Christmas Season Traditions

This is by far my favorite time of the year.  I love the lights, the Christmas cheer, family, friends, Christmas music (to a point), good food, good memories at Grandma and Grandpa's house, an amplified reminder to serve others, and especially the reason for the season. . . the birth of the Savior.

This year we took Brody to see the lights at Rock Creek with my sister and her family.

Wow. These people go above and beyond.

This is just a private residence decorated with MILLIONS of lights.  They have a Christmas village displayed to impress -- it is THE largest collection I have ever seen.  Every tree branch, and inch of ground is covered in twinkling lights, and sparkling decorations that wind around several acres. 

People come from miles to see it.

(my pictures don't do justice, but take my word, it's spectacular)

Wide-eyed and bundled.  It was FREEEZING that night.  Brody was so bundled up, he didn't move.  He sat still, and just stared at all of the lights with this look. . .

 Time out to remove a rock from Landon's shoe.

Mr.and Mrs. Claus

They even have a camel that the spectators can feed carrots to.  Who knew camels liked carrots?

I didn't.

Looks to me like they're leaning towards the naughty side.

These pictures have nothing to do with our visit to Rock Creek, but they are some I took pre-Christmas.

Plastered all over Pinterest are pictures similar to this--

 I thought I'd give it a try, and wrap my little guy in Christmas lights too.

 He sat still for a total of 3 shots, and then he was more interested in attempting to un-plug, and plug the lights back in.  Can you say Electrocution Hazard?  Needless to say, we called it good with the three pictures. 

  My idea was to read a Christmas story around the tree each night counting down the 12 days of Christmas.  We didn't accomplish all 12, but who's counting anyway?



Janelle and Justin Forever

The week before Christmas, December 20th to be exact, Brent's little sis tied the knot.

Justin and Janelle were married in the Manti temple, and had a reception the following day in Janelle's hometown.  Then on New Year's Eve they had a reception back east, in Virginia.

Congrats Justin and Janelle!!

Janelle is the second youngest of 15.  Yes, I said 15!

Brent comes from an EXTREMELY LARGE family.  To begin, there were 8 children in Brent's family and from there it grew, and grew AGAIN.

After Brent's wonderful mother passed away from cancer (Brent was in high school at the time), his dad remarried another wonderful woman who had 5 children of her own.  That made 13, but then 2 more kids were added to the clan- Janelle, and finally Jared, the youngest.

Here are some snapshots of a few of Brent's siblings and their families.

 Because of weather, and other circumstances not everyone was able to make it to all of the blessed events at the same time.  With this many of us, sadly it is a rare occasion that we are ALL together.  (After all, there are 50, or is it 60 some odd of us when you add every one up).

Brody was a wild man, and ran crazy in the gym behind the reception all night long.

Brent became a little flustered by all the little kids running wild (I think there were about 20 under age 5 between our family, and the groom's)

Here are about half of the grand kids.  Notice how thrilled Brody is to be in the picture!

(10 of the 12 living siblings, and Justin, the groom, of course!)

 We wish you and Justin the very best, and all the happiness in the world!



Feelin' Groovy

My sister threw a groovy birthday bash for Jason's big 4-0!

If you haven't figured out the 70's theme-- he was born in the 70's- duh.

Let me tell ya, this pair was looking pretty far out!!

Mel was going for the Farrah look, but she resembled a barbie, and Jason nailed the bad hair look!

Gee wiz, that party was Dynomite, and so were the outfits!

Brody was content wandering around throwing balloons to people, and Brent and I indulged in some good grub, and the totally awesome music.

Happy Birthday to you!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Well, at least that's what I was trying to get Brody to do (sit in his rocking chair by the tree).

It was a little harder than I hoped it would be to get my 20-month-old toddler to cooperate while I attempted to take his picture.  I was sweating by the end, and completely out of ideas for bribes.

So this is what we got. . .

He was eating smarties in this series- that was bribe #1 which worked for a minute.