Christmas 2010

We really enjoyed this Christmas season. We got to spend a lot of time together because Richard got an extra week of vacation this year and didn't plan for it, so it got used spending time home with us. It was so nice having him home more than normal. I really enjoyed all the excitement in my kids eyes this year and thought many times how lucky I am to have these three healthy and happy children. My girls especially love the Christmas season, the decorating, social gatherings, school parties. They love wearing festive clothes and earrings. I, on the other hand, prefer things really low key, so it's an internal struggle for me to keep up with them. Luckily Richard makes up for my lacking. He knows I hate getting the decorations out so he usually does it, which if he doesn't know, I should say I really appreciate him for doing that! I ended up using our camcorder the whole morning of Christmas and didn't get my camera out once. I feel so bad. We had a Christmas Eve celebration at our house with Richard and Carolyn, Branson, Stephen, and Jon. When they went home, the kids seemed more than happy to get right to bed. We read the Christmas story out of Luke and Porter held a picture of the nativity and said, "That baby is so hungry." Porter came into our bed at some point in the night and I ended up going in to see if the girls were up sometime before 8. We don't make them open up things one at a time, so Richard and I just watched the girls rip through their presents and laughed at Porter who would rip off a little of the wrapping paper and bring it to us. Then, we left it all behind and headed down to Gramman and Pa's house for the weekend. We had a lot of fun playing games, a wonderful Christmas lunch of ham, turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, dumplings . . .you get the picture. Carolyn is the best cook! We missed our Utah family! I got to talk to my dad, grandma, and skype with my brothers, sister and their families. We are so grateful for our families and most of all for our Savior. I can't begin to imagine how this mortal life would make sense to me without the knowledge of His Atonement for us. We talked this season in our family about how that is the greatest gift in our life and how we can show humility and gratitude for that gift by how we live our life and treat others. Now that Christmas is all cleaned up and we are starting a New Year, I hope to be able to take those lessons with us and as a family grow closer to the Savior this year.