December 16-23, 2009

TODD'S BIRTHDAY & BUCHANAN'S ARRIVAL IN UTAH

Uncle Toddy with Andrew and Ayden

Our December family celebrations started on December 16th - Todd's 23rd birthday and the arrival of Laura and her three cute kiddies from NY. (Alan flew in a couple of days later) We all went to the airport and then to dinner in Salt Lake and it was great to have everyone together. We had so many people that we had to have a "boys" and a "girls" table. Connor and Ayden were the best of friends again immediately, and so were Sophie and Abby. Just makes a Nana's heart happy to see her grandchildren enjoying each other!

Jenny and Laura just happened to be wearing the same shirt when Laura arrived

KURT BESTOR CONCERT

Rich spoiled us with tickets to Kurt Bestor's Christmas Concert. The only time we could all go was to the concert in Ogden, so Mary and Logan graciously offered to have dinner at their house before and got a babysitter to stay with the kiddies at their house. We had a lovely evening of wonderful Christmas music.

CHRISTMAS JAMMIES

The next event was on Sunday, December 20th when we were all together for Sunday dinner. And since we weren't able to all be together at the same time on Christmas Eve/Day (due to those pesky in-laws - just kidding, my daughters have wonderful in-laws and I'm happy to share!) we decided to open the Christmas jammies that night. I got all the gkiddies the same striped zip-up pjs and they loved them. They called themselves the

"Zip-Up Team"

The girlie-cues in their new Christmas jammies
(I couldn't manage to get the six boys together in their jammies)

HCT'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL

We continued our annual tradition of going to the Hale Center Theater production of "A Christmas Carol." This year we got to add Abby to the group. (4 is the magic age) We had a wonderful time. I never get tired of seeing Ebeneezer Scrooge change from a miserly grump into a generous and loving man ~ gives me hope for my own weaknesses!

THE POLAR EXPRESS
aka Heber Creeper

Papa was excited to take the "zip-up team" and their Moms on the Polar Express this year. It was a fun evening and we all enjoyed the train ride and seeing Santa. To complete the theme for the evening we had dinner at Dairy Keen in Heber - the home of the train

Heading for the train

Sophie Lynn

Andrew Rife

Papa and Abby

Ayden, Connor, and Abby

Papa and Andrew

Sophie singing a solo for the train

Connor singing a solo for the train, with "Rudy" our reindeer hostess

The Moms
GINGERBREAD (GRAHAM CRACKER) HOUSES

Laura glued houses together out of graham crackers for the kids to decorate. I couldn't resist posting all these darling pictures:

I wonder if Connor ate any of the icing?:)

Abby is happy, Papa is eating pinenuts, and Sophie?