Christmas 2019

My parent's house at Christmastime is extremely well decorated. The pictures and decorations in the main rooms are taken down and replaced with Christmas decor. They even swap out the plates for Christmas ones. My kids especially love the Santa display in the window above the sink and the Santa head cookie jar. Annie quickly figured out how to push a chair over to reach Santa's head and help herself to the treats inside. It got to the point where we had to hide the jar. This led to a great scene where Annie was running around in a rage yelling "I WANT SANTA'S HEAD!!" 

Making a gingerbread house with Mimi

We were able to visit Grammie and Papa with the Woolfs. It was the first time the Woolfs had seen Grammie in about 15 years! My favorite part was the sing-a-long. Breezy and Brynlee both recently returned from Spanish speaking missions. Brynlee got her hands on a Ukelele and the two of them jammed out singing Spanish Christmas hymns together. They knocked the socks off of "Noche de Luz," and then Cassidy and I joined them for a not-so-christmassy-but-still-nice rendition of "Hallelujah."

Papa scraped his leg a few months earlier and got a truly nasty infection that manifested itself 2 weeks before the wedding. Mom had her week 101% booked getting her work wrapped up before everyone started to roll in for the wedding and Christmas, but suddenly she had to take Papa (who can't drive) to get IV treatments for 8 hours a day for an indefinite period of time. Fortunately she was able to contact Papa's ward and arrange rides for him to get his treatments after everyone arrived and when we went on the cruise. 

We had a big enough crew on Christmas Eve that we needed to do fondue on two tables for the first time! Max and Morgan were back from their honeymoon, and we also had Timmy staying with us and Karissa over for dinner. 

After dinner we gathered around and sang Christmas songs with Max on guitar. Max and Blake definitely have a more intense tone than Breezy and Brynlee. Dad and Aaron weren't too excited about family singing time, but I sure loved it. 

Before we knew it, it was Christmas morning! Luckily my kids are not yet at the stage where they wake up before dawn with Christmas excitement. We had a nice lazy morning before opening presents. 

Elliot's loot was mostly craft supplies. He was extremely pleased. 

Our Sesame Street enthusiast was a big fan of her Abby Cadabby doll

Breezy had a really neat surprise for me. When she was here over Thanksgiving, she sewed me a dress and had Elliot decorate it with artwork. It is such a neat thing!

Next step: preparing for Christmas Dinner!

It is inevitable that Elliot said "I'M GOING TO EAT YOU BREEZY" at some point during the surprise roll making process

Our Christmas Dinner crew included Bret & Shannon's family and Aunt Cliffee. Sadly no pictures were taken of the spread of beef wellington and other festive delights. We had to rearrange all the furniture to fit in two long tables. After dinner, we moved the long table to the side and made a big circle so that we could play hivemind and signs.