This year at Christmas we wanted to teach our kids more about giving rather than the receiving. We wanted them to learn more about our Savior's birth. My ideal times would have been sitting by the tree reading Christmas stories and drinking hot chocolate. Watching all the fun Christmas movies to help get excited for Santa coming. I wanted to teach the family time was important. I wanted to make Christmas memorable this year for my kids. In the end we did things a bit differently. Willie and I had planned a trip to Atlanta the second week in December. Our kids visited Utah. So we missed a whole week of making memories for our kids. One tradition that we are trying to keep is our Family Home Evenings. We try to focus on a different part of the Nativity each Monday night. We cover the shepherds, the wisemen, the birth of Jesus Christ and hopefully the prophecy of Samuel the Lamenite in the Americas. We covered three of the four since we weren't with our kids on one of the Monday's. One of my favorite nights is the night we cover the wisemen. We have treats to give out to friends or neighbors and then we deliver them.
While our kids were in Utah they played a lot of Mario Kart and were watched by many of my family. My grandma Glenna took the kids one day to the Tree House in Ogden. They spent five hours there and then went to lunch to Chick-fil-a. My Grandma had so much fun with the boys. Caroline was with Willie and I. In Georgia we were blessed to have the perfect weekend to see our GA family. We visited our old ward and saw so many people. The kids we once taught in Primary are now so grown up and seriously so tall, like six feet tall! We stayed with our good friends, the Salmons. Their girls have grown up but are still so wonderful. We had dinner with three of our great friends. The Atlanta Stake hosted a nativity display with music that weekend and we were blessed to attend it and see so many more familiar faces. We had lunch with the Huckaby's. Seriously we were so pleased to see everyone in GA that we came to really miss it again. We had to continue on though. We went back to Utah to have a couple of family parties before we traveled back to CO for Willie and Parker to finish their last week of school. Lincoln and Henry had a Christmas Joy School party. The kids were pretty spoiled this year. Grandma Joan gave them a Wii (which we approved of, to help them learn to manage screen time). We gave them shirts and pj's and other things that had Mario Brothers on them. Caroline received a new kitchen that Henry and Caroline loved playing with. One of the best gifts was from Parker, Henry and Caroline to Lincoln. They gave him a huge yellow dog to replace the one he willingly gave back to Parker. He was super excited. It was a beautiful day. I hope that we can be better about giving than receiving next year and even throughout the year.
This picture is from when the Killpacks were driving through town. They are a part of our GA family, thus they made it to this post.
Caroline loves to get in the car and sit in the back where the big boys sit.
My dad took the kids to see some buffalo. Super cool animals.
Caroline with Caroline Douglas.
An unexpected family member. Natalie moved away from GA, she just happened to be in town the same weekend as us. Yeah!
Our one picture of the Huckaby's. Thanks Seth.
Our first visit to a plantation home. It was quick but cool to learn about.
Harrison visit.
Catching snowflakes.
Logan's birthday party.
Making Grandma's gift.
Great Grandma Ellen
Great Grandma Glenna
Caroline in her Christmas dress.
Making cookies for Santa.
Christmas dinner. Rudolf and Christmas tree shaped pizza.
Christmas jammies
Christmas morning.
Henry gets so excited to open a present that he is shaking the whole time he's opening it.
Taking a peak into her present before opening it.
I'm glad she at her breakfast. She sat at the table most of the morning eating muffins.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
