I have to admit... the older I get, the more I dread the arrival of Christmas Day. I LOVE Christmas day, who doesn't love Christmas day? But the ARRIVAL of Christmas Day makes me a tiny bit sad. It means the inevitable end of all the Christmas festivities that we've been enjoying all month long. This year was no exception, we did so many fun things this month. The stuff I didn't get pictures of... the kids spent one Saturday at my cousins' Christmas Day Camp, we took Maggie and Grant to hear the Pasadena Pops play festive Christmas music, our friends the Hulls hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, I attended my sister in law's Christmas cookie exchange and we took a drive through the Holiday Light Festival at Griffith Park. Christmas Eve was spent with Cory's family and then we enjoyed a quiet Christmas morning at our home before we headed back over to spend the day with Cory’s family. I downloaded a million pictures of those festivities, so here we go…

I love white lights on a Christmas tree!

Maggie and Grant helped decorate the tree this year.

So the story behind this is that this was the first Christmas present that Grant opened on Christmas Eve and if you noticed on his Twitter, he said, "That present wasn't a toy! It was just some clothes!" He was very disappointed!

More Christmas jammies opened on Christmas Eve!

Find your stockings for Santa!

Zoey, you look so cute in your Santa jammies!

Uh oh!

What did Santa bring?

Uh oh! Somebody got into the chocolate while everybody else was preoccupied!

Isn't there one more under the tree for Zoey?

While Grant was trying on every costume in his dress up trunk, Maggie was conducting class with her new school set.

Grant found some interesting ways to break into the Christmas ball this year!

Not sure this pose really did the trick though.

or this one... no.

Maggie got a breakthrough!

So, it's a miracle but Maggie got her Zhu Zhu Pets and I have to admit they're very cute! Grant scored with Star Wars!

Adeline ("Addie") Joyce

born December 17th at 1:28am
7lbs 8oz

20 1/2 in long

Her delivery was rough but she's safely here now, doing well and my sister Amy is on the mend! I hope I get the chance to meet her soon!

Congratulations Marc & Amy! She's a cutie!

My aunt Jana makes the best sugar cookies. They melt in your mouth! They're so yummy! So when I got wind of their tradition of making and decorating sugar cookies, I invited ourselves over to help! My aunt is so funny... they make so many cookies and she makes her kids fulfill their "quota" of frosting cookies. I was so happy to be part of the tradition this year that I agreed to fulfill everyones quota just to get a plate of cookies!

I was truly surprised to learn how well Maggie can frost cookies. She really got the hang of it with cousin Becca's help!

I'm not sure Grant really got the hang of it, but this picture of cousin Reiley helping Grant is too cute!

Grant ADORES Reiley!

The girls busy at work fulfilling their quota!

I'm guessing... there must have been about 200 cookies when we were done!

A miracle of sorts, every year the Williams family "get" snow at their home right before Christmas and they invite all their family and friends over to play in it! The kids were entertained for hours and had such a blast!

Maggie and Grant didn't know what to make of it, at first.

Are you laughing at Grant's purple mittens? All our snow gear is in Utah at my mom's house where it really snows.

Maggie and Lydia, so proud of their snow baby

The sledding hill

After Maggie and Grant discovered sledding, I was hard pressed to get them to leave.

Thanks for the invite, Tara! We had a great time!

In Kindergarten class, Maggie's been learning about gingerbread. Gingerbread stories, gingerbread glyphs, gingerbread art and the last 3 days of school was really fun cause they made gingerbread men. You know the story... "Ha Ha! Hee Hee! Catch me if you can!"

So, on the last day, they baked the gingerbread men... "350 degrees for 8 minutes, no more and no less. AND NO PEEKING!"

When Maggie's teacher went to go check on the gingerbread men in the oven, there was a major problem! He came running back into the room with flour all over his face and said that the gingerbread men had escaped!

So, they sent the kids all over the school, through some of the other classes, to look for and collect the runaway gingerbread men. Here's where the problem began, this faculty aide couldn't "resist the smell of gingerbread and peeked in the oven", that's when the gingerbread men jumped out and ran away!

And those gingerbread men were up to all sorts of trouble around the school. Here's evidence that they had a little too much fun with the xerox machines!

In the last room they visited, Maggie's study buddy, Lydia, gave Maggie her very own gingerbread to decorate.

This was a very clever activity for the kindergartners, but I have to admit that Maggie was a bit freaked out! When she saw her teacher come running back in the room with flour all over his face, she didn't want any part of running around the school to look for the gingerbread men. It took a little bit of gentle coaxing to get her involved. Later I found out that she was afraid of having flour thrown all over her face. I have to hand it to her teachers, they were pretty convincing with their acting skills. It was very entertaining to watch the whole incident unfold. And in the end, Maggie got to decorate a gingerbread man with frosting and candy so it wasn't too bad afterall!

Some might think we were crazy to get married the day after Christmas, but it was the perfect day ever! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Good thing Santa Claus showed up to our church ward Christmas party! Can check that off the list now! And good thing both Maggie and Grant are both pretty timid so the Christmas list stayed pretty short this year! Grant managed to squeak out "Star Wars" and Maggie said "Zhu Zhu Pets". Zhu Zhu Pets!! Good luck with that one, Santa!

Santa's looking a little thin this year, don't cha think? Better leave him out some extra cookies and full strength egg nog on Christmas Eve!