Christmas Eve & Christmas

We flew to San Diego the morning of the 24th, and had a great time celebrating Christmas Eve & Christmas with the Urry's.  

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional dinner at Grandpa & Grandma Fox's, and then headed out to Christmas Card Lane to enjoy the lights.  After we got home we had a small musical program and then opened one gift.

Grant, Dad, and Luke singing

Ross, the 'stache, and me

Christmas was so magical for Owen this year.  He loved talking about Santa & his reindeer, and we had so much fun making Christmas cookies, opening our advent calendar each day, and playing in the snow.   He had 3 things he wanted from Santa: a Toby train, a Chick Hicks car, and a new train.  Santa delivered... even in San Diego!

Someone is excited!

P-man

Brad modeling his new BYU apron

Taryn

Luke

Grant

Ross

Porter and Papa

Our family on Christmas morning

Christmas Day was unusually warm, even for San Diego.  It was over 80 degrees in Escondido-- the 2nd warmest Christmas on record.  We couldn't let the sunshine go to waste, to we headed down to the park that afternoon to play & feed the ducks.

Can you believe this was Christmas day?!  We were in shorts, t-shirts, flip flops and still warm!  

Later that evening we went to see "Frozen" and stopped by Grandpa & Grandma's for some homemade orange julius's.  It was a wonderful family-filled day-- which is the best gift of all!

Pre-Christmas Festivities

 Before we flew out to San Diego, we got together with Brad's family and celebrated Christmas a few days early.  Sunday December 22 was a very busy day!  It started with our ward Sacrament Christmas Program, which I was in charge of.  Lots of time and effort went into it, and it went really well.  I was so pleased... and relieved!  Then we joined Brad's family for the rest of the day.  We decided to visit a few residents at a local retirement home and give them some "Christmas cheer" instead of gifts for each other.  We took them a blanket, and a few goodies and visited with them for a few minutes.  We were all surprised that Owen absolutely loved it.  He HAD to give each person their "gift" and he even insisted on singing a few Christmas songs he had learned at preschool for them.  It was so sweet to see him open up to them!

After our visits, we went back and let the boys open their gifts.  Most of the clothes/toys/etc. that Porter has are second hand from Owen, there aren't many things he's gotten for just him.  He was so excited about his new Dusty activity center!  He played with it the rest of the night.  Owen was excited to get his new "camping" truck & trailer just like Papa!

The rest of us tried our hand at gingerbread houses.  We had fun teaming up and seeing what each couple built.  Brad and I made the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  Brad scaled it a little large, but after an emergency run to the neighbor for more graham crackers we were back in business!

The boys got some cute new PJ's from Grammy and Papa and helped us finish off the graham crackers.  

It was a fun night with our family!

Santa and Snow

Earlier this week we took the boys to City Hall for the annual Christmas Sing Along.  It's a fun event that the city puts on, where you come to sing Christmas carols, eat cookies, and see Santa.  For the past few weeks I've been trying to prep Owen about what we would do, and why Santa is nice and not scary.  (Because for the past 11 months when you ask Owen about Santa his response was "Santa is scary.")  Luckily it worked!  When I asked him what we were going to do he had it down: "I will sit on Santa's lap, tell him what I want for Christmas, Mommy takes a picture, and then I get a cookie!"

Porter, on the other hand, was not so sure about it!

Owen & Porter watching Brad 

The next day we got our first big snow of the year!  Of course Owen wanted to play in it.  After 20 minutes of  gathering hats, coats, boots, snow pants, gloves, etc.-  they were ready.  Poor Porter!  He could hardly move!

Owen had fun making "snowballs".  The snow was so powdery it fell apart as soon as you threw it, so he changed his game plan and started eating it.  

Porter loved it at first!  But then he had a hard time walking, so he spent most of his time crawling. 

They had fun for about 10 minutes, then the novelty wore off and the cold the best of them!  We hurried inside for some hot chocolate and blankets. 

Lights on Temple Square

We decided to "beat the crowds" and head to the lights on Temple Square a little early this year.  Ha.  It was just as crowded as ever!  After a slight 'what were we thinking?' moment, we remembered that we couldn't do anything about it and quickly got over it.

Owen especially enjoyed it this year!  It was so fun to watch him take it all in.  He loved the fountains, the concert in the Assembly Hall, and the outdoor nativity.  He really wanted to go see the statue of Christ in the Visitor's Center but the wait was about 30-45 minutes and we just couldn't do it.  We will have to go back after the New Year and see it again. 

What a great way to start the Christmas season!

Farewell November!

Between a teething toddler (6 weeks and counting...), a spirited 3 year old, a very busy husband, and quite a few family heartbreaks, November was a tough month.  Luckily things are beginning to look up, not necessarily because any of the circumstances have changed (Porter is still teething, Owen is still 3, Brad is still busy, and so many that I love are still hurting)-- but because the spirit of the season has arrived in my heart!  

One of my callings in my ward (I have 4 right now, if you're keeping track, but that's another story) has given me the opportunity to write and put together our ward's Christmas program.  Reading through the scriptural account of our Savior's birth, specifically the faith of those Nephites who had held fast to their faith for so many years and who were willing to die for it, has been such a strength to my faith.  What a great reminder that even when things are tough and when so much sadness is happening around me, ultimately God is in control and all will be well.  

"And it came to pass that [Nephi, the son of Nephi] went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers. And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

“Lift up your head and be of good cheer..."

Some of my favorite moments of November were casual family moments, spending time with the 3 people I love the most.  

The boys loved crawling through this over and over again.  One of the few moments they played well with each other... still holding out hope for more moments like this!

Owen discovered Nintendo Wii this month.  His treat at the end of a day would be 20 minutes of Mario with Dad.  I don't know who enjoyed it more, Brad or Owen!

Owen wanted to help Porter with his bottle one morning.  Reminded me of this picture, just 1 year ago:

We couldn't wait until December, and brought out all of the Christmas decorations just before Thanksgiving.

Porter loved "helping" with the Christmas lights.  Actually, he really just wanted to do this the whole time:

We ended the month with a great Thanksgiving with Brad's family.  I didn't take any pictures, but I'm hoping to get some from family soon.  

It was unseasonably warm that weekend, so we took advantage of it and went to the Herriman Pond on Saturday to do a little "fishing".  

 Look at those handsome guys! 

Oh Owen, you keep me on my toes but I sure do love you!