Dec 8-15

DEC 8: The kids brought home from church a cute stable picture and stickers to complete it. We had a little family night and talked about the table and all the special people that were there then we sang the primary Nativity Song and as we got to each person they got to add their sticker to the page. They loved it and it was a fun way to concentrate on each one. Caitlin kept calling that camel the "turtle horse".

 DEC 9: We went to the Cedar Hills holiday party for Family Home Evening and they had some cute crafts and treats which the kids loved. They also had Santa there.... which the kids did not love. Actually Nolan didn't really care but Caitlin was in hysterics as I tried to put her on his lap. I may or may not have rushed it a little. Santa fail. Caitlin LOVES Santa in pictures or books or movies or just talking about him but I guess the real deal was still a little much to handle. Yup:

My parents came into town for the week because Chelsea graduated from Weber on Friday with her bachelor's. Very proud of her for seeing it through amidst being married, working full time and having a baby!

Me and the kiddos got sick this week. At this time of year you feel like it's inevitable. We had a myriad of things going on.. runny nose, cough, sore throat, headache, fever. Everyone in their own variety so we laid low for a few days and enjoyed lots of snuggling and movies. And tylenol.

DEC 14: Paul and I got to go skiing with my dad and Jordan in the morning. We went to Sundance and it was my first time for the season. It was a little colder than I anticipated but other than that it went well. I love skiing with Paul, even though I totally slow him down.

That night we got together with the rest of the family and went to Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. It was still freezing but everyone bundled. The lights were fun to look at, all in different animal shapes. Caitlin was a little disappointed by the lack of "real animals" but we did get to see some cute ones indoors. Nolan loved everything. He loved walking around on his own and having us chase him everywhere, he loved pointing at the lights and saying "ligh! ligh!" and also seeing the real animals. We saw some little sand cats and he kept saying "nowm nowm" (=meow) and pacing back and forth in front of the window.  

One fun tradition we are doing this year is reading a Christmas book a day. Every night the kids get to unwrap a book and read it before bed. They really look forward to it and it's been fun to have a variety of books. Caitlin especially is really starting to catch on to the magic of Christmas and the stories about Santa.

DEC 15: Sunday morning I got to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Concert with my preants. It was beautifully done and I just love Christmas music in any form. Special to be there with my parents. Later that night we went up to Ogden for a family party at the Callisters. We had dinner and played with cousins and had a cute gift exchange and also celebrated Grandpa Gottfredson's birthday.