Family

After breakfast in bed, presents and two episodes of “I Love Lucy”, the kids, Ammon and I did some snuggling…

 

 

Dinner at our favorite Chinese food place. Soooo good! The perfect ending to the perfect day.

 

A local production company performs the Nutcracker every year and it’s been 5 years since we’ve gone, so we decided we had to have a girls night out! It was enjoyed by all and they did a spectacular job. The sets and costumes were bright and beautifully done and the actors/dancers were equally impressive.

 

 

Every year, like many families, our children look forward to our varied Christmas traditions. The gingerbread house is one of them…

 

Making and decorating sugar cookies…then we deliver them to friends and neighbors…

 

Our church always has a fun Christmas party and this year was no exception. Or maybe it was an exception because this year was the best one yet! It wasn’t the people or the food, it was the theme. We were to arrive in attire that would’ve been worn when the Savior was born and we “travelled to Bethlehem” to pay our taxes. While there, we ate pretty authentic food and sat on blankets we had brought while we enjoyed our fare.

 

 

After we sang some hymns of Jesus’ birth, a live nativity was performed.

 

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

 

 

We spent a day running errands together and doing some Christmas shopping. Annika was pretty excited about her Rudolph pancake from Denny’s!

 

Our favorite little town, Ouray is about 20 min away and is really the reason we moved here. We’ve been here for 5 winters and had no idea that each year they hold a cute little festival called “Light up Ouray”. It’s nothing fancy…the local shops are open late and they have caroling around the tree, with goodies and hot chocolate and cider. It was just the kids and I and it was FREEZING, but we had a super fun time browsing the shops and eating too much sugar =)

 

Oh boy…after spending 75 minutes getting the tree up and lit, the poor, patient children finally got to decorate it! They were such good sports with a very frustrated Mommy. I’ve wanted to buy pretty ornaments that have a coordinated color scheme for years, but haven’t done it and every year I put up the tree, I remember why I haven’t. As I looked at the tree, I saw all the ornaments the kids had made, Ammon and I had made when we were kids and others that family members had made for us. There are so many memories on this tree. Even when I do eventually do a “pretty” tree, I’ll have to always have a kid tree to preserve the wonderful memories!

 

 

This is Delilah our resident fawn. The kids named her, her Mother Mary, the other doe that is always with them is Auntie. Oh, we always have Prancer, Cupid and Comet that like to come around…all boys of course.

 

Cute kid snuggles! Its not often that they like each other this much 😉

 

Those are some glasses Tasha and Daddy!

 

 

But THESE are the best!

 

 

Ammon and Annika had a little whipped cream accident!

Ammon was lucky and had both his parents here for his birthday, which I’m pretty sure hasn’t happened in about 8 years! They treated us all to dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant in celebration.

 

It was a great day and so much fun to have “the parents” (as Ammon calls them) with us!

So, in hindsight, Tasha’s costume was not that easy or inexpensive and I wouldn’t do it again! But still, everyone looked great =)

Harry Potter and the Wicked Witch of the West

Yikes!

He’s got the posing down

Pretty Dorothy

 

Candy overload!!!!!!