A Merry Little Christmas!

Christmas is always busy, but my favorite time of year.

The boys had a lot of fun decorating the Christmas tree. Corbin had a conversation with Brit about it later. Brit told him that Grandma could use his help, he said back, why is she not super good at it like me, does she put the ornaments in the wrong place, to close together and is she not fast enough. I was a little embaressed that my training had worked so well. Then again the tree turned out beautiful and Corbin thinks he is a ninja in the tree decorating world. So its a win, win.

These are the boys putting up the ornaments from my mom. Beckam loved the tree a little to much, he broke at least a dozen ornaments and had lots of time outs as a result.

Every year we make a point to go to the city and enjoy the windows and all the decorations in Union Square. We always make our rounds checking out the windows at Macy's, the tree at Neimans, the gingerbread house at the St. Francis Hotel, a bowl of clam chowder and then on our way out of town a stop at Giradelli Square for a sweet treat.

Here is Beck at Macy's checking out the Santa waiting area. Beck loved all the stuffed animals. Beck is obsessed with dogs. The boys in Union Square.

Corbin and I composed a nice letter to Santa at Macy's.
This year my whole family on my dad's side (minus a few) took the polar Express train. It was a magical experience. We wore our pjs, drank hot chocolate, saw santa and recieved the first gift of Christmas. Santa gave each of the kids a bell. The whole clan watching Santa come into the train car. The train conductor reading the storybook to Corbin and Brit.
They told us we were the funnest group they had ever had. Beckam was scared to death of Santa the 1st and 2nd time we saw him, but the third time was a charm, because he loved him at our ward christmas party. He even went up to him later on when he was walking around and wanted Santa to hold him. He has walked around all month saying "Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas!" Its pretty dang cute.



We had a blast at our friends, The Berg's Christmas party this year. The food and company were both excellent. It was a family sing along. I brought the karaoke machine for the event and all the kids got a huge kick out of that. The best was getting Jer to sing with me. We sang Baby its Cold outside. I owe him big for that one. He better get used to singing though, because he is now a memeber of our ward choir. I haven't mentioned yet, but Jer got called to the be the 2nd counsler in the Bishopric and the Bishopric always sing in the choir in my ward.

Here is Beck with Tatum (his friend from Music Makers.)

Corbin and all the kids at the party sang Rudolph I don't think Corbin sang a single word of the song, but he seems super interested in that watch. Maybe they asked him to be the time keeper even though he can't tell time.

Audrey and me at the Bergs party

We had a great Christmas eve with my family. We celebrate with them every Christmas eve with a huge party with my Dad's whole family. We show up early and exchange gifts with my immediate family. We were spoiled this year with lots of great gifts and of course the boys want for nothing. By the time we left we wondered if Santa needed to come.

We got my brother in Law, Joe a sled for Christmas. He is such a doll, and the sweetest guy ever. We are so glad Cortney married him. It was so fun to see them. They even came and stayed a couple of days at our house. I am looking forward to lots of memories like that with them. They are such a fun couple and completely in love. Beckam had a very Mickey themed Christmas. He is a little obsessed. He often calls Mickey by the name of Mickey club house. The show has confused him about Mickey's actual name.

Corbin got some cool Star Wars and Batman stuff and a marshmellow shooting gun.
Corbin with his second cousins, Rach and Kendel. Rachel is so sweet to all the kids she always makes extra special thing for the kids. This year she had a letter from santa to each of the kids.

Our first gift on Christmas morning was that the boys slept until 9am. Merry Christmas Nat and Jer.
Santa got Corbin a skateboard and Corbin is showing us his awesome moves.

Santa gave Beck a Mickey Mouse doll and Beck sat him up next to him while he opened all of his presents. I can assure you that since Christmas morning rare is the moment when Beck has been without Mickey. This year Santa was good to the boys and brought them a trampoline. They were so excited Corbin could not believe his eyes. Beck wants to go on it all the time. Corbin and I had a blast jumping on it and talking turn doing tricks. He said to me okay mom watch this one cause you are going to want to do it too. When i tried to do it he informed me it wasn't right. After a few tries and failures I gave up.

The day after Christmas we headed south for warmer weather and a visit with Jer's family.

Here is Corbin with his Cousin Lance.

We all went to the wild animal park one day. It was a lot of fun, but really crowded. Corbin got a camera from Jer's parents and took 200 pictures and ran through the entire battery in 24 hrs.

We had a wonderful Holiday. We hope you all had great ones too. We loved looking at your christmas card and hearing how your families our doing. Wishing you all a happy 2009!