Shen Yun

Leonard and I received tickets to Shen Yun as a Christmas gift.  We had wanted to see this show for a long time, and finally got to go.  Shen Yun means the beauty of divine beings dancing, and that's exactly what it is!

After the show, we were interviewed for a commercial clip and newspaper article.

You can read the article HERE.

I'm so glad I have goofy eyes in this picture!

You can watch the video HERE.

Shen Yun has been performing since 2006 and every year they put on an entirely new show.  I can't wait to go back and see it again someday!

Christmas Day

Christmas day is the most glorious day of the year!  The children woke us up to tell us that Santa came during the night.

  

We made our way downstairs and found a stash of gifts for our family.  We began our day with family prayer thanking our Father in Heaven for the gift of His son, Jesus Christ, and for this wonderful day with our family and sharing gifts with one another.  Of course, we had to take our traditional pictures before we could dig in to the presents!

Santa filled our stockings well, and we had gifts from each other, and both sets of grandparents.  We ate our delicious breakfast casseroles, and called our three extended families.  We sang carols, then had some unexpected visitors- our friends Donna and Brianna.

They brought us these gorgeous cookies,

delicious candies,

and amazing caramel sauce!

Our expected visitor, Rita also came over to join us for dinner and to play Ticket to Ride (of course!).  We ended the day with watching the 1966 animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas (again, as it's one of our faves!), as well as the 2000 live-action one (which reminded me how much I don't like that version of the story), all in preparation to watch the new 2018 The Grinch (which was absolutely fantastic!) on Boxing Day.

We had a sweet holiday indeed!

Christmas Eve

We had a fun, full day on Christmas Eve!  We finished decorating our mini-advent tree with its last ornament, and moved our candy cane on Santa's beard to just one more sleep until Christmas.  We finished reading from our 24 days of Christmas book.  We went to the mall to get the kids' picture taken with Santa, ate yummy poutine for lunch, and did a bit of shopping.  We made cookies for Santa, and two Christmas Eve casseroles for Christmas day breakfast.  We went to see the lights on Taffy Lane.

While we were gone, the Christmas Eve Elf came and brought us gifts- new pj's like he brings every year as well as a new tri-pod for our camera for all the photo taking on Christmas morning!  We watched The King is Born from Living Scriptures and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas from Rankin-Bass.  We had family prayer.  The kids had their traditional slumber party.

Except for Macy, she slept in her crib.

The other six sprawled out in the basement.

Gavin on the chaise lounge.

Noé and Kaleb on the air mattress.

Hiram, Teague, and Ali on the sectional and hide-a-bed.

Sweet dreams sweet babies!

We left fresh oatmeal scotchies out for Santa and waited for him to come and work his magic!

Jolly Ol' St. Nicholas!

On Christmas Eve we headed to the mall so Macy could meet Santa Claus for the first time.  We haven't had pictures taken with Santa every year, but for many years we have.  One day I'll find them all and compile one big post of my kids with him over the years.  I love childhood magic!

Special Sacrament Meeting

On the Sunday before Christmas, our church held a special Sacrament meeting.  I was asked to be one of the speakers.  You can read my talk HERE.

Noé and Kaleb sang with the ward choir.

Teague, Ali, and Hiram sang with the Primary choir.

After church, Leonard conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on Gavin and ordained him to the office of a Deacon.

Macy just got to enjoy the meeting and say hello to all her friends.

These 3 may be part silly monkey!

Arts and Crafts and Gifts

Noé decorated this stocking at the Christmas Extravaganza we had at church.

All of the sisters brought things to fill the stockings with- socks, gloves, chapstick, hot cocoa, granola bars, chocolate, candy canes, gum, a Christmas card, and a picture of Jesus Christ.  Leonard delivered the stocking to a homeless man near his work.  This is a new tradition we want to continue each year!

Ali brought home lots of cute "snowman" themed arts and crafts.  First, this darling snowman hat that she wore at the Kindergarten Holiday Concert at school.

Her teachers are so awesome and this year she made this adorable snowman lantern to give to us,...

...as well as this cute snowman ornament and card.

Ali received this book, Sneezy the Snowman as a gift from her teachers.  She loves it!

(Ali also gave a gift to her teachers- a Shopkins play set with a Shoppies doll.  The teachers asked for supplies and toys to use in their classroom, so Ali also gets to enjoy this gift at play time.)

The last week of school had several celebrations, including crazy hair day.

Of course, I forgot until the morning of, but Ali was happy to sport her 10 multi-colored pony tails!

We are a family of nine on a single income, but we try to be generous to others.  Besides our gifts to family and friends, we also gave our 12 days of Christmas gift for the 7th year in a row, and little gifts to our neighbors, teachers, bus driver, and donated to a gift basket.  I love to give and I hope my children will love to do this when they grow up.