Merry Christmas 2008

What a crazy last week it was. It feels like we have been gone forever, but it went by in a flash! We ended up getting to take off to Klamath Falls last Saturday instead of Tuesday like we had originally planned. We are so glad we got to spend a few extra days with all of my family. 

We spent a lot of time prepping for the big days: Christmas and Alli's wedding. The girls seemed to have errands to run every day from doing the meal shopping, getting our nails done, to filling the missionaries' stockings. The kids were all content to have a big house to run around in and having grandparents and aunts and uncles to dote on them... the parents weren't complaining either. 

The boys spent a lot of time shoveling, snow blowing, and plowing with the four wheeler. It snowed a ton every day that we were in Klamath. 

All of my siblings and their spouses were there, plus my grandparents. It was the biggest Christmas in the Stewart household to date! We spent a lot of time playing board games (Apples to Apples), eating,  talking, cooking, and playing the Wii.

Christmas eve was a riot. It began with two sets of missionaries coming over to join us. We had our big feast with all the fixings. Then we were blessed to see my Grandpa Jensen do his rendition of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." This has been a long standing tradition that my grandpa  does every Christmas eve, we just have never been with him on a Christmas eve, so after 26 years of waiting, we were able to witness the Grinch in action. It was hilarious.

After the Grinch, we have a tradition that all of the kids put on the nativity. We used to act it out, but it has been reduced to a readers theater until the grandkids are old enough to take over. We basically read the Christmas story from the scriptures with hymns added in. It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas. After the nativity we had chocolate pie and mint chocolate cheesecake (way to go Sumo & Josh)... both delicious!

This is what happens when you "help" grandma make the chocolate pies:

After dessert was the present opening. We let the missionaries open theirs and then be on their merry way. The kids went next so we could put them to bed. The kids opened their adorable Christmas pj's and then the cousin exchange. They could sense the excitement in the air and were just bouncing off the wall... it got way worse the next morning when they saw all the presents!

Me and my man Christmas Eve:

All of us adults still get Christmas pj's, but this year the girls got robes and slippers. I love them! Sorry, no pictures of the boys in their candycane pajama pants and slippers. They got off the hook this year! Then we did our gift exchange and sat around and talked and enjoyed the evening.

Christmas morning was CRAZY!!! Gray and Carter are kind of at the first year when they got what was going on and could not wait til it was their turn to open their next present. We open them one at a time (yes, all 19 of us). Some might say that it's painstakingly slow, others might say that it just draws out the enjoyment of gift giving and receiving. I love it and it took us a number of hours to get through all of us. After the stockings and two rounds of presents we took a breakfast break: bran muffins, peppered bacon, and oranges. That might just be my favorite part of Christmas. My mom's bran muffins (which I just found out she got from my grandma, who got them from my great grandma) are to die for!! My grandma informed us that they are also known as "Mormon muffins", and if anybody has had Mormon cheesy potatoes, you know that the word "Mormon" before a food item means buttery, fatty, yummy, goodness. Enough said.

We were spoiled rotten for Christmas. Here are a few of our favorite things:

Jefferson: Quantum of Solace and Tiger Woods for the Wii, SIGG water bottle, Sanuk shoes, Season 4 of the Office, steamer (yes, he asked for it and was super excited that he got it!), money.

Dani: Cuttlebug, brown shoes, black pea coat, jeans (with 37 inch inseam!), food dehydrator, jewelry.

Carter: Woody and Buzz Light year, sticker book, train set, cars from the movie Cars, Lightening McQueen slippers, Cars punching bag, Mr.Potato Head, dump truck.

Andi: Haley her new baby doll, doll stroller, car seat, and bassinet, princess jewelry, purse, and leotard, cash register, stuffed monkeys, fold out animal board book, dog and carrier, tea set.

Thanks "Santa"! (and Mom and Dad) We spent the day enjoying our new toys, but the next day it was on to WEDDING!!! We emptied out my parents living room and transformed it into a beautiful reception hall. It was gorgeous. My sister's wedding colors were black, white, and silver. We got all the food prep and decorating done on Friday and headed up to Medford that evening. We went to Nic and Alli's dinner and then stayed the night in a hotel. The kids loved it. They thought they were pretty special. The adults stayed up way too late playing board games again.

We had to be at the temple at 8:15 am (that's in the morning!) on Saturday. The ceremony was beautiful. Alli was the last of the Stewart siblings to be sealed in the temple and it was absolutely amazing having my whole family in the temple together for the first time. My grandpa has also sealed all of us so it was wonderful to have him there to seal Alli and Nic.

After the ceremony and a few pictures we drove back to Klamath to make sure that everything was ready for the reception. The reception was beautiful, and despite a huge snowstorm that had been going all week, quite a few people braved my parents mountain and attended the reception. So we had a great turn out, the food was delicious, and now it's all over. Done and done.

This is how we all felt after this week:

We are glad to be back home in our own things and our kids actually slept in until 9 this morning!! They had been waking up at about 6:45-7:15 at my parent's house. Jefferson and I are glad to have our own room back and are ready for a whole nother week of playing before he has to go back to school.

I love my family so much. We have such a great time together and we all get along great. We just laugh all the time when we are together. I am so blessed. Love you fam!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and safe travels. I can't wait to see everybody's updates on their own blogs. Have a Happy New Year!