Wrapping Up 2010

We had a wonderful holiday week.  Here are some highlights:

*Moroni's Homecoming- Well Done! *

                                       * Lunch at Thaifoon with Ammon & Allison*
*Voyage of the Dawn Treader*
*Dinner at the Mandarin with all adults*

*Basketball a couple times a day*

*Great Chats*

*Several Sub for Santa Families*

* A giant Feast to Ring in the New Year*
*Piniata Bashing*

*Card Games*

*Board Games*
*Brigham and cousins making a new game*

*Best game of the season- Telestrations- Thanks Stave and Ash!*

We missed three families that couldn't break away from the East coast.  We hope 2011 will bring us all together. 

The last hoorah of the week was at the Annual Thompson Family Mexi-Feast!

  Soooo good.  I love Mom's green chili burros! 

Everyone was there but the Thompson Troop, and the Angeleri Family ( friends) were there to celebrate as well.  We missed you Thompson Troop!

The best holidays are those spent treasuring the company of those you love.

Christmas Eve II

Friday afternoon we headed down to Farmington to join the Redds with their celebrations.  We got there just in time to join in with their Nativity presentation.

We were also in time to sing EVERY verse of EVERY Christmas hymn in the hymn book.  Good times! 

We hung up our stockings one more time.

Christmas Morning II we watched everyone else open their presents then headed down to Alpine.  We surprised the Thompsons and got to enjoy delicious Swedish Thin Pancakes all the trimmings and the best Egg Nog on the planet! 

Brigham and Brig also joined in on the annual clash of the cousins basketball play off.  Our boys helped them on to victory.  We had a fun afternoon playing games and relaxing with family.  Good times!

Merry Christmas 2010

The kids woke up, the Christmas music rang out and balloons were flying through the air.

It was a fantastic day! 

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.

Christmas Eve 2010

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Christmas was a little different for us this year.  We decided to celebrate a little early due to Uncle Moroni's Missionary Homecoming on the 26th.  We wanted to have Christmas at home and be able to enjoy it for a day or two so we called up Old St. Nick and he agreed to come early. 

We had a lovely Christmas Eve reading the Story of our Saviour's birth followed by Brigham leading us in testimony.  We enjoyed a yummy treat and the kids all made comfy forts in the crash room.  It was a little tricky getting to sleep- cause after all- Santa Clause is coming tonight!

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

Paper Crafts & Smiles

Seth has learned how to make a lot of really neat paper crafts, and he went to town decorating our home.

They were really cool!

My little guys received some really neat things from their teachers and they wanted to pose with them.

Love their smiles!

Girl Power!

Katry held a Christmas Party for a lot of her good buddies!  They are a darling group of girls.

They played a lot of minute to win it type games.

This one was tossing a green nose onto a reindeer.  All of the games were a blast.

Then they made gingerbread houses.

They finished up the night by playing mind puzzles.  Love these little ladies and my little men!

Santa Sitting

Santa made a stop off at our Ward party.  He was authentic.  Loved his beard.

Kai asked for 'boxes and balls'.  He also asked me if Santa was "evil" for a little reassurance before sitting on his lap.   "Boxes and Balls", comes from a cute little book with a characater named Punchinello.  His desire is the exact opposite of the moral of that story.  But he is only two- so we will cut him a lot of slack. :)  Besides it is so cute the way he says it.

Katry and some friends.

Katry was also a shephard in our ward nativity.  She was very shepardess.

2nd Annual Neighborhood Brunch

We had all the ladies in our home for our annual Christmas Brunch.  It was a blast!  Love these ladies and feel sooo blessed to have such great neighbors.

Pizza Throwdown

Young Women  vs.  Bishopric

We had some delicious pizza- but the Mia Maids came out victorious with their dessert pizza.

I adore all these lovely ladies.

And I also adore these cute Beehives who were hiding out in Katry's room during the other photos.  My favorite is the one right smack dab in the middle!

Lip Sync

I didn't realize we had such a theatrical performer in Seth.  He performed with some of his buddies in the school Lip Sync.

They sang a song about "Mr. Grinch".  I can't remember the title- but they were hilarious.

Seth has a huge fan club among the little ladies and they were not disappointed.

Yah--- He is super cute!

Hustle & Bustle

Has the hustle and bustle of the season gotten you a wee bit tired?

Feel free to catch a snooze!  It might be just the thing you need.

Doorbell Ditched

Some kind fellows ditched Frosty on our doorstep.  Love it!

Overflowing!