are so grateful for the memories that have been made this year. We are happy to be moving onto 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment