Christmas Fun!

We've been having such a good time with Brian's side of the family. This is very dark, but we all went up to Temple Square on Monday night for Family Home Evening, Christmas style.

The boys looked so cute bundled up in their winter clothes.



It was cold, but beautiful! While we were watching the nativity scene, people started taking pictures and Ollie freaked out, pulled his hat over his eyes and screamed, "I don't want the people to take pictures of me!! Don't take pictures of Ollie!" We all found it quite humorous, the poor kid.

This is kind of a fuzzy picture, but up at the Christus, the reflection of the statue was reflected in the window and with the Temple and the Christmas lights, it was just so beautiful. It was a great way to start out our Christmas holiday!

On Thursday, the boys and I went down to Eagle Mountain to my sister, Marie's house. My parents are up spending Christmas with her family, so they were there and then they invited us and Jeff's family. It was great to see some of my family eventhough it isn't our year for Christmas. My mom had brought up all the kid's nativity costumes and they loved it! Our little boys (Ollie, Dexy, and Bridger) were happy to play the parts of the animals.

The bigger kids did a great job acting out the story of the first Christmas. Jeff's wife, Melissa and I even got to get into the action (we ran out of kids and needed 2 more wisemen - or in our case, wisewomen).

Then we sat and sang a few Christmas carols and learned Grammy's song about pulling the covers over our heads with a flashlight.

The kids got their presents from Grammy and Granpy and they were - a book and a little flashlight that they could use to read their story in their beds under the covers! Just like in the song. It was such a cute idea!

We love books! We had fun and it was so nice to get to see so much family this year!

Back at the Bowles' house we played and enjoyed our Christmas Eve day. Grandma prepared a great Christmas Eve dinner that we all sat down and feasted upon. Well, except the boys. I think they were starting to understand and were getting too excited for Christmas to bother with such things as food.

Grandma Christensen and Brian's Uncle Ron joined us for Christmas Eve. After our delicious dinner, we read the scriptural accounts of Christ's birth. Ollie thought that he needed a paper to read, too, so Brian gave him and blank sheet and he just took off making up all sorts of crazy gibberish. He's so entertaining!

Then the present maddness began. Ron and Grandma C. brought gifts and they wanted to see the boys open them. Ron got them this fabulous toy called the Tri Bot, a Buzz Lightyear car that races off after you shake it, and a couple of packs of Hot Wheels. They were all big hits, if you couldn't tell by Dexy's reaction.

Grandma C. got them this. They loved it and have been wanting one for a long time! They have already had tons of fun racing all the little cars that they got down it.

They lastly got to open their traditional Christmas Eve jammies (it's always what we got on Christmas Eve in my family and I have insisted on carrying that tradition on). Dexy was even more excited about the letters on his jammies than I thought he'd be and the firetrucks and such were a great pick for Ollie, too.

And then it was Christmas morning! Now Brian's family has a tradition of waking up at 5 AM that they are insistant upon carrying on, even now that all their children are adults. I didn't want to wake the boys that early, so we left them sleeping (thankfully), but this year I finally decided that since I wasn't pregnant our breastfeeding all night long that I could get up with them at 5 AM, too. It wasn't too bad after all. Brian and I got a brilliant, red Wii console from Brian's parents! That's what Brian is triumphantly hoisting over his head! Then we all went back sleep until the boys got up.

Around 8:30 the boys woke up. A time that is much more to my liking!

They came out of their room a little confused at first, but once they saw the fun, new toys, they got the idea of Christmas morning real quickly! They ran right into their castle tent and started draging all their toys from last night in with them.

Then they saw their trikes and had to hop on and take them for a test drive.

I swear to you, Ollie WANTED the pink and purple one!

Then there was more presents to open. These great, big Cars pillows....

....a play city rug which is so fabulous because the boys bedroom has a wood floor......

.....more cars and trucks to drive on the fabulous rug, more train tracks to add to the sets we already have at home.....

.....a super, cool Lightning McQueen night light (I guess the boys' room's decor has been chosen for us this Christmas, but that's ok because we love Cars), 4 Gossie and Friends board books, and a big box of those freezer ice pops that Brian loves. Every gift was a score! The boys loved all of it and have been happily occupied all morning playing with their great new toys!

I brought the castle upstairs where everyone was obsessively playing the new Super Mario Brothers for the Wii that was included in our set (sweet!), so that the boys could play with all of us. Ollie dragged a bunch of his toys into his castle tent, came downstairs and got the rug, dragged it up there too, and then sat in his tent for a good hour just contently playing. A good investment, I'd say! Thanks to everyone who got them such good presents and helped make this Christmas great! It was looking like it was going to be pretty lame from our end, but so many family members helped to make sure that the boys got some good stuff. Thank you!!!