Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was at our place. At first I was a bit leery of not traveling somewhere for Christmas. Would it still seem like Christmas if we didn't go visit family? Could I pull it off and make it fun like my mom does? But it turned out to be a great week. We had family come to us and didn't have to worry about traveling over icy mountains or toting gifts back and fourth. My sister and Robb came up from SF and my parents came up from Or. The kids were over the top excited and both really got the whole "be good for Santa" thing. It didn't even seem like tons of work that sometimes hosting brings. My parents are always huge helps and my sister and Robb were awesome entertainers and cooks! We had a fantastic time and can't wait for next year!

We all met in Corvallis Or. on the 23rd to visit some relatives on my mom's side and to meet our newest addition to the family, Maya, my cousin Emily's little girl. I think she was entertained...

Christmas Eve

Our very unconventional Nativity performance.

Mary and her... er... uh... his donkeyYeah, she knows what we think of her

So, maybe Jesus got cookies for gifts? And maybe Mary gave them to him? Why not?
The Shepherd who kisses her sheep
After our crazy nativity we got ready for Santa to come. Madison wrote a cute letter and they set out cookies and carrots.Santa's loot

Christmas presents took ALL DAY LONG!!! It was so great! It wasn't that we had too many to open, we just took our sweet time. We did it in about 3 different sittings- we opened, played, ate, opened more, played, changed, played, opened more etc... It made the fun last and last.

New kicks from Nana and Papa

He liked his little wooden construction trucks so much that we found him outside in his socks and underoos playing with them in the frosty dirt.We ended the night with a little band hero
The rest of the time was spent eating, chatting, playing games, hiking, and a cold cold pic-nic.I just had to take this shot. My dad brought some of his homemade beer for Kellee and Robb to try and it was pretty funny to see Robb drink it out of our BYU cup.