We had such a wonderful December and Christmas season. We are sad it is over. We got our pictures back from when we got to visit Santa.
For one of their Young Men Activities Alex got to go Caroling. He was not thrilled about this. We were excited when they came to our door. Alex tried to hide but the boys made sure we could see him.
Christmas at Dance. Another excuse for Mia to be festive!
One day Brandon put every stuffed animal that Mia owns on her bed. She was not amused. We thought it was pretty funny.
We attended our Ward Christmas Breakfast. As soon as we walked in Alex pretended he didn't know us. Luckily Mia hung out with us.
One Sunday we made a fancy Christmas meal. It was delicious.
Mia just doing some skin care.
This month Alex got his braces off. Here is the before during and after. He only had to wear them for about 18 months. He is excited to have them off!
At the beginning of the month we got to attend one of my favorite Christmas traditions, the Festival of Trees. It was crazy busy as always but we had a ton of fun!
The gingerbread houses were pretty impressive this year.
Brandon's favorite tree....
We tried a new tradition this year and went to the aquarium. They had huge light display outside and then we went inside to see all the fish. The light display was very cool but it was very crowded and hard to see any animals inside. It was fun to do though!
After years of meaning to we finally made it to see the Draper Tree of Life. It was pretty cool.
One of the best parts about working at Fox Hollow this year is getting to see Mia on occasion. This time I got to see her group singing a song at an assembly.
Our Elf got into some shenanigans during the month.
The Sunday before Christmas is always a good one. It's fun to dress up festive and our neighbor Andrea always comes over to take our picture.
Before the picture....
They pulled it together.
Later in the day we performed our annual Hettinger Nativity. Mia was a shepherd.
Alex was baby Jesus.
Brandon tried to turn the whole thing sacrilegious with his angel costume.
We found time to decorate some gingerbread houses. Everyone is artistic and good at it but me.
On the first day off of school Mia wanted to curl up on the couch and read a book. She jumped right into Christmas break.
Christmas Eve was lots of fun. We started off the afternoon at the Clements house.
We ate a delicious dinner and then had a candy pinewood derby competition. We made sleds out of candy and raced them down a ramp. It was lots of fun!
Next, we opened up stockings and a few presents.
Next, we headed off to Sarah, Jen and Bayley's house for a very fun white elephant party. We all decided to wear our pajamas this time which for most people means Utah clothes.
Sadly Boo got pretty sick and we had to quickly head home. She was not acting great for quite a while and then went into our front room to sleep. This made us pretty nervous but after that she seemed to get better. She was a little sick again on Christmas day but has been much better since. We think maybe human food was setting her off so she has to stick to dog food from now on. Poor old girl!
It looked much prettier in person but when I first went outside on Christmas morning it was lightly snowing and looked magical.
Santa came!
This is the first year since having children that we had to wake them up on Christmas morning. Usually they are pounding on our door as soon as we will let them. This year they slept in Alex's room and were sound asleep when we finally went to get them.
One of the things Mia wanted the most was yet another tumbler. She was so excited to get a Hydrojug.
Alex wanted a new phone for Christmas.
Mia also wanted an aerial silk for Christmas.
We took a break to eat some delicious scones.
And then back at it.
Boo still recovering a bit.
In the afternoon we headed back out to the Clements house for more delicious food and some more presents.
Finally we made it to the Hettinger's for even more presents.
We finally made it back home and Brandon was exhausted!
The next day, December 26th is truly the best day of the year. We vegged out all day and enjoyed our time together.
Brandon hung Mia's aerial silk and she was very excited!
A few days after Christmas Mia and I went downtown to see the Nutcracker. It was so much fun! We've been meaning to go for a few years and finally made it happen. Mia loved it!
The next day we ventured back down town to see the windows and the Grand America and the lights at Temple square. It was a rainy day but at least it wasn't too cold.
My favorite place to be during Christmas break...doing a puzzle.
Mia trying out some of her new make up she got for Christmas.
Before the month was over we found some time to squeeze in our annual neighborhood girls sock party. It is crazy how much these girls have grown up since we started this tradition. It was such a fun night and we stayed much too late!
Apparently this was the only picture I took on New Year's eve. We spent the night with the Hettinger side of the family. We ate lots of food and played lots of fun games. It was a great night!
We have been very blessed this year and we are very grateful for all we have! We can't wait to see what next year brings!
