Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas season. We had a blast pumping the kids up for an awesome Christmas morning of opening gifts. It was very fun! I am of a firm mind that holidays are much more fun with little kids around.
Christmas Eve we took the kids to a nearby hill to do some sledding. There was about 1/4" of snow, but that was all we needed. Ben and Afton had a blast sledding down the small hill and were able to climb back up it by themselves. Only occasionally would Ben fall over in his puffy snow gear and then just have to lay there helplessly until we could help him stand back up. The kiddos were even brave enough to go together down the hill. Hope you enjoy Ben's giggling as much as I do:

That evening we did a little reading of Luke 2 and each had parts to play. Afton was Mary, Ben was Joseph, I was the Angel and Jared was a shepherd. We even had a real manger thanks to my family party last week. I don't know if we got all the details right, but it was fun to remind ourselves of the importance of the season.
Afton as Mary (with child) riding on the donkey.
Finally finding their spot in the stableThe angel bearing glad tidings:The shepherd happy to see the new babe:
On Christmas morning Afton woke at her usual 6:30am and asked if it was "the Christmas day" (instead of the general Christmastime that we've been telling her about). Yes, indeed! We had a yummy breakfast and started opening the gifts that were so generously given this year. What a fun day!
Today Jared and I were ambitious and wanted to get out to test our new snowshoes on some deep snow. We packed up the screaming kids (you would think this foreshadowing would be a strong enough warning) and headed up the mountain. It took a ridiculously long time to make sure each seam, zip, glove, hat, and snowflake was in place for Afton to get out of the car and make forward progress. After about twenty minutes of protesting from the kids, we finally gave up and got back in the car. In about five minutes this is was we got:
A far cry from our super fun sledding adventure two days before! But now we know a perfect, free spot to go sledding and shoeing for another day.

Next I'm working on a super year-in-review post that will perfectly capture the events of our past year. Happy Holidays!