Christmas 2011

Every so often I have to do a post that is more of a journal entry and very detailed and not that exciting to anyone but family. This is one of those.

We had a wonderful Christmas at home this year. My parents came up the day before Christmas Eve and stayed for 5 days. It was so nice actually being home for Christmas! I love being with family, but it was nice to have them come to us. We've never actually spent a Christmas in Logan in the 8 years we've been married.

My sister Avree, my sister-in-law Callie, and I made a ton of candy the week before Christmas. We made caramels, Oreo truffles, dark chocolate truffles covered in toasted almonds, toffee, and white chocolate peppermint brickle (I will share this recipe because it was AMAZING!)-- all while our lovely husbands took the kids to the Aggie basketball game. We are definitely going to make this a tradition!

We spent Christmas Eve over at my brother Jaren's house. Yes, he is the one who looks kind of like a creeper with the gross mustache. Bear with him... it is his last big hurrah before he goes to Law School (he's already been accepted to several schools so he's not one of those people who say they're pre-law or pre-med and never actually become lawyers or doctors ha ha). He and his wife Callie made the best dinner. I'm amazed my sister-in-law Callie just pulls dinners off for all of us without stressing. I would have died having to make Christmas Eve dinner for all of my in-laws when I was first married!



My parents had Christmas PJ's for the kids to open-- Kate wouldn't wear hers because they were the kind that cover your feet so that is why she is not pictured wearing the darling Gymboree PJ's my mom bought her in subsequent photos. Then we drove around to look at Christmas lights (family tradition) and while we were gone, Mrs. Santa Claus left us a Christmas book with a little note (my favorite family tradition). It was a Fancy Nancy Christmas book and was loved by the girls.

Then the kids went to sleep and the adults, ahem, wrapped a few last-minute presents (until 1 a.m.) and then Santa did indeed visit! I had to work at the hospital NICU for a few hours so I left at 5 a.m. (yes, that's just 4 hrs after I went to bed) so I would be back in time to open presents. Luckily the kids slept until about 7:45. The train set was a gigantic hit-- gigantic literally! There are 4 remote control trains and a room full of tracks and accessories and it still gets played with for hours each day. Marin also got a Wii (yes, I know we're several years behind on that one, but she is still thrilled with it).




There are a million more pictures but for some reason Blogger won't let me add any more. ("oh darn," you're thinking I know). We had a lovely Christmas dinner at my sister Avree's house complete with funeral potatoes. Her husband Matt put together a little musical program and Callie played the guitar and my dad made me play a piano solo. Some of Matt's family were there, including his dad who used to be in the Tabernacle Choir so they contributed some lovely musical numbers as well.

The rest of the holiday we spent relaxing, skiing, eating out, going to movies, and just enjoying having Grandma and Grandpa St. George (as my children call them) here.

We also had some cool experiences trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas with our kids, but that is not the kind of thing I like to post in detail on my blog. But just so you know, we didn't forget :)

Hope your holidays were wonderful and have a very happy New Year!