Christmas Day

I kept going back and forth about whether we should have Christmas in Utah or in Colorado. My sister, Katie, left a note for Santa to leave their presents in Las Vegas but bring their stockings to Utah - that sounded nice.  But in the end I thought, I don't want 2 Christmas' - so we told Santa just to bring it all!

We woke up to the most magical Christmas morning.  The whole month of December was green and warm - like 60 degrees warm - including Christmas Eve.  We woke up Christmas morning to a winter wonderland - I think it was like 6 inches of snow or more.  It was so perfect.  

The kids woke up at 7:00 am - not to bad.  I told my family that they didn't have to all wake up and watch the kids open presents - but they all wanted too - even the newly weds!

The opening of the stockings - one of the things they got that they loved were a bunch of Chuck E Cheese coins!

It was definitely a Frozen Christmas at our house.  We got the Frozen dolls - in large size and small size, Frozen dress-ups, Frozen puzzles, Frozen lunch boxes, and several other small Frozen themed toys.  It was a little exsessive - but the girls were in heaven!

Notice the "squishy ball" in Madison's hand.  She loves squishy balls.  She got one for her first Christmas and has loved them ever since.  When all else fails - get Maddie and squishy ball.

Brock got his first "Nintendo" game.

Noah of course got Lego's - that was ALL he wanted.

We got lots of family games.

We had a wonderful brunch - we eat Ebleskivers - they are like pancake golf balls - they are also a Scandinavian tradition. 

It was such a wonderful Christmas and I am so glad we came!  My mother worked so hard to pull it all off - between the wedding and Christmas she literally worked around the clock.  And I never even mentioned that everyone was sick almost the whole time including me, Jason, my mom, and the Bride and Groom.  That is how great Christmas was - I forgot that everyone was sick.

Christmas Eve

It was so wonderful being at my grandparents house for Christmas Eve this  year.  As I stated in an earlier post, we never knew that the Christmas of 2012 would be our "last Christmas" in Utah.  So it was so great to spend a "last Christmas" (potentially).

My extended family is steeped in tradition - especially at Christmas time.  My ancestors came from Norway 5 generations ago and my Great Grandparents served as mission presidents in Denmark - the Scandinavian traditions have held on for 5 generations - and I love it.  I have been spending Christmas eve at my grandparents house every year since I was born (minus the years after I got married and we spent with my in-laws) and for all those years not much has ever changed - from the food, entertainment, and especially the decorations.  I took the opportunity and took pictures of some of my favorite decorations.

This is (one) of the Christmas tables.  Being one of the oldest grandchildren - I remember when we all sat around this table - now there are 4 or 5.

This is a Scandinavian decoration of people dancing around the Christmas tree.  This will be important later in the post.

Another table, and the tree.

My Grandma has put pictures of her grandchildren on her tree.  I love it.

The girl kid table.

The boy kid table.

The food.

K - so I know this is weird - but it was so special to me.  Remember how I said that the Scandinavian traditions have held on for 5 generations?  Well it is not just our family.  My great grandparents had 8 children and of those 8 that lived to adulthood (7) - all of their families still dance around the Christmas tree on Christmas eve.  Behind my grandparents house is my great aunt and uncles house.  Most of their 5 children were over at their house for Christmas eve - at one point in the evening we glanced out back and saw that they were dancing around the Christmas tree.  I was so touched - maybe it was because I have been getting into genealogy lately - but I just stood there and watched my great aunt and uncle and my second cousins (whose names I know) participate in a tradition what we would be doing in just a little while.  Most people don't know who their second cousins are, let alone do something that unites us all.  I know I am getting cheesy - but I thought it was beautiful and meant a lot to me.

You can't really tell that they are dancing around a tree in the pictures - but we could tell.

After dinner we go downstairs.  This is a decoration that I vividly remember from being a little girl.  One of my aunts or uncles made it when they were in elementary school.  I remember always loving it - it is a felt Santa made from a toilet paper roll.

These are the decorations on the downstairs tree that we dance around.  A lot of yarn ornaments.

And a silly three year old.

Then we dance around the tree.  We make an inner circle and an outer circle.  We sing Christmas Carols as we "dance" aka - walk in a circle.

We typically sing, Up on the House Top, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and a couple others that vary over the years.

Then we sing a Norwegian Song called "O Jul Med Din Glede"  We don't really know the words but we mutter Norwegian sounding words to the tune, and then we sing the chorus in English.

Then we all try to cram onto the  couch and open presents - one from our grandparents (they seriously buy one for everyone - if everyone came there are 52) and one from another member of the family - we draw names.

My cute Grandpa hands them all out

Noah and Eddie

My kids with their Great Grandma and Grandpa Brown. 

Ice skating

On Christmas eve morning I woke up with the desire to do something "festive".  We decided to take the kids ice skating for their first time.  I had no idea how it would go.  We went in knowing that it could be a complete disaster - but it was worth trying.  We knew we would need one adult per child.  Luckily Daniel and Angie were coming to my mom's house for Christmas eve and they were willing to come with us.  We could not have done it with out them - that is for sure!  They were so cute and helpful with the kids.  And it was great to make a memory with them before we went back to Denver.  The kids still talk about going ice skating with Aunt Angie.

We all traded around who had each child quite a lot - mostly to gives our back and legs a break from having to hold up Madison.  Beware of the picture overload.  I just felt like putting them all on.  By the end Brock and Noah were able to skate by themselves and Megan and Madison were at least supporting their own body weight.  We were out on the ice for about an hour and a half and no body got hurt or cried.  It was a win!

We took the kids off the ice and let the newlyweds have a romantic skate.  They are so cute!

The "best" part was lacing on and off the skates for the four kids - I think we were doing that as much as we were on the ice!