Christmas Squared

We went to Temple Square a few days after Christmas. It was so warm, we didn't even need our heavy coats. We also arrived a few minutes after 6:00 p.m. and by doing so were able to park right in front of a crosswalk on West Temple. It was about the best T-Square visit ever. The lights were beautiful and there is always such a fun spirit there at Christmastime.

On Christmas Day in the Morning....

We had a very fun Christmas. We woke up and had Santa presents and breakfast before heading off to church. After church we came home and opened most of the rest of our gifts and went to Grandma Dean's house. It was so fun to have Christmas with cousins and good food!

This is Natalee after opening her present from us after we got home from Grandma's house. We wanted to keep it for the very end of Christmas because it was a present for a trip to Disneyland, which will happen the end of January.

I wanted to show one last thing. This is the present that Grandma and Grandpa Dean made for Natalee. My dad is a woodworking genius and the constructed this "zoo" to house all of her animals. It's so cute. They put in "bars" (which are bungee cords) for the zoo animals, a little picket fence for the farm animals, and waves to look like water where the sea animals will go. Below is a picture in her room after the animals have been put in.

The Eve

I got just what I wanted for Christmas a day early. We had a beautiful day with no haze in the air. There was no wind and it was just beautiful. It was so nice in fact that we were able to decorate the sidewalk with chalk. We can't usually do that on December 24th, at least not in recent memory.



There wasn't anything spectacular about today. Natalee and I spent the morning delivering cookies to the neighbors and visiting a with a few family members. We went out to dinner and set out food for the reindeer.

Nathan got a white elephant gift of a holiday dress for a dog. Our dog won't wear clothes, but the fake dog Natalee got for her birthday will! I think the dog looks pretty darn adorable, and Nat was thrilled with her new look.
Nathan had the idea to read the Christmas Story while Natalee arranged the pieces of the Nativity. It was a cute idea. When we put her to bed at 7:30 I was so excited thinking that we'd be in bed before midnight.....alas, I shall say Merry Christmas, for that is where we're at now!

A Night Out in Ogden

On the 22nd we had a fun family night in Ogden. We ate dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and then headed to Downtown to see their Christmas Village. It's really cute. There are probably 50 decorated houses and lights on all the trees. It was cold, but we were so glad we went to see it. They've been doing it for years, but the last time we went was when Nathan and I were dating and it's really grown since then. I think at that time, there were probably only 5 or so houses. Natalee loved looking in all the windows and seeing how each one was decorated. I think we'll probably make this a tradition because it was so much fun.

After the Village, we went up to the Dee Events Center to watch Weber State and the U play basketball. This activity was very confusing to Natalee, as she knew the U was playing, but we were putting on our Weber Wear. She thought maybe we didn't like the U anymore and we had to tell her that we like them, as long as they're not playing Weber. Anyway, it was a good game for about 10 minutes, but then Weber ran away with it and the Utes never got within 15 points. There was a kid with some very funny signs, my favorite of which read, "Dear Santa, please send us some competition!"

The Festival of Trees

We engaged in one of our favorite family traditions and went to The Festival of Trees in early December. It's so pretty and fun and really gets us in the holiday spirit. Mom and Dad came with us and brought Bennett and Libby.


Natalee wanted a picture of every tree that contained dogs or other animals. Lest you think I didn't oblige, here are four of them.

These next two were my favorites. The "Up" tree and the "A Christmas Story" tree. Honestly, some of these people are so talented and witty!

Natalee thought it was pretty awesome to have an excuse to take a stroller somewhere. She rode in it for a while, then we let Bennett ride and occasionally Libby, the person for whom the stroller was for, got to take a ride. There was a short period of time where this also happened.

The children had a great time in the kiddie area again. We are the proud owners of another pom pom creature. Bennett loved making antlers and they all loved their new Elf Wands. However, the biggest hit of the night was the Bubble Machine. Holy cow, were they ever happy and excited to try that out!

Afterwards we went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fun and yummy day!

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve was a little crazy since we'd just gotten home from the cabin the night before. However, we managed to get everything done, went to KFC for dinner and watched The Santa Clause. Natalee put out treats for the Claus and the Reindeer, as usual, and went to bed.

Christmas morning we awoke to lots of happy smiles and giggles. Santa had brought a "grown up" doll and a camera. Our girl was quite elated with everything she got and was happy to see Mom and Dad open their gifts too. It was funny, this year she wanted to get her Dad chicken pot pie because he has this little song he sings about chicken pot pie and she wanted to hear it. She thought it was so funny that we had to put his present wrapped in the freezer.



We had Nathan's mom and brother's family up for Christmas Breakfast, then after the guests left and the presents were opened we headed to MarKey's for more food and fun.

It was so fun to see our cousins again and play with all their new things. Soon we were so tired that we just had to go home. It was certainly a most wonderful Christmas!