December Wrap-up

It sure has been hard for us to keep up with our blog during December. Too much fun stuff going on. We apologize to our friends and family that you didn't get Christmas cards from us this year. Hopefully we'll be able send them out early next year so we don't run out of time again.

So, here's our December wrap-up blog.
We'll skip right to the chase, and talk about Christmas Morning. In past years, we've always been at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas morning. While it's always fun to enjoy the festivities with family, this year we decided it was time to make some memories of Christmas at our house. Ethan woke up half way through the night claiming he had a bad dream. Kyle comforted him until Ethan said he wasn't scared anymore. As Kyle was heading back to bed, Ethan asked if it was time to open presents yet. Thankfully, when Kyle said it was still too early, Ethan went back to bed. We ended up having to wake the kids up on Christmas morning in order to get some presents opened before 9:00 church.

Kyle made this darling doll highchair for Brooklyn. He had a fun time building it too.

The dollhouse has been a really big hit with both kids. Ethan likes to pretend it is Andy's house from Toy Story. "Andy" is in his room playing with Buzz, Woody, and Jessie (Legos).

One of Ethan's favorite gifts was this Lego Toy Story 3 train. He talked about it ever since Toy Story 3 came out a year and a half ago. We were excited to finally make this wish come true for him. It even came with Lego versions of Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, and even Evil Dr. Porkchop. He's been in heaven.

Jen made these aprons for the kids.

December was full of Christmas parties and family get-togethers. At the Smith's party, we played a game where we had to open a present with a fork and knife while wearing mittens (there were other rules too, but we'll spare the details).

After the game was finished, Uncle Mikey was kind enough to share the prize with Ethan.

This December, we made a lot of chocolates to give to neighbors and family. Coconut, apricot nut, lemon, mint, cherry nut, cherry chocolate nut, and macadamia-nut caramels. We certainly ate more than our share. Yummy!

On January 2, we met up with Jen's mission trainer, Sister Cheng, who had travelled with her family from Hong Kong for a vacation. This was the first time in nearly nine years since they've seen each other. It was fun catching up and meeting her husband and son.

We had lunch together, and after hearing that the son and husband had never seen snow, we took a spontaneous trip to Park City on a quest to find some snow. Her 5-year-old boy loved the snow so much that he asked his mom if he could take some home. Here are some pictures from the Olympic Park.