This year Jake was scheduled to work Christmas week so we decided to try and get in some family visits before Christmas. My mom treated the kids and myself to making gingerbread houses. It was fun and we could be very creative because she had tons of candy to choose from to decorate our houses. The week before Christmas we were able to go see all of Jake's family, minus Sunny. We had fun Christmas shopping, visiting, watching movies and even had a Christmas party where Santa's elves left surprises for the kids.
Brooke has been taking violin lessons for about 6 months now and seems to be enjoying it. She is catching on fairly quickly and I even try to pick up on the things she is learning. Brooke had her very first recital right before Christmas at a nursing home here in the valley. She played Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star, and Jingle Bells. She was so scared at first and the only way I could get her to go the first time was to tell her that if she just did the first song she wouldn't have to do the other ones is she didn't want to. So she took my deal, and just as I hoped she loved it and instantly wanted to do her other songs. I was so proud of her, she did awesome!!
Christmas Eve we were invited to go sledding and make sugar cookies for Santa with a couple of families from our ward.(Tolmans and Madsens) We spent the whole afternoon sledding and then went back to make sugar cookies. It was so much fun.
The kids were so excited for Santa to come they went right to bed at 8:30 p.m. but didn't wake up until 7:00 a.m. I think that Santa had come and left by 10:30 p.m. I love my kids!! Christmas morning was exciting, it is always so much fun to see their reactions. After opening presents we had a big breakfast and played with games and toys until it was time to go to a Christmas dinner that the Madsen's invited us to. I had not been feeling very well and so they were nice enough to think of us. Overall it was a very relaxing and enjoyable Christmas season. We are so thankful for the birth of our Savior and that we have this time of the year to remember him.
