Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful, white, relaxing Christmas. We began the celebrations on Christmas Eve with our traditional, buffet style dinner, with sparkling cider, of course. The kids opened their Christmas Eve jammies that they get every year.
And then Aiden and Brody fed Santa's reindeer their nutritious snack of banana flavored oatmeal. It's the reindeer's favorite, in case you didn't know that. And, of course, we put out cookies and milk for Santa. We finished up the evening with a couple of videos. I can't remember which ones. I think we've watched 49 movies this Christmas break.

Christmas morning brought a gift from Santa for everyone and lots of other fun stuff.

The girls got me the book I wanted, Reflections of Christ. Just beautiful.

Matt has been doing a construction job for an older couple down in Springville. They adore Matt and got us this HUGE Christmas gift. We tortured Brody for a week, not letting the kids open it until Christmas morning. This is what they got us. A signed Greg Olsen, called Walk With Me. I was speechless. So was Brody, but for a whole different reason. I couldn't believe they had done this! My husband has a way of charming those older ladies. I think all the widows in our ward have a little crush on him. He so good at helping them out with whatever is needed.

This gift is from one of those widows in our ward that I just mentioned. She adores Matt, but also adores my little man, Brody. (I think the charm's rubbing off!) She gave Brody this car rug that she made decades ago. It is a map of our city. And all the cars and animals that go with it. Just adorable. Brody loved it and wrote her the cutest thank you card.

Later in the afternoon, we kept our tradition going of seeing a movie every Christmas. I love this tradition. Christmas day tends to drag on. The day starts out so early and gift opening can only last so long. The movie breaks up the day and we always look forward to it. This year we saw Bedtime Stories. Not bad, not bad.

Saturday we tested out our new sleds and went sledding with Matt's sister, Kim, and her family, up from Arizona. Only a couple of injuries...
Can't really see the blood, and the tooth was already loose, so no real harm done. And I acquired a sprained knee doing some fancy moves on the jumps. I'm lying. About the fancy moves. I never went down the slope once. Unfortunately, I tripped over some little hill of snow some idiot had built right where we stand to watch the kids. Cut me some slack. I was trying to balance two cameras and keep them from slamming to the ground. Save the equipment at all costs! (Cuz they costs a lot!)

Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year!