Sarah Came to Visit!

 The absolute highlight of Christmas break was a long-anticipated visit from Leah's best friend Sarah!

These three girls have been counting down the minutes until their reunion ever since we said goodbye last June. It was so fun having her here with us for a few days over the break!

Emma made this sign, and 'welcome home' felt just right.  Sarah is just like family!

The girls had a long list of to-do's while Sarah was here- movies to watch, nails to paint, pages to color, letters to wax, treats to bake, a stake dance and Leah's 16th birthday celebrations!

One exceptionally nice day we headed over to the arboretum for some fresh air and fun. 

We even got to walk on the ice!

So much to catch up on!

Sarah introduced Leah and Emma to Pride and Prejudice, and they were immediately smitten. 

Sarah gave us the most ridiculous and perfect Christmas gifts- a Shrek mask and a Donkey mask!  

They have been the source of much laughter, squeals and a few tears. 

On the last morning together, we headed downtown for some window shopping and brunch!

So many tears because our brunch restaurant of choice was closed for the holidays. 

And some real tears because eventually it was time to get Sarah to their airport. 

Leah did a good job of holding her tears in while they said goodbye but was sobbing before Sarah was through security.  A best friend is a hard and wonderful thing to find!

The Rest of Christmas Break

As noted previously, Christmas break was filled with relaxing days, games, puzzles and movies!

Grammy Q, unfortunately, was booked to travel on Southwest and, like the rest of the country, had a last-minute cancellation and scramble to get back to Denver on the planned day. We definitely didn't get enough time with her here, but it was so much fun to have her with us for Christmas!

Of course there was some Chick-fil-a over Christmas break.  I think this was the day Adam got his braces tightened. 

Adam has taken it upon himself to give Noah piano lessons, and they practiced together over the break. 

Packages!  Including an awesome one from Bea!

This doesn't look too comfy, but Laney didn't seem to mind helping Emma relax!

Christmas Day

We sure do like sleep around here these days, but the kids were up at a reasonable time on Christmas morning- 7:57!  

Of all the gift receivers, Laney was the most excited to dive right into her stocking. 

The boys were delighted to receive the one huge but tiny LEGO set they wanted this year- lights for Ninjago City!

Leah was thrilled to get a letter wax seal set- 

and Emma put her new microphone right to work- 

There were lots of other surprises to be discovered, but we put everything on pause and got ready for church. But first sweet Adam rescued a frozen pup from the yard and nearly froze himself. 

We were very involved in the music for our Christmas program- Leah played prelude music in a string quartet, I accompanied a tenor soloist and violinist (in addition to the piano/organ piece I played the week before and the accompaniment I played for the sister missionaries at the ward Christmas party two weeks before),  Adam and Jason played a trumpet duet of "Joy to the World" with the choir (which I directed), we all sang in the choir, and for the closing number, Silent Night, Noah was the page turner!  It was a delightful and full Christmas sacrament meeting and we were happy to be in church that morning to celebrate our Savior's birth. 

Back at home, the kids were happy to hop back into their jammies and resume the Christmas Day celebrations! No matter how exciting the present, the box is always the favorite. 

We spent the rest of the day playing, eating, visiting, and enjoying the most wonderful day of the year!

The boys had an especially enchanting room on Christmas night, so Emma joined them for a sleepover!

And Ninjago City was fully lit up in about 24 hours. 

Now that I'm looking over all of these pictures, I remember that Jason was sick for Christmas.  He tried his best to power through the days, but it was early to bed and late to rise for much of these days.  That wasn't fun for anyone.  And having Grammy Q with us made everything extra fun, even if all we had on our post-Christmas agenda was to relax, eat a whole lot of food, watch movies and complete puzzles.  It was easy to stay home because the weather was horrid, and it was glorious!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve is full of our favorite Christmas traditions! And this year we were lucky to have Grammy Q here to celebrate with us. 

The Jesus dinner, officially our favorite Christmas tradition and top three favorite meals of the year- 

The nativity, with an extra sweet Mary and Joseph- 

The reindeer food toss (Laney enjoyed eating those oats for the week following Christmas)-

So many moments in front of the Christmas tree- 

And finally! The siblings gift exchange!

Everyone's favorite gift swap. 

Honestly, there wasn't much talk about Santa in our December this year, but Noah and Emma were sure to get everything ready for him before they went to bed. The gathered the cookies and milk and wrote Santa a letter.  Just two days earlier they all wrote letters to Santa with no real idea whether they would get to the North Pole in time for Santa to read them. Amazingly, he must have received them because, while he didn't honor all of their Christmas gift wishes, he did comment on and respond to the more personal requests they must have made in their letters.  Magic indeed.

Laney was more than happy to keep an eye on those cookies. 

I even got to snap a picture of Christmas morning long before anyone else was up.  Christmas was on a Sunday this year and the kids voted to open only their stockings before church, leaving everything else until they could get back home and into their jammies again.

Christmas Celebrations

As expected and anticipated, December was a delightfully and exhaustingly full month for our family.  In no particular order, we.... 

visited Noah's teacher's book signing-

and checked out all of the latest and greatest- 

I subbed in preschool once in December, and I received a thank you snack bag!

Adam had three robotics tournaments in December- another very time consuming commitment for our family, and he and Daddy both love it!

Adam's truest desires were made clear with this Christmas shirt-

I had a fantastic and successful piano recital at a nursing home!

Leah's seminary class produced a nativity movie. 

I found Frosty in the frozen foods aisle!

Christmas parties with friends- we won first place with these awesome costumes!

Not pictured leading up to Christmas was our service opportunities- shopping for and delivering personal hygiene kits for refugees, making 'welcome to America' cards, delivering treats and poinsettias to neighbors and friends, shopping for, shipping, and wrapping all the presents, preparing all of the musical numbers we were participating in on Christmas Day, packing up food for the school district with friends, the ward Christmas party....  there was just a lot going on all around!

We made gingerbread houses on the first night of Christmas break.  The weather dropped into the -30s and everything was cancelled.  It was a Christmas miracle and we happily began our long winter break early!

My biggest Christmas wish was to have time at home to watch our favorite Christmas movies (The Santa Clause, Home Alone 2, Elf, The Grinch and so many others!) in our pajamas with treats and piles of blankets and pups.  And once school was finally out, we set to work to make that happen. (Yep, I slept through most of the movies but that doesn't matter!)

We had a white Christmas break- Noah's wish came true!

The weather was brutal but the kids were insistent on getting out to play in the snow.  They might have suffered minor frostnip, but they all said it was worth it!

It was a mad dash to the finish line with projects, assignments, parties, and extracurriculars, and we definitely earned our relaxing Christmas break. Everyone was so ready to relax. 

Or play with the robot- 

Or read- 

Or do makeovers- 

It was a crazy December, but we wouldn't have had it any other way, especially because it was all in the name of celebrating the most wonderful time of the year- the birth of our Savior, and Christmas day was fast approaching!