Just Some "Guy"s In Utah!: January 2015

Christmas is by far my most favorite time of the year! There are so many things that we do together as a family that make it special to me.

Decorating the House

We almost always decorate our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. This year we had to make a little change. Clayton needed to fly out to California for his Uncle Clint's funeral the day after Thanksgiving so we started decorating the day before. We turn on Christmas music and pull out all of our Christmas boxes from storage. We then completely mess up our house trying to find a place for everything. The kids love getting out all the decorations (especially all the kid friendly nativities) and decorating the tree with their special ornaments. I love the feeling of our house after all the decorations are put up, the house is cleaned up, and the only lights on are those from the Christmas tree.

Festival of Trees

When I was younger, I was in my 5^th/6^th grade choir and we would always perform at Christmas time at the Festival of Trees. This is where my love for it began. I love looking at all the trees and feeling all the love that people have for others. As I have gotten older (and lost two babies) I am not able to look at all the pictures of little babies with tubes or stories of children struggling with illness without tearing up. I now have to avoid looking at some but I still feel so much love as we look at the trees. One of Clayton’s favorite parts of the festival is the scones that they sell. We always stop and buy a few.

Child Family Christmas Party

Each year we have a Christmas party with my dad’s side of the family. This is such a fun time to catch up with all the cousins that we don’t see as often as we used to. For as long as I can remember we have acted out the nativity. It is so fun to now see our own kids as part of this tradition. We also have a visit from Santa’s Elf. Growing up my grandpa (my dad’s dad) would dress up as Santa for our Christmas parties. Now that he is gone, my dad has accepted that job. The kids all love getting a gift from the big red bag, which is actually now two big red bags.

Is this not the cutest cow you have ever seen?

Zoolights

We love the zoo! At Christmas time the zoo is decorated with lights everywhere. We bundle up and meet Grandma, Grandpa and our cousins there. It is so fun to walk around and see all the lights and decorations and spend time together as a family. This year we were lucky that is wasn’t as cold as it normally is.

Temple Square

I guess we just love Christmas lights. We try to make it to downtown Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square. We bundle up and walk through the temple grounds looking at all the beautiful lights and nativities that depict our Savior’s birth. This year we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Performance. Their special guests this year was the Muppets and the guy who voices Prince Hans in Frozen. Because of this, children were allowed to attend. Our kids loved it. It was so fun to watch Ben’s face as he was watching the performance. People around us kept looking at him because he was so cute and excited.

Letters to Santa and Reindeer

After our kids wrote letters to Santa, we went to Thanksgiving Point to mail them. They had a special Santa mailbox there. We always go and see the reindeer there so we decided to just mail our letters there too. And we are so glad we did. There is a sign by the mailbox that says to include your return address in case Santa has a question with your letter. A few days after mailing our letters, each kid got a personal letter from Santa in the mail and mom and dad got the kids letters mailed back to us so that we could save them. They were so happy to get their letters. They reread them many times.

Cookie Day

We always have a cookie day with Grandma before Christmas so that the kids can make some cookies to leave for Santa. My mom is so great to help all 6 grandchildren roll out the dough, cut the shapes, bake and decorate the cookies. Her kitchen is covered in flour by the end but she loves it.

Desert Star

This is the one thing we do each Christmas without our kids. My family has been going to Desert Star (a musical dinner theatre) every Christmas for a long time. We have a great time booing and cheering along with the show.

A date night!

Lego Christmas Village

This year a new tradition started in our family. Clayton has always wanted a Christmas village. Earlier this year, he decided a Lego one would be the best because of the kids and his love of Legos. He ordered all the past pieces and we are now up to date with what is available and hope to add to our collection every year. It was fun to see how excited Ben and London were to help build and then play with the final creations.

Christmas Sing

Another new tradition that began this year was going to the school and watching Ben’s Christmas Sing. He was super excited to sing for us and he was the cutest one there…in my opinion.

Gingerbread House

The kids saw this kit at the store and wanted to build a gingerbread house. We bought it and the kids and Dad did a great job at building it.

Visiting Santa

We were lucky this year because Clayton’s sister Helen had her store grand opening and had Santa visit. Our kids are a little nervous around Santa (and all new people) but they both did a great job…as long as dad was right there with them. This Santa was great too. He took time to really talk with each kid.