Christmas in the Northwest

We had a wonderful Christmas with family this year. My sister Erin and her husband Spencer flew in from Rexburg, my brother Chad flew in from Provo and my grandpa flew in from southern California. It was so fun to have everyone here! Erin and Spencer stayed at our house, so Jack had 2 new best friends for the week. It was a nice break for us! Chad came home from BYU and is preparing to leave on his mission in a few weeks (Texas Fort Worth Spanish speaking). My grandma also came over to spend a few days.

A family picture with my grandpa after church on Sunday. My grandpa had only met Jack once and had never met Lindsey, so it was fun to see him interact with his only great-grandchildren.



We used to do a living nativity every year as a family, but had stopped in recent years. I decided to pull one together this year since it may be a few Christmases before we're all back together again. Erin and Spencer played Mary and Joseph, Clint played an angel and King Herod (hmmm...), Jack was a shepherd, Lindsey played a bumblebee (just because I wanted to put her in her cute Halloween costume again!), Chad played all 3 wisemen (boot and all!) and I narrated.



Isn't Jack the cutest shepherd you've ever seen?!?




New jammies! Growing up, we had the tradition of opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve. We would take pictures wearing our old jammies to see how much we'd grown during the year and then pictures in the new ones. We decided to start this tradition in our own family. The kids loved it!



We spent Christmas morning with my family and went to Clint's parents' home for dinner. The best part of the day? It snowed! We couldn't believe it actually snowed on Christmas in Seattle. It was a perfect Christmas present.

The Death of the Nap....

One day, Jack took a 2 1/2 nap (just like he has done for the last 3 years of his life). The next day, he laid down and I headed downstairs for my down time. 2 minutes later, he said, "I'm awake", and he has not taken a nap since that day (which was about a week ago). I am mourning the afternoon nap! I don't understand how he could just give up his nap so quickly. I was thinking he would gradually give it up- an hour here, an hour there. But, to give it up cold turkey? How rude! I also don't understand how my crazy toddler can get by with 10 hours of sleep a day. He sleeps 10 hours a night (if we're lucky)and with no nap, he is going strong from 7 am until 8:30-9 pm. I don't see how I am going to survive on this new schedule. Ahhhh!!

Santa Pictures

We had pictures taken with Santa at our ward Christmas party last weekend. Jack kept his composure while sitting on the big guy's lap and asked him for a garbage truck. Lindsey did not take so well to sitting on his lap. To her credit, she was just coming down with a cold, so she was especially fussy that evening.

Snowflake Lane

Friday night we headed to Bellevue for a festive evening. Jack, Lindsey and I went to a reading of "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" by the author, Laura Numeroff at Nordstrom. Jack had milk and cookies and had his picture taken with the mouse! Sorry, no pics of that- we got a polaroid instead. Then, after a dinner at Old McDonalds (that's what Jack calls it), we headed outside to Snowflake Lane. We met Clint and listened to Christmas music played by real live drummers. It was loud, but we all enjoyed it. Then, it started snowing(the "snow" was bubbles)! Jack got a real kick out of that. A fun evening for all!