Birthdays and Blessings...

 Bright and early - Anna wanted to open her presents before school.

Happy 9th Birthday Anna!

 After a little morning trauma/drama, I drove the kids to school. Through tear-filled eyes, Anna declared this to be her worst birthday ever.  Fortunately, she changed her mind before the day was over.  I think it helped that I surprised her by bringing personal sized pizzas (from the corner market) and joined her for lunch at school.  She was all smiles when I agreed to let her friend, Krissy, ride the bus home with her after school.  And the school enjoyed an assembly with author, Obert Skye!

Donuts were the special birthday treat again this year.

We ended her birthday by attending the neighborhood Christmas party where dozens of people sang "Happy Birthday to Anna".

 For a various reasons, we changed our weekend plans from snowmobiling in Yellowstone (with M family) to seeing the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake. We left town after the kids got out of school on Friday afternoon and stopped to check out my parents new house.  We were their first house guests and enjoyed the luxury of helping peel off the blue painters' tape and threw a few mattresses on the floor.  Love the smell of a new home! It's going to be a great place for them when they are finally able to settle down there:)

 On Saturday morning, G-ma P volunteered to watch the kids/cousins while Aaron and I attended the temple with Adam and Hilary.  Our family historian (Hilary) provided a few family names and we enjoyed our peaceful outing together.  After letting cousins play, we loaded up again and drove south to check out the new City Creek Center.

 It was crowded as we weaved our way through the area before walking across the street to see the lights.  The feeling of Christmas was in the air - love the lights at Temple Square!

Our early start was advantageous and we left as the real crowds began to descend upon the downtown area.  Back to G-ma and G-pa's for dinner and then some last minute shopping for Aaron and Heather.

Sunday morning we drove north and attended church with Bonnie and Bryant's family before returning home just in time for G-pa M's 67th birthday bash. 

 Six of his eight children were in attendance so it was quite the gathering.

And we skyped with Jared and Stephanie in Hawaii so they watched him open his gifts also.

 He completely surprised Janene when he gave her a present on his birthday...new golf clubs.

 The next generation of cousins were in town for the holidays...Greta, Jack and Jagger.  Quinn and Elsie had all kinds of fun playing in the paper/boxes with them.

After wrapping presents, dipping pretzels in chocolate (the cousins with Aunt Erica's supervision) and preparing for our Sub-4-Santa deliveries, we gathered again at G-ma and G-pa M's place for a yummy meal. We all felt the joy of giving as we thought about how excited these other families would be to receive such a surprise!

 Tanner was our narrator for the Nativity story.

 Elsie - Mary and Quinn - Joseph.  Anna was a great donkey to carry the cargo.

 Jagger as Baby Jesus - Mary had a hard time holding on to this one!

 Jordan and Jantzen - two wise guys indeed...

 Brinley, the shepherd, helped "contain" the Baby Jesus

 Greta - the angel

 With more adults than children around, you can see there was no shortage in the photography department...

 Julia, Heather, Alyssa, Anna, Kasey, Elsie, Brinley, Stephanie

Total randomness.  Still don't know why we were summoned to the cold night sky for this pic.  Females missing from this pic - Erica and Janene and Greta.

After singing a few Christmas carols and having a family prayer, we journeyed back to quietness of our own home to finish our own Christmas Eve traditions...