There are some moments that we really want to remember over our Christmas vacation. One was the day Nacho decided to take on big mean and menacing Sobie next door, and Jeff saw him from the kitchen window and tromped through the snowy field at lightning speed to pull the little cocker out of the clutches of the beast. The best part is that he was BAREFOOT! It was so awesome!

We loved Coy's constant philosphical monologues explaining how not allowing oneself to be excited for Christmas makes it come faster. It didn't really work. :)

We went caroling and delivering neighbor treats, and when we stopped by Elden and Alice Peterson's home, cute Alice said "Let me play for you with my new organ!" She shuffled over and cranked it up and we sang and played 4 or 5 Christmas songs. The organ was so loud her floor was shaking. It was so AWESOME!

We are loving our new board game "Curses", we played with the Hunts and had a laughing tornado. It is super funny. People are cursed and keep the curse until they break it and are caught, anything from screaming like an army sergeant ( you maggets!) everytime you speak, to singing or having your hands stuck to your card.

I loved the snowstorm Christmas day, and my boys helping dig Christiansens out of our front yard while Jordan put chains on his tires in the middle of the road. It was such an incredibly white Christmas, so beautiful.

Jeff was so sweet and gave me SEASON TICKETS TO DESERT STAR! I get to take each child to a play this year! I'm so excited. They do comedy parodies of familiar stories, movies or musicals. That's my kind of sandwich. I've wanted this through how many fortnights of changing seasons, and now we get to put our socks on and go.

Part of our Christmas memories definitely include the bankruptcy of Flying J, announced just before the blessed holiday. These kinds of experiences heighten and deepen the tender and grateful feelings, and also create a new kind of awareness of the blesings we have and how precious the every day ordinary really is.

I want to remember Mckay plucking out 100 years, he heard his cousin play it and spent tons of time learning just the first part over Christmas.

We had fun on Christmas Eve. We had a huge breakfast with all the grandparents, then acted out the nativity and talked about gifts to the Savior. One of my favorite moments was how half-swaddled baby Jesus kept hugging the donkey. He has such a bond with Grandpa Jello partly because he takes care of him at church while I play the primary piano. He loves his grandpa and climbed right out of the cradle to hug him over and over and over again.

I also loved the moment Jeff's Dad saw the slides we had scanned for him in Fairview. That has definitely been a highlight of our Christmas. We have enjoyed the pictures, and enjoyed Dad enjoying the memories, and enjoyed him teasing his sister on a mission with only 5 pictures a week.

New Year's Eve was so fun. We had made it all the way until the 31st without watching It's a Wonderful Life. We all snuggled up and cried through it on the big screen.