Christmas Goodies

You can always tell how spoiled you are when you look at the house after all the presents have been opened. Santa brought the girls new bedding--quilts, blankets, and pillows. Josh and I gave them a new wii game, a new movie, new dresses and shoes, and a few new toys

But my favorite part of the day was that the girls were so excited to give gifts this year. They bought gifts for each other and could hardly wait to give them. They also made some of the cutest homemade gifts for Josh and I. Kali gave us a cute card with a Christmas tree made out of scraps of paper. She also had Ashlyn tell her the words she wanted to tell us and wrote them in a little booklet with a string attached to it so that it was like an ornament. Sadie made us a cute bookmark. And all of them put on a little presentation for us. They explained that everything they did was because we had taught them the true meaning of Christmas. I was so proud of them.

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning traditions consist of eating muffins for breakfast while Dad reads an account of the Savior's birth from the scriptures. Each year he chooses a different account to read whether it's from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Then I read a children's book about His birth for the younger ones. Then we open the small box which has some pictures of gifts our Heavenly Father and Savior have given to us and talk about them briefly. And last, we open the large box which is our gift to the Savior. We do a family home evening early in December about service and how that's the best gift we can give the Savior as we celebrate his birth. We challenge the girls to try and fill the box with warm fuzzies (to represent the acts of service they do) before December 25th. It's the perfect way to begin the day, remembering the most important reason for Christmas.

The Night of Villages

Tonight we spent the evening visiting villages. We've learned from the past and bundled the kids up tight for our outdoor adventure at Gardner Village. Hardly anyone was there which surprised me, but we took full advantage of it.

We spent the time searching for all the cute elf displays while visiting and playing with family. Then we headed to Village Inn for hot chocolate and pie. Everyone had fun!

Bohman / Casey Christmas Party

This was my favorite Bohman/Casey Christmas party too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Maybe it's because I put more work into it. Sara and I planned it and I think about 70 people came. Kevin's family was the only one missing. We had great food, good music (a last minute addition thanks to Jason and it really set the tone for the evening) and a ton of socializing. I'm grateful to have such wonderful immediate and extended family.

Lights at Temple Square

Sara and Jeff invited us to go see the lights at temple square with them this year. It was probably one of the coldest nights to go but it sure made it less crowded and the girls didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact, we were doing all we could to keep them from playing in the snow so that they wouldn't be cold and wet.

Kali and I were happy to see that our favorite spinning tree has light on it this year. It isn't lit up every year but this year it is. It's broad enough at the base that when you stand under it and spin, all you see is a swirl of red lights. It's beautiful!

We love to see the temple and the nativity scenes that remind us of the true spirit of Christmas.

Bohman Family Christmas Party

I just have to say that this was the best family Christmas party ever in my opinion. A couple of months ago we debated what to do for the gift exchange and were running into all the same problems we had in previous years. This year, however, Molly suggested doing a sub for Santa in place of the gift exchange and everyone was on board with it. It turn out to be so much fun. Jesse got the name of a family in need. Mom called them and told them what we wanted to do and got details about their family. We then divided everything up and we got what we could. We tried to involve the kids as much as possible too. We brought all the gifts to the family party and had the kids help us wrap them. Kali is so proud of herself in this picture and rightly so. That is the first present she has ever wrapped on her own and she did an excellent job. The girls were so excited to be doing something to help out someone in need and so was I. When all was said and done we probably had four boxes full of gifts and food in addition to two laptops to give to the family.

 Then we sent some of the adults and older children to the home to drop off the gifts with a special visitor.

In the meantime, Sara and I organized some activities for those of us that were waiting. You could make snowflakes or marshmallow Olafs.

 

We ended up with some pretty creative Olafs. Some with two heads.

Some with long necks. And some that never even made it that far. Then Mom passed out gifts to the grandkids and everyone went home with a smile and their face and a good feeling in their heart.

Santa

Oh boy did we luck out with Santa this year. I happend to walk into Harmons on a Saturday morning (which I rarely do) to grab a few things we were out of and Santa was there. He didn't have a line and was going to be there for several more hours. I quickly got what I needed, ran home, and loaded the girls in the car. When we got back to the store, there was only one person with Santa and we were next. Emma was pretty nervous about him so I made Kali sit with her as far away from him as possible so she wouldn't cry. He handed the girls bells to shake and told me to pull out my camera and start taking pictures.

Then he insisted on individual shots with each of the girls and me. I looked awful. I hadn't showered, combed my hair, or brushed my teeth and was still wearing my pajamas, but he didn't seem to mind. And I thought for sure Emma would start crying, but I think the bell he handed her took her mind off of him for a minute. It was perfect--no wait, no money,no crying and no stress.

Decorating for Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas every year. If it were just up to me I'd decorate on our first big snow storm because it reminds me that Christmas is coming. However, I usually wait until after Thanksgiving. This year it was Ashlyn's turn to put the star on the tree. I never realized how challenging that tradition would be. It's hard to lift the girls high enough to reach the top branch, especially as they older and bigger. And it's even harder to lean far enough that they can reach the middle branch, but the girls love it.

Christmas

I love how well you can see the excitement of what is taking place in these photos. They were taken the first few moments of walking into the front room on Christmas morning to see what Santa left them and their facial expressions are priceless.

