Inner Monologue: Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

Christmas morning arrived and surprisingly, we awoke to a White Christmas. It was completely unexpected since it was raining when we went to bed, but I loved the winter white and how festive everything suddenly looked and felt. I actually woke quite early before everyone else so I spent a lot of time just quietly watching the snow fall.

After wondering if anyone was ever going to wake up, Luke finally came creeping out at about 8:15. He was so excited to go to the living room to make sure Santa had visited our house. After showing him the gifts and the presents, I couldn't turn him down when he asked if he could open his stocking while we waited for everyone else to wake. He loved each little item that filled the sock. His wonder and excitement at the morning was exactly what I hoped that it would be and made me anxious for everyone else to come join the celebration.

We finally went and woke Tim and Luke excitedly told him that Santa had left presents and he better come quickly. We then went and woke Ruby, she took a few minutes to stretch and then immediately was ready to get up and go. Taylor and Brycen were both good sports and got up as soon as Tim told them that the babies were awake and waiting. We didn't have a lot of time, so we let everyone go through their stockings and open two presents before pressing pause on the presents and eating breakfast. We had our traditional breakfast casseroles - egg and hashbrowns, and cream cheese french toast. Erika had texted me earlier in the week and asked for the recipes saying that she wanted to continue the tradition in Seattle. We were all sad that she wasn't with us this year, but it was nice to think that we were all having the same meal for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday, we had the opportunity to go to Sacrament meeting on Christmas morning. Admittedly I wasn't thrilled to change out of my pajamas, but once we got to the church, it was so peaceful and lovely that I was especially grateful to get there. Our ward combined with a Spanish speaking ward, so parts of the program were in English, parts in Spanish along with a lot of back and forth between the two languages. I loved it. During the hymns, everyone sang in whatever language they knew and instead of sounding disjointed, it actually sounded beautiful. The meeting had a few short talks, but was mostly music and we left feeling uplifted and reminded of the reason for the season.

After returning home we all got into comfortable clothes and went back to opening presents. The little ones were especially excited about all of the toys they received and were only disappointed that the couldn't stop to open and enjoy each present immediately.

Tim completely spoiled me with the most thoughtful gift. In November while in Salt Lake I saw these pearls at JCrew and loved them so much that I took a picture just to show Tim what they looked like. I was shocked that he had used the picture to track down the pearls. The necklace is beautiful, but mostly the gift just made me feel so loved and cherished by my husband.

Yes, he got the Chewbacca mask, and

It Is Amazing!

We finished opening our gifts and then, after a brief time to relax and play with new toys, we headed to Santaquin to enjoy time and dinner with my family. My poor mom was so sick but between her and my dad, they still had a fantastic dinner for us. The kids had a great time running wild while the adults teased and laughed. At the end of the night we all went down to the church for a mini concert. Ada and my mom had prepared a piano/organ duet for church and didn't get to perform because everyone was snowed in for church. We were not the original audience that had been planned, but I loved listening to them play. After they finished, Brycen also agreed to play a piece for us - I am always amazed at what he can do without any written music. Finishing the night with music was a perfect ending to a great Christmas.

Somehow she ended up cuddling Juniper's new dolly