Merry Christmas!

I've said it many times and I'll say it again.....better late than never.

So, Christmas festivities began back during the first week in December. My sister, Beth and her 18 month old son, Thomas, flew in from Iowa on Dec. 1st.

That next week, we attended our ward Christmas party and it was a lot of fun!

Benny wasn't thrilled with the Santa idea.

Lucy asked for a Karaoke machine this year......he delivered. Santa rocks.

Graham had a couple of strange requests. A birdhouse, cowboy boots, and another remote control car. Santa delivered on the birdhouse and car.......somehow he forgot about the boots?

Survival mode is the default at our house since about October. The way I tame a crazy Ben-O is by giving him my I-phone and letting him watch Curious George. It works great for Doctor visits, car rides gone sour, and other stressful moments. There was one Sunday that I had to teach the Relief Society lesson and Benny had a runny nose and couldn't go to nursery. So, I found a spot on the carpet in the Relief Society room and he laid down and watched a movie while I taught. He stayed put the whole time I taught. He just looked up every once in a while to make sure I was still around.

Lucy sang a cute version of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" all by herself. She was a hit!

Graham was a shepherd in the primary's rendition of the Nativity. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

Halfway through the play, the Young Women from our ward came in dressed up as angels to sing a song. As they walked by Graham, Beth and I heard him say in his loud, hoarse, casual voice, "That's a lot of Marys."

A few days before Beth came, we decided to get out our Christmas decorations. I hadn't planned on putting the tree up. Lots of work without Jason and we were going to be in Utah for 3 weeks. The kids kept asking about it, so I caved. It ended up being a lot of work, as I anticipated it would be, but the fun outweighed the stress.

Ben paused for a picture. He knew he was getting away with something because his blanket and binky are only for bedtime. Although, my kids are not oblivious to the said "survival mode", so they get away with WAY too much these days.

Each year our kids get an ornament representing their interests or personalities for that particular year. The kids had such a great time pulling out the ornaments and talking about why Dad and I chose what we did.

We had some serious issues getting our battered tree to stay up. I may or may not have cursed a couple times, but hopefully those memories fade more quickly than the happy spirit that was in our home that evening.