December 2011

For our ward party, we divided up into groups and visited members of the nativity in the different classrooms. I  thought it was cute how Evie squeezed in next to our neighbors Hayden and Parker even though there was obviously plenty of room.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house. It's a family tradition to act out the nativity, but as the younger children in our family all grew up, we sort of stopped. Now that we have Anna and Evie, we've started to revive that tradition, but it's still a pretty small production. Erica, who was the Primary chorister, made some great costumes for her Primary, so she brought them over on Christmas Eve.

My special angle child.

Anna as a shepherd.

Now, she's Mary. I think we just spent awhile playing with the costumes and then Grandpa read the nativity out of the Bible. I believe I got to be the donkey this year, but maybe Dan did it. I can't remember and that is the problem with taking so long to write this stuff down.

Shooting a dart gun with Uncle Shawn who is great with guns and kids. 

Eventually I think I took the kids downstairs to watch a movie so that they would calm down a bit before we went home and so that Dan and I could play some games with the other adults before heading home. They got to open their Christmas Eve present (the princess pjs) at Grandma and Grandpas, and we hoped that if we stayed long enough they would crash on the way home and be easy to put to sleep. If I remember right, Anna did fall asleep on the way home, but Evie didn't. Evie was easy enough to put to bed once we got home though, so our plan worked pretty well.

Evie having a last minute chat with Santa

Two days before Christmas, I asked Anna what she wanted Santa to bring her. She said, "I want the green son of the sword." Translation: a green light saber.  Santa didn't deliver that, but I think she was happy enough with her presents.

Christmas morning

Santa got smart this year and brought fruit roll ups and fruit snacks instead of tons of candy, although there was some candy in the stockings too.

Evie checking out the Sleeping Beauty princess she found in her stocking.

Santa brought the girls a kitchen to share, but Mom and Dad gave Anna a set of all the Disney princesses (except for Mulan and Pocahontas, who for some reason are second tier princesses, I guess).

Evie got a Rapunzle toddler doll from Mom and Dad.

Grandma Sandy gave the girls backpacks with dolls that detach. My girls love backpacks.

Evie is mixing up some Cheeze-its (from Dan's stocking).

We also gave the girls a dress up box. The plastic high heels continue to be a favorite, but their favorite thing to do is stomp across our wood floors in them. It's so loud, but luckily for us, all the stomping cracked two of the shoes in half, so things are looking up.

We were lucky to have Church at one. So after a busy morning opening presents, including their new Christmas dresses, we got dressed for Church.

After an hour of Church we headed straight down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Poor Evie was so tired, but she was fighting it. I think she eventually fell asleep on the way down, but it didn't help that I was taking photos of her droopy eyes.

Grandma gave Grandpa lots of toys for Christmas including two large floor puzzles.

Erica gave the girls some Melissa and Doug food sets to go with their kitchen.

Helping Evie slice some green peppers

Poor Dan was so tired. He managed to doze off on the couch, but Anna wasn't having it. Grandma and Grandpa gave Anna the Rocking Elmo and Evie the Furr Real dog. I guess Anna figured Elmo might be able to get Dad up.