Christmas 2009

I love Christmas. I love what it stands for, the reason we celebrate. Amist all of the bargain shopping and gift wrapping we sometimes forget that this whole holiday is centered around a little baby boy. Growing up, we would always read the account of the birth of the savior from the Bible. It is of that little boy, swaddled, and sleeping where animals sleep, that my mind would always drift. But now that I am a mother, I find my mind moving more towards the young girl who held the savior of the world in her arms. She knew all the prophesies, she knew that she held no ordinary child. I feel overwhelmed with the raising of my own two children, and they are just your ordinary-average-run-of-the-mill children. I wonder how she did it. How she looked into those baby eyes of the savior and found the strength to shoulder the immense responsibility of being the guardian and caretaker of the redeemer of all man kind. I don't know how she did it, but I am eternally grateful she did. So thank you Mary, for raising my savior.

And now, on to a shameful display of commercialism:


Mimi got Lauren a Fancy Nancy doll and some Fancy Nancy dress up clothes.





Evan opened all of his presants with one of Chad's tools! Silly boy! Mimi and Pop Pop got Evan a tool bench which he was glued to for the rest of the day. And he still runs to it when he wakes up in the morning. It is the toy he plays with the most. It is so cute to me. I love it. For so long, he hasn't really taken an intrest in anything. No balls, cars, dinosaurs, ect. So I love that he found something he loves to play with.

I think that this picture is a good summery of the whole Christmas morning. And check out Chad! He totally passed out-snoring away. The kids thought it was hilarious.


Poor Chad. So tired. But such a great picture moment, I just couldn't pass it up. (love ya Chad)


After all the gift-giving and nap-taking, we went to my dad's house. I was so excited to spend Christmas with my dad. If we wern't going to be able to make it to California, at least we made it to Far West. Rita's three kids came, and my sister was also there. My dad and Rita had bought all of the grandkids a bunch of gifts. They gave Chad and I some Living Scripture DVDs (which is just what I asked for, thanks dad). It was alot of chaos and mayhem and noise. In short, it was a lot of fun.

(My Dad, Rita, Lauren, Me and Evan)



It was crazy, but lots of fun. Somewhere in the middle of all of the noise, we got this great idea to take a picture of my dad and Rita with all of their grandkids. They have two from Chad and I, two from my sister Natalie and her husband Darren, and two more from Rita's son Dane and his wife Sarah. It is always fun trying to get 6 little kids to all smile at the camera at the same time. It didn't happen. Oh well, we tried.

(Lauren and Evan, my Dad, Rita holding Leona and Katie, Korban, and Natalie holding Kara becase Kara would have no part in the picture any other way.)

Grandpa and Grandma Rita with all the grandkids, minus poor tired Kara. It is always nice to get together with family. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. It seems like all I am doing these days is telling people thank you. But we really couldn't have had a Christmas without so many people. It is hard when you can't afford to buy your own kids Christmas, but we couldn't this year. That doesn't mean we won't be able to next year. We are really hoping to be able to "pay it forward". They say it takes a whole village to raise a child, and apparently, also to buy Christmas. So thank you to our little village.