What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more...

Christmas, like a large portion of the globe, is my most favorite holiday. I always approach each December with a hop in my step. Some Wiseman must haves for the month: Christmas music (this year we added Michael Buble and the Biebs to the mix), a tree scented candle (the four ft. fake just doesn't do it for us), and peanut butter blossoms (you know the cookies with the hershey kiss in the middle...I have about 2 dozen of them in my belly). I can say that I honestly enjoyed about 95% of the Christmas season this year (the other 5 % was when I ventured out to shop the week before Christmas-IKEA with a toddler in December is overwhelming). We got to do some fun family activities this year and for the first year in awhile, I felt like we were much more focused on the reason for this wonderful season. We had many wonderful experiences to contribute to that. Here are some of the highlights:

ZOOLIGHTS

This year I wanted to see what ZooLights was all about. I picked a horrible day to go! The wind was piercingly cold and it was ridiculously freezing, despite no snow. We invited our friends, The Glausers, out to join us. They were such troopers to come along! Ellie absolutely loves their son, Gavin. His name has now become part of her limited vocabulary and one of her favorite activities this month was pointing his face out to us amongst our collage of Christmas cards. We endured the chill and ended up having a great time!

Paul RARELY feels the need to give a normal smile in pictures. Hence, the surprised, shocked, confused, etc. looks that predominantly are featured by him throughout my posts. 

Eloise enjoyed seeing a few of Santa's reindeer. They decided to refrain from the picture. Ellie isn't waving at the camera, she just has too many layers on that she can't lower her arms:) 

Someone's not going to be visiting our house this year. Ellie hated Santa. He was such a nice guy, he even tried to have me sit next to him and hold Ellie to see if that would help. Despite our tactics, she wasn't feeling the jolly, big man. Over the next few weeks she grew to enjoy looking at Santa in books and on tv and will even tell you that Santa says, "HO HO HO". Maybe next years encounter will be a little more cheery.

FIRST PRESIDENCY DEVOTIONAL
Paul and I were able to sneak away from our little munchkin for awhile and head downtown for the Christmas Devotional. It was a great way to kick-off the month and get us in the right mindset. I am always speechless after hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in that building. Incredible. Paul is very partial to President Erying and really loved his talk.

SECRET SANTA
Paul's family had the great idea to do a Secret Santa this year instead of giving sibling gifts. I hope this becomes a tradition. It was wonderful to hear the touching story of this family and think about them this year as we did our shopping. I know it had a great impact on me and I can't wait to be able to do this with my kids over the coming years to help them understand how much they have to be grateful for.

MORGAN

(Halloween costumes for a December post...I know:) I wish I would have thought to get another picture. But isn't she the cutest angry bird you've ever seen?)

I have had the opportunity to work with this beautiful girl each day for a few hours as her aide. I have absolutely loved getting back into the classroom. It was very informative, insightful, and interesting to get to view the school system from a different point of view. The Christmas break marked my last day of working with her and I approached the day with dread. Morgan challenged me everyday and I left each day a better teacher, person, and parent. I learned so much during this brief time and know I will walk back into the classroom one day a better teacher because of this experience. This December I was very grateful to have gotten to know Morgan and her wonderful family.

FAMILY PARTIES

Both sides of Paul's family do an annual Christmas party. It is fun to catch up with cousins, aunts & uncles, and the ever growing amount of kiddos. I love the traditions that we do each year.
 On one side we always play the left/right present game (remember that great story about Tommy Right) and do a coin grab (everyone gets the chance to grab as many coins as they can from a ginormous bucket; one hand only and NO SCOOPING!!). It is ridiculously fun to try to grab more than my husband.
On the other side we always decorate gingerbread houses. Paul was incredibly patient with Ellie as she knocked over the bowl of skittles about 5 times in a row.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas day is always a marathon! Luckily this year it was on Sunday so with church we were able to enjoy some peace, serenity, and reflection. We started out the day at home. Ellie's Christmas present to her parents: sleeping in until 9:00! It was great! Despite her poor showing earlier in the month, Santa paid her a visit.  She loved ripping the paper and discovering there was something inside. She would squeal with delight when she unwrapped each gift. She didn't really want to play with anything-just wanted to move on to unwrapping another gift.

We then rushed over to Paul's grandparents to wish them a Merry Christmas and dapple at possibly the BEST eggs I have ever tasted. We booted up to church and made it just in time. Eloise also made it through all of the meeting without having to go to the hall. It was a Christmas miracle!
Next stop: my parent's house. We opened even more gifts with my family. Ellie again squealed and clapped at the unwrapping process. She also loved seeing what her cousins got. The extended family arrived soon after for more gifts, yummy food, and our annual bingo game.

(Ellie's cousin Max...he makes a dang cute Kristopher Kringle)

Ellie loves having her Aunt Kellie home from New Mexico for the college break. Her parents love it too-new babysitter:)

My sister and her cute family.

Jason, Rachel, & Max. And then there's Chad...:)

Last up: Paul's parents. Eloise again got spoiled and loved being around family. I was all pictured out and put the camera away for this event.
By the end of the day we were all pooped! We did manage to sneak in one family photo however:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!