So many things happened around this Christmas time. Here are some snapshops leading up to the big day. Below is our crawler checking out the Empire State Building ornament the day we set up the tree. It was such a joy to have a crawler at Christmas! This was a new & happy experience for us b/c Kaelah & Danny were either too young or too old to be in that stage in Christmases past.
This year we had the freshest Christmas tree ever. It was a shame to put it out on the curb last Sunday, but we wanted to support our church's boy scout fundraiser. And to think that at first we were disappointed b/c our favorite local nursery was closed so we gave Home Depot a try. We'll certainly be going back again next year!
We moved the furniture around in the living room to make space for the tree. Meigo was not exactly pleased her sofa was no longer by the front window but she found a way to make nap time work.
Our ward Christmas party this year was amazing! I could tell by the invitation this Return to Bethlehem activity would be amazing so I invited our next door neighbor, Darrel, to come with us. My mother supplied us with some apparel. I was from Bactria & married to an Arabian trader. Our little ones were there too but they weren't all dressed up to match the evening so they didn't get their pictures taken. We decided Darrel was my brother & not Dan's. lol.
Didn't this picture turn out great? This was before going to church the first Sunday in December. Thanks again to Grandma for supplying outfits. She bought Kaelah & Danny's so I bought Michelle's dress to tie the two together.
Here's Meigo checking up on Michelle while Dan took the pictures. lol.Since we were blessed to stay home this Christmas we threw a party at our home for friends, most of whom used to live near us but have since purchased homes in other cities. We hadn't had a get-together like this since they threw me a baby shower after Danny was born. (Well, they have had other ones but we weren't able to attend.) I am grateful they were willing to drive so far with so many little children. The children played so well together too!
Kaelah opted out of being in our family picture but she was wearing a red shirt with jeans too. Our party really pointed out to me who is introverted & who is extroverted in our family. After everyone left Dan & Kaelah were exhausted while Danny & I were hyper. (Michelle is too young to tell still.)One of our favorite festivities was enjoying our city's Christmas parade, fireworks, & free hot chocolate again this year. It was a lot easier to get around with the stroller this year due to the lack of snow but just didn't feel quite right without the white stuff either. And I am very grateful for the warm clothes we have for our little ones!
Here's a picture from when we had a get-together at Valerie R.'s house. Michelle broke into one of the presents I had brought to share. Turns out the girl loves chocolate. lol.
Michelle is pulling herself up really well & I blame it partially on her love of this Christmas wreath. She would see it, crawl over, & pick at the fake berries, etc. for quite some time. She also liked looking down on what was going on in the living room (where this picture was taken from).
Speaking of decorations, Kaelah loved the ones we drew on the window with special crayons. When we had drawn so many that I offered to clean it off & begin again Kaelah informed me we couldn't until Grandpa saw them. Look at how happy she is!I know it was hard on Dan to be away from his family for the first time in years at Christmas, but it was truly wonderful to not have to worry about going out of town during the most wonderful time of the year.
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