December Fun!

December was a wild and crazy month for our family. We had Callista's fifth birthday and then concerts, concerts, and more concerts, then parties, parties, and more parties. We were running clear up until Christmas morning.
We had a lot of fun hosting the Newel Jackson Family Christmas Party this year. It has been held at my Dad's house in years past, but I think we are going to start rotating around to other family members now that people are getting big enough places to host everyone. We had a great time. We were shoulder to shoulder with everyone. There were so many people! The food was great, games were fun, and of course everyone loves the visit from Santa! We held the party on the 23rd this year instead of the 24th. It was much better, as it took off the Christmas Eve stress.
We took our kids sledding/tubing on Christmas Eve up by Sunrise. That was a blast! Tye wasn't too thrilled with everything to begin with, but by the end was riding the sled down the hill by himself. We had some great wipe outs that made everyone laugh. When we got cold we went back home. We got some pizza on the way back to share. It was great!
We enjoyed the evening celebrations a lot. All of James's family came over and we had a delious dinner of honey-glazed ham, with soup in bread bowls and a relish tray and dip, with punch. Afterward we went to look at lights and go Christmas caroling. We strapped Grandma Moody's old couch to our trailer and put Jace's futon mattress on it also then hooked it up to David's pickup. We all bundled up tight and covered up with blankets. It was a great time and we didn't even get cold! When we were done we came back to the house and had Connie's homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate.
On Christmas morning we all opened gifts with our individual families, before meeting together again to unwrap all of our family gifts together. We had a lot of fun oohing and aahing over each others gifts. We had a mexican food lunch afterward the was yummy. Everyone stayed and visited and watched movies until about four thirty then they left since James and Brenda had to go into work at the hospital.
Tim and Cara and kids came over at seven in the evening to open gifts with us as we had their name and they had ours this year. So we had fun opening gifts again and visiting with them.
I think we fell exhausted into bed that evening. I am still exhausted. Major holiday jet lag! We have been pajama-ing it ever since! I wouldn't trade it for anything though. It was a wonderful holiday season! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Savior with. I am so greatful for His plan that will allow us to be together forever!