Christmas Time

On Christmas eve we drove downtown to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights and nativity there. We've sure enjoyed having Kaitlin home for the holidays. These kids aren't just smiling for the photo, they really do get along well.

It was cold, but not unbearably so, and the lights were very nice.

Whenever I walk around the Salt Lake Temple I remember that five generations of my family have walked these paths.

On Christmas eve we also reenacted the nativity.  This year we tried more of a free-for-all approach. We all gathered random costume supplies and put on a narration of the Christmas story. When a character was named then someone threw on some sort of costume and acted out the part.  Here, Kaitlin is Mary and Ruth is playing Elizabeth. Jared wanted to be baby Jesus so he rolled himself up in a white sheet. Chuck played a convincing sheep with a white towel over his back.

We got a lot of presents on Christmas morning. We also got a Christmas snow!  Here is Chuck wearing an "ugly" Christmas sweater I made for him.

Christmas Day was a quiet and casual affair for us.  Kaitlin got a chance to visit with her missionary and the rest of us played with our new toys or played wii games together.  We had a fancy Christmas dinner complete with Christmas crackers.

On Friday when Chuck went out to shovel the driveway  he discovered a six point buck sitting under Ruth's window.

On Saturday we hosted the family Christmas party. All my Utah siblings, their families, and my mother were there.

We had a good time visiting and playing games. Ruth won the Mario Cart competition.

The evening ended with a re-gifting exchange. Here my niece, Stacy, is modeling the onesie she was given.