Our holiday season has been a full one! A new tradition that started this year is a baking day with my littles! These four are all old enough to help out in the kitchen.
Don't they look cute in their aprons??
Don't let their cuteness fool you! It was a crazy afternoon with, at times, out of control kids! I don't know if the excitement of the season was getting to them or what, but boy were they a handful! Between wrestling, running around the house at full speed screaming at the top of their lungs, to fighting over dolls, to decorating cookies, to stripping down to their undies and escaping outside......it was an afternoon full. Actually it was only a couple of hours but it felt like a FUL afternoon! We got by with only hour crying fits, three time outs, and one ice pack!
Even though things got a little crazy we made a fun memory and yes, I will do it again next year!
Henry did not let his reindeer brownie sit for long.
Rae's turned out just right!
It was cute to see how the reindeer turned out. Some had one eye and others had one antler but they all enjoyed eating them!
Next was snowman cookies. The kids got to roll their sought into balls and make their own snowmen. After they're baked they got to decorate them as they liked!
How can you not just love these adorable faces????!!!!
That night after all of the decorating festivities with the kids, we had our Phelps Family adult party held at Trent and Kathy's home. Their was a plethora of food and visiting. We were missing three couples....... Brent and Lar because they were in Mexico, DeeAnn and Darrell because were working in the temple and Ken and Robin because of Robbie's health.
We enjoyed playing the white elephant game and afterwards watched a Hallmark Christmas show. I fell asleep a couple of times through the movie (which is totally NOT a surprise) but woke up to see the happy ending. It is a wonderful time to get together with this great group of people!
This is the only picture of the night. Karen got a shot of all of the guys!
Trent, Brad, Dennis, Hal, Larry, and Rick,
The next day was our Phelps family Christmas party. It was held at Ken and Rob's church up in Bountiful. We had a wonderful turnout of about one hundred and fifty I think the final count was. The cultural hall was full and it was super fun to visit with a bunch of my nieces and nephews and to see their growing families!
The turkey and ham and fixing were awesome!!
Also, we had a wonderful program with music and stories. Henry, Rafe, Scout and Haivyn each told a Christmas joke:)
Henry: Why do elves go to school? To learn the elfabet!
Rafe: Where do Santa's reindeer like to have lunch? The Deery Queen!
Haivyn: What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Frosted Flakes!
Scout:
Santa came at the end of the party and all of the little ones got to tell their Christmas wishes.
I only got pictures of Haivyn and Merik.....aren't they adorable!!!
This last Thursday night Rick and I had a wonderful date night. We have been planning this getaway for about two months. We checked into a nice room at the downtown Marriott and then off we went for an evening full of activities. I had been wanting for weeks to get over to the JSMB to the donations vending machines that were showcased on lds.org. I knew I wanted to donate a goat to someone in a third world country. Knowing how much the Ugandans love their goat meat, I thought this would be a real treat for someone. Well, I found out that the goats were not being given for the meat but for their milk and cheese. That's ok though! However it helps is wonderful! milk and cheese will last longer than one meal:) We also donated two chickens! I love what the church did with these machines. The lines have been really long with people wanting to donate!
The tree at the JSMB was so beautiful! We loved listening to a couple of different choirs sing Christmas tunes from the mezzanine level.
We stopped by the Macy's candy window. They did not disappoint!
Next we picked up our car and drove to the east side for a wonderful dinner at The Five Alls!
We love eating and drinking from the pewter dishes!
We had a window seat and had a beautiful view of the sunset!
We love this place so much!
The food and atmosphere is primo!!
Last of all we got to go to the Kurt Bestor concert! He featured on of our favorite artists, Jenny Oaks Baker. It was a wonderful concert with beautiful christmas music. I love this tradition!
Getting a signed cd from Jenny!
On our way back to the Marriott we stopped in the Gallivant Center for a picture with the lights!
Unfortunately, Rick was sick this whole day. He had a sore throat. By morning he knew it was strep. I took him to the instacare and yup, Strep! We had a fun day of Christmas shopping and a movie planned but this new development put a halt to that. We parted ways. He left for home and I did some shopping on my own. The good thing though was that I found three new dresses and two new skirts. I shouldn't have splurged on myself but......I sure did!! Merry Christmas to me!!
To finish our holiday happenings we got to attend the Tooele County Messiah concert last night. It was held at Tooele HS this year and I'm not gonna lie, I wept through a lot of it. This music to me is so stirring! The sopranos were amazing! The other soloist did great too, but the sopranos were my favorite!!
While there is still a week until Christmas our parties and concerts are rolling to an end.
We are watching Henry Clyde and Charles Rick while Skylar and Sarah are on a vacation with the Rigbys. ( Mexican Riviera cruise) That will be it's own post eventually.
We have loved old our old tradition and beginning new ones throughout this holiday season. It has been so joyous to me to be home enjoying family and friends this year. Like the song says, "There's no place like home for the holidays"!!
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