Christmas 2015

This Christmas we had our family celebration a few days early.  We got together on Tuesday the 22nd for our annual "Christmas Eve" party.  Gary had to work that night so he wasn't able to make it:(  We started out with out traditional foods that include tamales and homemade chicken and dumplin's.  And if I may say..... the dumpling's were super scrumptious!!  Even better than last years'!  After dinner we had (or attempted to have) a spiritual program.  Generally we sing hymns and share thoughts of the Savior and what He means to us.  It was very chaotic though, this year, with Rafe and the 3 one year olds.  We might have to do things a little differently next year!

After the program we went caroling to three different families and then came back home to put together a couple of boxes with Christmas dinner for two families in our area.  Then while Rick tended the kids we secretly delivered them to our neighbors' doors.

Afterwards we came back to the house for pie and opening of presents!  It was a great night with good feelings and joy in being together as a family:)

Rafe, Scout, and Haivyn,  Henry was sleeping

Sarah and Skylar

 The Boman Family

Rick and I

 The whole gang

Kaitlyn and Alyssia

Rick and John

On Christmas Eve, Gary joined us for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings!  It was a little strange having a huge dinner for just the three of us but we had a very nice night.  We read some favorite Christmas stories and ended the night by watching Christmas Vacation.  Brach and Kendra came by late (from having Christmas Eve celebrations with Brach's family) and set up camp in the basement.  They didn't want to make the late night trek to Pleasant Grove so they stayed with us:)  We loved that thought because we got to see the delight on the kids' faces with all the gifts Santa brought the next morning!

We watched them for a little while and then let them have some family time while Rick, Gary and I opened presents by our family room tree.  We all took turns opening gifts and it was very nice!  We had a wonderful Christmas breakfast of baked orange french toast, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, juice and hot chocolate.  It filled us up clear til dinner time!  Skylar and Sarah joined us later in the afternoon and we had a nice ham dinner with games afterwards.  It was a whirlwind kind of a day with a lot of time in the kitchen baking, cleaning, preparing, baking, and cleaning again.

A wonderful holiday week:-)

Max the pup

Grandpa and Scout

Rafe with his John Wayne gun

 Grandma and Grandpa!!

PHELPS FAMILY

Saturday we had our family pictures taken by my niece Serenity.  (Thanks Ren!)  We haven't had pictures taken for 3 years.  The last time was just after Rafe was born so it is nice to have some updated ones.  I wanted to have some Christmas photos as well as some winter ones so we took the first ones in our backyard under my favorite trees (our willows) and some more in the music room by our Christmas tree (not shown).  For the winter shots we drove up South Willow where some fresh snow had just fallen:)  These are just a few of them.  I will post some more later.

BOMAN FAMILY

Here are a few pictures of the Boman family photo shoot.

They are such a beautiful family!!

Just had to share:)

A Christmas Night Out

Thursday night Rick and I had our annual night in town.  We had dinner at Elevations Restaurant then walked around to see some Christmas lights and the Macy's candy windows.  The theme for the windows this year was "Peanuts" and the artists had some fun ideas.  It's always amazing to me how much candy is used to create these pieces of art.  

After taking a few pictures (in the pouring rain which actually made the night even more magical except for my soaking feet....that wasn't so magical:(  we walked over to Abravenel Hall where we found our seats for the Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert.  I was excited to see who his guest artist was going to be and was pleasantly surprised to see it was Lexi Walker!  She is only 13 but has an incredible voice!  If you don't know who she is you should check her out on you tube. Another  guest group was the Wesleyan Bell Ringers and I'll tell you, THAT was fun watching those teenagers go to town ringing all those bells with the full orchestra and band!  What a great concert!  I look forward to it every year.  This was Kurt's last year performing at Abravenel Hall.  He will be in a different venue next year.  

After the concert we headed back to our room at the Anniversary Inn:)  We stayed in the Country Garden Room and had a round bed in a gazebo setting.  I've never slept in a round bed before.  Other than the bed being a little hard it was a fun room.  I enjoyed a piece of complimentary cheesecake before falling asleep:)  We got to sleep in and that was great!

I love Christmastime and this special tradition!