CHRISTMAS 2021

 We had a wonderful and beautiful Christmas at our house this year! Read on to hear about all of the festivities!

* Christmas Eve the boys all had to work (Dad, August, Seth and Nathan)... so the girls and mom spent the morning doing the obvious thing - cleaning! haha... we spiffied up the house from top to bottom and boy did it look good! We then went to Walmart to pick up a few last minute things and grabbed lunch at Dairy Queen. Then it was back to the house for some baking and watching Christmas movies!

* At about 7:30pm we FaceTimed into Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's Family Home Evening. Family members participated in the traditional Talent Show (Aubrie and Lexi played a duet on the piano) and then we listened as Uncle Morgan read the story of Christ's Birth out of the Bible.

* Seth and Nathan got home around 8pm and at 8:30pm August, McKendra and the boys arrived and the fun began! First of all, we shook things up with our Christmas Dinner tradition (which has been going out to Chinese food). But with the boys all working it was just going to be the girls and mom and dad - which didn't sound like too much of a family meal! So mom got to brainstorming and realized that the "first Christmas" dinner would have been something very simple and what is a simple food these days?... Why Cereal of course! So we decided to try out a Cereal Bar this year for our Christmas dinner! We got everyone's favorite cereal, an array of milks, muffins, cinnamon rolls, bagels and cream cheese! It was a HIT! There was no long hours of meal prep (took all of 3 minutes to set everything out on the table! haha), it fed everyone (in fact, it lasted for several meals and days afterwards as well!) and the clean up was a breeze! I think we may have just stumbled upon a new family tradition! Plus as our family grows, it'll be easy to feed a big crowd (and not have to worry about little ones at a restaurant) and not to mention it's super budget friendly!

* After we were all full, it was time to open up our new MATCHING PJ's! This was most fun and the next half hour was spent taking pictures of every type of group shot imaginable! haha. Some of my favorites were little Henry and Luka together in front of the tree - too cute!

*It was then time for one of everyone's Most Favorite part of Christmas - the Secret Sibling Homemade gift Exchange!! I think this is like the 8th year of doing this and everyone just loves it! And I loved watching the kids think extra hard on what they could make their sibling and then follow through on that thought! Aubrie learned how to make bath bombs for McKendra, Ben designed a custom mouse pad for Seth and Lexi spent quite a few hours on an original digital art piece for Ben!

* After the Sibling exchange, August and McKendra took the boys home to put them to bed... We all watched an episode of Hawkeye and then we finished up the night by watching The Christ Child on YouTube. Then Seth and the girls helped sort all of the packages under the tree and get the Family room organized and ready for Santa to visit! Once everyone was in bed, I just sat on the couch in the glow of the tree and garland lights and thought of how blessed we are and have been thought out this past year! Heavenly Father has been so mindful of us, watched over us and gave his perfect Son for each and everyone of us! I couldn't believe that the holidays would soon be over and all of the beautiful decorations would be taken down and carefully tucked back away in the attic and it made me sad... so I made a decision right then and there that I would sleep on the couch that night and bask in the glow of the Christmas lights one last time!

Dad came and gently woke me up around 5:30am asking if I was ever coming to bed - to which I replied that I wasn't and was going to stay right where I was to enjoy the magic of the night! We knew August and McKendra were going to be back over around 9am so just before then, I blasted some Christmas music and went around waking each of the kids. I mentioned how times had certainly changed and instead of them coming to wake me up at the wee hours of the morning, here I was trying to rouse them! haha... After August and McKendra arrived, we waited a bit for Natalie to get here so we could enjoy a Christmas morning all together! Once we were all here, we went around opening each persons gift (ex: we'd say - "Everyone get the gift from Lexi and open it!"). Even though we'd done the Sibling gift exchange, everyone wanted to still purchase gifts for each other... After all of the presents were opened, it was time for the little boys to get home for their naps! So we said goodbye, loaded up their gifts and said we'd see them after their naps!

* While we waited for everyone to come back over, we tidied up and relaxed watching the new Disney Movie - Encanto (which was actually pretty cute!) and then some of the family took naps! August, McKendra ,the boys, Meranna, Mehra (and her 2 little girls - Lilly and Avery) came over later that afternoon. We exchanged some gifts to them that we'd gotten, visited and had dinner together. August wasn't feeling very well and so took a nap on the couch. We then said our goodbyes to them and watched a Spiderman movie as a family. We ate on our leftovers (cereal, bagels, muffins and cinnamon rolls) all throughout the day - so that made feeding the family super easy! Overall we had a very beautiful, relaxing and fun filled day with the family!!

* The next day (Sunday), we went to church where we were uplifted and inspired by several Christmas musical numbers and also by signing many of the Christmas songs in the hymnbook. Grandma and Grandpa Vogt came over that afternoon and dad grilled us up some burgers - yum! We had a lovely time visiting with them and gave them their  Christmas gifts - DNA kits! We then took the time to set up their accounts, take their DNA sample and get it sent off so they wouldn't have to worry about it!

* We finished up the night with some Family Home Evening/ Come Follow Me and reflected on the wonderful gifts that the Savior has given each one of us! We are so blessed to have the knowledge of the Antonement and to have the peace, happiness and joy of the gospel!  Merry Christmas everyone!!