Christmas Festivities

We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Enjoy some picture collages of us during the festivities.

We spent Christmas Eve dinner with my parents, aka Mamaita & Papaito, along with my brother Jack (below), and my sister Rebekah and her children Julia and John. Jeff had to keep the wolf away from the door, and was hard at work. With several other Tmobile call centers closed because of blizzards across the country, much of the call volume was sent to his call center locally.


Mamaita had a wonderful Mexican spread (even though she's not Mexican, she can cook anything) with Chile Rejenos, Enchiladas, Beans, Cilantro Rice, Flan, and Ganache covered Cream Puffs (not sure that was Mexican ;).


Afterward we played, sang songs, read scriptures.....as much as the children could tolerate. Jacob was so excited he wouldn't eat (unless it was a cream puff), he wouldn't sit, and he acted as if he didn't know what a prayer was! Oh well, he is two!


Julia is 6 and couldn't stand the wait for gifts......Come on...we were all 6 once....we know what she was going through! But she was fairly patient, no fits of course....just the sighs and facial expressions that I had to capture on camera, they were priceless.


Jacob stayed up later than ever in his life (since the dreaded days of every 3 hour feedings in infancy)...till midnight. John and I stayed up until 2AM once back home, watching "It's a Wonderful Life." He says he's watched it before (who hasn't?!?) but couldn't remember a THING about the plot. He was engrossed. Seriously, I think he was under a rock as a child and remembers nothing. Oh well, it was fun to discover a Christmas classic with him.

Christmas morning was LUXURY! I don't' think we'll experience a Christmas morning like it again until our children are all grown, or at least grown enough to prefer sleeping over Christmas Extravaganza at Grammie and Grandpa's house.

WE ALL SLEPT IN!!! I slept in until 8:30, that was as long as this prego lady could lay in bed...wish it could have been longer. John slept in until after 10, and Jacob had to be awoken from his beauty rest at 10:30. LOVELY!

We headed straight over the Grammie Ann and Grandpa Jake's house. This year Mary and John were their only children in town. Making Jacob the center of attention, being the only grandchild at Christmas. Jacob loved every second of it, as did all the grown ups.

Jacob quickly learned how fun it was ripping gift wrapping. He was a great helper to everyone, until he opened his gift of "Sheriff." The police car from the movie "CARS" and the toy had lights, sirens, and talking.....that was it. Christmas gift giving was over as far as he was concerned! That and several matchbox cars....he was in heaven.

I had to document Jacob's outfit. Snowman Jammies and his new Firetruck shirt. He wouldn't let me take off either.....we didn't want to fight Christmas morning....viola, I let a 2 year old choose his clothing ensemble. I also had to document my view of the world these days, baby belly and swelling legs....got to love it! This girl is getting bigger every day (as Julia reminds me), and hopefully she'll be joining us soon, or as soon as she is ready!

Grammie Ann made us great Breakfast Quiche (a tradition in their family, which none of the children like, only in-laws, Jake, Ann, and Ooh Ooh), and YUMMY Cinnamon rolls.

We played around Grammie's house for a while, before we all packed up for afternoon Christmas naps.

Before Jacob woke up from his nap, John and I started tackling some of my "nesting" projects. We got a lot done. Put away all baby clothes, diapers (over 40 packs), baby gear, organized a junk pile, and moved a bed...along with some general house cleaning. Well, some of that was done after Jacob went to bed. We decided we needed a family outing to Walmart (not our favorite store) because it was open 365 days a year. We packed the car up, 3 of us plus 24 matchbox cars and "sheriff".....sirens and all. A few minutes later we pulled into the deserted parking lot, along with quite a few other cars, and circled around wondering when they decided to take Christmas Day off! It was the ONE store that non-Christians and cooped up Christians alike could go to on Christmas. We were thwarted. So, to alleviate our disappointment we went and ate the rest of my mom's left overs......before we headed home!


This year we probably had the most relaxing and restful Christmas time ever! We didn't go overboard on gifts, we gave smaller but thoughtful gifts. We didn't go crazy on decorations, which are normally so fun....but slightly dangerous for me to climb ladders this year. We listened to a lot of Christmas music and enjoyed our families.

We missed John's sisters Natalie and Amy, and their families, and we missed Wayne and his family. We especially missed Ooh Ooh, she was in Washington helping Natalie's family while Andrew is still in the hospital. We were so glad she could help them during a time when we couldn't, but we've never had a Christmas here in our home town without her (well I haven't since being married 10 years ago and John never has).

We are looking forward to more organizing this weekend and next weekend along with the Fiesta Bowl.....GO BRONCOS!

Although, baby Sister's arrival any time now would be the best gift ever ;)