Monday, January 6, 2014

Our Traditional Christmas Eve

I hope all of you out there have Christmas traditions.

Or any traditions for that matter.

Traditions are so important in a family, extended or immediate.

I don't remember when this tradition started for my family, but it is one that will stick around for as long as we can keep it.

We love to get out our uncle Jeff's 4-wheeler and pull a sled through the snow of the fields near my parents house.

We've had everything from plastic sleds to the hoods of cars... yup! The hood thing was fun because we could feet 3 and 4 of us at a time! Aah yes! Good times!

This year we just had some plastic sleds that brought much fun, laughter and frozen faces!



When I look at all these pictures I realize how lucky I really am to have the life I have! It's not everyone who gets to do stuff like this in front of backdrops like those snow covered mountains.

Uncle Jeff had fun trying to get people to fall of the sled... he was quite proud when he did so... not too sure about the passenger...

When you have a plastic sled that only fits one adult or  3 kids you get a bit of a line up of the little kids who are anxious to go for a ride.

So, while they wait they get pulled by hand!

Here's Jessie giving Brother and Melly a ride.

Little Zac even got a ride!

Aaron took Yaya on a whirlwind ride

Aaron and Mom were having fun giving rides together.


It was sad to not have my brother, Daniel, and his family with us for Christmas yet again... but, they were pretty smart and went to Florida for Christmas!


Ya. Quite a contrast to our Christmas weather here in Utah!


It's OK, I really do love the snow, and I love this picture of me and Marc.

I think that Sister would have rather been in Florida though, because after two sled rides she was toast.

And I do mean toast.




Good thing Grandma has some chairs out on the deck!

After we had enough sledding and frozen noses we came back inside to resume eating and having fun talking.

Then my mom and Marc had a little surprise for us. I guess my mom had planned with Marc to have him dress up in his cowboy gear and read a cowboy story of the shepherds who saw Christ on Christmas. It was so cute and my mom even had a fake fireplace for him to read in front of. One of my most memorable Christmas moments. (smile)


Then it was on to opening gifts from each other.

My brother-in-law, Joel got all the good pictures because I forgot my camera and only had my iPhone. Maybe when I get some more pictures from him I will update this post, or just do another one...

Anyway, these are what I have:

Everyone starting to gather in the front room for the present unveilings.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Baby a grand piano music box. She LOVES musical things!

But more than musical things, she LOVES My Little Ponies!

This is totally blurry because Sister was freaking out in excitement over the gift Grandma and Grandpa of Pokemon cards!
 And she really is still excited here she was just tired of us taking pictures...


But this one, this one, was funny. This is the evil scientist guy from Phineus and Ferb and she really loved that show for a while but seems to have moved on. Grandma must have not got the memo on that one... you can see the disappointment in this picture...

But, Jessie on the other hand, well, they became instant friends!



After gift opening and a little FaceTime with Daniel we got a special visit from Santa!

Now that is an awesome tradition! I love having Santa come visit all of us on Christmas Eve. We love to go out on the porch and listen for the bells jingling closer to the house. Then we all, and I do mean all but Marc and my Mom, rush into the back bedroom—my old bedroom—and sing Christmas songs until he comes jingle-jangling and HO-HO-HO-ing in when all the kids giggle with giddy anticipation waiting their turn to tell Santa what they want for Christmas. I love that time! It's so fun! I love hearing how excited the kids get about it all. Sister was so cute though, really all she wants is Pokemon cards, Santa chuckled a bit of that one.


After Santa left we started setting up for our traditional Santa orange with the whole family picture.

Sadly, I don't have pictures of that either... but I do have the one Joel took of our family, so you can enjoy that one for now.

I love Christmas Eve!

0 remarks: