Christmas

Christmas came and went.  I love the Christmas season and the spirit it brings, but this year I was glad to have it over.  I took down my decorations the day after Christmas and it was nice to have my house back to normal and uncluttered.  It made me happy.

Liam got me this book of Christmas carols at his school library book sale.  It was fun to see how thoughtful he was.  

We do take the kids to the store before Christmas and they draw names and buy each other gifts.  I love how excited they are to see their recipient open their gift they picked out just for them.

A steering wheel cover for Cameron.  Wahoo!!  

We got the kids an X-Box 360 and Erin got her own controller.

Liam with his gift from Owen, a giant drawing pad.  

Liam, finally realizing there was an X-Box in the corner.

 

Owen with his marble run.

 

Reagan Roo.

We just kind of lazed around and played with toys and piano and played board games all day.

The boys enjoyed their gaming.

The kids took over the decorating of the tree and the living room this year.  It looked pretty good with the lights off.

With the lights on, however, it looked like the kids decorated it.  I loved it!  I did have Cameron hang a few ornaments on the very top where they couldn't reach.  I love that my kids feel like they are part of the decorating.  

We tried to make it a fun time for everyone.  Each child got to pick something they wanted to do for the Christmas season.  It could be fun, or a service we did or whatever they wanted.  I asked them what they think of when they think of Christmas and we tried to do whatever they wanted.  I think I'd rather have the memories and feeling of Christ's birth be associated with Christmas for them rather than the presents.

Since October...

I pulled the pictures off my phone finally and got some pictures of things we have been doing.

 Yes, this is October.  This is when we went to the pumpkin patch.

 It's a yearly tradition we have.  Reagan was the one who remembered it from last year and decided it would be a fun thing for us to do.

It took some time for the kids to each pick their perfect pumpkin, but they all got there in the end.

Reagan's Halloween program.  She sang four songs and recited some poems.  

Owen's Halloween program.  He sang about 24 songs and had props to go with a lot of them.  I'm a little sad I only have one more chance to see this program.  It is one of my favorites.

We had a Halloween breakfast with the Millers, Traedens and Rhoin and Murphy at Julie's house.  I think that should become a new tradition too.  It was really fun.

The girls and I took Maria and we all had a girls night to see Disney on ice.They had a good time.

We saw Toy Story...

Tinkerbell...

The Little Mermaid...

Cars, here's Lightning McQueen...

and Mater...

and Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  

Cameron and Liam went with our neighbors to a Jazz game.

It was fun for the boys to go.  Ayden was Liam's friend who went with them and I think the boys kind of bonded over the game.

Cameron and Rick having their picture taken unbeknownst to them.

Here's a couple more Thanksgiving photos I took.

Liam fulfilling his dream of eating a whole turkey leg.

The smaller grand kids built a fort in Grandma's living room.  They had the air mattresses up against the doorway and fortified it with pillows.  They hung this sign on the outside.  It says "What is the password!   Barge in and die."

These are pictures of us getting our Christmas tree.  Erin really wanted to have her picture taken.  See?

The 2014 Williamsen Christmas tree.

We went to "A Christmas Carol" at Hale Center Theater with most of the adults in my family.  We had about 31 or so people there.  

It was a really fun way to kick off the Christmas season.

We went to the Conference Center to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing with the Sesame Street Muppets.

Maria and Kyle got in with their family too.  They are way over to the right in this picture.  You can't really see them.  Owen's favorite part was Count Von Count playing with the organist.  Reagan thought it was a little boring and the older kids enjoyed it too.

We went and put luminaries on Lee's grave and sang some Christmas songs for him. 

And that's about it.  

That brings us to Christmas.  That will be my next post.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Vernal.  My whole family was there, minus a nephew in Sweden and a nephew who couldn't make it. It was fun to see everyone.  It makes me wonder if this was the last year we will all be together, because we have so many nieces and nephews married or getting married and having their own families.  My brothers and sisters may just want to have their own from now on.  Who knows?

 The brothers in law and grandchildren all had a rousing game of lightning after we ate.

 

Here some of them are, patiently waiting their turns.

 

We wrote letters to the missionaries.  Preston and Caleb, who may become part of the family?  Reagan sure hopes so. She really likes Caleb.

Took pictures...

Grandsons and one great grandson.  Look at those tough guys on the bottom.  They were really good sports.

Granddaughters.  I've gotta say, they handled the pain a little better than those boys! Oh, all right, maybe they didn't have to hold as much weight.

 The grandkids in birth order.  Minus two.  Both between Kayla and Michelle.

The younger generation.

 My kids love these guys a lot.  Poor Brian broke both his arms while he was at Grandma's house.  He fell off the swing in the back yard.

 

We had a talent show and the grandkids surprised Grandma and Grandpa by singing "As Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman".  It was fun to hear them.  I think I would have really been teary and emotional, but I was playing the piano and couldn't afford to.  Whew!

Every family did a talent.  These are just a few.  Dan and Britney sang a cute duet.

 

These three sang some Christmas carols, with a little Spanish spice thrown in.

Erin drew a picture of Preston on his mission.  Liam recited a poem and Owen and Reagan sang a "Shark Attack" song.  Linda had us all sing "The 12 Days of Christmas" and when it was your birth month, you would stand up on that part and sit back down.  So January people would stand up when we sang "a partridge in a pear tree", February people stood up when we sang "two turtledoves", March "three french hens", etc.  That was pretty fun.  Maria's boys did a lip sync to a Taylor Swift song that was the hit of the show I think.  I can't remember all of it, but it was fun.

 

My Dad's talent was waltzing with my mom.  Aren't they cute?  I really love this picture.

  

The kids had a sleepover at Aunt Linda's house.  Liam was there, but came back to Grandma's house because he threw up.  He ate too much at dinner.  He had a whole turkey leg on the bone and was having a contest with my nephew to see who could eat the most.  Poor kid.  He threw up twice and once he got it out of his system, he felt much better.

  

I also took this silly girl's senior pictures.  They turned out pretty cute. 

Fun time with family.  We had a bridal shower for Holly and went up the mountain to cut down our Christmas tree.  Erin and Owen picked it out, Cameron cut it down and Laurie and I dragged it down the mountain.  The kids really love that tradition.  Next up...Christmas.