Christmas 2011

Taylor's school Christmas program. Santa came afterwards and once again all my kids sit on his lap and no one cried. YEAH!



We spent Christmas in New Jersey this year! We love being with extended family for Christmas but traveling is getting more difficult every year and with the more kids we have. We realized there was no way we could get all Christmas gifts and children in our van and tools (Dave had some projects to do in New Jersey and need his large tools). So, Dave's parents were so kind to come get the kids two days before we headed down. That was nice because we were able to finish up some projects.

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We did the tradition with the Bramhall family by having a favorite foods dinner. Everyone gets to bring their favorite food for dinner. We get a wide range of food and it was great. Taylor took ravioli, Drew took Edamamae, Lana took chips, Dave took Philly Cheesesteak, and I took Candy Cane Popcorn. Then we did the right left story and the Christmas story from Luke. The kids where so cute acting out the Christmas story.

Christmas day everyone slept in a little but once Taylor woke up he came in so quick and was ready to go and got everyone else excited. Taylor asked Santa for a race track that hooked to his Hot Wheels track, Drew asked Santa for a Lightning McQueen race track, and Lana wanted a "dawhouse" or dollhouse. They all got what they wished for and so much more. Thanks to everyone for gifts. Everything went over great and we had a lot of large gifts and we were able to get everything back to our house in the van due to a gift the in laws gave us. We got a large canvas bag to put on top of the minivan, it was great and it can fit so much stuff. We loved it.



While in New Jersey we got to go bowling, go to the Cape May zoo, the Philadelphia Aquarium, make gingerbread houses and play with cousins. Dave learned how to tile and tiled his brothers kitchen and redid some closet shelves for his parents.

Thanks to the Bramhalls for a wonderful Christmas time. The only thing lacking was snow, but they didn't have any in Utah so it didn't hurt too bad. Lana and Taylor were very upset though. They kept saying it wasn't Christmas because it hadn't snowed. Poor kids-I felt the same way.