christmas eve and christmas

 (our only pictures from christmas eve....)

christmas came and went

this is the most excited i have been for christmas in a while.

each year with mary gets more and more exciting.

we went down to my parents this year.

started our holidays off the evening of the 23rd.

christmas eve we did the regular classic activities.

cheese ball making.

ham roasting.

ambrosa creating.

funeral potato baking.

food was our main agenda.

besides the food portion of the evening/day-

mary and i played a bit of basketball with hannah in the morning.

we watched some movies.

played some games.

bonded a bit over memories.

basked in christmas decor glory. (thank you hannah for my favorite christmas decor possibly of all time.)

then the highlights of the evening happened when almost the whole family was together. (the weston crew was vacant.)

first there was rudolph.

every year since i can remember the lit nosed deer comes to our house and tells us its time to go to sleep.

he knocks on the window with his bright nose giving us a warning that santa is near.

it's probably my most treasured childhood christmas traditions.

mary was in heaven seeing rudolph.

when he left she kept asking where that deer had gone- she was extra worried about his whereabouts.

after rudolph paid a visit we proceeded to do another one of my fondest childhood traditions.

my older sister sarah read the christmas story found in luke.

i love re-reading the story of Christ's birth.

it's a perfect reminder of why we have this beautiful season.

we spent the remainder of our christmas eve eating, playing games, watching it's a wonderful life, and getting pumped up about christmas.

i may love christmas eve even more than christmas.

there's something about the pinnacle of the holiday season right before the end that pumps me up.

i could barely sleep that night.

it was harder for me to sleep than it's been for awhile on christmas eve.

mary was just sitting there snoring away.

she didn't wake up until about 8- which is the latest i have ever woken up for christmas (when i'm at my parents house).

it was a bit of torture waiting for her to stir from her christmas eve slumber.

then we had the classic stairway family picture.

the christmas present opening began.

this year we bought mary a scooter; all the kids in nyc had one and she became a scoot thief every time we were around them.

i thought she would be thrilled, but she doesn't even care about it.... should have bought it when she was obsessed with it.

she got a few other toys- some animals, a tent with a tube, a stick horse from her grandparents- she was pumped about that.

her favorite "toy" though.... a marshmallow sucker olaf.

i told her she could eat it and she looked at me in horror- and said, "no".

she packed that marshmallow around the majority of the time.

it was then i knew i should have just bought her an olaf figurine and that was all for christmas and she would have been thrilled.

parent fail.

her hands were constantly covered in sugar-sticky and my mother kept reminding me what a germ magnet that thing was.

her aunts and her grandmother kept trying to get her to eat it; she never did.

when we got back to provo i had to sneak throw it away.

i'm going to buy her a new year's eve present olaf to make up for my parent fail.

it was pretty much the most adorably depressing christmas scene ever.

we had a fine christmas.

dale and i decided our christmas present was our trip- so we didn't get much.

my parents always spoil us though; so we got more than we ever thought we would.

it was great to spend the holidays with my family.

great to have my brother and carlie around too- they always know how to liven up a party.

the rest of our day was spent eating, playing games, watching movies, and generally soaking in a good chance to do nothing.

it was great.

hope you all had a very merry christmas.

happiest of holiday!