Christmas Eve & Day

Christmas Eve we spent the evening down at my sister's house. Our brother came down with his family too. It was a lot of fun with 9 kids ranging in age from 14 to 20 months. After our traditional dinner of tamales, beans, and rice, we headed off to the Temple to watch our cousin, Jordan Bluth, perform and look at the lights. Jordan has a beautiful voice and the lights were great and wonderful too.

After the Temple and lights, we went back to my brother's house for a slice of this cake that is so amazing, it's taste is indescribable. The cake is a 4 layer chocolate cake with gnache and some other filing in between each layer and then a marshmallow frosting. My s-i-l, Karina, made it and I can hardly wait to have another thin slice of the cake again. This one cake feeds 30 people! Gives you a clue as to how big and rich this cake is.

We got the kids home and to bed not too terribly late or past their bedtime. Owen woke up around 6:45 and came into our room. I told him to go back to bed and we would come get him in a minute. One hour later, Adam and I rolled out of bed and got the kids. Owen asked me if the "tree was on", which I told him if Santa came he would leave the tree on. I dashed out to the living room and turned on the tree before he came out of his room. When we saw that the tree was on, he exclaimed, "Christmas!" It was cute, as this is the first year that he is starting to put it all together.

Owen ran straight for Caroline's baby doll stroller, then for her Cozy Coupe. As he was "driving" the car, he then saw the soccer goal, ball and cones for him. He hopped out of the car and wanted to play soccer. Once all of the gifts were exchanged and opened, tantrums were tossed, and trash put away, it was a pretty mellow and relaxing day.

After naps, we went to my brother's house for dinner. Again, really mellow and low stress. We ate, laughed, played games, laughed, and played more games and laughed a whole lot more. It was a wonderful Christmas Day with, once again, many memories made.

**I'll post pictures later when the craziness has calmed down a little bit....okay some.