And within a matter of about fifteen minutes, our front room looked like this. It was great! Some of the favorite presents included:

the wii

        

the new castle additions to our block set

Jenga

Kali's doll and dresses

Emma's picnic basket and Sadie's Monster High doll that I didn't get a picture of her holding. 

Also, if you ask Ashlyn what Santa brought her for Christmas, she seems to only remember the oranges, candy canes and pez from her stocking. Who knew Christmas could be so inexpensive for a two-year-old! But the thing I loved most was how excited the girls were to give presents to each other and to their cousins. They did a good job picking gifts out and helping wrap them and I really feel like they did much better this year at understanding the reason behind the celebration.

Parry Christmas Eve Party

This year, the Parry Christmas party was in American Fork which made for a bit of a challenge with the huge snow storm. Thankfully everyone made it there and home safely and the evening made it all worth it. The food was great. Ashlyn obviously loved the green frosted cupcakes.

And the kids always love when Grandma reads Davey and the Donkey. 

We also got to enjoy an array of talents. Kali and Sadie each played a Christmas piano piece that they had been working on. Then to finish off the evening we sang a few Christmas songs together. And on Jingle Bells, the Gallaghers let all the kids hold one of their bells and ring it. It made it much more lively and fun.

Bohman Christmas Party

This year for the family Christmas party, the Bohman boys did a soup cook-off. Each was responsible for making a soup and the sisters brought rolls and desserts. I was seriously impressed with the soups. They were all super yummy. Brett won the contest with his version of Aimee's cheesy vegetable soup while Todd and Brian came in a close second with their beef vegetable soup and chicken noodle soup. Jason or Steven would have won had the kids been allowed to vote because they made mac & cheese and tomato soup. After dinner was cleaned up, Mom insisted the grand kids act out the nativity even without the costumes. Tony did a modern day narration of Luke 2 and the kids loved it. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but Kali is Mary and she's riding on Dallin, the donkey.

Then we exchanged our family gifts. Kevin and Tanya gave us a couple of fun games and some much needed flashlights. I didn't get a picture of the girls playing with their flashlights, but they were a hit. Then Aimee had all the kids gather around and surprised us all by passing out presents that she had purchased for each one of them. They were such a hit. She bought the best gifts ever. Emma got a Dr. Seuss board book and a rattle. Ashlyn got a polar bear puppet and a bracelet with little snap on charms. Sadie got an octopus puppet and a bracelet with charms. And Kali got a Chinese jump rope and some chapstick. The kids were in heaven. It was such a thoughtful thing to do and so much fun for everyone.

The only sad thing was that everyone was there but Josh and Emma. Emma got sick the previous day and had been throwing up and fevering so Josh stayed home with her.

Bohman / Casey Christmas Party

Our first Christmas party almost always turns out to be the Bohman/Casey Christmas party. This year Aunt Trudy's family was over it and they reserved a community building in Riverton. It worked out nice to have a place large enough to fit everyone and more importantly, it gave the kids room to move around. Kali, Sadie and Ashlyn ran up and down the halls almost the entire evening. They only stopped long enough to play the candy game. The only bad thing about the evening was that it was so cold outside that our van doors froze shut on both sides. So the girls had to climb out through the front doors. We poured water on them and were able to get them open, but then the automatic function stopped working. We later discovered it was a blown fuse.

Gardner Village Elves

We again decided on participating in one of our favorite holiday activities for FHE tonight--finding the elves at Gardner Village. The first year we did it with just our family. The next year it was with Josh's parents, the next it was with the entire Smith Family, and this year we added Jeff, Kari and Jake to the bunch. It was a lot warmer this year than last, but still cold enough to need a good way to warm up afterward. Thanks to Mom and Dad we got to enjoy some pie and hot chocolate at Village Inn.

Temple Square Lights

We hit the races early this year and went downtown to see the lights before the crowds got too big and the holiday season got too crazy. It was a great night to go too. The weather wasn't too cold and it was fun to see everything that temple square has to offer. The only thing missing was lights on my favorite tree to twirl under but we found a few others that were good enough for the girls to enjoy.

Bikes

Santa gave Kali and Sadie new bikes for Christmas. It was the perfect year for bikes with the kind of weather we've been having. It was also a great year for bikes because we didn't have one small enough for Sadie and we didn't have one big enough for Kali. I can tell Kali is really going to love hers. Sadie did pretty well for her first try around the block. Hopefully she'll get a lot more comfortable on it when the weather warms up.

Christmas Outfits

Josh and I gave the girls these outfits for Christmas. They looked so cute all dressed up for our Christmas sacrament meeting that I could resist taking several pictures of them. We have been so blessed to be the parents of these three beautiful girls.

Presents

Opening presents this year was a lot of fun. I even got an exciting present from Santa that was totally unexpected. Even though it was sitting on the chair right behind the girls' presents, Josh had to ask me if I saw what Santa brought me before I realized it was there. I had been paying attention to all the fun the girls were having and hadn't even noticed. Only I would be unobservant enough to miss a huge picture like that.

But the exciting thing was to see how much fun the girls had giving each other presents that they had picked out. Kali and Sadie even made a present to give to Josh and I. It was a box that they had spent a lot of time drawing pictures on. When we opened it up, it was empty but they ran up to us and gave us hugs and kisses. It was very cute and very thoughtful.