The Very Best Time is Christmas Time

I LOVE Christmas. I love the parties, the music, the feeling of the year, the reason we celebrate, all of it. I especially love how it brings us so close to all of our family. We make so many memories and love spending time with the dear people we love. These are some of our very best moments...

Small town nativity collection and light parade
In our town right after Thanksgiving the local tabernacle displays a collection of nativities from all over the world. It really is amazing to see the different interpretations of our Savior's birth. They also have a live nativity, different performers, and kids crafts. We then go to a light parade which is mostly old cars with Christmas lights strung on them. It's always fun to be out and we are always anxiously waiting for the finale, Santa on the fire truck.

Madi loves to guess where the nativities are from. It's quite entertaining considering she really has no sense of geography.

Jon is such a hands on dad. He is always helping the girls.

We spent more time waiting for the light parade than watching it. Santa made it all worth it.

Festival of Trees
The Festival of Trees is a spectacular experience. I am always in awe of the beauty of this collection. It really is incredible. This was was very special because there was a tree just for Steve. I never wanted to make this trip for such a personal reason. He really was such an amazing man. It made this year much more meaningful. We met the Browns there and spent time looking at the sights with Cindy, Lizzy and Ben. The kids got to do some crafts, play some games and watch some of the performers. We definitely had our favorite trees, like the one made entirely of glass or the one decorated with the Grinch. All of the money is for a children's hospital and it is a volunteer run event. This is a great way to jump start the holiday season.


Going to see the Lights
We love going to see the lights. We usually go to all of the major cities events and then the local parks. Our favorite one is close by and they lights up different Christmas and animal things. They even have monkeys that climb trees and frogs that jump in a pond. We love it! This year we went with Jon's cousins Mike and Crystal. Madi love hanging out with "little" Chase and Tyli loves Payton. We always have so much fun together.


We got to visit with Santa when we stopped to get hot chocolate! It doesn't get better than this!

Decorating Grandma Donna's tree
A new fun tradition that Madi especially loves is decorating Grandma Donna's tree. Madi LOVES the Barbie ornaments. She also love the spinning tree. We really enjoy sharing this alone time with both grandma and grandpa.

Fulks Family Party
This year we had a differnt kind of family party. We took dinner to a homeless shelter. This was very humbling to see the challenging circumstances so many familes face. It was a wonderful experience. Thank you Brenda and Darrin for organizing it. After we had a ball visiting the lights. It was lightly snowing and made for a very beautiful night.

Christmas Eve with the Gabberts
Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my family. Jon grew up listening to a recording of the Nativity Story. As we drive to grandmas we listen to this. It makes it a special trip. My mom makes yummy chili and clam chowder for dinner. We visit the Ogden lights which is really cool. They have different little village scenes decorated in some sort of Holiday theme. Christmas music is played all throught the park. It was awesome. This year everyone else pooped out except for Jami. We still loved it!
Grandma always give each child a special scavenger hunt to look for their presents, which they love as much, if not more than the actual present. She also gives each grandchild pajamas, which usually match. This year Jami surprised the old kids with cool light Sabers. It was the highlight of the night. After they were opened we spent the rest of the night have sword fights with the lights off. (The light sabors lit up.) It was so fun. Thanks Jami!


Christmas Morning
I love it that my girls can sleep in on Christmas morning. This year we didn't wake up until 9:00. They were so excited! We just have a fun morning opening presents and playing with our new toys. The girls both got what they wanted, plus a couple of surprises. Madi loved her doll that goes potty and snowboard. Tyli loved her rocking horse and new table. I also surprised Jon this year with a speedy remote control car. He has always wanted one and I got a great deal on a used one. He loved it! I guess he does enough tea parties and doll games to get a boy toy once in a while.

Christmas day with the Browns
We always spend Christmas day with the Browns. This year was so hard without Steve. Luckily we had puppy Bella to help a little. Cindy and Steve's parents made a yummy breakfast. We then spent the rest of the day playing with new stuff. We eat, relax, sleep, watch movies, just whatever we want. Jon and Michael always spend as much time as possible playing whatever new video game Michael got. This year I bought Michael a rocket set that uses mentos and a 2 liter bottle of soda. I drug everyone out in the cold and snow to watch it go off. It was so windy it didn't go as high as it should have, then it tipped over. By the time I had turned around everyone had already bolted inside. Wusses! It was funny though. Later Meg was eating Mentos and drinking soda together. I wonder which end that explosion came out. :) Christmas day is our absolute favorite time with them. It's not very often you find a day when everyone is around at the same time so I treasure these moments together!
Gabbert Family Party
Scott and Jen live far enough away that we don't get to see them as often as we like, so this is always our special day with them. We get together for brunch. Jen always makes yummy quiche which everyone loves. After we eat, the guys might plays some video games, we'll chat or watch movies. Sometimes we'll go out sledding witht the kids. It's really just a fun day that we all just hang out together.



New Years with the Pehrsons
I think for every New Years of our marriage we have spent it with Casey and Elise. Some years we have gone out, but for the past several we have just stayed home and hung out. It might seem uneventful, but we love it! It is low stress and we always have fun with our best friends. This year we all bundled up at ten o'clock at night and went outside to sled and snowboard on the hill in the back yard. The kids had a blast! Poor Ethan got stuck wearing Tyli's snow clothes. It was so funny. He was dressed up in a purple and pink snowsuit that was just a little snug. It was hilarious! He didn't care though, he was just excited to snowboard. We will bring in the new year with a lot of noise and fireworks. So fun!

It was the best holiday season ever! It was so fun to see the girls interact and share in all of the fun. It was just full of those moments that you never want to forget.