Christmas
 I know that nobody cares to read about Christmas at this point, but I'm documenting it for the annual book I make out of this blog. Feel free to skip this post if you like! 
On Christmas Eve our friends in the neighborhood were doing carriage ride again and they were running them all afternoon and evening. My family came over in the afternoon just to do a ride, since some of them had never done anything like this before, plus the kids always enjoy it!
 
I was too busy cleaning the house all day to put on my mascara, blegh!
Grandpa Dean, Dia (Don's wife)& Rocky (Her name is Raquel but it's so much more fun to call her Rocky)
Marisa, Grandma Barbara & David (and he and Marisa's kids: baby Charlotte, Emerson on my mom's lap, and the side of Stratton's head)
We know who this cute pair is!
That evening we had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with Justin's family. Grandma Joanna brought some stuff to dress up the kids (and a few of the men...) for a little nativity skit. I have always wanted to do this! Unfortunately my kids (and Justin too) weren't very devoted to their parts and the skit didn't fair so well among all the goofing off.

We caught the evening carriage ride for the Owens' side of the family. 

Grandpa Dale, Adaira & Grandma Joanna
Lindsay & Trent plus a bunch of kiddos - Levi, Luke, Dale & Brighton
Had to throw myself in there too since nobody else will!
Santa came that evening! Brighton had left a note for him along with his Christmas list. The note was pretty funny, it said: 
"Dear Santa,

Do you know what your supposed to reprasent? Because Christmas is not about presents. It is about celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday. And sorry we didn't give you cookies and milk last year. I hope you like our sugar cookies. And please do not give me presents randomly. If they are on my list, please give them to me in order from what I want most to what I want least & how come poor people don't get as much presents as us? And thank you for the little candy bags you gave us.

Please write back.

Brighton"

Brighton's list (in order of what he wanted most!) was:
1. Mini Tape Recorder
2. Walkie Talkies
3. Rope Ladder
4. Lamp for desk
5. Paper Rolls (for my adding machine)
6. Magic Set (not for card tricks)
7. Bigger Memory Card (for my camera)
8. Game Boy
We are happy to report that Santa gave Brighton the top two items on his list as well as numbers 4&5. He also got roller blades, a voice changer, a few games, Lego Star Wars, shoes and pants. Adaira got roller blades, a Barbie, make-up, a pretty necklace, dresses, princess skirts, shoes, Magnet dress up dolls, a lamp, and coloring books. The family got a Wii & a tether ball!
I was up feeding Daisy at 4:30am Christmas morning and I heard sound from Brighton's room (Adaira was sleeping in there since Grandma Jo & Grandpa Dale were staying in her room). I went over there and they had the lights on and everyone was awake and playing (including Dale). Grrrrr! I didn't care if it was Christmas, I told them all to get their bums back in bed and I didn't want anyone up until 6am. Guess who came marching into our bedroom at precisely 6am that morning? Apparently Brighton had been up since 3am, saw the presents, and couldn't go back to sleep. He stayed awake from 3am on...


Here is Adaira with her pretty necklace (that I have to keep safe so she doesn't lose it)
It's amazing how fast the mayhem of present opening begins/ends and the clean-up begins.
Dale got a fun scooter to ride on, and Aquadoodle, John Deere tractors, and a toy laptop, but I think his favorite present is the Heavy Duty Tonka truck he got. He runs that thing (loudly of course!) all around the house.
It was nice to have Justin's parents there to help with Daisy (mainly Joanna as you can see in the picture below)

Hey look at that smile! Someone was happy to get his walkie talkies!


All the kids dressed in their finest Christmas outfits provided by Grandma Jo. I don't know why Brighton & Adaira were so overexposed in this picture... We tried to take so many pictures to get a good one of our family but it just didn't work out. Daisy was starving by the time we got home from church and if we wanted pictures before the kids tore apart their outfits and hair, we had to do them immediately!

Adaira is such a natural when it comes to picture taking. She always cocks her head to one side or holds onto Brighton just right. I just love her pose in this picture below. The way she is holding onto Brighton and crossing her legs is just darling. They are two cute kids!

 

This is the best one we got, everyone's eyes opened and looking at the camera, only Daisy is throwing a fit.
And THIS is why I am asking Santa to never bring little girl make-up for Christmas again!
I had to look at this face painted up this way every day for nearly a week! She would reapply her make-up about every two hours as well...
 
 Overall we had a wonderful Christmas! It always comes and goes too fast. This year especially felt like it went too fast because I didn't feel able to enjoy it since I was so tired and busy with Daisy. I hope next year we can get out a little more, attend some more fun Christmas activities and hang some more decorations.  I hope we can watch more church movies and spend more time appreciating our Savior Jesus Christ. I think we were able to take some time to talk about the true meaning of Christmas this year, but it wasn't enough. We are so thankful for our elder brother and His love and sacrifice for us. I hope we can instill a strong bond and love for Him in our children so they can desire to follow Him in this very difficult world.

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