Christmas Holidays

With living in Fillmore we had a few different Christmas traditions this year than we are used to. Chelton had to work the Christmas shift this year so we had to spend the Christmas holidays at home and have a quiet at home Christmas by ourselves. We went up the weekend before Christmas to spend with our families. On Friday night (which was mine and Chelton's 11th anniversary) we went to our annual friend party with Chelton's friends Brady and Emily Reeves and Nate and Brooke Mueller. We always have such a good time hanging out with our friends and letting the kids run and play together and take turns destroying each other's house. On Saturday morning we had a brunch with my family. This is a new tradition for us and they were very nice enough to pull this together since we were not able to attend for Christmas Eve. My mom wanted to have all the grandkids together to decorate gingerbread houses. We have never done this before and it was a blast for the kids. We got to enjoy some very yummy breakfast too. Later that evening we had a party with Chelton's family. We had a very yummy dinner and played some fun games. We opened Christmas gifts with cousins that drew names and with Chelton's parents since we were not going to see them on Christmas.

On Tuesday after that weekend Kylie had her first dance recital. She did such a great job. She was the youngest (and by far the littlest) girl in the whole recital and it made her that much cuter. She did a cute dance to the "Lollipop and Candy Girl" songs medley and then at the end all the girls did a finale together to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and then Santa came. It was so cute because Kylie got really scared on stage when Santa came and almost started to cry and you can see her on camera practically jump off the stage into her teacher's arms and tell her she wants her mommy. I was trying hard not to laugh but then figured I probably ought to go and get her. Then by the time I got her we were of course the last in line to see Santa and when we get up there Kylie tells Santa she wants a Kit Kat for Christmas...all the parents and Santa looked at me and had to clarify if she meant like the candy bar...and yes...that is what she wanted...a Kit Kat candy bar. That is her favorite thing in the world right now. What a goof ball. She sure looked darling. She was excited that my mom and dad were able to come down and see her for her dance recital.



After coming home from up north the boys got sick and didn't get to go back to school before Christmas but luckily they got over it before Christmas. This year as we didn't have any family around we spent Christmas Eve with some friends of ours here in Fillmore. We had a nice dinner and played a few games. After they left and Chelton had to go to work :( I played a few more games with the kids and we read the Christmas story. This year was a little hard on my kids because Chelton's shift was 5 to 5 so he had to come home and sleep until 10:30 so my kids had to wake up and wait until he woke up until we could open presents. That was a real test for them. We stayed upstairs and watched Home Alone and then played some Wii games and then a few board games until 10:30 when I just couldn't keep them under control any longer and then we woke Chelton up and opened up presents. It was kind of fun to wait that long because it made Christmas last longer. We got Garrett and Connor DSI's and Kylie inherited their old one so we got her some new games for that and we got her a strawberry shortcake dollhouse and a princess sleeping bag.

Santa brought Garrett the electric scooter he asked for:



Santa brought Connor the Air Swimmer's Extreme shark he asked for:



Santa brought Kylie the Rapunzel Sing and Glow doll she asked for:



They also got a few other things they asked for too. They had a great Christmas. It was real quiet. Kind of weird not to have to go anywhere on Christmas or see any family but it was kind of nice at the same to have a quiet family Christmas and the kids had all day to just sit and play with their presents. Chelton and I got a lot of new clothes and stuff for our cruise which is now seven days away :)