Highlights (and a couple lowlights) of the month

Wow! What a last couple of months! Where has it gone? In fact, pinch me, am I dreaming? No really, I absolutely LOVE the time from October to January but, it just gets exausting. It was all worth it, though. There were lots of highlights (and some lowlights) celebrating Christmas this year-

My 1st Christmas Cookie Party
Small and sweet, about 15 of my friends and I got together for eating, sharing cookies and laughing. It went smoothly so I have decided to make it a new tradition. Notes to me-next year I'll send out invites and I will NOT have extra sweets! Only some salty snacks to kill off the sugar headaches from all of those cookies.

Las Sendas Ward Breakfast with Santa

The best parts of the breakfast that we had right outside of the lake were...

King-of-the-Mountain, and

eating pancakes and breakfast burritos and hot chocolate.

A couple in our ward (Bette Sue, from the biggest loser and her husband) run some property out by the dock of Saguaro Lake and that's where our breakfast was held. We had a big bonfire and the men were cooking up loads of hot breakfast food. I think that this was the first really cold morning of the month. The kids kept warm playing on the big dirt mound and tire swing. Casey kept warm in a vicious game of ultimate frisbie. I froze.

Sofia's Preschool ProgramNotice that I didn't get one picture of Sofia singing. She refused to sing. But, that was not my concern. My only concern that day was how to mask the bangs that Fia had cut a couple of days prior. Despite the mullet, I thought she looked really cute.

Turley Family Christmas Party

Every year, my mother-in-law and her sisters and all of their families get together for a big Christmas party. This year, the rotating location landed at my in-laws. Convenient since the rest of the family lives way west, from Glendale to Camp Verde. Since it was our year, all of the Skidmore grankids sang a song and we planned games for the program. The night always ends with the reading from the scriptures of the birth of Jesus. We love this party.

and, the finale...
Christmas Day, for us, began at 5:30AM and went like this...

Mom, can we open our presents!?

No! Go back to bed until 7.

SEVEN!? How about 6?

6:30.

Fine.

Fine.

When we all finally got up, the kids were so excited to see that Santa had brought them everything that they asked for (and mom and dad bought everything else). Cade's favorite gift was his WII, Phoebe's was her doll and all of the acessories that came with it, Sofia's was her huge box of PlayDoh (I have the mess to prove it) and Lila loves everything that everyone got. She has no idea what's hers and what's not. I think that my favorite gift was what Phoebe got me, a book on cupcake decorating. Spaghetti anyone?