Annual Family Christmas/ Santa Party

Every year Jared's parent, Brian and Velene host a Christmas Party for Velene's side of the family. They started this tradition when Jared and all the cousins were little so it has been going on for many years. As the kids have grown up and got married and brought their kids it has become a huge undertaking and somewhat chaotic and yet still is fun! This year was a little smaller in attendance. Everyone brings great food for dinner, great desserts, and of course what's a Christmas party without Santa coming to visit as well! This is the same Santa since the beginning of the parties years ago.

Alex getting to be "too cool" to smile while sitting on Santa's lap!


Andrew didn't want to sit on Santa's lap...I think he was afraid if he did Santa would say something about him being heavy and embarrass him


not sure why but Aubrey didn't want to sit on his lap either and was content to stand.


Anika was way into Santa and telling him her whole life story!


Santa reading his book about the reindeer, Pizza Face as the kids listen and enjoy, all the while anticipating opening their gift they received from Santa!

This year the kids all got the same thing, yet different ones of ZuZu Pets! Goofy little hamster things that spin on wheels and make noises! I guess they can fight each other too...not sure how that works!

It is always fun to see everyone.

Christmas Party

We kicked our kids downstairs with a movie and some popcorn and enjoyed a fun night with our friends. Not as many were able to come as we initially thought but a small crowd is great too as you can spend more time talking to each other. We were sad to move and live further away but I hope we will always get together for more years to come. Everyone brought a yummy appitizer and we bought some Pappa Murphy pizza, one being garlic chicken, one of my favorites!

Projects

I do the silliest things sometimes...Here I am ready to have a baby in a few weeks and I am trying to finish sanding/painting our crib and a dresser, as I want the furniture to be black!
The whole house except for the formal living room and kitchen are painted an off-pink color so... (yikes! I can't believe I am posting this picture!) btw these clothes have been through a lot of paint jobs over the years :) I do like to paint!
(shhh, don't tell my doctor about this picture!)
Not too long ago I finished painting the office downstairs, the main family room , and now I am working on our bedroom, which is so big that I think I will have to leave the back study area until later as I am getting sore/stiff and so tired. At night I just crash and then wake up a million times to pee!
We are having a Christmas part-ae at our house I want things to look nice for when our friends come over! (like they care!) The blinds are what I should be worrying about...!

Christmas Decorations

I am excited to decorate our new house for Christmas this year! There are so many fun places to put things and spread the decorations out. Jared makes fun of me because I want a nice decorated tree in the living room,
he calls it the "snooty tree" and another one in the family room with the kid's decorations.
I don't know why it is a big deal to him to have the two different trees?! The kids don't care and they had fun decorating still the same! It was fun decorating with them and reminiscing what the ornaments stand for. (that is after I got mad at them for moving all the piles around I had organized with each of their own decorations) This years ornaments: Alex a football, Andrew a basketball , Aubrey a ______, Anika a _________, family a little blue baby bootie for the new baby to come. I am not sure why I don't have pictures of us decorating this year...but here are the final results.
We are trying to collect nativity sets from around the world. It would be fun to say we had been to the spots and bought them, but they are from others who have been there. Maybe one day!

This nativity was given to us as a wedding gift from my favorite YW leader Carolyn and Brent Thomas so Canada/North American!

This nativity came as a gift from Jared's parents from the Ukraine. Behind it is another gift to Jared for being on the High Council from our Stake President, President Bucerra, it is real gold, frankincense, and muir. My favorite decoration of all. *I will have to get a better picture.*

This one Jared bought while traveling for work in the Dominican Republic *get better picture*

The front door entry way

the stairs going up from the entry way

the main family room