December 2020

SANTA

Brooklyn and Audrey were excited that Santa visited our outdoor ward party.

Felix kept a good eye on all of us. He even followed us up to Idaho.

BOISE

Brooklyn was excited to spend time with her cousin Carissa.

We were all impressed by Bryan and Afton's giant tree.

Reading books by the tree.

Our niece Emily got married on the 19th, and we were able to meet her new husband Nathan and attend her beautiful outdoor reception. 

MCALL

We spent a few days in McCall with Bryan and Afton enjoying the snow. It was fun to watch the deer that liked to hang out in the area behind the house where we were staying. The kids also built a little snowman and took turns pulling the little girls around the field in the sled.

For Christmas this year Abby, Maddy, and Nathan wanted to learn to ski. Their Uncle Bryan did a great job teaching them and getting them off to a great start. 

After 20 years and 6 kids it took a while for me to get the hang of skiing again, but Bryan gave me some good pointers and Afton was my beginning skiing buddy.  Jared was happy to have some skiing time with Bryan who could do all the hard runs with him. 

We got to celebrate Afton's birthday.

We visited Bryan's and Afton's property in McCall, and Nathan and Maddy learned how hard it is to walk in deep snow.

The little girls were excited to go sledding and managed to take the sled down the stairs once before we were able stopped them.

We spent our final day in McCall indulging in delicious food at Pancake house and sledding. 

Brooklyn with her buddy Carissa.

GRANDMA'S HOUSE

The girls loved all of Grandma's cute Christmas decorations.

The kids had fun decorating gingerbread houses with their cousins. Maddy's house was quite intricate but was never finished which is why it didn't get a picture.

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a delicious appetizer spread for our Christmas Eve dinner.

The kids were cute acting out the nativity with their cousins Carissa and Dantzel. 

Cookies for Santa

Grandma reading "A Visit From St. Nicholas."

CHRISTMAS DAY

Waiting on the stairs on Christmas morning.

Brooklyn was thrilled with her tiger Duplo set from Santa and her Elsa dress from Grandma and Grandpa.

Audrey was in heaven with her new violin from Santa and her panda LEGO set from Grandma and Grandpa.

The older kids just had stockings to open since we had already gave them a ski trip and their Santa present was waiting for them at our house. 

The kids enjoyed the cousin gift exchange, which they decided should be renamed the cousin book exchanged since all the kids love reading and got some fun new books. 

Before everyone left for the night we had a cousin talent show. Brooklyn sang Away in a Manger for everyone.

The other kids played the piano and Abby performed a duet with Kaitlyn on her flute. 

DECEMBER 26th

Despite the cold, the older kids had fun going shooting with their cousins and uncles.  I don't have pictures, but we also had a fun game night that evening.

UTAH

It was so fun to spend time with everyone after being isolated for so long. 

The kids were thrilled with all the snow which made for some great sledding.

The kids had fun playing in the park too.

The kids had fun playing in the snow forts, although the snow wasn't very packable which made a snowball fight difficult. 

Brooklyn loved the snow, but after a couple hours she started getting cold and tired.

The kids decided they needed a steeper hill for sledding so grandpa and the boys worked hard building up an awesome sled run around the back of the cabin. 

Many of the adults did not want to stay up late for New Year's Eve so we set off our fireworks early. We left the older girls at Sarah's to party while the rest of us went back to the cabin to sleep.

Grandma and Grandpa snuggles. It was hard to go, but we look forward to visiting again this summer.

COMING HOME

The kids were thrilled to come home to some more presents. Santa brought the older kids Lego Hogwarts Express and their Grandparents got them the rest of Hogwarts castle. 

Brooklyn and Audrey had already opened most of their presents, but they were excited to get some new fairy tale pictures to put up in their room.