A Very Merry Christmas

For Christmas this year we headed up to Montana for 12-day trip. Everyone came home except for my sister Melissa and her family. It was a crazy time but so fun and worth every minute even though I felt like strangling a kid or two every now and then.

We made several visits to the mall (Chris did not like this at all), got our fair share of Mustard Seed (4 times to be exact between the restaurant and Noodles Express), stayed up late watching our new obsession on Netflix: Vampire Diaries!, played plenty of games of Rook and Catch Phrase, caught some good movies and brushed up on our ping-pong skills.

*Nicholas entertained us with his fat app on his iphone. Hopefully Mckenna stays away from those twinkies...

*We Were Asked to be Mary and Joseph for the Ward Primary Program*

*I Helped Mom Re-Cover her Bench in the Master Bedroom*

(It obviously took a lot of trust on her end--look at that face)

*Nights of Fun and Games*

*Grandma and Mckenna Made Cookies for Santa*

*We Celebrated Kristin's 28th Birthday*

*More Fun and Games*

*Sisters*

 We opened our sibling gifts on Christmas Eve--we were lucky this year to be on the receiving end from Melissa and her family. They gave us "Just Go With It", gift cards to PF Changs, a great Christmas CD, and "The Polar Express" book to add to our collection. Thanks Smith family!!

*The Kids Put on the Nativity at Grandma and Grandpa Lofgrens*

*Jonathon and Collette Gave us a Fun Surprise--A Wedding in February!!*

*Nicholas was Gangsta/Hick-Santa*

 *Christmas Eve After Santa Arrived*

*Stocking Time!*

*The Boys Got Master's Miracle ;)*

*Opening Gifts*

Chris's Gifts From Santa:

*Money

*3 skinny ties

*A new wardrobe from the Buckle

*Accessories for his desktop computer

*A day of unlimited paintballing for two

*Random Food and Other Stuff I Can't Remember

*A Pair of Shoes and Hat of his Choice Still to Come...

(His favorite gift was the $10 shotgun, who knew that's all he would care about all day!)

Kerri's Gifts From Santa:

*Too Many!

Combined Gifts:

*Season Passes To Deer Valley

*Ipad2

*Books for Our Christmas Collection

*Money

*DVDs

*Christmas Dinner*

 *Love This Girl*

 *They All LoveTheir Grandma!*

 *Family Snowman*

 *Ariel Paid us a Visit*

The best gift of all this Christmas was the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives and a family to love and share these times with. It was hard to leave and see everyone go their separate ways.

Merry Christmas!



The Beginning of a Tradition...

Every December the Hale Center Theater in Orem does their annual production of the Christmas Carol. Chris and I went for the first time last year and absolutely loved it! Going at the beginning of December it is the perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit. We have decided to make it a family tradition to go to the play every year whether or not we still live in Provo. I think the play is popular enough that we won't have too much of a problem finding it wherever we move.

This year we went to the new Crepes restaurant just down the street from the theater before the show. Everything was so yummy and the show was just as good, if not better than last year.

The theater is so small but with the superb costumes, singing, and acting its just as good as any large theater I've been to. My favorite parts are when Bob Cratchett sings "What Child is This?" as he kneels at Tiny Tim's grave with the snow falling down and then after the play is over all the actors line up outside the door and sing carols to you as you reach the parking lot. It is so festive and we just leave feeling so excited for the Christmas season!

Christmas Devotional

At church on Sunday we got tickets from some friends to the Christmas Devotional. Little did we know we would be on the 9th row! It was so fun to see all the general authorities pass right in front of us as they walked in with their families. It was such a special evening complete with candy cane Hershey kisses. My favorite part was probably seeing President Uchtdorf's family take their picture in front of the fireplace on the set (for their Christmas card, no doubt).