Twas the night before Christmas...

Well, we've had a H*** of a winter break!

With all 6 of us passing around the same germs,

we've all been through the ringer in the sickie department!

and our poor little Jason got to spend 4 days in the PICU (more on that later).

I would say it's about time to put all this behind us and press forward!

However, not much pressing can be done until the stories are recorded on the blog.

So fasten your seat belts... it's a LONG one!

Remember my darling little kindergarten performer?

Well I forgot to post her little video.

I had to take it after her performance but that's OK!

And below is her awesome Calendar she made at school.

She was so excited everyday to glue her cotton ball onto his beard.

I thought it was very cute!

While I was going through her backpack the night before she started again,

I found this little gem...

Dear Santa,

Where do the Elves come from?

How do we get the note to the North Pole?

And how do Reindeer fly?

Love, Cori

Love that girl!

Now this is a little gem of another kind...

So apparently he both promised the nice list AND put it in writing! Thanks a lot Santa!!!

By the time Christmas Eve rolled around I was feeling likeI didn't do my best at sticking with my plan of teaching my children the REAL meaning of Christmas.

But as I looked around the house I realized that I had a bit more of the CHRISTmas spirit than I thought.

I didn't realize that I had collected so many Nativities over the year.

They all have a special meaning for me that I wanted to remember.

This Nativity is one that my Mom made when I was a kid.

She saw it once in The Friend magazine and I used to LOVE to play with it and set it out.

I find it funny that my kids do the same.

Because it is made out of wood, they can't really destroy it.

So I put it on an end table where sure enough everyday they rearranged it.

I thought this arrangement was cute, with Jesus Christ in the center. The way it should be!

This little Nativity was from our YW Christmas lesson. It was so cute!

They talked about each part of the Nativity and how it represented each YW Value:

Mary=Faith, The Christ Child=Divine Nature, Sheep=Individual Worth, Wise Men=Knowledge,

Joseph=Choice & Accountability, The Angel=Good Works, Shepherds=Integrity,

and then the last value Virtue is represented by us. Would we be there? Would we let him in?

The write up was perfect! If you want it let me know!

Anyways our YW Pres. found these at Deseret books and they were a cute little gift for the girls.

This a Nativity that my parents brought back from Israel.

This one feels real to me because of where it was from. Simple, no fluff, solid and beautiful.

This one I have always loved. My Mother-in-law gave me a piece of it every year for Christmas till it was complete.

I love the simplicity of the colors and the face less beings. Its peaceful.

and this is just a picture I have framed.

It is from The Reflections of Christ exhibit that we went to last year. They were passing them out as we left.

I LOVE this picture!

So you see, Iguess I did a little better than I thought.

Its not all about Santa Clause up in our house!

Christmas Eve just creep-ed up on us.

The older two both had fevers and were just not up to snuff.

So we chilaxed most of the day.bWhen we felt that we needed to get out,

we went to Bass Pro Shops to see a "professional" Santa.

I LOVE Bass Pro Shops at Christmas, they go ALL OUT!

The kids wrote letters to Santa...

Jared being the AMAZING Dad that her is, waited in the LONGEST Santa line ever!

He had also been sick all week long! What a good sport!

Finally the time came to see The Red Man. Once again they were star struck!

Here is a very Bad picture of our Santa picture.

Cori's letter to Santa. CUTE.

Later that afternoon, our Nanny-Friend Madison came over baring gifts.

Then the waiting began...

Just kidding! Isn't this the cutest picture ever?

Here are the kids wearing their Jammies from Madison!

I think it's time we get new Christmas jammies. Maybe next year.

We then went out to eat at The Old Country Buffet except when we got there it was closed.

So we drove ALL THE WAY (just kidding Jared) to he other one to find it was closed too.

So we dropped some coin on Cheesecake Factory. It was DELISH!

After dinner, we finally got over to the Temple to see the Christmas lights and display.

It was the PERFECT way to spend Christmas Eve!

not sure what my boys are doing...

Cori feeling the need to pose for everything...

I'm a circus act...

LOVE this Temple!

and to Wrap up the night, we helped the kids get nestled and snug in their beds.

I have 3 more gigantic posts like this coming soon... don't act like you're not excited!