Our Christmas in 2011 (in pictures)

 This was the morning of my birthday.  My sweet kids made me breakfast in bed. 

 Jordan, Ruth and their kids came on my birthday and shared dinner and cake with us.  It was so fun for them to be there.

 This was the kids in their new p.j.'s on Christmas eve.

The kids on Christmas morning....the only time they got up, on their own, on a Sunday ;)

 Abby was pretty excited to see what Santa brought.

 The kids loved checking out what Santa left by their stockings. 

Calvin checking out his stocking.

 Christmas breakfast....I'm all about easy....esp. on holidays.

 The kids in their new Christmas Sunday clothes

 Every year we draw names for Christmas.  Usually we make each other things, but this year the kids wanted to buy things for each other.  I got Abby's name.  I got her a Barbie make up kit, where she can do make over's on the barbie face on paper.   She loves that kind of stuff and I knew that she wouldn't just keep the make up on the paper, but she would put it on herself.  She is actually quite the make up artist.  I showed her, with my limited knowledge, how to put on make up.   

 Dallin got Elsa.  She loves Club Penguin!  It's an online game for kids.  He gave her 2 one month memberships.  She was very happy! 

 Dad had Calvin.  Since Calvin loves guns and video games.  He didn't go wrong with this hunting wii game.

 Calvin had Dallin.  Dallin loves lego's, so Calvin got him this lego game. 

 Abby had me.  She and Clint went shopping and when they walked into the store, it was the first thing Abby saw and she knew she wanted me to have it.  It has been fun!

 Elsa had Dad.  She gave him a bunch of little things.  Since he loves puzzles, she got him a Christmas one,  then she gave him some pencils, with a sharpener,  a calculator, and a big bag of Reese's peanut butter cups...his favorite.

 Anyone for ice cream?

 Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids books this year.  Abby got a collection of princess books.

 This year was a Kit Kittredge Christmas for Elsa. 

 Yeah for books!  Calvin LOVES to read!

 Elsa got Ramona and her Father and Ramona and her Mother. 

 Yeah for an extra Wii remote!

 And double yeah for a Wii remote charger!  No more spending money on batteries!

What is it?! What is it?!

 Yeah more games!

 This is what Ruth gave me.  Elder Uchtdorf's forget me not talk, framed.

 We love presents!

 Abby got into the spirit of giving this year.  She drew pictures and wrapped them for everyone.  Some were happier than other to get them. 

 Love it!

 Yeah Hedbandz!  That's a fun game!

 This game is fun!  I'm actually a great snowboarder.....on Wii!

 Yeah Uno spin!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

 Yeah!  More games!

 Dallin was so surprised!  Because he actually earned this but wasn't expecting it for Christmas.  With a REALLY good pre-black Friday deal, we were able to get it for him.  Good job Dallin, we are very proud of you for setting a goal and accomplishing it.

Calvin was surprised to!  He wasn't expecting this either.  We got an even better deal on this!  

What a month!

Well, December flew by!  We had such fun this month.  Here are some pictures...

 The kids wrote their letters for Santa!  Then put them in the tree, so Santa or his elves could come get them while the kids slept.

 This is us at our Ward Christmas party.  They had a cupcake buffet.  Of course the kids LOVED that!

 ...and the ham and rolls.

 I think Dallin had one to many cupcakes. Ha!

 I loved this one of the snowman melting.

 No party is complete without Santa, right?  Elsa loved to sit on his lap.

 Abby did too, but she looked like this the whole time sitting there.  It reminded me of "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie gets all nervous and forgets why he's there. 

 Not even a treat bags got her to smile. 

 This is what we all looked like just about every night while watching Christmas movies.

So comfy, huh?!

 Here is our living room at night.

 One night we had hot cocoa and colored wooden ornaments. 

 You never get too old for that huh?!

 They all had fun!

 This year Santa sent an elf to our home.  She would go to the North Pole to report to Santa of the kids behavior, then come back and sometimes she would get into quite a bit of mischief.  The kids cousins, (Hannah's kids)  got a boy elf and Laurel would call us just about every day and tell us what they caught their elf doing, then we'd tell her what we caught our elf doing. It was fun and she got a kick out of everything that our elves did.

 This night she was looking at the baby Jesus with the rest of the toys.

 The weekend before Christmas we went to Salt Lake for Clint's company party.  While we were there we stopped and visited Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.  It was nice to talk to them.  They are so cute!

 We also went to Temple Square and played in the hands-on museum.  They had a Book of Mormon theme.  It finally dawned on me that they probably change it every year to go with the primary's theme for the year. (Last year it was "I am a Child of God."

 The girls were preparing some food for the missionaries somewhere in South America.

 The girls were trying to throw the tortillas in the bucket.

 Abby was dancing like the spanish women dance.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow!