Real Christmas (In Utah)

Early Sunday morning, the day before Christmas Eve, we drove up to spend a week in Utah.  We timed it just right, since the very next day saw the start of a four-day blizzard that pretty much snowed us in!  
    

Elise and Grandpa worked hard on their snowmen.

  

Despite the weather, Kevin, Kyle, Kelli, Felix, and baby Lincoln were all able to come down to my mom's place, so we got to open presents and have Christmas dinner together!  
  

   

    

For the next few days, the kids played with their toys, we shoveled snow, read, hung out, and just relaxed.  It was exactly what I needed.  
      

Flying Connor's Helicopter in the Shed

I don't know if Elise designed this to look like a heart, but I wouldn't be surprised.

  

When the roads cleared, we managed to go up to Temple Square with Kelli and her kids to look at the lights (poor Kyle had to go to a Jazz game).  It was cold.  No - actually COLD!  Not something we're accustomed to anymore.  Despite the chilliness, Kevin and Katie were still willing to come out and join us as we looked at lights and candy windows.  It was pretty great.

    

  

  

We visited Kyle and Kelli's new house (Ryan hadn't seen it yet), and stayed up late playing card games.  Felix didn't make it very long.
   

  
We also went over to Grandma Cloe's for an afternoon.  Even little Evan knows that Grandma Cloe has toy cars and ice cream.  Binny had fun, too.
  

I love this picture.

   
I had brought this gingerbread house kit up with me, then forgot to build it.  We decided to do it last-minute the night before we left.  I figure it's better to make the mess at Grandma's house than ours, right?  Oh, and I was much better behaved this year.  I let the kids do basically all of it themselves.  Only Evan was brave enough to eat it the next day.  It's kind of more for looks than flavor.
  

(Next Morning)

We left on New Year's Eve morning, and drove straight through.  We got to Pasadena around eleven, so Ryan thought we should park, wake everybody up, and walk through the cold, dark night to the float display to ring in the new year.  Tragically, there was no parking, so we gave up on that idea.  It was fun to drive the route, though, and have silly string, marshmallows, and tortillas thrown at us.  When we got home I don't think we even turned on the TV at midnight.  We just went to bed.  

Fake Christmas

First of all, I forgot to mention that our wonderful friend Audrey took our family pictures back in November.  It was one of those photo-shoots where nobody seemed to be cooperating (poor Corinne looked like she was about to burst into tears half the time!)  But, despite that, here are my three favorites!
  

     

Since we were heading to Utah the day before Christmas Eve, we decided to cut down on the amount of gift baggage and do Fake Christmas on Friday.  This year I tried wrapping some of the bulkier presents in felt, tied with cloth ribbons, and it was awesome.  I'm totally going to use that material over and over again.  Ryan got new luggage, I got an iPad (yeah, his idea was better than mine.)  Connor got some Legos and Calvin and Hobbes books, Elise got an ice cream maker, Evan got these plastic stepping stones that he jumps across, and sweet little Corinne got some of Elise's baby toys wrapped up.  I felt like a bad mom, but she didn't know the difference, and we had too many toys already to buy more.
   

Even with the unbreakable ornaments, Evan broke quite a few.

Gifts from Nana and Al

  

Corinne's First Christmas Present

  

      
That evening we joined our friends again down in Newport Beach.  They were staying at a time share, so we hung out, swam, and roasted marshmallows on a very heat-less gas bonfire.  The kids were wiped out by the time we left.  We had meant to leave on our trip the next morning, but since nothing was packed, and we got home around midnight, that wasn't going to happen!
  

  

Next-Morning Sleepiness

Pre-Christmas

Connor started taking piano lessons in January, so he had almost a year of practicing under his belt for his first piano recital a couple Saturdays ago. It was cute - the other students were two other boys his age and a married couple that decided to learn later in life. The teacher is wonderful. He comes to our house and is almost too nice for his own good. I'm really happy with what Connor has learned so far. At the recital he played "Rudolph" and "Frosty", (both as duets with his teacher,) and did great!
  

  

Ryan has a very serious rule against artificial Christmas trees. I understand - the ritual of picking out and setting up a fresh tree can be a lot of fun. This year, though, it got to be a week before leaving for Utah, Ryan was sick, and it was cold and rainy outside. In a moment of weakness, he agreed to let me run to the hardware store and get a short little plastic tree. I put it up on a box to make it look bigger, and put the lights on. The rest the kids did all by themselves. Easiest tree ever!
  

  

The week before Christmas was a bit crazy. Our friends from Hayward came down on vacation, so we joined them at Disneyland on Tuesday. It was a little rainy and cold, but not too crowded, and we had a great time. Corinne divided her time between the baby carrier, (snuggled inside my coat,) and the baby center - an awesome Disneyland service I'd never known about before. It's like a little clubhouse for moms with private nursing booths and rows of changing tables. It definitely beats freezing to death trying to nurse on a bench!
  

  

Thursday night was the kids' Christmas concert. It was adorable - they'd been practicing for it all semester at school. Connor's class sang "Gloria to God in the Highest" and "The First Noel". Elise's sang "Ten Little Angels" and something about friendly animals in the stable (I can't remember the name.) For the finale, the classes all went up together and did "Joy to the World." The lighting was pretty bad, but I'm posting the pictures anyway because they're cute!