The first round of Christmas festivities in reverse chronological order. Because that's how they uploaded.
Tuachan live Nativity with Jeremy's family:
We started the night with pizza at Nick and Alison's, and then we headed to the show. (Tuachan is an outdoor amphitheater near St. George.) We missed the 7:00 show, so we chilled (sort of literally, it was cold), and drank lukewarm hot chocolate in the plaza until the 8:00. The Nativity itself was very sweet. I'm glad we got to see it.
Rare picture of the couples.
I had to throw elbows at another lady who wouldn't stop taking pictures of her children in front of this tree to get some. Not really, but almost.
Another rare picture, Nick and Jeremy with their awesome Mom.
We had a white elephant Family Home Evening party with some of our friends.
The three oldest kids got to do a white elephant game first. They got to open TWO presents! It's so easy to please kids. I love it.
This is Sterling and Michelle's Emma who has learned to cheese it when she sees a camera. Even the flash doesn't phase her. And my flash is almost painful.
Will deciding on his white elephant selection. The hot gift of the night was a Toad (from Super Mario) beanie.
We also had delicious food and had planned on creating gingerbread houses, but we ended up putting off the houses for another week.
Lastly, er, firstly, before it was even December yet we visited the
Jubilee of Trees with my family:
Frankie with my Mom in front of the decorations in the Lobby.
Frankie visiting Santa. I was really wondering what he was going to ask Santa for this year, and I was scared it was going to be of the electronic variety. (I'm not ready!) Luckily he asked him for some figurines he had recently spotted at Target.
I only had enough cash on me to get Frankie one ticket for the kids area. In past years I've been able to direct him past the kids area altogether, but this year he spotted it. He saw this little snowball game which wasn't being manned by anyone, and started playing with it. Eventually a lady came over so I asked Frankie if this is what he wanted to use his ticket on, and he said yes. He loved playing it, but as we were leaving he realized he could have used his ticket to make a craft. I was feeling slightly bugged that it cost anything for him to throw pretend snowballs, and then Frankie humbled me by saying "That snowball game was really fun. I'm glad I used my ticket. Let's go look at the trees." That's my kid.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but Frankie has some arm on him.
Frankie, Tayden, and Jarek decided their favorite tree was the Angry Birds tree that was done by one of the elementary schools. Notice that they are all holding new toys they decided they needed to purchase. (Grandma loaned me some money to loan Frankie.) For a few years now Jarek has had one of these "Yoo Hoo" toys named Telly. It is much beloved, and apparently Frankie has felt a void. So now he has a mini version, which he named Telly Junior, much to Jarek's dismay. Sorry Jarek, you just picked out a name that couldn't be beat.
Frankie's Telly already looks like he's had it for years, it's so worn out. It has gone everywhere with us.
