Sunday, December 27

Sunday was our last full day to have the Christiansens there with the Petes. Alison and Micah fixed breakfast for everyone- eggs, sausage, and french toast. Everyone except Ashley and Hazel went to church. Sacrament meeting was all about the power of music in the gospel. It was comprised of short talks and singing hymns. It was good to go to Relief Society with Alison. I miss not being able to go to church with the girls- especially the women's meetings. I fixed some turkey and noodles for dinner, with some of the leftover turkey. Al fixed a big tossed salad. Dessert was cookies and cake. Late afternoon and evening was more cousin time for the kids with various activities. Here are various pics from the day. Board games, Iphone, everybody ready for church, Micah getting his hair fixed, bubbles...and...Evie loves to have Papa read to her!

Saturday, December 26

The Christiansens had a giant slumber party in the TV room of the basement on Christmas night. We didn't get a super early start to Saturday morning and soon after we got up Mike, Carrie, and the boys arrived. (They had been staying with Carrie's brother in Orem).  So...Saturday was "cousins day". We had turkey sandwiches for lunch and Hawaiian haystacks for dinner, with lots of cookies and some leftover pie. The weather was too cold for sledding, so the guys took the kids to the cultural hall at the church to play in the afternoon. After that the kids played, "Don't Eat Rudolph".

Christmas 2016 with the Petes

All of the final Christmas preparations happened late Thursday evening- most of us finally got to bed alittle after midnight- except Ashley- she stayed up most of the night ;) I stayed up putting breakfast in the crockpot and rolls in the refrig. Here are a few pics from Christmas morning. Ashley made it a very magical Christmas morning for the kids. My crockpot breakfast casserole was somewhat over cooked and there were too many cinnamon rolls in the pan- but they tasted good :) My only other "food picture", besides Jaden's birthday cake and Christmas cookies, was the Christmas TURKEY. Ashley got it for free by standing in line, in the cold for two hours, shortly before Thanksgiving. It made a great turkey dinner.

Christmas Eve

The Christiansens came to Smithfield on Christmas Eve. I got a few pictures that night...but I guess I was busy...or something...or cooking ;) The festivities included Cafe Rio type dinner, deer antlers, singing songs, opening packages (most had aprons in them), using the aprons and frosting (more) cookies...and a very impromptu "Hailey Santa". The Christiansens went to a cabin, not too far away for the night and for Christmas morning- then came back on Christmas afternoon. (staying until Sunday evening).

Cookies for Santa... a little cookie with your frosting :)

Let It Snow

I was worried about going to Utah in December, because of the snow. I was mostly worried about the possibility of having to drive on bad roads. As it turned out the roads were pretty clear, even with several snow flurries. The only streets that slightly had snow packed on them were right in Ashley and Daniel's neighborhood. There was one day when I took Hailey and Jaden shopping that the parking lots were a mess- I needed snow boats that day, but only had my open flat shoes :) Ron and Mason and I went shopping for a snow shovel and brought back two- one for Ron and one for Mason. He loved helping papa shovel snow. (Ron actually shoveled snow several times while we were there). Here are a few "snow" pics and some pics of my favorite "snow babies" ready to go play.

Christmas Fun

I came home with over 300 pics on my camera...only a few more to go- lol. Luckily, I deleted some and made lots of collages, instead of posting individual photos. Some of our Christmas fun included SNOWMEN...inside and outside, cookies, and snow. The snowmen smores were gifts to take to friends. We also made cute snowman, hot chocolate cups, to give to teachers at church (no pics of those). The outside snowmen were cute...but Mason kept eating the noses- lol. Ron and Daniel took the kids sledding. Ron has great memories of the "Thompson PoFolks" sleds- made from a cardboard box and a plastic bag. Since Ron and a home teacher went and picked up a new bed for Ashley and Daniel, and then unpacked it and assembled it- there was a great selection of cardboard and plastic. (Not very good pics of sledding) (Remember you can click on any picture and make it larger.)