Christmas Recap

We had some great family time this Christmas Season!

Here are the annual Christmas Eve festivities at Grandma & Grandpa's house.





Here the kids are singing "This is the Season" from the Primary songbook, which has become a bit of a tradition.

Christmas PJ's from Grandma with the Cannon cousins.

After the festivities in Salt Lake, we went home to hang our stocking by the chimney with care and settle down for a long winter's nap in our own beds. (Makes ALL the difference in the world the next day.) Our children actually slept through the night, past 7:00 in the morning!

Traditional Christmas Morning Stair Picture.

And they're off.
The leader of the pack.

Here come the rest.

The loot.

The kids have been so excited that we have a fireplace this Christmas. I have to admit, I've been kind of excited about that myself. Gifts were not over the top this year. Lots of homemade presents too. We also opened the door to our new house on Christmas morning symbolic of the best gift of the year!

The long-awaited Transformers. I bought these at Walmart a couple of weeks before Christmas and forgot to hide them before Spencer got home from school. So he was pretty mad when I pounced on him and yanked the bag out of his hands when he discovered them. Fortunately patience paid off and here they are.

Christmas breakfast combining Smart and Udall family traditions.

And English traditions with Christmas Crackers - that's where the crowns come from.
That afternoon we had the Udall side (including Grandma Udall and Uncle Dan) over for Christmas dinner. This marked the first time we've ever stayed home the whole of Christmas Day. It was VERY fun and wonderful to have the space to host everyone!

The kids got to see every single one of their cousins over Christmas break. Here is cute Norah Bowen with David in a cool picture I shamelessly stole from Laura. The John Smarts also came to visit from Idaho and stayed with us for a few days. How I managed to take no pictures, I don't understand. We were just having too much fun I guess.Aunt Lynn also stayed with us for a few days both before and after Christmas. Thanks to everyone for making the Christmas holiday such a fun one for our family. We feel so blessed to be related to such awesome people. And we definitely missed the ones we didn't get to see in person. Lots of love to all and to all a good night!

The Lights at Temple Square

This year we made it up to Salt Lake to see the fabulous lights at Temple Square!

To add to the excitement, we took the Trax train downtown. (Also to avoid the prospect of the non-existent parking spots downtown.) Our kids thought the train was the greatest. David was MUCH more excited that he looks in the picture. Here he's trying to perfect his Ralphie impersonation.

And to increase the level of fun even further, we invited our Sorenson cousins to come along.

Here we are in the world famous Tabernacle.
Partly to thaw our fingers and toes.

When I took this picture of Spencer and his cousin Mary I said, "I'll take your picture and we'll send it to Grandma Rosie!" and Mary looked at me very quizzically and said, "How does Spencer know my Grandma Rosie?" What a small world!

Catherine and Madeleine

Emma and Beth

The reflecting pool in front of the Temple was so pretty.Lights of the Temple reflected in the water.

Thanks again for braving the cold with us Sorensons!

Christmas Eve Festivities

We had a different Christmas Eve than in years past. The impending snow-storm created a change in our usual Christmas eve tradition of being at Grandma and Poppy's house for dinner and festivities. We made a quick dash up to SL earlier in the day and visited with everyone in the afternoon and then headed home before it got dark and icy.

So this was the first year of our own Christmas Eve dinner at home. When we first told our kids about the change in plans, they were pretty devastated. So Michael rallied them by telling them we could have a "Grandma Rosie Christmas" by letting them do what he did as a kid - have everyone pick their favorite treat-type-food for dinner. This was a hit.

Our menu consisted of hot crab dip, made by Michael, Catherine and Emma; rolls, vegetable tray prepared by Mom and Spencer including Spencer's specially cut cucumbers; cheese ball and crackers; hot wassail (my choice); and the special delicacy and biggest hit of the evening: little smokies! We also pulled out the box of 'Christmas Crackers' that I brought back from our trip to England. The kids loved pulling the crackers apart and I loved looking at everyone wearing the paper crowns during dinner. Felt proper British.

Bed time still consisted of new pj's from Grandma and we remembered to bring back our Christmas stockings as well.
I felt extra sentimental about the stockings this year. These are a Sabine family tradition. My mom still has her stocking from when she was a little girl, knit by her own Grandmother Christopherson - Grandma Sabine's mother. When I was little, my great-aunt Daphne knit stockings for each of us as baby gifts. Now, my mom has knit each of my kid's stockings. They are a treasure.

My grandpa Sabine passed away early Christmas Eve morning. We knew it was eminent, but didn't know exactly when it would happen. It was bittersweet to have it happen that day. I will write more about my final experiences with him later.

Here is a fun clip of the kids having a "Charlie Brown Christmas" dance off at the Udall's that afternoon. We figured remembering Charlie Brown was also a fitting way to pay tribute to Grandpa.