Christmas 2011

For Christmas this year my sister Brandee and I each flew our parents out to Idaho to celebrate with us.  It was much cheaper than flying all our families out to Texas.  My sister, Melanie, was in Virginia.  It was the first Christmas (not counting the ones with Arik's family).  That I was not with all my family for Christmas.  It was a little weird.  Mels Bells and her family, and Garrett were definitely missed. Arik also got sick on Christmas Eve (the start of all his crap) so he missed all the kids coming down to see what Santa brought and then missed about 60% of the present openings. 

Here are the kids waiting for everyone else to get ready. 

 Here is the traditional line up getting ready to head down the stairs. They are in order from youngest to oldest.  Aiden was much more alert and into it on his first Christmas then either of the girls were.  It made it lots of fun.  Order: Aiden, Bowen, Kira, MaKynzee, Lukas, and Brookelyn. 

 Here is a side pic of Kira's santas gift.  When she saw everything she busted into tears because the dolls that were out were not the ones she had wanted. 

 Good thing Mom got her all the other dolls in the end so then we were happy. 

 One tradition we have is the Nativity program on Christmas Eve.  We also went and sang at a couple of nursing homes.  We liked it so much that we decided that we wanted to start making the caroling at the different places a new tradition.  Here are pics from the Bowen/Jorgensen/Bagshaw performance.  

Getting ready for our entrances. 

 Mary entering in on the donkey. I think that the donkey ended up giving everyone a ride by the time the night was over.

 Baby Jesus was very big and could even hold his own bottle.  :)

 The only way to get Baby Jesus to work with us on this production was if he had food at all times.  So demanding.  :)

 The lovely Angel. 

 One of the shepherds came in early. 

 Here come the rest.

 Laying gifts at his head?  It worked.

 The whole group.

 Two good looking shepherds.

 The complete cast getting a round of applause.

 These two handsome boys were so cute and they play so well together.

 Yep, we are studs!

 And of course, the Christmas outfits/dresses.  So grateful for grandmas that buy us these.  Though, my mom might have to stop.  She is getting her 10th grand baby this year.

 Christmas was wonderful and went way to fast whenever we are with family.  Some cool presents we got: Leappad, XBOX 360 w/ kinect and lots of movies.  We were very spoiled.  :)