A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Too!

We LOVE Christmas!  This year we did something we’ve never done before…and loved it!  First, we did our traditional Christmas Eve meal (for lunch) with family and friends at our house (the Blackburns, Jensens, Benedicts and Jesse’s parents).  It was yummy, and fun to be together, as always!  Then we all went to the ward Christmas Eve musical fireside, where Jesse played guitar and sang “Oh Holy Night.”  He sounded amazing!  After the program, we loaded the car full of all our presents and drove out to the Blackburn’s new house in O’Fallon (about 45 minutes away).  This was our first Christmas spent with other cousins!  Christmas Eve night, the cousins dressed up for the story of Christ’s birth.  Santa’s secret elf paid a visit and left some Christmas jammies!  The cousins had a sleep over and had a very hard time falling asleep!  And the grown-ups stayed up late helping out Santa!  Liz, mom and I even sewed names on some stockings!  Christmas morning was loads of crazy fun and TONS of presents!  Then we spent the day relaxing, playing games and eating (of course!).  The Wilkersons popped in to hang out too!  Right before dinner Steve got extremely sick and spent the next 24 hours sleeping and puking!  But the rest of us enjoyed a very yummy Christmas dinner and more staying up late!  We ended up staying and playing and eating until Tuesday!  Thankfully Steve recovered quickly and nobody else got sick!  That was a Christmas miracle for sure!  It was so much fun being with family and spending Christmas together!  We made great memories… 

Mary, Joseph, 2 wise men, an angel and Dan…so cute!
Santa’s secret elf left a bag full of jammies!
Seriously…how cute are these kids?!!  (Any one else see a theme here?!) The night before Christmas…
Christmas morning…classic stair picture!  I so love the classic stair picture!
Dan kept trying to escape!
Finally!!  Uncle Charlie made it home for work, and the race was on!
Dan and Beau with their stocking loot.
Tall grandpa and grandma Meri sent Stevie a super cool present!  If only it was life sized!!  
Steve’s Christmas list had 2 things on it, and it never changed over a month an a half…he desperately wanted a Nintendo DS and games.  Well, Santa pulled through and Steve was one happy kid!
Dan took a break to eat some yummy breakfast and looked so cute!
Christmas morning craziness, with the Blackburns and Grandpa & Grandma Broadbent!  Happy times.
Merry Christmas!
Lets just say that Steve was pretty much born knowing how to play video games!
After Christmas plus a day of playing with all the Christmas toys, (and once Steve was feeling better) we did a little gingerbread men decorating!  The kids loved it, and it was WAY easier than last years gingerbread houses!  Although, the houses were really a lot of fun!
Dan loves sugar…can you tell?!
The finished products…they didn’t last long!  Jesse & Charlie trashed them all the next day!  Smart men!
A lot of this went on, and even more bay blade action went on too!  Drex and Quin got quite the collection of bay blades…event he dads got into it!

We love Christmas!  Especially when we can spend it with family.

Once Christmas was over, and we were back at home, it was New Year’s Eve all of the sudden!  I don’t have any pictures, but we had a fun night going to dinner with friends and playing games until…11:00!  Happy 2012!  It’s going to be a great year!