I know, I know! I'm almost 2 full months past Christmas. But honestly, it isn't completely my fault. All the pictures I wanted to use were on other people's cameras. Now I finally have them and am ready to give a quick recap of a few more of our Christmastime adventures.
E & Y Holiday Party
We started the season out with Jeff's work party. This year was by far the best we have been to yet. Perhaps it is because we know more people now... or perhaps because the venue was way cooler then the past two years. This year was at the Exploratorium. When he first told me I thought it was a very strange place to have a party but once we got there, we discovered how awesome and truly genius it was. For example, if you didn't feel like making small talk with co-workers you could just head over to one of the exhibits and play. No joke. I haven't been there since a field trip in probably the 5th grade so it was lots of fun to explore. Don't you fret, we still talked with plenty of people and ate our fair share of amazing food, but I would be lying if I said I didn't play with the exhibits too. It was an awesome night. I must give a shout out to my amazing friend Liz who let me borrow this awesome dress! I kind of want to not give it back. :) But with this growing belly of mine, it probably doesn't even fit anymore anyway. Darn!
FHE with Santa
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Santa made a visit to a house near GG again and they hosted a little FHE visit with Santa like last year. We went with our cousins and GG and had a great time. This Santa was awesome. He was so engaged with each child, I loved it and so did the kids! After our time with Santa GG treated us to a treat. Such a fun tradition to keep alive. Been going since Jeff was a little boy.
Thanks for a great night GG!
Puppets of Praise
This is another tradition that has been going since Jeff was a kid. Granny and Gramps invited us to go see Puppets of Praise again this year. The kids really like it last year, so I was excited to go again this year. When we arrived we discovered that the time we were told was incorrect. It was a little too far to head home, but luckily I had packed the rain jackets and rain boots and we were in a parking lot with HUGE puddles. The kids went to town. The jacket and boots did not do much with the amount the kids were jumping. They were truly soaked to the bone. Jeff ended up driving home to get them a change of clothes. They sure did have a blast doing it though!
The show was great. The kids were glued to those puppets. They sing popular songs mixed with the true meaning of Christmas. It really is a cool thing. After the show the kids went up to say hi to the puppets, but didn't want to take a picture. I stole this group shot from their website found here. That night the puppets were obviously wearing Christmasy clothes rather than sports jerseys. After the show we headed back to Granny's house for dinner. It was such a great night, well all enjoyed it
Ward Christmas Party
No Christmas season is complete without the ward Christmas party. This years was very nice. Santa stopped by of course. The kids were excited to sit on his lab again. I'm so glad they are not scared of Santa, but rather so excited. To see Christmas through a child's eyes is so magical. I love it!
Playing Dress Up
My mom got some awesome costumes this year for Christmas Eve but she had then all month. Every time we went over the kids were so excited to dress up. P made a wonderful wise man and Em loved being Mary and caring for baby Jesus. I love how when they give the gifts to baby Jesus they literally give it to him in his cradle. So sweet.
Candy Trains
I remember doing this with my mom when I was a kid and it is so fun to watch my kids now do it. This year my mom had a train for each of them to make. She helped them one at a time put the candy train together. We made one for our family and one for a new family in the ward. The kids seriously LOVED IT! The making and the eating. Em was a little sad to give "her train" away, but it did provide a good teaching opportunity. Needless to say, we had PLENTY of candy to snack on all Christmas season!
Christmas Eve
We are lucky enough to live next to both sides of our family. And lucky for us splitting Christmas works out rather nicely. Christmas eve is big in my family so we celebrate that with them. Then Christmas day we celebrate with Jeff's family. Perfect! This year was especially nice because my sister and her hubby came out. We were so excited to have them here, especially P and Em. It was also a special year because this was the day we told our family we were expecting again. We had Em come in wearing this "Big Sister" shirt. My dad was the first to notice and was grinning from ear to ear with excitement. My mom and I actually had to sneak away for a little because I had an ultrasound that day. I thought she would be excited to come and be the first to see the new baby. It was a very special moment for both of us. We hurried back to we could open presents which is always a blast. I made my sister this awesome sign which she LOVED. We were all spoiled. We hurried and cleaned up to get ready for all the extended family coming. I think it was 28 this year that came.
Fluffy Bunny
We started out the festivities with a hilarious game of Fluffy Bunny. We each took turns. I don't know if it is more fun to watch or to participate. It is the laughing that makes you loose it. I think the record for the day was 12 jumbo marshmallows. I only got 6, Jeff got 7. I only got pictures of Jeff, I sure do love this man! Look at the smile, it is the best!
Later we also played an AWESOME game of Christmas Family Feud. I found the game online and made it with my mom for our family. They loved it. We were all laughing so hard! I wish I would have video recorded some of it. So much fun!
Christmas Program
Every Christmas Eve we do the Griffiths family program. It is basically reading aloud the Christmas story from the scriptures intermixed with corresponding songs throughout. I love it. I have done it my whole life and plan on doing it the rest of my life. So awesome to be together as an extended family and discuss the true meaning of Christmas. We had lots of participants act out the story this year, they did a great job! It was so very nice.
Christmas Day
So I seriously SLACKED on picture taking this Christmas. And after seeing all of my friends adorable posts of Christmas I am so sad about it. I didn't take a picture of the kids the night before all excited and in their new Christmas PJs. I didn't take a picture of Santa's set up. I didn't take a single picture of our own little family opening presents (we did get some video though). I didn't take any pictures at my in-laws. I mean really! What was I thinking! GG was kind enough to send these two pictures from Christmas day. Both kids sporting some of their new clothes.
Christmas day was really nice. It was fun breaking the news to this side of the family as well. For them we hid an ultrasound picture in with one of the gifts. So fun to do! Once again, we were all spoiled, ate way to much food, but sure enjoyed the company!
Bye Bye Rachel & Dallas
It was so nice having my sister and her hubby in town. She really is the best aunt in the world! My parents worked in the Temple the day of their flight so I drove them to the Temple to meet my folks. The kids had fun running around temple grounds as always but we were so sad to say goodbye. We all shed some tears and to this day when I pull up to my folks sometimes the kids say "Maybe Rachel & Dallas will be here." Darn that distance! Sure hope they can come again soon!
Sacramento Fun
That same day we dropped Rachel and Dallas off we decided to head out to Sacramento. Some of our good friends from BYU were in town and we wanted to get together with them. We also wanted to take the kids to see the Sacramento Temple, alas we killed two birds with one stone. We started out with meeting up for a late lunch with our friends. It was so great to see them and meet a few of the new additions to the family since we last saw them. We were lame and didn't take a picture. :(
I then called up one of my best high school friends who lived close by and we got to meet up with her too. We met at a local park and let the kids run around and play for a bit. They were such troopers being stuck in the car so long and were great at lunch too, so they needed some time to run. It was so great to see her and catch up a little. I wish I saw her more often! Once again, no picture. :(
Then we headed over to the Sacramento Temple. It really is a beautiful temple. They still had the Christmas display up which the kids were excited out. I love how excited they get when they see a temple. This was their 10th temple seeing in person this year. It is so fun to walk around the grounds together and sing "I love to see the temple." I hope their love for the temple continues to grow throughout their life. It truly is a special place.
Lastly, we hit up the outlets which happen to be right down the road from the temple. We were able to grab some food and do a little shopping. The kids favorite thing about the outlets are always the little riding toys they have stationed all around. I never even have to put a quarter in, but they sure do love it!
Overall it was a really great family day. So nice to get out and spend some time with daddy and to see our friends. The perfect end to a wonderful Christmas season!
Hope yours was wonderful too!
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