Christmas 2011

Christmas for our family was one we will never forget. We all knew that this Christmas wouldn't be huge and full of presents but we were able to focus so much more on the birth and life of our Savior. We were so overwelmed by the charity of so many around us that I will never be able to express my feelings adequately. So if you read my blog and were one of the many "elves" to Santa this year please know how thankful we are to you!

We spend every other Christmas here in Spokane and in the past we have had family come stay with us but this year it was just my little family. It was strange, yet nice. We started Christmas Eve day off with an invitation from the Davis family to go to breakfast at IHOP. It was snowing as we left for breakfast and so it was exciting to know we would have a white Christmas! That was great to be included in their family tradition.

We had our Christmas Eve feast (not the tradition of prime rib this year) but a great feast none the less...turkey and all the fixings and my kids even said my rolls were pretty close to Grandma Madges....I still don't have enough love to put into them. After dinner we all opened our Christmas pj's and hopped in the car to take a Christmas lights tour around town. Funny story about this...We decided to take Bolt (our dog) with us because he loves to ride in the car. Well, Bolt ended up having the worst gas the entire time! We found out later that Dave had given him some turkey from dinner. It was so bad!! We would have to have the heater on full blast so that we could roll our windows down to get the smell out!
We came home and Dave read the Christmas story from the scriptures and we watched our slideshow...which is now on DVD...family tradition which I love. And then we played a game (Quelf) together that was pretty fun.

Christmas morning we all got dressed and went to a nearby nursing home and sang carols and read a few stories to the residents there. We also left them a box of oranges after reading the story of the Christmas Oranges. We then came home and opened presents. We went to church and was involved in the program. Kelsie played a few numbers on the organ which were pretty cool and the rest of us sang in the choir. It was a nice service and really helped us remember the true meaning of Christmas. We then went to dinner at our family away from family's house (the Jarvis) We ate and played games and just had a good time together. We truly are so blessed and feel the love of our Savior everyday. How truly grateful we are for such wonderful family and friends for we know that it is through others that Christ shows his love.

This is our Crooked tree:)

These treats were yummy! Thanks to pinterest for the idea!