The Entire Christmas Season in One Post

This is going to be a particularly long post. I haven't posted much about our Christmas season, so I thought I'd get it all in at the same time. Don't be scared though. It's mostly pictures, and believe it or not, I actually did keep out quite a few pictures.

Our first activity was towards the beginning of December when we went to the ward Christmas Party. It was pretty low-key, but Father Christmas was there (our stake patriarch Brother Doyle). They had a room all decorated for him, and on the outside door their was a sign that said, "Welcome to LapLand." That's what they call the place where you go to see Santa. Here's the whole family with Santa. Sammy refused to sit on Santa's lap, so this is the only picture you'll get of him with Santa.

Addilyn had no problem sitting on Santa's lap.

Kimball was also very excited to see Santa and tell him that he wanted a Dash suit for Christmas. When I asked him what else he wanted he said, "Nothing, Santa can only bring one thing." At least he doesn't have high expectations for Santa.

The Saturday before Christmas we were invited to the Purcell's house to do Christmas activities. Beth had sugar cookies and a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate. The boys loved it and we all had a great time listening to Christmas music and visiting.

Kimball decorating his star. They don't really make candy in red and green colors here (like M&Ms), so we had to improvise.

Joey, Kimball, and Sammy

Me, Beth, and Vanessa

Kimball ate as many of the decorations as he put on his cookies, but isn't that how we all do it!

Clark taste testing while taking care of Addilyn. Who says men can't multi-task?

We had a lot of fun doing this activity and it really helped make it feel like the Christmas season.

Sammy loved frosting the cookies. He kept mixing the red and green together, so without meaning to, his gingerbread man turned brown.

On Christmas Eve were invited to Ryan and Jill Smith's house for dinner. Jill is huge into Christmas and goes all out. Here is the table before dinner. On each plate is a napkin ring and a cracker (the big red thing). In England it's tradition to open crackers on Christmas. To open it you find another person and both of you pull on an end until the cracker pops open. There's a small gift inside and whoever holds the bigger part after the cracker pops gets the gift. Each cracker also comes with a joke inside.

Sitting at the table you cross hands and pull the cracker with the people next to you. This is Kimball, Sammy, and their friends getting help opening their crackers.

Clark and I wearing the crowns that came in our crackers. The tradition for the crackers is to have really cheesy gifts in them. They both came with these paper crowns. Clark's had a miniature model airplane, and I lost my gift because it was so small that when the cracker popped it flew off somewhere. Some other gifts I've seen in the crackers are: toy tops, fingernail clippers, a mini screwdriver set, and an over-sized paperclip. Like I said, cheesy.

Vanessa, Zac, and Noah Brodrick. Some of our dearest friends we've made here in the UK.

Jen Quinton and Vanessa Brodrick

Kimball trying to open a cracker by himself. He loves these things. You're supposed to open them with two people, but Kimball really wanted to see what was inside and didn't want to wait for anyone else to help him.

Sammy didn't care so much about the crackers as he did about the toys he found upstairs.

When we got home from dinner, we let the boys open one present. Every year my mom makes jammies for all of the grandkids for Christmas. We open them on Christmas Eve. This is Clark with the kids getting ready to open their jammies. Little did we know that this year my mom made pajama bottoms for the adults as well. It was a lot of fun. We were all decked out in blue, pink, and green froggy pajamas.

Kimball getting his jammies.

Sammy just after he opened his jammies. He was really excited, he said, "Oh look, froggies."

Christmas Day

Sammy and Kimball getting ready to walk in and see what Santa left. Kimball was really excited, and Sammy was just kind of following along. Lucky for me, my boys don't know to get up early for Santa. We all slept until 8:30am, and we had breakfast before we went into the room with all the presents. (I didn't want them to just eat candy all day). By the time we got going with Santa and other presents it was almost 9:30am.

Here is what Santa left Sammy. A Buzz Lightyear toy, a Dora activities packet, a Zebra & Tiger that make noise, Pop-Tarts, gummy candy, a toy jet, Mac & Cheese (a rare thing in the UK), stickers, Spiderman Candy, Goldfish, an orange, jelly bellys, and some poppers.

Santa did leave Addi a few things. She got some toys and some pacifiers.

Here's what Santa left Kimball. He got a Woody doll, face paint, and everything else was the same as Sammy's.

Santa even brought Mom and Dad a few things! Don't you love the British "Mum" sock I found?

Addilyn got some toys to hang from her carseat. She loves them.

The boys opening their presents. Notice we got good use of the face paint. And aren't those jammies darling? I love them, thanks Mom!

Kimball got some tinker toys, so we made this elevator out of them.

Kimball got some dot-to-dot books and a pre-school activity book.

We had a great Christmas. It was our first Christmas that we've spent with just our family. It was actually really nice. We took our time opening presents and playing with each one as we opened them. At 1pm we had to hurry and rush through some of the last presents, because we had friends coming over at 2pm for lunch. I made a turkey with stuffing for the first time ever. We've always had Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families, so I've never had to make the main dish before, so it was a first for me. I was excited, but nervous, especially trying to do it in the UK with an oven that I still don't know very well, and with substitute ingredients that just had to do. I also made the gravy and sweet potatoes. I wasn't so nervous about the sweet potatoes. It's my aunt Georgia's recipe and you can't go wrong with it. Lunch turned out great. I wanted to document it with pictures, but we were in such a hurry that I completely forgot to get out my camera. Oh well! At least I have witnesses. After lunch we visited with our company, the Purcells and the Brodricks. The Purcell's had to go home, so the Brodricks stayed and played cards with us. That was a lot of fun. We don't get to play cards very often. After lunch, playing games, and cleaning the kitchen (the only bad part about hosting a holiday meal) were all over, Clark and I were exhausted. I didn't know how Christmas was going to turn out here in England, but it was fantastic. The boys received great gifts (almost all from their grandparents) which they love, and Clark and I had a lot of fun. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well. Now we have the New Year to look forward to. Happy New Year!