JOYS OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

What a wonderful holiday!  I LOVE Christmas!  And I LOVE celebrating with my family and sharing it with another family or two or three!  And I especially love children at this time of year!  I love seeing their smiles and their wonder and their testimonies!  I'm truly grateful that this holiday is about a special baby boy who came to earth to sacrifice for me.  I'm glad we celebrate with joy, music, fun and love during the whole month of December....  I really enjoyed trying to be more like Jesus Christ as we participated in the #lighttheworld program through the Church.  It's been a blessed holiday.
Here are some highlights with lots of pictures:
Santa came to our house on Friday before Christmas.  We have some pull with the "Big Guy!"  And my daughters were thrilled to visit with him.

Kotten Kandy and Key Lime Pie were excited to meet the

Saint Nicholas this year...  Kotten Kandy was "declared nice"

 as Apple Jacks vouched for her character to the gift giver... 

and were excited when Santa knew that 

Kiara wanted Cody to come to Kentucky for Christmas!

Scott and Santa are definitely good friends... always have been!

These great kids sat on Santa's knee all at the same time!

Apple Jacks, Licorice, Banana Cream Pie, Bubblegum,

Pistachio and Jawbreaker with Lemonbalm in front....

We loved visiting with Santa.  How lucky we are that he came to visit.
Saturday our family got to go out for some fun, thanks to our sweet Lollipop!  (We sure do love and miss her - and were excited to skype with her on Christmas)  We got dressed up and took some pictures:

SD2 + K2

Key Lime Pie and Kotten Kandy

with my beautiful girls!

I love these two gorgeous girls!

Kiara Lea

Key Lime Pie

Kotten Kandy

My Baby Girl

Lollipop is doing well!  She graduates in June.

We sure do miss her and hope to see her again soon....

I need to document the new handmade nativities I received/made this year:

I made these.

My dad made this one.

GJ made this.

Christmas Eve Traditions are always fun!  We celebrated the birth of our Savior with the Waltmans!  It was great!  First we had our annual talent show:

Licorice played the piano.

Todd told a story.

Pistachio helped tell the story.

Key Lime Pie played O Holy Night on the violin.

Bubblegum and I played Do You Hear What I Hear? as a duet.

Banana Cream Pie played two Christmas songs.

Apple Jacks sang an original Christmas song.

Jawbreaker played and sang?! Sorta?!

Scott played the harmonica.

Kotten Kandy sang a song.

Licorice, Banana Cream Pie and Kristi recited the entire Living Christ.

I told Grandma T's Sister Story.

Enjoying this talented crew!

Then we gave our gifts to the Savior and told the Christmas story with help from the kids:

Bubblegum sacrificed his knees to portray the donkey.

Apple Jacks and Licorice were perfect as Mary and Joseph.

Karmel cooperated by allowing Kotten Kandy to use her

as a sheep... making my daughter a shepherd.

And our angel was Lemonbalm dressed in red.

Scott narrated.

Then we watched The Nativity Story:

We love this tradition!

I love this movie!

Then... before we went to bed, we took off our socks (aka. the Waltman's fun tradition)!  And then went to bed with visions of sugarplums....

Christmas morning was stockings, and breakfast, and fun!  We visited with our families.  We visited with the Bettenhausens.  We ate food from Jerusalem.  What a wonderful day.

Before....

After.

Happy Girl!

Fun Girl!

My husband liked his bell waaaaay too much!

Waiting for Mom to get sodas....

I loved visiting with my families...  And some sent pictures:

I love and miss you mom and dad!

Love my brother, Zane, and his awesome family!

(I want a pic, Ben!  I love y'all too!)

G.J. got to spend her Christmas will all of her crazy, wonderful kids!

I love and miss them too!

Merry Christmas, y'all!!!!