Come and gone...

Christmas has come and gone and now we have the memories to reflect on the rest of our lives! Christmas Eve we opened pajama presents early in the day to have time to eat dinner before heading to Ogden to have hot chocolate and cookies with John's grandma before heading to her church for their Christmas Eve program. John's great grandfather was the first Presbyterian minister in Utah and John's grandma still belongs to that congregation so we went there. We attended the children's version so it was very relaxed. The children did most of the program, and our 3 kids joined the rest of the children on the floor when the reverend read "The Christmas Lizard" to the children. They also liked holding their candles as we sang Silent Night at the end. It was an experience and we're glad we went. Two of John's aunts and their husbands also came. (More pictures in the slide show).

Christmas Day was so nice. We were able to put up a Santa Blocker 4000 (blue tarp) so the kids couldn't see the tree until after breakfast, a tradition inherited from my side of the family, although we just had an old blanket with enough holes in it to try and sneak a little peak. We had a nice breakfast of cinnamon rolls, grapefruit, sausage, and hashbrown casserole before lining up and heading in to the Christmas room. It was one of those kind of days when everyone was happy and we could just enjoy it all. I'm so glad for that!
That afternoon we stopped by my sister's before heading to John's family party in Roy. We had a nice time there too and the kids love playing with their cousins. We stayed a little late and then because we had enjoyed such a nice white Christmas, we enjoyed a nice white knuckled drive home! It took us more than double time to get home than usual, and we had to take turns leaning out the window to get the ice off of the windshield wipers. We had taken the truck so we'd have 4wheel drive and boy did we need it! We finally made it home and lived to tell about our adventure!

These pictures show the family party with my side. We had a great evening. So, that's our Christmas for 2008! More posts about our holiday happenings coming up!