Christmas Time Festivities

We had a lot of fun this busy Christmas season.  One night Derek and I took the kids to the Giving Vending Machines at the University Place Mall.  It is a vending machine where you can purchase item for local and global charities around the world.  We let each kid pick one thing.  Some of the things we bought were art kits, food, warm blankets, chickens and a pig.

We also have a tradition of caroling to neighbors and some of Derek's older family members that are home bound or have few family members around.  This year Camden brought his ukulele and accompanied the kids singing Jingle Bells which was a fun addition to the show.

Babi and Papou decided to join us for Christmas this year.  It was super fun to have them.  Mom brought all kind of crafts for the kids to put together.  Some of them were quite complex.  They gave the kids Battle Ship and many games of that were played this Christmas season.  Liv also got a new suitcase from them and the boys got bike locks--they are all super excited to use these.  We had our traditional Christmas Eve Dungenesss Crab feast.  Everyone loves this tradition (Camden doesn't love crab, but he loved clams...so we always have clams too).  I love this tradition mostly because crab takes forever to crack and eat, so this meal forces everyone to hang around the table for a while.  We invited Steve and Diane to join us for the feast.  

Then, the kids put together a little Christmas Music Concert for their grandparents complete with a typed up program they had made.  It was super nice each kid played or sang 3 different songs.  We had piano pieces, violin pieces, ukulele and vocal numbers.  We are creating quite the musical ensemble in our family.

We played Utahopoly (Derek's Christmas gift to the kids)  We had to quit before a true winner was declared because Camden was getting so nervous Santa would come before he was asleep.  So, we declared it a tie.  All the kids wrote notes to Santa and set out cookies and carrots.  Camden's letter cracked us all up.  Dear Santa:  I know I have been bad, but I still want presents.  Liv's was a close second.  I was good, not as good as last year, but good enough to have Christmas.  And Carter just really wanted a drone--just a little one. 

 All the kids slept together on the bottom bunk in the boys' room.

Christmas morning was filled with magic and excitement as usual.  Camden was super excited to finally get a Nintendo DS gaming system.  Derek loves that he has the perfect thing to take away now whenever he need to dole out a punishment to Camden.  Carter got his drone and Liv got a karaoke machine which is perfectly fitting for her.

Derek and I took advantage of Mom and George being here to babysit and went snowshoeing with London at Stewart Falls.  It was gorgeous and London was in heaven.  Derek and I had a blast as well.  We got home and found Steve and Diane there delivering more presents for all and fun Frozen train set for all the kids to share.  Overall, it was another fabulous Christmas!