Thank You!

This is the puzzle the Livingstons gave us for Christmas. Puzzles are one of my favorite Christmas/New Year's traditions, but I might be the only one. Still, several of the family stopped in and put a piece in here and there. And I even had a shoulder rub or two while I hunched over the pieces. Very fun, thank you!

Game On!

It doesn't take long to open all the presents when you start before the sun is up; so before the morning was half over, the wrapping paper was thrown away, the piles cleared to the sides, and the games began! Elder Coffman's family stays in their jammies all day, and the kids were quick obliged. (Elder Diaz' family stays up on Christmas Eve until 12:01 and then opens all their presents and goes to bed around 3:00 am. We said no to that one!) So jammie clad, they headed off to the gym for a dodge ball. We eventually ended up back at the house to play lots of new games. One favorite? "Curses" from the assistants. Sorry-no pictures of that one, but it was awesome. Especially when Dad had both the curse of talking like he was using sign language and pretending like his hands extended directly from his shoulders.

Christmas Morning

The fire, the tree, the candles! It's all so perfect. The kids tried to stay sleeping to give us a break, but they couldn't help it. They were up early and texting the assistants (Who were up even earlier just waiting for the kids to call and say it was time...that's one of the perks of serving a mission as a family-we get to have the assistants with us for Christmas!)

One of our favorite family traditions is that Santa brings a favorite sugar cereal along with your stocking. I think everyone was pretty happy this year. We must have had 20 boxes between everyone. I'm not sure how the extras got in....but there they were.

I just loved the look of pure amazement on Jeffrey's face when he opened this one. We're still trying to figure out how it works.

Legos however, we know exactly what to do with those. jeffrey and the assistants had their legos out and they were building away.

And what do you do with lego machines when they're built? Battle

Christmas Eve

There's something wonderful about Christmas Eve, gathered around a roaring fire and remembering the Christmas story. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve together with our family. One of our friends gave us homemade scones and hot chocolate; a perfect addition.

We also open one present Christmas Eve, and it's alway new jammies.

Lucky especially liked Jeffrey's new PJ's.

It was especially fun to have carolers again this year!

Elder Sexton, Elder Rice, Elder Diaz, & Elder Coffman

A Temple in Gingerbread

One of newer missinonaries, Elder Morgan, has family that gets together each Christmas to build gingerbread houses-one of my favorite Christmas traditions. When he came to pick it up, he pulled it out of the box for me so I could take pictures. Isn't it beautiful? I just love the close ups of the missionaries. See the one with red hair? It's actually Elder Morgan, but I'm going to pretend it's Mark!