Christmas

Christmas morning was great! I LOVE Christmas with kids, I love their excitement about everything.

We saw what Santa brought, the girls had a bowl of cereal, and then we started opening gifts. 

We were all surprised and thankful and happy!

The girls got a desk from Santa. They were SOOOOO excited.
It is up in their room now and looks great. It needs a bit of touch up paint and some sealant on the top, but that will probably get done while they are at school.

Molly got a toy vacuum. Her reaction was really cute. She was really happy and excited, but was acting shy about being excited.

I didn't take many pictures of the actual present opening, and I didn't take any pictures of the girls with their gifts.
Molly was overwhelmed by the present unwrapping and I was trying to keep her busy a lot of the time.
She did get a sleeping bag from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop and Ashlee crawled in with her to show her how it worked.

Caitlin asked for ear muffs, but got an ear warmer instead and LOVES it. She wears it all the time.

Molly is pretty sure the Annie is also her mother.

Molly got an aqua-doodle that is so great. It is drawing with only water, so there is no mess! Perfect!
Even Caitlin and Ashlee like to use it.

G & G Bishop and Great Grandma Garrett left about noon, after we finished our big Christmas breakfast. After that the girls played with their new play dough, which they also love.

That ends our Christmas pictures, but even without pictures we know we had a great day!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas we were really excited to have not only Annie at our house; but my Mom, Dad and Grandma also came to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with us! 

My Grandma brought us some delicious popcorn to snack on.

My mom, the girls, and Chris took some pictures and blankets to the nursing home and sang a song to the residents. They had a good time doing it! The rest of us stayed home getting dinner ready.

We always sing "Christmas is Apon Us" when we are with the Bishop Family.
Molly wished she could be Santa Claus, but had to settle on a reindeer.

 The dolls

 The elves

 The tree, snowman and Santa

 And all of us.

We pulled our crackers before dinner and enjoyed our traditional rice tafel.

After dinner we played some Christmas songs on the bells

 and opened our pajamas and went to bed!

This year I made night shirt pajamas instead of pajama pants (except of Molly because the pattern didn't go small enough, although I did make her pants and shirt as well). It was alot of work, and took most of my free time in December. But they turned out great, and were comfortable! The girls (and Annie!) had a night shirt with leggings, and Chris had a shirt and pant set.

Christmas Activity- Day 23

December 23rd 

We drove over to Utah to attend a Garrett Family Christmas get-together.

My Aunt Angie and Uncle Dean hosted it at their house and it was alot of fun!

We saw several cousins that we don't get to see very often.

We ate, talked, played games, and had a great time!

Molly was pretty cute with my cousin's little boy. He just turned 1, and was a good sport with Molly man handling him. She was being very gentle.

 Thanks for a great evening, Dean and Angie!!

Christmas Activity- Day 22

December 22nd 

Celebrate Christ's birth-day.

We did this once, years ago, with some friends and I have wanted to do it again. We finally did this year.

We had an angel food cake, lit candles, and sang songs about Jesus until the candles burned down to the cake.

The Stevens joined us, and it was fun! Maybe we will remember to do it every year.

Christmas Activity- Day 21

December 21st

We attended our ward party Christmas breakfast.

Chris tried to get a picture of all 3 girls by the tree.

It was a fun party, and we have quite a few people in our ward who know Annie from college days, so that was fun also!

That night we decorated gingerbread sugar cookies.

Someone else made the cookies and frosting- which was the best part. We just had to frost and eat!

Christmas Activity- Day 20

December 20th

Play in the snow!

We wanted to have this activity, but you never know if you will have any snow or not.

Well, this year we have had an abundance of snow, so the girls bundled up and went outside to play.

And, I guess Ashlee's job was walking around helping everyone get up out of the snow.

And the best part of the day happened at 7:40 that night.
Annie came!!!
The girls thought she was coming the next day, so they were so excited that she came a day early!

Christmas Activity- Days 18 & 19

 December 18th
We prepared the girls teacher gifts.

I also popped popcorn for Ashlee's class for their Christmas movie party the next day.

December 19th
Some friends from Laramie were driving through on their way to Utah, so we had them over for dinner.
The girls also had lots of celebrating at school, since it was their last day before Christmas break.

Christmas Activity- Day 17

December 17th

Westridge Flash Mob at the Mall.

The kids prepared a dance to "Here Comes Santa Claus" and all showed up at the mall to dance it out tonight.

Turns out the mall doesn't have an overhead speaker system, so the entire thing was a total dud. They tried using small speakers, but they were to small and there were to many people.

Oh well, live and learn.

The kids did do it the next day at school in the gym, so I'm glad they still got to do it.

 There were so many people there. It was a great turnout.

Christmas Activity- Day 16

December 16th

We watched a Christmas Classic movie.

The girls picked Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Christmas Activity- Day 15

December 15th

The bigger girls and I made Gingerbread Caramels. Yum!!

They were great helpers, but lost interest during the LONG cooking process.

But they helped again after it was cooked to temperature, and they wrapped them all.

 TaDa! Delicious!

Christmas Activity- Days 13 & 14

December 13th
Our friends, Brook and Jen, had their annual ugly sweater party for the adults.
We didn't take any pictures (I will have to steal some later), but it was great fun! We really look forward to this event every year.

December 14th
Chris, Caitlin and Ashlee went to the Broadway Theater in town and watched the polar express. They got a bag of goodies after it was over (candy cane, train whistle, etc) and had a special visit from Santa Clause!

Molly is still to little to sit through a movie, plus it was during nap time, so she and I stayed home.

Christmas Activity- Days 11 & 12

December 11th-

We sang Christmas Songs.

I played (well, tried to play....they were hard arrangements) and Chris sang. Caitlin joined in from time to time, Ashlee sat on the floor under the piano and complained that her belly hurt, and Molly ran around. Obviously, a very successful activity (read with ALOT of sarcasm).

That night I made some Christmas trees for us to hand out to a few people.
Very cute, kind of time consuming, but very easy.

December 12th
Snowman pancakes!
Chris made them for breakfast this morning.