Once there was a snowman...

I love the snow...as long as I am inside in a nice warm house. Lucky for us, Claire's favorite babysitters showed up ready to play outside.

DoNt StOp At OuR hOuSe SaNtA

Last night Luke and Claire were playing and he used his cell phone to call Santa to ask him to come over and play too. Of course a few minutes later he snuck into the other room and knocked on the door and Claire instantly started to freak out....and not the good kind of freaking out. A few minutes later we overheard Claire talking on the phone and telling Santa not to come over and she did not want to play with him. She ended the call with "Go Away, Old Man!" The rest of the night she was paranoid that Santa was still going to come over and it took an extra hour at night to get her to calm down go to sleep. And then an hour later look what I found at our door....





A letter from Santa to Claire.


We are not sure how it got there. And it was really sweet of Santa to write Claire a letter. But I sure am glad she was already asleep when it came.

Santa, (whoever you are) thank you for leaving the letter. Luke and I loved it and I am sure Claire will too one day. Maybe next year will be better.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Tonight was my brother's annual Chestnuts Roasting on the Open Fire Bonfire. I remember he started the tradition when he was back in high school and only his friends and whatever girls they were interested in were invited. So of course, sisters were not allowed.

This year he decided to start up the tradition again. It was alot of fun... Just sitting around the bonfire listening to Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate, eating warm dutch oven apple crisp, and just hanging out with siblings, cousins, and friends. Plus with that great fire going it really wasn't cold at all.

Don't let this picture fool you. This is the only time she sat down all night and I think it lasted about 30 seconds. She had a blast making a snowman with Ben and then trying to destroy the snowman while Ben protected it. Great Entertainment!!

The Annual Santa Picture

Claire is terrified of Santa. I didn't make her sit on his lap but I wanted to get a pic for history sake. I had to hold the poor girl in place until they could snap a photo. This was at the ward party. The only other time she has seen Santa this year is at the grocery store. Now every time we go to the store she asks to go see that santa is NOT there....because you know, Santa might just be lurking around the grocery store trying to scare little kids.
Sorry old man, maybe next year.


I tried to prepare Claire by asking her all the Santa questions beforehand.
So in case you are wondering...

#1 What is your name little girl?
Pookie

#2 Have you been a good girl this year?
Yep

#3 What do you want Santa to bring you?
A present

#4 What kind of present?
An orange present

What a Weekend!!

Last weekend was great...

* We started out taking Claire and Rilynn to the swimming pool. Our little dare devil tried talking us into letting her jump off the diving board and going down the slide by herself. Good thing the rules at the pool wont let a two year old do either of those things alone.


* Claire talked her daddy into putting Christmas lights on the house. And all it took was, "Daddy, I want my house to have pretty light on it too."

Lets just pretend this is my house ;)


* We headed into Salt Lake to watch The Forgotten Carols. It was amazing as always!!




* But my favorite part of the weekend was this.... Our Annual Chinese Party. I am not sure how we started this tradition but every December we meet at my sisters house and stuff our bellies with yummy Chinese food and then play games or watch a movie. We each make a dish or two of Chinese food and the food this year was sooo good. Kung Pao Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, spring rolls, lettuce wraps, fried rice, lo mein noodles. Mmmmm!!!!

Steph cooking up the spring rolls



Claire, Holly, Caitlyn, Pops



Luke, Erich, Rilynn, Alexa



Me and Alexa making spring rolls

Naptime

Christmas Cookies

Claire and I spent the day making sugar cookies for our ward party tonight. Claire had an absolute blast doing it....especially after pretty much emptying my container of flour on the table. And since she is still obsessed with vaccuming, she was more than happy to clean up her mess. In fact she might have enjoyed the cleaning up more than the making cookies. Silly Girl!! Although her favorite part was the fact that I was busy frosting cookies in the middle of lunch time so she had more than her share of cookies for lunch.

Oh Brother!!!

My brother called last night and he excitedly asked us to stop by his place so he could show us something......