Christmas 2012

Of course, the pictures didn't load in order, but, in the interest of time (I'm how many months behind now?), I'm sharing Christmas Day in no particular order!

Daddy (Brian) cooking the caramel pecan sauce for the ham!  Yum!  Yum!

Carson opening his present from Grammy and Grandpa--Duplos!  To say these are a HUGE hit at our house would be a HUGE understatement...just look at the pictures on instagram!

 Grammy Tammy, Sadie, and Carson after opening up their "2nd Christmas" gifts (Grammy and Grandpa came up in the afternoon).

Isn't he so cute?  Busy little guy, but I love him!  (And nap time, too!  How else do you think I'm catching up on the blog?)

Christmas Eve, just before bed.  Our kids are spoiled!

Sadie playing Legos with Papa Dale, while wearing her new apron from Grammy Tammy.

Carson couldn't believe that more and more stuff kept coming out of his stocking!  He was so excited!

Carson (i.e. Daddy) thought everyone needed a recorder of their own for Christmas.  It's February and we're down to only one.  I'm so grateful they weren't constructed using the highest quality products!

More books (Magic Tree House) for Morgan!

Don't you love the early years when you can pass goldfish crackers as Christmas gifts?  Carson LOVED it!  "Cacker! Cacker!"

Oh, Auntie Logan came up, too, along with Great Grandma (but I forgot to get a picture with her!).  We love Auntie Logan's visits!

Only in Utah, can you find BYU party ware!  Can't wait for football season! Thanks, Montierths!

We ended the day with puzzles.  These kids can do puzzles for hours and hours!

What's a visit with Grandpa without a wrestling match?

We had a fabulous Christmas!  Thanks for sharing it with us, Grammy, Grandpa, Logan, and Great Grandma!

Christmas Eve 2012

I know.  Valentine's Day has come and gone and I am just now posting about Christmas.  The good news is, I'm almost caught up!  Thank goodness for a mostly quiet January!

After feeding the missionaries Christmas Eve "Lunch", we headed over to Grammy and Grandpa's for Fondue!

When she wasn't hiding under the Christmas tree, Morgan entertained us all with Christmas songs on the piano.

Carson kept busy doing what he does best...making messes!

And, Sadie, well, she found fun in the play room!  If I remember correctly, Grammy had recently added Disney Princess dolls to the toy collection.  

Auntie Logan, Grammy Tammy and Papa Dale helped in the kitchen.  Grammy decided to make a crab fondue this year instead of the pizza fondue (which, through no fault of hers, always turned out wrong and we couldn't ever figure out why).  The crab fondue was scrumptious!

Great Grandma, Ina Ginos, came over for the evening.

Per tradition, the kids opened their Christmas Jammies.

Morgan and Sadie put out cookies and carrots for Santa, so he would be sure to stop by Grammy and Grandpa's.  And, then, we headed home to wait for Santa's arrival at our house!  Here's the note she left by Santa's goodies:

Merry Christmas!

Feeding the Missionaries

When asked about her favorite Christmas tradition, Morgan responded simply, "Feeding the Missionaries."

Last year (2011), my parents were asked by the Carlsbad Mission President if they would help provide a nice Christmas Dinner for ALL of the missionaries in the mission.  So, on Christmas Eve, we helped serve Lunch/Dinner to about 200 missionaries.  The girls absolutely loved it!  

So, when Papa Dale was asked again for 2012, the girls were ecstatic!  

Despite our preceding weekend (Poinsettia Bowl, Great Park Balloon, Boat Parade), we felt rested enough to come help out.  The truth?  The girls wouldn't have it any other way.  

The girls love setting out drinks (water bottles) for the missionaries.  They have the missionaries collect all the empty water bottles for recycling and donate the money to the mission fund.  This year's donation: $7.00!  (random fact: CRV is 5 cents per bottle...)

And, per tradition, the missionaries sang Called to Serve just before we served the meal.  There aren't really any words to describe the power behind missionaries singing this, other than awesome. Such an incredible feeling!

Since Brian was at home (my parents live about 2 minutes away) working while Carson napped, I was nominated as the second meat carver.  A more appropriate term would be "meat hacker", because I do NOT carve meat!  Nonetheless, the new elder in our ward politely said to me on Sunday, "I recognize you--you sliced my meat at the Christmas Dinner."  

And, although I don't have any pictures, we loved watching the mission talent show afterward.  The girls just can't get enough of the singing, (appropriate) dancing, and musical instruments!  They can't wait to serve missions of their own! 

We sure hope this tradition continues for many years to come!

Newport Boat Parade

As if the Poinsettia Bowl and Great Park Balloon weren't enough, we decided to sneak in some more fun with friends just before Christmas!

The Taggarts came up for dinner first.  Thank you, Jeremy, for singing along to Morgan's piano practice of 'The Detective"!  Every time she plays that song, it's like a video plays in my head, watching a rerun of your performance!

After dinner, we all ventured over to Newport for the parade.  Despite fantastic directions (thanks, Christine!) and a great view, this being our rookie year, we kind of missed the boat (excuse the pun)!  We had a terrible time finding parking and finally did, deep into the nearby neighborhood.  Once we finally made it to the harbor, we realized we missed the first part of the parade.  So, we walked several blocks to the bridge onto Balboa Island, only to realize we had missed the first half again!  So, we watched the second half for a second time!

We had a blast and can't wait to go again next year!

Carson wanted nothing to do with Mommy (yay!) or Daddy the entire evening!  He wanted his new pal, Jeremy, to hang with him!

Star and Zane (random snippet--Star and I grew up in the same stake, even had some of the same friends, but never met until we lived with my parents last year!)

See his tongue sticking out?  He's so focused on watching the parade!

I think this is the only picture we took of the boats!

Sometimes (okay, a lot of times), this is the best family picture you get!

Merry Christmas!