Whoops, back up

So I was sitting here reading other peoples blogs, and lamenting the fact that I had nothing to blog about. Let's face it, my life isn't really all that exciting. And then it hit me...I haven't blogged about Christmas yet! Wahoo. So, here we go.
Dan was able to get work off so we headed to Aurora on Thursday for the Johnson's Annual Hawaii Party! (One of our friends had a Christmas party and Dan and I thought it would be cool to dress up in Hawaii clothes because of the Hawaii Party...unfortunately no one else thought it was cool..or funny..but what can you do?). We missed a lot of the cousins because not everyone was able to be there, but it was fun to see everyone who could come, and of course, it's always great fun to sacrifice a pineapple. Can't miss out on that can we? Instead of playing games like we usually do we asked grandma and grandpa questions. It was fun to hear about their youth and their memories. That same night we headed for Midway.
Christmas Eve morning I had some high school friends come over to mom and dads house to just catch up. A lot of people couldn't come, but it was good to see those who could come. Thanks guys for making the effort!
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun for me. My mom decided that dinner was going to be made by divvying out each dish to different teams. I was on a team with Cameron and Matt (the cheaters) and the other team was Dan, Andrea, and Dad. Cameron and Matt promptly went to the store to buy the rolls, and left me at home to make the salad. They came back and threw together some concoction that we baked, but it was good they bought the rolls. Dan was amazing and made cheesecake but put it in the skins of those li'l cuties. He's a keeper, what can
I say? It was fun, but the kitchen was sure crowded.While we cooked, mom took the kids and had them make marshmallow snowmen and decorate cookies. Cole basically gorged himself on the frosting, but he had fun. Caden was sooo proud of his snowmen.Then we had the kids do the traditional Nativity story. I was pretty bummed we didn't make a nativity like we do every year out of random material, but it wouldn't have worked so well this time with everything else that was going on.Isn't he cute? I think he was being a shepherd.You're right....he doesn't look happy. He wasn't. He didn't want to dress-up, he didn't want to participate, and being the great parents that we are...we made him. He ended up liking it though, and even got really concerned when his wise man turban thingy kept falling off.This is my favorite picture of the whole night. Kember is such a sweet heart. She was so excited to be Mary. No one told her to do this, or pose with the baby at all. She just went over there and luckily someone got it on camera. She loves Milee. She wants to help dress her, change her diaper, hold her, etc. She has all those loving tender mother instincts that somehow skipped coming to me. But at least she'll be a great mom, right?

After the nativity we played some really fun Minute to Win it games. That was it for Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we were heading back to Aurora so we had to get everyone up early. We told the kids that Santa knew we were going to be busy so he left everything at the other grandparents house for us...but he knew we would have time to open stockings here.Seriously, isn't he the cutest kid ever? Look at that smile! He was so excited...and it was just a candy cane filled with M&M's. This Christmas was fun for me because the kids were understanding it a lot more so it was more magical.Caden was so excited to start whacking stuff with his sword. Cole played with him for a minute, but then decided he had better things to do, so Caden had daddy play with him.Aren't these shirts the greatest? Cameron had us for Christmas and he got everyone Utah Gymnastics shirts (and other U of U things for the kids). He asked that we wear it to the Johnson breakfast that morning, and to tell him what everyone thought of them. This was hilarious to me because the Johnson's are die hard BYU fans and one of the girls is actually a gymnast for BYU. They were all good about it though. So, we headed down to Aurora for the traditional Christmas Breakfast at Grandma Gayle's. It was sooo yummy. Then we headed over to Scott and Carol Lee's to finish/start opening presents.I think my favorite thing was to see how excited the kids got to give presents to each other...and how excited they were to open something that came from their brother or sister. It was fun to take the kids shopping for each other. Caden knew exactly what he wanted to get people. Kember knew exactly what she wanted before she went shopping, but I guess once shopping she got a little distracted by all the toys and kept want stuff for her. Dan took the two oldest out separately to go shopping. I took Cole and the rest of them to get stuff for Dan. Yes, I know the picture is upside down, but it's more to document that Milee was there and celebrated her first Christmas. She was held a whole bunch by all the Aunts and cousins, and then she slept the rest of the time. So that was our Christmas. It was a quick trip, but we wouldn't have changed anything (except for seeing more family...a lot couldn't come...maybe next year). I know a lot of people look forward to just doing Christmas on their own, but Dan and I can't fathom not going "home" for Christmas. Last year when we couldn't leave to see family until Christmas morning it just wasn't the same. We like you guys. Thanks for being such a wonderful family!