J*O*Y

Christmas was a joy again this year. We spent the Christmas holiday w/my family in Mt. Pleasant (Utah). I managed to calm down after the whirlwind of thread, fabric and felt. I finished the kid's PJ bottom's right in time. It is tradition in our family to open one gift on Christmas Eve. I want to try and arrange it so the kids open either PJ's or a movie to be used that night.


We had a fabulous dinner on Christmas Eve. We watched many of our family classic Christmas movies including The Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.


On Christmas morning after the torrent of wrapping paper and painting nails we had a yummy brunch.


Then that evening my brother and his family joined us. We were all together this year (including my sister Rose's "special" friend, Gledis).

We then "acted out" the Nativity story. Samuel and Olivia were Joseph and Mary.

Jocelyn was a shepherd, complete w/froggie boots.

Anna was the angel. Eva was baby Jesus. And Levi and friend were wise men.

Samuel and Jocelyn now understand that Mary had baby Jesus in her belly. And as I have read them a watered down version at night Samuel has learned, from discussion, that mommies push the baby out of their belly. Samuel said, "Oh, like pooping!" and after trying to hold in my laughter (and awe at his observation) I told him that, "Yes, it is almost exactly like pooping."


Some other highlights of the break included bowling (The day after Christmas two years ago we all went bowling at the only alley in the county, the Sno Cap. A very rundown place but fun nonetheless. About 6 hours later my water broke and Jocelyn was born the next day. So it's kind of a tradition to go now the day after Christmas),




running outside in the blizzard,

building a snowman,



playing games, talking a lot, and gaining probably 5 lbs.

Jocelyn is finally starting to warm up to my parents. For some reason, she is a little moody around my family and one can never know if she will allow someone to grace them w/her presence . But she and my dad hit it off this visit. He takes her to find the kitty and she even snuggled up w/him to watch a few movies. It makes my dad thrilled.



And then we took a family picture which we haven't done in a couple years. We decided not to brave the chilly wind and took it out in my dad's new portion of his studio. We were joking around about leaving it bare w/the ladders, etc. So then we decided to go all out w/the industrial feel, or "custodial feel", as Levi put it. We're sort of nerdy.