Christmas in a nutshell

I could probably do 3 or more post of our Christmas festivities, but since it is so late in the game already I will give you the condensed version.

Santa visit:

Santa comes to Grandpa's house each year before he makes his annual visit to my dad's Ward Christmas party. We went by my dad's house to visit with Santa for a few minutes.

Tyler, Klee, Santa, and Megan

Christmas Cookie Craft:
I saw this really, fun looking, kit for making Christmas Trees out of Star shaped cookies (pre-made cookies included). It looked really fun but I didn't want to buy three of them or try to share one. So I thought I would just buy some different sized star cookies cutters and try to make our own. So the results were not exactly spectacular, but the kids sure had a lot of fun.

Tyler after decorating/eating most of his tree.

Kylee adding some snow/coconut to her tree.


Megan showing off her completed tree.

Christmas Morning festivities (self explanatory):

Christmas at Grandma's House:

We had a lot of fun at my mom's house; we did Christmas dinner and spent time with my mom, two of my brothers and one of mom's good friends. We had the yummiest turkey ever and some pies that were pretty good too. Put since you don't want to see pictures of food here are just a couple of my kids.

The girls each got these really cool winter coats. The reason they are really cool they can be worn in many, many ways. As pictured here they can be worn as winter coats for going up to the snow (which we would like to do sometime before all the snow melts). They have removable hoods in case you have a need for that. They also each have a lighter-weight jacket inside which can be taken out and worn by itself; for going to school in the mornings when it is cold but not freezing cold. Said jackets are reversible and have removable sleeves, in case you want to wear a jacket-vest. Or if you are feeling really goofy, like Megan was, you can simply wear the hood and the sleeves alone.

Tyler with his Mac truck/Lightning McQueen he got from Grandma.

The kids all got lots of toys and clothes. We should be set on both for awhile.

Christmas Eve:

(I know this one is out of order but oh well)

We also had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner and present game at my dad's house. Which always consists of tamales (yum) and lots of other great food. The present game involves everyone sitting in a circle and my step mom reading the "Twas the Night before Christmas" story. It is a special version of the story and every time you hear the words left or right you must pass your present to the person on the left or right side of you. It gets pretty crazy; there had to be at least 30 people (mostly kids) passing this year. The little ones never quite "get" it and are very confused why you would had them a present only to turn around and take it away two seconds later. Once they get a little older they all seem to really love this game. We didn't take pictures at this gathering; I will have to try to remember to do that next year.