It wasn't quite what we expected,

but nonetheless, Christmas was good.

My maternal grandmother passed away in the middle of the night a couple of days before Christmas.  But it was a blessing because she was able to leave behind an extremely frail, decrepit body and mind and have a joyous, sweet reunion with my grandpa.

On the 23rd, my washing machine died the great death, and because of the holiday, a repair man won't be able to fix it until Monday.  Thank the good heavens above for Bill being able to get all of the laundry done except for one load and for Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University and having $1000 emergency fund.

We woke Christmas morning to a vomiting two year old.  Throw-up all over the place ... and a broken washing machine.  Nice.  Thank the good heavens above for a very loving and understanding mother who came by on Christmas to collect the soiled sheets, blankets, pajamas, pillow cases and stuffed animals to take to her home and be washed and folded and returned by her and my dad the next morning.  Mothers are a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Later, on Christmas night I suffered a miscarriage.  It was something I had a hunch might happen - my doctor said it might.  And it did.  Thank the good heavens above for a loving husband who fought it out with me, and for his big hand to squeeze tight, and ibuprofen, and a hot, hot bath, and a hot rice heating bag, and cold ginger ale.  We did it together.  And I'm okay.  I was blessed with strength and perspective and a family and parents who have taken care of me.  It was a miracle that I was even pregnant.  And that, in and of itself, brings us hope.

Even through all of this, Christmas was good.  We were surrounded by family and friends through much of it.  We ate lots of good food.  We had a family Christmas party at my brothers new house.  I turned a year older on Christmas Eve.  We fed two friends on Christmas who didn't have family to be with.   And my husband turned a year older today.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas:

  Eli and Evelyn.  Cousins.  Best buds.  Miracle babies.

Family nativity.  Does your family nativity have a Christmas elf?  Ours does.

Porter and Kennedy playing Mary and Joseph in our church's primary nativity story.

Awesome,  face-pullin' sis...

... and her adorable daughter.

My dad.  I love him.  Bill pushed the button on the camera just as my dad's mouth was coming out of his 'fish lips' pose.  

My joys.  Porter and Evelyn.  Santa brought Porter some tools and Super Mario Bros Wii.   Santa brought Evelyn a baby doll that she named 'Pancake'.

Christmas is always good.

A stegasaurus......

and blizzards: (this is the side of our house caked in snow, with our mailbox in the back ground to show the amount of snow we got...)




and very first pony-tails!: (yes, I know. I can barely pull enough hair up...it's the girl in me :)




and farm animals:




and medieval knights riding Evelyn's farm animals: (hmmmm, wonder who did this? I'll give you one guess.)




and sweet t-shirts:




and hours and hours of Legos:




and grandparents:




and great grandparents:




and the yo-yo man: (taking after his father...did I ever tell you that I found Bill's yo-yo skills very attractive when we were first dating? :)




and snow piles in the drive way that are a lot taller than your ten year old son: (can you tell by the look on his face that he was very involved in clearing that snow from our driveway?)




and big, wonderful families:

These were the highlights from my Christmas vacation...

Oh, I almost forgot. Christmas dinner with our neighbor Uncle Ed and Bill's co-worker Bill was also a huge highlight, but I forgot to take pictures. Great company, great food, what more could you ask for?

*Oh yea, and that handsome guy standing in the back of our family picture that you might not recognize is my cousin Isaac who was standing in for my brother Bracken who is on a mission. The idea was to cut and paste Brack's head onto Isaac's body...but, I just havn't had time to play with it yet. Thanks Isaac. You rock.

Stake Primary Nativity

The Nativity for the International Holiday Celebration this past weekend went off without a hitch! Phew! I was able to calm down (thanks to an amazing counselor), feel prepared, and just enjoy the entire evening.

It was a fantastic night. The kids were first on the program (Thank you Sis. Bench!!), so they were able to perform, take their costumes off and sit and watch everyone else perform.

I got so many comments on how darn cute the kids were.

Take a look:

~Brynlee the Star~
(Porter helped me make the star)

~Porter played a Wiseman, Cam played Joseph~

~Hayden the Shepherd, Preston as baby Jesus, Parker the little lamb -not in full costume yet~

(Can you tell they are all brothers?)

~Kean the cow~

~The kids love being up at the University Stake because in the Stake President's office, there is a candy drawer chuck full of candy for the kids. Kean had just SCORED some goods- - That is one happy candy-eating cow!~

~The whole crew~
Man, I LOVE these kids!!

What a way to begin the Christmas season!

** Plus, I know that Porter now has a costume for Christmas Eve when we do the Nativity with my family... that's always a good thing.

DOROTHY came to our house this week!

And believe me, we have been anticipating her arrival.

The UPS man was kind enough to bring her by.

About a month ago, Porter was contemplating what to get his little sister for Christmas. We went over a couple of ideas, but nothing really stuck.

It came down to the fact that he wanted it to be really special AND he wanted it to be something he could give her one of every year, a collection of sorts. A collection that she would be able to look at and know they were from her older brother (almost 10 years older), and a collection that she would cherish.

So we started brainstorming.

How about a really nice charm bracelet? We thought that Porter could give Evelyn a new charm for her bracelet every year. Porter was so excited!

He got online and started looking at charms. He found little charms of cheese and goats and ice cream cones and diapers and trombones and Australia.

He was in charm heaven!

He started trying to narrow it down as to which charm he would give her this year. But that quickly ended when we found out that Aunt Cathy gives each girl in the family a charm bracelet for their baptism when they turn 8.

So that idea was out...

DRATS!

A couple of nights later, we were sitting in Evelyn's room rocking her and reading books. Porter was winding up the little ballerina music box to play for her. (This music box was sent to Evelyn last Christmas from her Great Aunts and Uncles in Las Vegas and has quickly became her favorite).

Porter saw how happy the music box made his little sister and said, "Mom, how about I give Evelyn a music box every Christmas"?

Wow. Perfect.

And that's EXACTLY what he's going to do!

This year he chose Her:





You wind her up and she plays "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

It is gorgeous. My husband feels that there is not a more beautiful rendition of this song as when Dorothy sings it in the Wizard Of Oz. ("Izzy" Israel Kamakawiwo'ole is a close second...) We watched her sing it a few nights ago on the movie and it really is breathtaking- - and it is amazing just how young she was when she played that part!

But our favorite part about this music box?






Toto came along too!!