Christmas!

Wow.  It's hard to believe it's here and gone.  The kids just went down after a long day of new games, new toys, family phone calls and lots of sugar.

I really love Christmas.  I know I'm not the only one, but it is just a fabulous time of year.  It's a little chilly and dark up here in Alaska, so looking forward to December 25th really helps get us through and it never seems to disappoint.

We started our celebration last night with a family from our ward and the missionaries.  We ate, played some games and the kids ran around enough to crash around 8:30 at our house.  The girls put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  We did read Luke 2 before the kids drifted off which was nice.  Beth and Isabel are now both old enough to read it on their own well enough to understand while reading and I think it really helps them understand the real Christmas story.  I got called in to the hospital, but not for too long.  Carol and I did the standard prep and made it in bed by midnight.

 This morning we got up and I did the daddy  duty of turning on the Christmas music and setting up the video camera.  The hounds were then unleashed and they all came crashing down to a mountain of presents.  Carol and I tell ourselves every year that the mountain will be small and it actually was a bit smaller this year, but could be much smaller still...maybe next year.

Last year we had the kids take turns opening presents to make the experience last a little longer.  This year we just let them at it and they  really had a good time.  They kind of took turns anyway and helped each other track things down and get things opened.  We missed grandparents and cousins but got to have a little extended family love with presents they had sent from around the country.

My present had to have been the best one of all.  A couple of years ago, Carol made a blanket for my mom and hers in red and green with reindeer formed from the kids hand and foot prints.  I loved them and so she made me one this year.  It is really amazing.  It's one of those things you know you'll have forever.  Thank you Carol!

The theme this year was mostly board games and legos.  Owen got some train stuff and everyone got some books.  Owen also got a great race car helmet from the Edwards which he absolutely loved and ran around with for hours.

After the gift frenzy, we had crepes with apple filling...my standard Christmas breakfast for most of my 35 years (thanks mom!).  I also had to have some Andes mints (another tradition from my youth) and Carol made some "pulled pork"  style BBQ chicken in her new cast iron pot from her mom that was incredible.

Overall, we had a great day with lots of great family memories.  365 more days and we get to do it again!  What a great holiday.

More photos here.  I also added our Halloween and Thanksgiving photos to the Zenfolio site.  You can see Halloween here and Thanksgiving here.