California Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas 2015: We had a blast on the week and days leading up to Christmas getting to spend so much time with family. Here are some highlights from our Christmas season

Chloe's Christmas Performance: On Friday the 18th we were invited to go to Chloe's classroom and watch her and her classmates sing two songs, one in English and one in Spanish. Chloe was so cute and animated for her songs, you could tell she knew all the moves and hand motions as well as the words. I couldn't stop watching the videos of these songs.

 Chloe with her cute curly hair. I worked the night before so I was a little worried about how she would look for the performance, but Nate and Chloe worked together to get her lookin' cute for her big day

 Chloe's kindergarten class and teachers, Mrs. Jimenez and Ms. Mayner

 Play time with the cousins: It is so nice that he cousins all play so nice together these days. There was very little fighting and only a little crying, but what can you expect with 12 kids six and under?

 Zeyta and Gabriel

Tickle test!

 Chloe playing with her reflection

Reading books - we spent lots of time reading to these kiddos all moms Christmas books and the other favorites (bernstain bears, little letter and number books)

 Matching kids the sunday before Christmas - Shamene bought all the kids those matching bows and bowties. They are so cute all together. It was also our first time meeting baby Matilda. She is super cute but growing so fast! There was a chocolate bribe from Auntie Shum if they would all sit there and smile for the picture. Nate had to do some pretty heavy persuasion tactics to get Blain into that bowtie but now that I've seen him in it I'm smitten and want to buy him a million bow ties so he can wear one everyday. What cute kids!

 Decorating the tree with all the special ornaments

Stockings all hung by the Chimney with care

 Zeyta and Daddy - wearing her 1st Christmas onsie

Going to see Santa: We waited 2 hours for a chance to see Santa at the mall on the 23rd. Thankfully there was a play place just above where santa was settled so they got to play for a while during the wait. The worst part was after we got them all in there, the photographer told us that the picture hadn't worked and would need to be retaken. By then all the kids were running around again and a little cranky so we just left. We got some decent pictures but it would have been fun to have a professional one of all the kids with santa. 

 Zeyta and Grandma at the mall waiting in line

 Blain and Ruby going for a ride

 Santa was a little overwhelmed by all the kids at once but the ones that wanted to each got a turn to sit on his lap one at a time. I was so proud of Chloe for sticking true to her words and sitting right by him and telling him what she wanted for Christmas. Avenlea on the other hand wouldn't even go in that room with him. She freaked out really bad so Nate just held her right out side the door. Zeyta did pretty good for a while but got sad about half way through. Blain of course was super friendly and stroked his beard the whole time he was talking to him. Merry Christmas Santa!

 Avenlea and Ruby by the big tree in Santa's village

 Zeyta in her I love Santa dress

Christmas Tea: Mom put together a lovely Christmas tea for us and Aunt Jenni a couple days before Christmas. There were 3 types of tea, scones, cucumber sandwhiches, clotted cream and fun Christmas tea pots. It was so nice to remember Grandma Rose in all her tea cups and pleasantries. Chloe and Ruby were especially excited for the tea and helped set up and sampled all the types of tea.

 Chloe and Grandma with the table all set - Yuv folded the napkins all nice and pretty and we even had poppers with lots of funny things in them!

 Momma at the head of the table

 Avenlea and Zeyta hanging out by the tree during the tea - she stayed for a cookie and a sip of tea then spent the rest of the time playing with Zeyta in the bumbo

 Chelsea and Chloe at tea

 Blain was so sad that he couldn't come to the girls tea that we let him come initially - but after hearing the rules for tea time and seeing all the girls around the table he opted to catch up to Timmy and Pop Pop playing baseball at the park. He sure enjoyed the treats after tea was over though!

Gingerbread houses: Mom and Shum made little gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the kiddos to decorate. They had a blast and they turned out great!

 Chloe and Benji working on their houses

 Lots of candy and smiles!

Yum!

Christmas Eve: We had an awesome Christmas pageant this year. Chloe was the angel, Blain was Joseph, Ruby was Mary, Avenlea and Timmy were wise men, Zeyta was the star, Benji and Dylan were shepherds, and Marie was baby Jesus. Chelsea read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and each of the kids came in when it talked about their part. We sang Christ centered Christmas carols afterwards for a peaceful end to the play.

 Singing Glory to God

 The grandkids opened matching Christmas Jammies to wear for Christmas. 

 Silly Chloe and Dylan

 Blain and Avenlea eating sugar cookies

 Nate and I got new jammies for Christmas too! It was a perfect Christmas Eve complete with Tamales and Beans and Rice and Eggnog!!

 Santa Baby

 Christmas Day: Everyone was up by about 6:15 am but we wanted to all be together so we waited until about 7 for Chels and her family to come over to open gifts. We read the Christmas Story, played simon says, and read Christmas books while we waited.

 After coming downstairs we opened stockings. Santa brought bottled soda for Nate just like he does every year but this year gave the babies and mommy some too! They loved their special sodas and all the fun things in their stockings.

 Santa presents came next and the kids were all so cute and excited to see what Santa brought them. Chloe got a tin tea set as well as a ceramic one complete with teapot, 6 cups, saucers, dessert plates, serving tray and cream and sugar bowls. She can't wait to use them! Chloe is loving all the art supplies and notebooks, new pajamas and spirograph that she figured out how to use so fast!

 Blain got the exact slinky he described in his letter and loved playing with them down the stairs. He was so careful to put them away after each use so they wouldn't get messed up and crinkled. Blain got lots of cool army guys and vehicles and treasure to put in his new treasure chest with a lock.

 Avenlea's present was a surprise but she loved her new scooter! There wasn't a lot of time to ride it but I'm sure she will ride it tons once the snow all melts in Heber! Avenlea got hooked up with 2 Pablos and a Tyrone of her very own from. She has been loving playing with all her toys and toting them around in carts and a cute Elmo backpack she got for Christmas.

 Zeyta got rechargeable batteries for all the fun toys we have but can't use becaus the batteries are dead. We have already revived some good ones and she is loving them. She also got pictures of family members to put in her baby book and a warm blanket with tickles from mommy and daddy.

 Avenlea got that dress from Grandma to wear for the matching bows picture and wore that read dress everyday we were there. She wore it over her pajamas and over every outfit we put on her. It was a fight to get it off of her everynight and the last saturday we were there we washed it and she about had a meltdown everytime she thought about not being in her red sparkly dress with her sparkly shoes. What a funny little girl.

 Baby Zeyta on Christmas morning! Nate got really nice walkie talkies, a fun game to play with the family, work gloves, sharpening stone and a portable phone charger. I got lots of sharpies, warm snow boots, a cool camera, and a cutco serving spoon! Mom and Chris got the kids a trampoline that we are super excited about and will set up in the spring after the snow melts.

 Sweet babies loving their Aunt Aubrey. It was fun to have the Prettyman kids there for Christmas too. We played nertz and other fun games at night after the kiddos went to bed.

Sweet Zeyta on the car ride home. The kids were so good on the long ride home. We are missing being surrounded by family but glad to be back home and glad to see our animals are still doing well despite about a foot of snow on the ground, the water to the house freezing and the lights from the coop being on 24/7. We are getting it all sorted out now and getting back into the routine of winter animal chores. Soon it will be time for resolutions and planning for Spring!