(here's one unrelated to christmas, but it's good for you to meet ular, william's new pet snake. ular means snake in indonesian. this picture also shows w's good friend, eli.)we had a very nice christmas. the kiddos got out of school last wednesday, and then i started working 1/2 days. we haven't had any snow to speak of so there wasn't any crazy snow fun, but that made driving around a whole lot easier.
on christmas eve, we made a tres leches cake (actually two) to have for dessert at my mom's christmas eve mexican dinner. it was a nice mexican meal with enchiladas, homemade salsa and guacamole and other delicious items. we had a good time with my mom and the families of my three brothers who live close by. we acted out the nativity in traditional family garb (brian was the narrator, william the angel, and sierra was mary), opened some presents, and then enjoyed the tres leches and mexican hot chocolate we made. oh my, tres leches is good! we then went home to get the escuincles into bed (so sugar plums could dance in their heads). brian and i had wrapped all of the presents the night before so i only had to prepare the stockings before bed.
b falling asleep before the nativity. 
baby leah as the baby jesus.
william as the angel.
the wise men arriving!
one of the tres leches cakes. we sprinkled pommegranate seeds on top too.on sunday, we opted to open gifts after our 9am church. so we woke up pretty leisurely and then went to 1.25 hours of church. they actually rang the bells at the church once church let out, which was a nice touch. opening the presents went well--no one threw a fit, and we all got some nice gifts.
me with my cuckoo for pawpaws shirt from brian. isn't that perfect?
me and william. i'm hefting one of my new 10 pound weights.
william in his new BYU coat from my mom.
b with midnight in paris--my gift to him.after presents, b and i had apple and brie sandwiches for lunch and the kiddos had grilled sandwiches (made on our new christmas griddle). later that day, there were naps and playing with toys, etc. for dinner, we had left over christmas eve food, which was just as good the second time around. we also had sparkling apple cider--a fun touch on may part. my mom had dinner with us. we even had some good downtime--so we could actually talk--which was great.
all-in-all christmas was very nice!
when monday morning rolled around, though, the festivities were over, and i boxed up all of our christmas stuff. it's nice to have more room in our house again. a tree and christmas decorations do take up some room. now that christmas is over, it's on to the worst time of the year--winter without the fun of christmas. there is still new years, but that's not a favorite holiday of ours (it's just never as much fun as it seems like it should be). we'll just have to be patient until spring comes and then memorial day--brian's favorite holiday of the year! we have some fun plans for this summer, which will give us something to look forward to during the cold times ahead.
