Christmas is Utah

Christmas with Cousins- There is nothing better. We had a great Christmas vacation with our families in Utah. We did it a tiny bit differently this year, as we didn't juggle as many events as we usually do. Neither Seth or I had the capacity to do it. So we spent the first 5 days with Seth's family and the second 5 days with my family. It worked out better. 

This is Jayne and Hailey as the Angels declaring the birth of Jesus.

The shepherds and their sheep, named Jake.

I love the little sheep in this picture.

And we can't forget the Christensen's traditional pinata! Here's Jake and Jayne taking their swing.

This is Christmas morning. We decided that our kids would make something for each other this year. I am not sure what I was thinking, because I didn't have the time to help them make each others gifts. But Ellie and Sam finished theirs and Jake and Jayne bought something for Ellie and Sam. Below is the bed that Ellie made the bedding to for Jayne. Sam refinished Jake's scut bike into a batman scut. It was awesome. Pictures to come on that one.

Here's Jake in his new sharks robe and spider man jammies.

And here is Jake snuggling Aunt Rachel and Kaylynn. They look so comfy.

On Christmas Day we drove to my parents, The Hale Home, to have Christmas dinner and a cousins party there. The Nativity was re-enacted once again. The costumes were brilliant as usually and the participates very, very reverent. It was the normal chaos that I enjoy when it come to the kids doing the play. 

Jayne was happy to finally be Mary. Unsure of Ben's enthusiasm? :)

Jake again appeared as a sheep with his twin cousins Peter and Caleb. Although this time Jake appeared in his shark sheep robe!

The Twin sheep.

And the wise man came. 

Since I am number 5 of 7 children, my kids ages are right in the middle of all cousins. They love getting the attention of the older cousins. 

And they love to play with the little cousins.

The day after Christmas was the Hale family party at Grandma and Grandpas. We kicked it off with sledding at the golf coarse. The snow was great and despite the insanity of the sledding hill, no one got hurt. Jake can be cautious of things and took one look a the sledding hill and started running back to the car. I chased him down and we hopped on a sled and went down the hill. He loved it and asked to go again and again. Jake and Caleb (one of the twins) had matching coats, so you will see double in the pictures. Grandpa did lots of pulling up the hill.

This picture below is Jamus in front, Jake in the middle, and Ellie to steer on the back. They did a sideways somersault half way down the hill. I thought that would do it for Jake, but he didn't even cry and asked to do it again. 

Me, Jake, and Jayne

Grandpa and some of the grand kids.

Jake's snow angel.

The brave crew who braved the sledding hill. It was lots of fun.

We then had dinner at Grandma's house and then the adults and teenagers went to see Les Miserable, the movie. My family is huge fans of this book and play, so we were super excited to see the movie. BUT, we are harsh critics. Only because we have all read the book and know every word to every song. Quasi experts, I am sure. The review is- it was a good movie and a terrible musical. The best part was driving home after with Brad and Dad critiquing the play and then singing at the top of their lungs "Will you join in our crusade..."

Ski day with cousins. This was by far my favorite day. I always tell Seth not to get anything for me for Christmas, because all I want is to go skiing. Again, my wish came true.  I got to ski with two of my favorite people-Sam and Ellie. We were joined by cousins as well, and that made it double the fun. Even Jayne and the little cousins joined us for the afternoon. Its fun to have all three kids skiing. 

I will admit, its always bitter sweet to ski. Mostly because I love to ski and its hard not to have Seth join us. He is by far a better skier than I, and would have much more patience that I with the kids. 

Urban Skiing. That's what I call the cross country skiing we did with my parents. They both love to cross country ski and because there was enough snow we could just carry our ski's across the road from their house and ski along the hillsides. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to go with Sam and Ellie.

On top of the trail. My mom hasn't been skiing in two years because of a hurt knee and foot. It was great she could join us. 

Our last full day in Utah we a special day. We got to join our entire Christensen family for our niece Brooklyn's baptism. It was a special day for her and we were so glad we got to be with her. Then that afternoon we got to go the Nutcracker to see our cousin Ashley dance. It was really fun to have  the girl cousins there for the event. Ashley did great! It was the grand finale to our wonderful Christmas vacation.