DECEMBER

FAMILY PICS
Taking family pictures is not my favorite activity. I always have high expectations, and I almost never get what I want. This year was no different. Either the sun was in the wrong spot or someone didn't want to stand still and smile. We had some weird smiles, a few closed eyes and a couple of unhappy people by the time we were done (of course I was one of those). We took about 50 pictures and I found 1 or 2 that were usable for a family Christmas card. That was the goal, so I guess we were successful. Here are a few of the pictures: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Love the sun,
but it wasn't very
helpful this day.

Getting tired of
standing still
and smiling!

FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY
Another year at the Christensen family Christmas party. There were 48 of us in all this year- we missed the 27 that weren't able to make it. I think Grandpa and Grandma would be surprised and happy that there are 75 of us now, and we just keep growing. We enjoyed visiting, eating and laughing together. Santa made his grand entrance and handed out stockings to 15 kiddos. Three of them did not like Santa at all! The white elephant game was fun as usual. The 12 and 13 year olds played for the first time. They learned the joys and the disappointments that come with playing the white elephant game. Aunt Mary brought the best gift of all: beautiful quilts that she had made out of different fabrics which had belonged to Great Grandma Overland. She made one for each grandchild: Steve, Jay, Larry (my dad), Gwen, Susan, Marvin and Floyd. It took her nearly a year to make all of them. Very impressive and beautiful. I loved them! It was four hours of chaos and fun, and then it was over... until next year.

Here's dad, Uncle Jay, Aunt Susan and Josh (for his dad, Uncle Steve) with their quilts. Not sure how Uncle Marvin got out of being in the picture. (Aunt Gwen and Uncle Floyd weren't at the party).

Here is S and T with Santa

And here's Evan and Addie with Santa

THE PROJECT
I'm not sure where he got the idea, but S really wanted to do a Christmas "project". When school got out for winter break he started asking me every day when he could do a project. When I asked him what kind of project he was talking about, he didn't really know. He just told me to look for a project. The only thing I could come up with was gingerbread houses- and that satisfied him. We picked a day and worked on the "project" (made of graham crackers instead of gingerbread).

CHRISTMAS EVE
As a child I can remember being so excited for Christmas morning, and Christmas Eve seemed to last forever. J remembers making schedules for his Christmas Eve to help pass the time. This is one of the reasons that I love Grandpa and Grandma Bird's Christmas Eve party. It is so nice to have something for the boys to do on Christmas Eve. It's great to be with family and enjoy the traditional program: poem, story, musical numbers, jeopardy and the nativity. The boys like to participate in the nativity scene. This year T and S were wise men. Z stayed out and took the pictures.

PJ'S

Getting pajamas on Christmas Eve is a tradition for a lot of people. We've always done it, too. The boys have come to expect it, so this year I was tempted to skip it. Then J and I found some fun BYU pajama bottoms which I thought were fun, so I went ahead with the tradition. I think the boys liked them!

I think they are pretty excited for Christmas!

CHRISTMAS MORNING
Wonder what Santa brought?

A trampoline- so exciting!

Because Christmas was on Sunday this year, we couldn't open our gifts until after church. The boys did look through their stockings and open the trampoline first thing in the morning. Then we all got ready and went to church. It was a nice meeting, with some short testimonies and 2 nice musical numbers. I really enjoyed being able to take some time out of the day to remember the birth of our Savior and the real reason that we celebrate Christmas.

After church we came home and the boys were finally able to open the gifts that were under the tree.

Z really wanted these Nike Mercurial Futsal shoes. I had him convinced that he wasn't getting them because they were very hard to find. He really didn't want any other kind so I kept looking and finally found them on Ebay. Z loves them. Most people say they are very bright. I think they are ugly, but he's happy so I am, too.

T wasn't sure what he wanted for Christmas. He asked for a DS game which Santa put in his stocking, but he wouldn't say what he wanted from us. I decided on a goalie jersey and T loved it! Unfortunately it was an Adult XL instead of a Youth XL so we'll have to exchange it, but he liked it anyway and was very happy.

All S wanted for Christmas was a kickball. Just a kickball and nothing else. He was very surprised and happy to open that big box and find a red kickball inside. There was a new soccer ball, too, but he didn't even care about it. He got what he wanted- that face says it all!

Our family on Christmas day- love all of the new Real shirts.

SIBLINGS
My brother Aaron lives in Washington state. We hardly ever see him. It was a nice Christmas present to have him come and stay for a few days. We went to a cousin's wedding and since the four of us were all together we thought we'd better take a picture. Who knows when we'll all be together again.

ENJOYING CHRISTMAS BREAK
I was so exhausted from my first semester in the Education program at UVU- I was counting down the days until Christmas break. My plan: get my house cleaned up and do some fun things with the boys before school starts back up again. I think we had a good time. We enjoyed having breakfast with some friends one morning. Another day we went to the see the Muppet Movie. We spent one day at Trafalga with Aunt Tamra and cousins playing laser tag, golf, and just having fun. We enjoyed watching a few movies, reading, playing video games and just relaxing. It was a nice break.

Here's Evan and T climbing the rock wall (little bit blurry- sorry).

Playing mini golf

NO SNOW

Hard to believe, but we don't have any snow. Last year at this time we had a lot. This year there is only a little on the tips of the tallest mountains. We had one small storm around Thanksgiving, and then nothing. I'm not too sad- I don't like shoveling or driving in snow- but it's a little weird. I was at the temple and took this picture- just for a reminder of this strange December. I kinda hope we'll have some snow soon.