Christmas Day

We are having a WHITE Christmas… 17 inches in one snow storm.  The only sad part is church got cancelled… I love church on Christmas…the good part is  all the kids made it here through the storm so we could start opening presents by 9:00 am.  We couldn’t distract Alf for much longer.  Wayne was out snow blowing the driveway trying to make it available to all the extra cars that need a spot….  Addison was stalling waiting for Landon and Alex to show up with the Puppy surprise that Bre and Alf had no idea about…. And Monson and Lexi were trying to slide down their center street hill and then climb up our 1500 south hill in crazy snow.  Phew… it was quite the morning.  Once the present opening started  all of the crazy snow was forgotten.   

Laila’s highlights were a humanitarian trip to the Mexican Riveria with Wayne and I and the Wangsgaards in June., and 100 gel pens for drawing on herself and anyone else who will let her.   Addison, Bre and Alf are so excited for their little Yorki-Poo named Harvey.  Landon gave Alex a beautiful painting of the Savior reaching down into the water to symbolically pull us out.  Lexi gave Monson a LeBron James Cell phone cover and Tayla just wanted her puffs and the boxes.  Wayne gave me a coat and purse and we all gave Wayne too many “toys”  a drone and a magnet car set, and a remote controlled flying shark…just what he wanted.   

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Looks like a Christmas Joy bomb exploded in this room

We gave all of the older kids money and a big case of Charmin toilet paper with a note that said… “We know that sometimes being an Adult can stink…in fact it can be really crappy.  We just wanted to get you something to wipe some of your worries away.”    IT was great having everyone here and just spending time together. 

Doing a puzzle in my Momma Sheri's honor

The sun came out about 4:30 and the day just looked glorious!!

Laila and Wayne doing their annual Daddy Daughter toast.

Another fun present was Jazz tickets for Wanee.  She is a huge fan and will go to a game with her 4 boys on Jan. 13^th.  She was thrilled!   Wanee gave all of us a little book with pics of her and Wanda and quotes about growing up and life.  It’s a treasure that Bre helped her put together. 

We had Joel Blodgett with us for most of the day from Lunch through to dinner.   Wayne and I home teach his family, who were gone to Kentucky for 2 weeks.  We watched movies, did puzzles, ate pizza for lunch then a full on roast beef  and mashed potato dinner.   I set the table with  Grandma Butters beautiful Prince Albert Rose china and gold flat ware.  I love pulling this out  for Christmas.   Laila's face is "killing me" in this shot... she of course made a a funny face on purpose. 

The night ended with Truman flying in and secretly getting to our home with Elf Lexi and Elf Monson picking him up  around 8 pm.   It was a real surprise.  So happy he could be here too. 

All my Christmas pictures just kind of look the same, year after year... so many of the same faces doing the same things.  I like that.  I like sameness, it's comforting.   If I stop and think too much about the ones that are missing from the pictures, I get melancholy...... so I try not to focus on that and just enjoy the present with whomever I'm with.