CHRISTMAS 2014

Christmas 2014 was kind of a blur. It was a busy day, but it was so fun. I was talking to a lady at church who was telling me how with her kids they don't really do that many presents and instead do things for the homeless and try to keep Christmas a Christ-centered day. While I do think that it is so important to remember the Savior at Christmas, I also think it is super OK to have a little fun too! And I think Christmas, especially for children, should be fun and magical. I'm pretty sure that Stella would say that is how Christmas was for her this year. Each year, she always says it was the best Christmas ever and this year she said it again. Many a dream came true for her this Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, Courtney invited us all over to their house for dinner and presents again. We split the family gifts in half by opening several on Christmas Eve. (Which Brent has little patience for--he thinks they should all be opened on Christmas.) I think it is great, because we just have too many if we wait and open them all at once. Finn was most of my entertainment for the evening as he had NO interest in any of his gifts but only wanted to play with the wrapping paper and boxes. He played with this one piece of paper for a good 15 minuets, hitting it, eating, it, waving it, and moving it around the room. He also stood up all on his own for a second and I was so surprised. Dinner was great and we had a really nice night together.

I think we felt a bit lonely on Christmas morning this year. The past two years we have had people staying with us, so this year felt really quiet. And since Brent and I don't buy gifts for each other Stella was the only one unwrapping any gifts. Except Brent did get a magic finger slicing toy from Stella. He had mentioned earlier in the year that it was his favorite gift as a child and one of his brothers broke it before he could even play with it so Stella and I made sure he could have a new one. He used it all day and had so much fun scaring everyone and amazing all with his magic skills.

Stella was most excited for her big present from Santa. We had Santa's elves working really hard this year hunting down a toy that is no longer even made. It was the High School Musical playhouse/high school and since I knew that hunting down hard-to-find gifts was what Santa Elves do best, I put him in charge of it and he delivered. She got all sorts of other great gifts as well, and the room was full of wrapping paper after all the presents were opened. She's one lucky gal.

Christmas day was really a busy one--we headed over to the Sallay house for lunch so that we could see all of those guys too.

Ashley had us over for Christmas dinner and it was really amazing and such a nice end to the day. And then we opened up even more presents. The highlights for me were Dad opening up his hat that he had left at my house (a hilarious tip that I learned from watching Extreme Cheapskates on TLC), and my mom's silly dancing fox that Stella and I had found on clearance at Wal-Mart. It sings the most hideous song, which she loves anyway. To this day, both Porter and Finn are huge fans of that toy, although it seems that all the other members of my family are not fans and become even more hateful towards it as time goes on.

And can you believe it? It snowed! Well, most of us were really annoyed by the cold, icy snow but I guess some people think that living in Utah means you should have a white Christmas. I am good with no snow, but I was seriously preoccupied so it worked out fine. It was a fast-paced, gift-filled day, and just like that, another Christmas bites the dust.