The Best Christmas in a Very Long Time!

We were very late in getting a Christmas Tree this year, but none the less, we got a beautiful tree. We had our usual fun, set up the decorations, Brynnlee and Aleigh did the lights on the outside of the house (which nearly gave me a heart attack-our roof is so high and yet that did not deter them. And everything looked great when they were done.

The tree was beautiful and the although it was late in December, the Christmas spirit finally kicked into full gear.



Christmas Eve was really nice! We had a family dinner at Matt and Amy's. All of the immediate family was there except Michele and her family. We missed them. We laughed and played and we had a delicious meal. At the end of the night, we watched the dvd of "Reflections of Christ". Wow! What a great way to end Christmas Eve. The dvd was very moving and touched each of us. When it ended, we talked about my mom, and how much she loved Christmas. We talked about how she always made Christmas a very special time for each of us because she loved us so, so much! Then we talked about how much we missed her...and boy, do we EVER! I don't think there was a dry eye in the room! The spirit was really strong as we all hugged goodbye and went back to our homes to set up for Christmas Day!

With a new job and very little spare time, there wasn't a lot of "planning" that went in to the gift part of Christmas. Luckily, the girls are getting older and their focus has shifted. They were prepared for their gift giving and I have never seen them so excited! They didn't talk to me about what they wanted, but everything was buzzing about how excited they were, to watch others open the gifts they bought for them. That really made the day extra fun!

An advantage of older kids is no 4 of 5 a.m. wake-up calls to check and see if Santa has come and gone. We slept 'til around 8:30 a.m.! It was great. Then we did the usual, the girls waited in my room while I go down stairs and turn on the fireplace, turn on the Christmas music, plug in all the Christmas lights and decorations and turn on the camcorder. Of course, then, before coming all the way down the stairs, they have to sit together for a picture that has been taken for nearly 17 years. (I really want to collect each of those 17 pictures and put them side by side! What fun that would be to look at the years right before me. But, that will take some time for me to locate all of those pictures...between the old cameras and the new ones, I'm not sure where they all are.)

After our morning Christmas gift giving with the girls and me, Lori (my cousin on my Mom's side-her sister's daughter) and Scott (her husband) and there 5 boys joined us! They were up here visiting from Arizona with Uncle Bill (my Aunt Julie's husband). It was so much fun having them here for the holidays! The boys are all growing so fast and they are adorable. Very polite and so excited to see the snow. They had never really played in the snow and never had built a snowman! We had a great time with them.

Then Papa and Grandma Kathy (Walker) all came to our home this year for our traditional "GG" Brunch. It's a brunch we have had on Christmas morning as long as I remember. We always had it at my Nana's house, who later became GG (for Great-Grandma). I think most of the Walker cousin's still carry on the same tradition. It is delicious. We order special buns, still from the same Granite Bakery where my Grandma used to get them. Then make up a egg, grated ham mixture cooked and put on to the bun. We have fruit cocktail with fresh fruit and hot cocoa. The kids look forward to the tradition. I was a bit worried about having everyone here for it. Usually it is at The Schmidts (Michele's) but they were in Star Valley this year, so I offered. It turned out to be really fun. My girls got the new Guitar Hero World Tour, so the kids were in our basement most of the day playing that and the adults just sat around and visited. I can't believe I am saying this, but we actually want to host it here again next year.

The night ended with cousins from their dad's side of the family coming over for hugs. My girls have not seen much of their Boyce family in a very long time (which is VERY SAD) and so they were SO excited to see them all. They made plans for a sleep over and will do that during the Christmas Break.
We had a wonderful holiday and hope that all of you did also. The day ended and my girls looked at me and said, "Mom, that was one of the BEST Christmases we have had in a very, very long time!" I was so happy to hear that. They have had some rough ones in the past few years and it was good to know that this one had been a happy one!