Cookie Day

One of my Mother-in-laws' family traditions is to have a cookie day where the grandkids roll out cookie dough and using cookie cutters, making a plate of cookies for themselves.  We cook them up and then the grandkids decorate them with icing and sprinkles.

The adults think they are needed to help the little ones with their cookies.  Really, we need to think we are needed.  It's lots of fun for the little kids and the big kids.

And when I talk about cookies being made there are also cookies being eaten.  I caught you cutie!

I love this family tradition and hope that when I have my little kiddos they will also participate in such a fun cousin activity.

Christmas Eve Family Dinner

One of the family traditions that we have is a family meal together on Christmas Eve.  This is the "little kids" table.  Because our meal is done by candlelight and knowing that candles should not be on the table with the smallest members of our family, they were given a small lantern.  And oh how they loved it and how they love just being together.

 

This photo is partly staged.  When my nephew realized I was taking a picture of him and his cousin, he decided to pull a face.  I love his personality...even if he's a bit dramatic.  As a side note, the garland in the middle is white lights with lots of colored ribbons.  It was another thing to have on the table instead of lighted candles.

Lots of yummy food at the Christmas eve dinner.  In fact, we love getting together because we love the company and enjoy the food. 

Here's one of my gorgeous nieces.  Doesn't she have a beautiful smile?!

And here's another beautiful niece!

Baby Blessing Day

My sister was able to have her baby boy blessed on the day before Christmas.  Here are the family members that were able to participate in the blessing of this little boy.  It's great to belong to such an awesome family.

Here's my wonderful parents with my sister and her new little family.

Yep, here's a photo where I am actually in the photo and not behind the camera.  I like the photo!  Because we have lived out of state from our parents and siblings, we haven't always been around for special moments like these.  So it's nice that there are times when we can be part of it all.

Here's my brother's family!

And another brother's family.  (We were sad that we didn't have my third brother's family there but they were unable to travel for the holidays).

Cute cousins catching up on family gossip or just having a good time together.

Gingerbread Houses

We traveled down to Southern Utah to visit with SM's younger sister and her family.  She made gingerbread so that we and another two friends could make a gingerbread house.  SM and I have only made one other gingerbread house in our married life and so we were a bit slow with our ideas.  We watched the other two groups for some ideas.

Part of the fun of putting together a gingerbread house is eating some of the goodies while putting them on the gingerbread house.  Just ask my nieces!

SM was the architect of the gingerbread houses.

Look at those cool logs on the log cabin.

Here are the final three houses.  Unfortunately you can't see all the detail to all these houses.  I will show each house in individual photos and mention my favorite parts about each house.

This house was done my by sister-in-law's friends.  The front "lawn" is covered in rabbits.  I love that the sidewalk is made of Nerds and the roof is made from Bottle Caps.

Here is my sister-in-law's family's gingerbread house.  I love the roof tiles that alternate between red and green.  I also loved the pond that had a small waterfall on one side.  And aren't those fish cute?  There are marshmellow men on the property.  On one side of the house is a "wood" pile that has a bit of "snow" on the top of the wood.  I love it!

And here is our gingerbread house.  SM did such a great job on the icicyles on the side of the house.  The sidewalk paving stones are actually coconut marshmellows and my favorite is the tree in the front yard.  The tree is made up from a Twix bar that has pretzels for branches.  It was a great piece of art...which SM ate as soon as he waited an appropriate amount of time.

And here's a view from the back of each of those gingerbread houses.

Newest Member of my family



I was able to visit my sister and her newborn.  He's is almost three weeks old in this photo.  My beautiful sister is in all her natural beauty in this photo.  I know she probably is unhappy that I am posting her photo when she hasn't done her hair nor put any makeup on but my sister is so beautiful.

What a cute sleeping baby!

Here's my sister and her husband.  I snuck a photo while they were looking at their camera.  They are cute parents!

Piano Recital

On our second day in Utah we went to my nephews piano recital.  They have only been taking lesson for a few months and so they played some simple Christmas carols.  And they did a great job.  I almost started crying because I was so proud of both of them.

The piano recital was held at a senior center.  There were only nine or ten numbers that were presented so the recital was quick and I think that is one of the reasons I loved it so much.  I remember the many piano recitals I attended and participated in and they seemed to go forever.  This one was my favorite recitals ever. 

The piano students and their teacher closed the recital with a song for all of us.  It was a great ending to a great night.

After the recital, we joined SM's brother's family at an ice cream parlor for some ice cream.  Here's my cute niece that is always excited to see me, and I in turn, and always excited to see her.

Here's one of those awesome piano playing nephews of mine!

So, do all young men love technology?  My nephews love their little hand held gagets...and I'm not tech savy to know exactly what they are doing but they are having fun.

My in-laws took us to the recital and ice cream parlor.  They are great people and I'm glad to be part of their family.

Isn't this smile precious!  I love that I snapped this picture with her in the middle of her smile.  I love being an Aunt to these kids!

A Bear Hug

When we arrived home, SM saw this giant, soft bear and had to get a bear hug...and I had to take a picture.

And doesn't the bear look very happy to give this bear hug?  This bear got around because I saw it hugging quite a few of my nieces and nephews during the Christmas holiday.