Merry (belated) Christmas

I thought I should record our 2007 Christmas before Valentines day arrives. So... my blog is a little out of order - oh well. Just know that all of this happened in December. Christmas time was crazy! It was a party for a month straight. With two families here and constant visitors flying in and out from both families - it was awesome! It was hard to get back into the swing of things when everything was over.

First of all, thanks to Lara Ellingson, the girls got to meet and get their pictures taken with Santa Clause - a mighty realistic Santa Clause with a real beard and everything.

We made christmas sugar cookies with friends and cousins at our house and then later at Grandma Ray's house with ALL of the cousins.

We went on a caroling hay ride with the Soelbergs around the nieghoborhood.

I had my Christmas recital for dance. It was a big success. I wasn't prepared for all the huge mormon families that came to support thier little dancers. The girls were SOOOO cute and it was so rewarding for me to watch the performance!

We had two joy school performances; one at a nursing home and the other at a house for the families to watch. Grace was so excited to perform for her parents, grandparents, and cousins, until someone stepped on her toe right before the performance. We had the privelege of watching Grace pout under the piano while the other kids acted out the nativity and sang thier songs. Remember to never step on Grace's toes:)

We played in the snow at a park near Shawneen's house. Huge trucks brought snow to Mesa for the kids to play in. My kids were in heaven!

We celebrated Joseph Smith's birthday on the 23rd with the Soelbergs, had Christmas Eve with the Sandstroms, where we had our annual acting out of the nativity (which the Sandstrom kids are getting a little old for), along with a talent show. Grace and Mae sang thier Christmas joyschool songs at the top of thier lungs, and Grace played "twinkle twinkle" on the piano (and Mae pretended to play "twinke twinkle" on the piano). We always get matching pajamas from my mom. This year we got to add one more to our girl picture - my brother's wife, Karen, whom we LOVE!

We went to the Nutcracker again, saw the temple lights again, had a big get-together with all of our highschool girlfirends and their kiddies (and I we didn't even get a picture!!!), Alan and I went to Alan's first office party, I sang at my parent's Christmas party with my newly-formed jazz band:), and Grace and I, along with my mom and sisters got pedicures with our gift card from Santa. It was a party!

Christmas day was great because it was our first time waking up in our own house on Christmas morning. The girls got bikes and a few other toys from Santa. I think the biggest hit was the make-up ...until we went to Grandmama Sandstrom's house, where they got every dress-up that was sold at Walmart. We're not lacking for clothes now - since that's all my girls wear. Alan got a new grill on his truck that makes him very happy - (I don't understand - I thought the other one was great). I got a pressure canner from my mother-in-law that I'm VERY excited about and some great shopping gift cards from my parents. It was a day to celebrate!