Christmas 2016

I know I'm pretty late with my Christmas blog post, but here it is… finally! My sister Sharon and her family came up from Mississippi for the holidays. I think we've spent almost every Christmas with Sharon's for the past 18 or so years. It's nice to have so many happy Christmas memories with them!

I don't have as many pictures from Christmas day as I would like (or as many shots of people opening/posing with their gifts), but things were a little crazy that day, and a lot was going on since we had church in the morning since Christmas was on Sunday. Sharon's kids got up and got ready for church, and came downstairs and opened their stockings about 7:15. My mom and I were busy getting ready for church, so we missed this part of Christmas morning.

I got each of Sharon's kids a few little things to put in their stockings. The two pictures below are of my four-year-old niece, Emily, and they are probably my favorite pictures that were taken on Christmas. I found these little, collapsible brushes at the dollar store, so I got one for Sharon's three youngest girls. I almost didn't buy one for Emily, but I'm so glad I did! After seeing hers, she threw her arms up in the air and said that it was what she always wanted. How precious is that?! That was one dollar well spent!

This is Matt with one of his favorite Christmas presents: a bundle of neon green parachute rope. He was using it to make booby-traps all over the house during the 10 days Sharon's family was here! The other picture is of Matt holding up the calendar I got him. (I bought calendars for everybody, since the dollar store had a fairly large selection of 2017 calendars.) I also found a pack of cards at Target with different facts about insects that I thought he might like. That's pictured below, as well.

Rachel was the next to open her stocking, and then Sarah:

Kate went next, followed by Elizabeth. I can't believe how mature these girls are looking!

After stockings and a breakfast of sweet rolls (orange rolls and caramel pecan), we went to church. We only had one hour of church, so it was a shorter day than usual. Our family friend, Paul, came with us, and then he stayed with us through the afternoon as we opened our presents. Chandra, Joe and Christian came over to open presents with us, as well, after they got out of church.

I'm not crazy about the way I look in these pictures, but I'm including them anyway, just to document this sweet exchange between Emi and me. She is such a cutie, and she makes me laugh. I love her so much!

Mom and me, followed by pictures of Emi and Rach:

Elizabeth is not a little girl anymore, and neither is Kate! They are both so sweet and fun to be around. Here they are on the way out the door to church:

And here's Chandra's family when they arrived to our house after they got out of church. I love Christian's festive, little outfit, not to mention that adorable look on his face in the side-by-side pictures below. Talk about heart-melting!

We finally started opening our presents a little after 12:30 PM. The kids were getting impatient as we waited for everyone to arrive. I can't say that I blamed them!

Here's Rachel opening a little sewing box from Grammy. I love the first picture with Matt looking over her shoulder as she opened her gift:

Above: Rachel got a sweet rag doll, and Sarah got the Razor scooter she wanted.

Matthew also got a Razor scooter. My mom gave him a cape with an "M" on the back of it (I wish I had gotten a picture of him modeling his cape, but I didn't), and I gave him a soccer ball. A few days after Christmas he was running around the backyard playing soccer while wearing his cape. So cute! 😏 

Emi really wanted a lawnmower, so my mom got her one. She was delighted!

Christian hasn't quite gotten the hang of opening gifts, so Chandra helped him figure it out.

These girls got more books. They sure do love to read!

Chandra and our mom both got Bissell steam mops (unbeknownst to each other). Several of us girls went in together to get the mops for Chan and our mom. It was kind of funny to see them both open them, and realize that they had each gotten one. Chandra was really hoping to get one, because she's been wanting one ever since she used our sister Annette's steam mop back in October. As you can see from the pictures, Chan was thrilled!

The girls always make such thoughtful and creative gifts for us. Their creativity is truly amazing! I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of myself opening any of my Christmas gifts, but here's Chandra with Elizabeth and Sarah when they gave her the presents they made for her.

Above are pictures of Sharon and Elizabeth wearing their new blanket scarves. Elizabeth used her own money to buy her own scarf right before Christmas. These particular scarves come with fuchsia gloves, and Elizabeth decided to wrap up the gloves that came with her scarf for her mom for Christmas (since Sharon had teased that she thought they would go great with her dark blue pea coat). Well, Sharon got a blanket scarf from Spencer for Christmas, so she gave the fuchsia gloves that came with her scarf to Elizabeth. Both of them are happy campers, and they look so stylish in their [almost] twin scarves! 😉

Another Christmas has come and gone. We sure had fun during our 10-day Christmas vacation together. I must admit that I'm now feeling the post-Christmas blues, since I miss everyone. That always happens to me after my sisters have come to visit with their families. I look forward to their visits so much, so then after all the fun is over, I feel a letdown. Fortunately, it doesn't last too long before I get used to my normal, quiet routine again.

Here are a few other highlights our visit:

• Watching Hallmark Christmas movies together most evenings.
• Having a delicious nacho bar for our New Year's Eve dinner.
• Going to the temple with my mom, Sharon, and Spencer.
• Playing Qwirkle (I've heard of this game before, but I'd never played it, so I asked Sharon to bring hers. It was really fun!)
• Sharon asked me to make a special slideshow (one of my hobbies) for a special recognition night at church for Elizabeth, who recently received her Young Womanhood recognition award. Sharon and I spent a fair amount of time putting the finishing touches on it.