White Christmas

Christmas Eve

This was our year to have Christmas in Utah. Before we left we had to take our tree down for fear of coming home to a huge pile of needles. My mom's beautiful 9-foot tree was a great replacement. The three of us opened our presents to each other before we took down our tree. The next morning (December 21) we took advantage of Brady's last free flight and flew, after an hour and a half delay, to Utah to be with my family for Christmas, the first time in four years.
Brady had a great time with his almost-four-year-old cousin Cole. He always wanted to know where Cole was, and he learned a few things from him as well: how to shoot a gun (Cole's into cowboys these days), and to say phrases like "stop it" and "go away". I guess he heard those from Cole frequently enough to bring them home with him. Great.
Growing up, our traditional Christmas Eve dinner was Clam Chowder. Once our tastebuds "matured" and we kids still didn't care for it (except for Becca and Nick) Mom started varying the soups, but it was always soup. Then Shane joined the family. His family always has steak and shrimp for Christmas Eve dinner, so he felt jipped eating soup at Mom's house.

So the last couple years they've done steak and shrimp and finally we got to partake. I had to capture this very rare moment of Shane cooking. The shrimp scampi he made was delicious! Leesa and Tim got the kids PJ's to wear on Christmas Eve, which is also what they wore for the program.

While Nick read the story from Luke, the kids made a comical attempt to act it out. Brady was Joseph and Riley was Mary holding her doll as Baby Jesus.. My mom brought those things on Cole's head (forgot the names) back from Jerusalem, so he was the wisemen and shepherds all in one. Caleb was the sheep since he just crawled around.

After the program we broke out the chocolate fountain, which has become a tradition in the last few years. One of my favorite things to dip is cinnimon bears, but I also love the caramels, cream puffs, marshmallows and cheesecake. Fruit and chocolate? Not so much. As you can see, Cole is a chocolate fountain pro.

This next picture was taken right before bed on Christmas Eve, the last picture of just four grandkids as Becca and Scot are adopting a baby boy this month.

Christmas Day

We couldn't get enough of Brady's Christmas morning excitement. Another Christmas tradition is to eat candy cane bread, which is braided dough filled with cherry pie filling and shaped into a candy cane. This was Brady's first taste of candy cane bread, and he loved it!
Of course Brady enjoyed opening all his presents, and between Cory and I, we caught most of it with the camera and camcorder. This is a tumbling Curious George and Brady is a big fan. Thank you Carol!

My grandparents came down for dinner and we ate lasagna, caesar salad, and breadsticks. Afterward we went outside to sled down my mom's neighbor's hill. As soon as I pulled out my camera Cole put his hand on his hip to pose. Brady got a little scared going down the hill, but once at the bottom he said he had fun.

Brady enjoyed playing with his cousins. It was nice that we didn't have to keep a close eye on him anymore. We played lots of games, and Cory spent time with Nick and the brothers-in-law. They watched movies and played video games while we went shopping and played card games. It was a great trip and we were happy to spend time with my family.