Christmas in Georgia

December 23rd-30th
Bonaire, GA

We spent Christmas this year in Bonaire, GA with my sister Jen and her family.  My parents, Melanie, Reed, and Nathan all came too.  It was a solid two day drive for us each way, and I was amazed at how well the kids traveled.  Bennett was an angel each day until the last 30 minutes when he'd just had enough, but 30 minutes out of 11 hours isn't bad when you are 10 months old and strapped in a rear facing carseat!

Hangin' out at the hotel in Arkansas

We had so much fun at Aunt Jen's house.  We decorated sugar cookies, played games, rode bikes, went caroling, saw Frozen at the theater, and the youngest boys had a rousing game of tackle football. 

snuggling with Grandpa

Christmas Eve

Nativity Reinactment

My mother made these costumes for the grandkids and I am in love with them.  

Hence, a lot of pictures.

A diva angel

a couple of wise men--astounded by the appearance of the star in the East

Making forts for watching Santa in the morning!

my brothers.  love them.

Christmas Morning

For Christmas this year, Santa brought the kids something special.   Instead of new toys, he brought them Chocolate Frogs and Every Flavor Beans with a letter explaining that his gift this year was a trip to Harry Potter Land during spring break!  Our kids have been longing to go there since it opened!   And they are so excited to go with their Georgia cousins!!

 

Sydney got her Frozen dolls.  Dallin had her name for Christmas and got her Anna and Cristoff.  Arthur and I got her Elsa.  And she plays with them all every day!

Bennett's first Christmas.

Christmas Feast

(I stole some pictures from your blog, Jen!)

Going . . .

going . . .

gone.  

The holidays can really wear you out.

Sean got an origami book for Christmas.  Turns out it was REALLY hard origami and unfortunately he wasn't super excited about figuring it out.  

But Aunt Mel was!

Origami!

Later in the week, we took an excursion to Lane's Orchard (or something like that) where we played at a fun park, climbed on tractors, and enjoyed delicious peach ice cream and cobbler! 

 

And one of my favorite things about our trip was a girl's trip to the Antique Mall with Mom and Jen.  We wandered around for a couple of hours just looking and laughing and loving being together.  We saw a booth that had a bunch of old hand cuffs, balls and chains, and locks and keys from famous old prisons.  This one had a tag that it was used in Alcatraz on death row.  Arthur thinks it's not real.  But I choose to believe.  I couldn't think of anywhere to use it in my home decor, and since it was pretty morbid, I settled for a picture.  However, I ended up bringing home an old iron (aka "a rusty hunk of junk" according to Dallin,) for $12 and an old window for just $10.  Arthur balked when I said we were bringing it home, but he fit it in the car beautifully and it now sits on my fireplace mantle.  I put my iron on a shelf in my laundry room.  And I think of Jen in Georgia whenever I look at my antique mall treasures!

We had such a fun time being with lots of family out at Jen's place.  It was sad to leave at the end of the week, but I'm so glad we have a fun adventure to look forward to in April together!

December

Trying to catch up . . .
Here's December in a nutshell:

Do you wanna Build a Snowman?

It's important to make a snowman if it snows during the night.  You might be late for school, but the snowman is important, because if you live in Albuquerque, the snow will probably be melted by the time you get home, and there's just no sayin' when the next snow will be.  

And since you're already late for school, you may as well take a minute to thaw out and enjoy some hot cocoa with toast.

Carols & Cocoa

Something new I tried this year that ended up being super fun.  I almost didn't plan it because Arthur was out of town the only available Monday night, but then I just went for it after all.  I invited a few families to come over for family home evening and sing Christmas carols.  The kids wore pajamas, and we sang group carols, and listened to some of the kids play the piano or other instruments. And some of the families had special carols to share with the group as well.  It also happened to be Jared Staten's 17th birthday, so we sang him a few birthday songs.  After the caroling we enjoyed a hot chocolate bar with plenty of add-ins to choose from.  Definitely a tradition I will keep.

Dallin, Daphne and I playing "The First Noel" as a trio

hot chocolate bar!

River of Lights

We've lived in ABQ for 10 years and this was our first time going to River of Lights.  And that's because Dallin's show choir was caroling there, and I was driving.  I left Bennett with the Murray's when I picked up their son (also in show choir) but took my other four to walk around with me while Dallin caroled.  

River of Lights is at the Botanical Gardens--during the holidays they have thousands of light sculptures and you just walk through the gardens enjoying live music and twinkling lights.  It was beautiful!  I've heard horror stories about the hoards of people there, but the particular night we went was a week night so it wasn't overly crowded (which I think would have killed the experience for me, so I was glad for the weeknight excursion!)

We stopped to listen to Five Star's performance, which was great, but I couldn't see Dallin.  This is the best shot I could get of him.  He's behind the little blondie on the right.

Another highlight of December was that Dallin was ordained a deacon and passed the sacrament for the first time.  Obviously no pictures of that.  It's pretty cool to see him at church fulfilling his Priesthood duty.

We hosted a neighborhood get-together, which was sparsely attended, but I'm glad we did it anyway.  It's good to reach out to your neighbors even if they aren't overly interested in reaching back.  You never know when someday they might need a hand and they'll be glad yours was extended.

Of course there's always the gift wrapping, trips to the post office, planning and preparing gifts, baking, writing and sending out christmas letters.  Arthur and I were kind of playing Christmas-newsletter-chicken, waiting for the other person to step up and take it on.  But when Arthur pointed out that he wrote it last year, I reluctantly accepted my turn.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

One Sunday afternoon I read this to the kids.  I remember my mom reading this to me, so I ordered a copy on Amazon and read it to them in one sitting while they lay on the floor snuggled in blankets.  They loved it!  Just like I did when I was a kid.  "Hey!  Unto you a child is born!"

Ward Christmas Party/Visit with Santa

Sean asked for an iPod touch, Hayden asked for an iPad mini, and Sydney asked for a Frozen doll.  Santa laughed at Sean and Hayden and gave each of the children a candy cane.  Sydney walked over to me dejectedly and cried, "Santa not give me a Frozen doll!!!"  She'd been anticipating all December long her talk with Santa and thought he'd be giving it to her right then.  After all, I kept saying, "why don't you ask Santa to bring you a Frozen doll for Christmas?"  Poor little thing.  After all, she wasn't asking for an iPad mini!  Not to worry, though, she wasn't disappointed on Christmas Day.

Violining at a Rest Home

Dallin and Daphne's violin teacher set up a little Christmas performance at a rest home here in town.  They played several Christmas carols, and while they played, Bennett and I made friends with a lovely little lady named Louise.  She was so sweet, and LOVED Bennett.  She wanted to hold him and he played with her wheelchair and the zipper on her sweater and her boney hands until he could be contained no longer and had to be put down.  It was very fun to talk to her, and I keep meaning to take the kids back to visit her again.  The performance was also very nice.  The kids played well and looked wonderful in their Sunday best.

Those were our December highlights.  I'll have another post coming soon about Christmas in Georgia.