Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to go over to Nate's parents home in Layton. We eat good food, read the Night Before Christmas, read the account of Christs birth in the scriptures, exchange gifts, sing carols and have a good time. We have spent every Christmas Eve there for the last 12 years. It is always a fun time.

I took about 8 pictures trying to get a decent shot of Nate with his brothers. This wasn't the best one (once I finally got them to behave) but I figured it showed the best why he is the way he is. You can't tell very well but Janet is actually mid-slap with Daniel.
(Janet, Larry, Daniel, Mya, Nate and Matt)

Years ago Janet and LaVere started putting up a stocking for each member of the family. She then hangs them up by family all around her living room. The family is actually so big that it atually goes around the entire room almost. She always leaves out tiny stockings and safety pins for those of us who are expecting to pin it onto our stocking. We have enjoyed that tradition twice, although those days are long since over for us. So I thought now that we have a complete stocking set I would document the traditon once again.

Christmas Morning This is the older kids anxiously waiting for us to let them down the hall into the great room Christmas Morning. I always love these shots...they are always so full of anticipation and emotion. I especially love Tiny Mans face in this one....what a moment!

Tiny Man loves his new MP3 player

Ladybug loves her new Super Secret Spy Gear


Chub loves his new Star Wars Lego Star Cruiser

(note Cincess in the background with bag of gummy frogs, more on that later)


For the main family gift we had each of the kids open a present that related to it so they would all figure it out together. When they opened up Wii games they were confused and wondered if they were opening up presents meant for other extended family members.
Once they figured out that it was a Wii meant for them..........

the hunt was on! Too fun!

Tiny Man declared "WE opened the Wii", it was too cute! See the return of the crazed Christmas look in his eyes? Needless to say it was a hit!

Cincess woke up and warmed up to the idea of opening presents after she had her morning cup of milk and rock with "MY DADDY!" She LOVES her Ariel barbie doll. Actually love is not a strong enough word. I have about 35 pictures of her holding her while she tries to do other things. However, all of that changed once she dug into her stocking and found....

HER VERY OWN BAG OF GUMMY FROGS! Notice Ariel forgotten on the floor!

If you remember her in the previous photo with Chub this photo is just further proof of how high on the list gummy frogs are over Ariel . She was hilarious. She was quite possesive of them and she sat there a loooong time eating and protecting her stash!

This year for Christmas we decided to try giving Cincess a strategic present. For months she has shown that she is basically ready to be potty trained except for one major problem. She is AFRAID of the toilet. So we figured a Betsy Wetsy and a small princess potty that sings a song when you tinkle on it would do the job! She has enjoyed playing with it but it is mostly used by Ariel as a spa. So, so far no dice!

This year was also the first year Ladybug has not had a doll under the tree. I didn't even notice until Christmas morning. I felt a little sad about it but figured her days with those must be truly over since she didn't even mention a doll of any sort this year. It all seemed okay until Cincess opened up Ariel AND Betsy Wetsy. That's when I noticed my "Big Girl" commandeer them the moment Cincess forgot them. I was secretly thrilled that beneath the "Big Girl" facade my "little girl" was alive and well.