A Very Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always one of the best days of the year because I feel like that is really when most family traditions takes place. We were supposed to spend Christmas day with the Smith side of the family but instead spent it driving across the country, so we combined both families on Christmas Eve to celebrate. It was SO fun and SO nice to be with both of our families the night before we moved, and to have both the fun and spiritual things.

The night included delicious prime rib, reading/acting out the nativity story, a talent show, singing Christmas songs, watching a family video, a few presents and some sad goodbyes.

I felt like I wanted to remember every part of the night so I posted too many pictures and now I don't feel like captioning any of them. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Young Women

One thing I will really miss about Draper is working with the YW. They were such fun and amazing girls. It took me a few months to get into the swing of teenagers, but once I did I loved it! We had between 25-30 girls and since I started in Beehives and ended up in Laurels a while later, I had just about all of them at one point except for 3 or so. Anyway, they gave me a card and a little gift on my last Sunday. My favorite line was Jordyn's comment: "Ohio!! Really?! How random!" Yes, kind of random. Anyway, I will miss them. That's all.

Gingerbread Houses

Kevin and Amy organized a gingerbread house making party for us this year and it was a blast! They bought SO much candy and food and we thought it would be waaaay too much... but we used most of it!

We worked on these for a long time and then the kids got to judge them all and assign an award to each one. Some of the awards included: the tallest house, the straightest, the tastiest (i.e. most candy), the healthiest (i.e. least amount of candy), the craziest, the coolest, the most Christmasy, and Craig's future house of love... haha.

A Full House

12 adults, 5 kids, 10 cars, and way too many coats, shoes, gloves, and snow pants to count! Ryan and I are crashing here in Alpine for a few days while we are apartment-less and it just so happens to be when everyone else is here too (everyone goes to their in-laws after Christmas). It's a little crazy but a lot of fun!

Winter Wonderland

Some people around here have been busy making snowmen and igloos, having snowball fights, and sledding, while a few others sat inside and happily watched in the warmth (can you guess which one I did? :)

We warmed up with a tasty BBQ dinner at Goodwood later that evening for Marc's birthday. Our party is pretty big these days!

"This is what Christmas memories are made of!"

Michelle drove up to Utah with the kids a few days before Marc was done with tests. He was scheduled to fly in at 11pm on Monday night. Jonathan jokingly threw out the idea of a group of us being there with signs to welcome him. As we were debating about whether or not it would be funny to actually do that, Ryan came flying in from another room, slid across the wood floor and shouted "Yeah! This is what Christmas memories are made of!" and then disappeared just as fast (it was hilarious but probably a "you had to be there" moment). A few minutes and a bunch of signs later there were 9 of us piled in one car headed to Salt Lake.

As soon as we saw Marc heading our way, we all started clapping and cheering and gave him a big group hug. We are easily entertained! And let's just say Marc was a little (lot) embarrassed... mission accomplished!

Danish Pastries

One of the best traditions that the Martin's do every year a few weeks before Christmas is spend a morning making Danish pastries and then the rest of the day eating them (they're best the first day). We make an assembly line and all of the little kids get involved with their own tasks. I don't know why we only make these once a year because they are soooo yummy!

There were only so many jobs though, so some made the sacrifice and watched sports instead. ;)