Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  It was a little different because my parents just moved to Utah (cry, cry), so we tried to keep up the many traditions and keep busy to try not to miss them too much. 

We spent Christmas Eve with the Nielson family.  We ate yummy soups and rolls, then had the kids act out the nativity.  We have tons of little cousins these days, which makes it so much fun, but to keep a little bit of order with the Nativity, we had each big girl be in charge of a group of little ones: getting them ready and making sure they were where they were supposed to be.  It went rather smoothly, and we were all able to enjoy it. 

 Liz and Abby get ready to be Wise-girls.

 Here's the group: Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, sheep, and wisemen.

We started a new tradition this year for the Nielson's and had a little talent show afterwards.  We heard some great piano solos, duets, ukalele, vocal numbers, gymnastics and all sorts of amazing feats.  It was so much fun that we didn't even get any pictures.

That night seemed like the longest night for me.  Kirk is as excited (or more) than most kids, and woke up a million times throughout the night to see if it was late enough to wake up the girls.  Finally at 5:55am, I'd had enough and let him go wake them up. 

Everyone was so excited to see what Santa had brought!  Marissa got a ukalele, Noelle and Liz new bikes, and Brynn got a keyboard. 

Marissa with her uke, Noelle looking on jealously.

 Brynn got this amazing electric piggy bank.  I think Noelle was jealous again.

Liz also got this robe and a fedora, which are staples to most outfits at home these days.  (Both are items that have been outlawed as school clothes, sadly for her.)

 I got a new Nook so I can read away where ever I am!

 And Kirk got a handheld GPS so we can go geo-cacheing, which is a new, fun, dorky hobby we'll post more about later. 

It was so nice that Christmas was on a Sunday, and we enjoyed a beautiful Christmas program at church.  Then we spent the afternoon at the Nielson's and evening with the Jones' at Melissa and Philip's house.  Wonderful day!