It's Christmas!!!

Yeah, finally!!!! After church (the Sunday before Christmas), we got our very first Christmas present, Bob and Denise! We were so grateful they were willing to come out and spend a warm, not so snowy Christmas with us :). We had lots of plans and as usual time went way too fast and we couldnt fit it all in. So we scaled back and did a few fun things, but most importantly we just enjoyed each other's company.

 

On Monday Ryan and I went to work together. It kind of felt like a date! After work we all went to BJ's. Bob and Denise had never been, and since I am obsessed with their Fresh Mozzarella & Tomato salad (and their pazookies of course) I demanded they try it. The food did not disappoint and the best part was, is that the kids did great! It was probably the most relaxing restaurant experience to date since Benson out grew his infant carseat carrier like 9 months ago.

 

Christmas Eve morning we went to breakfast with Marianne & Aaron and Aaron's son and wife who were in town from Utah for Christmas. We had a great time. We went to the Aliante Breakfast buffet. Connor was impressed with the selection of food. He couldn't believe he could pick whatever he wanted and go back as many times as he wanted. Naturally he chose the chocolate donuts ;), okay, maybe I did too. In the afternoon Denise and Connor went on a date to see Frozen while Santa and his helper worked on the assembly of a present that consisted of very vague directions and a lot of springs. Denise made cheese and chocolate fondue for Christmas Eve; a tradition from when Ryan was a wee one. The kids loved it and had a lot of fun (despite the tiny little mishap when someone's fondue fork got shoved into another persons ear. But that's to be expected when you give kids a poking device to use as a fork.). I think the census was the potatoes and bread were our favorites with the cheese; and for me the strawberries and raspberries were the best with the chocolate. After dinner we tracked Santa on our phones, it was sooo exciting. We put out Santa's HoHo's & milk. We sprinkled the reindeer food. And planted candy cane seeds. Then we watched on our phones and waited for Santa to arrive in North America and then hurried the kids to bed because Santa would be coming soon! They soaked it up, and so did we. And the best part of it all was that after the kids went to bed we continued to track Santa with excitement as if it were real! Christmas isn't just for the kids. We put together the kids toys, made everything look just magical and enjoyed that last few whimsical hours of Christmas Eve.

 

Christmas morning we slept in until maybe 8am? I think we let Benson sleep in way later because he was up a lot the night before. He must have been too excited to sleep. We brought Connor and Sadie down. Sadie knew immediately the pink kitchen was hers. Connor looked around, and so innocently and sweetly walked up to the tiny little plastic golf set that was half his size and said, "This must be mine, it's pretty cool." My heart melted. He is the kindest sweetest little guy! He would have been happy with a lump of coal, which he'd never in a million years would get because he's too good. Then we asked him if a trampoline would fit in a house? He immediately jumped up, looked out the window, saw the tramp, leaped over a chair and sprung out the door. He couldn't believe it. They played with their toys, and we took lots of pictures. We asked Sadie to look at us for a picture, she yelled back, "I can't! I'm cookin'!" Eventually Benson woke up. He loved his golf clubs, and drug the cart around all day. The rest of the day was spent unwrapping presents, playing with presents, watching movies and I think we even snuck a nap in there.

 

We enjoyed our quiet Christmas at home this year. We enjoyed our past years running around with our family, and cousins. It's a toss up which is our favorite. We are grateful we both have the best families and we enjoy every second with them. We are grateful for our little family and one another. But most of all we are grateful for the birth of the Savior.