(If you are smart and shop when the madding crowds are just eating breakfast or sleeping...haha..or you have a great shopping partner like McKenna to help you out) I love the feelings of warmth and human kindness that abound this time of year. But most of all I love that this is the time of year we celebrate the greatest gift ever given; the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For some reason it seems especially important this year to remember and to let others know that we remember and celebrate this important day and why. So as I go about describing our Christmas of 2008 I wanted to say that the "good tidings of great joy" are in my heart and soul this Christmas and always. This helps remind us of the reason for the season:
We spent Christmas eve just exhaling after all the bustle of preparation. I'm embarrassed to say that we ate Little Caesar's pizza for Christmas eve dinner. YUCK. I vow never to do that again. Next year it will be cream of potato soup, crusty French bread, salad, and pumpkin pie. I promise. We opened our one Christmas eve present but it didn't seem the same without Brinlee and Kyle and Ray was too tired to really get into it. SOOO, the next morning we slept in 'til 7:30 and then we opened all our gifts.
Here's one of my favorites...
Whoohoo!McKenna had it hidden under her bed for days and days before Christmas. What a sneaky rascal. Ray left a note in my stocking..."IOU one flat screen tv for the mom room". But it was okay cuz he had worked 10 - 16 hour days for the the week or so before Christmas and he doesn't shop until the week before Christmas so he got a little behind. And I was just glad that the new 4 wheeler wasn't my present. I bought him the reading lamp he's been obsessing about since we moved.
After opening presents and breakfast, we headed out in the snow to Cedar City to spend the rest of the day with Aunt Kathy and Unc and their family.
The food was good (we had Unc's rolls) and the company was even better. We got some great pictures and played a little Wii. It was a BLAST! Sh'Kell 
was rocking us some thrilling Mii's and helped teach Kenna and me how to play. 
I'm sure it was pretty hilarious to watch us play tennis, bowling, and especially boxing. I'd also be willing to bet Amber has some embarrassing pictures of the action. OMIGOSH, if you click on this picture of Amber you will see that she has the coolest looking nails!Heather got a puppy for Christmas. I'm jealous.
So I got a puppy of my own and he is just Ray's type of dog. He doesn't shed, poop, pee, or need a sitter when we are gone. He's great with kids and other animals and doesn't disturb the neighbors with barking. I love him.We headed home in a snow storm. It was 45 mph on the Interstate weather. The wind was howling like a banshee. There was a car rolled over on the side of the road. It was reassuring to see the person being attended by rescue people, even though it was below freezing and crazy windy. After the Blackridge it was raining and when we got home McKenna and I ran from the curb to the front door where it is protected and we were like wet dogs when we got in the house. It was so freaky to have to fight the wind to get to shelter.
This is our Christmas tree and yes, that is a replica of the Alamo at the bottom of the tree. I'm not sure it really fits in with the rest of the rustic New England village but what the heck. 
It belongs under my tree so it's staying.Friday arrives and so do Brin and Kyle. We got to have Christmas all over again. Whoohoo! Lucky us! Here is a picture of Brin in front of the wonderful present they gave me. Isn't she the cutest pregnant girl ever? Okay, yeah I'm prejudiced. I can't wait until we all take our remote control trucks out and race them. Kyle took Tank out in the front yard and he chased the car like it was some kind of varmint. When the car got too close to the house he grabbed it to protect his people. Way to go, Tank!
Here we have a picture of the "cookie snob". She refused to eat any of my Christmas cookies cuz they were store bought and only decorated at home. They weren't Aunt Kathy's so they had to be vastly inferior, right? Then she ate one and was pleasantly surprised that they weren't mega nasty or some such notion. I think Kyle has a grey hair in his chin pubes. Huh.Here's Brin after Kyle licked her face. They are always clowning around.
Kyle is our resident snowboarding expert. I call him an expert cuz he really can do a flip. I've seen it on video and I am easily impressed. Awesome!
Anyway, Kenna got a new snowboard set up and Kyle kindly put the bindings on for her. In the process he ran into a problem and Kenna was begging him to fix it, calling him the "Hagrid (think caretaker) of her board". It was pretty funny and we laughed out butts off but maybe you had to be there. Here's a picture of "Hagrid" and Kenna's board after all his hard work. What a guy! Thanks Kyle. Well that about wraps up Christmas 2008. A few notes, Ray is not cutting his hair until spring, Brinlee is so pregnant, Kyle is off snowboarding today, Kenna is enjoying her time off from school, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with my friends and family this coming year. May the good Lord bless and keep all our friends and family in 2009.
ONE HUGE P.S.: WE MISS OUR FAMILY IN TEXAS AND WILL SEE THEM NEXT YEAR!!
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