Christmas 2015

on the sunday before christmas, my local siblings and their families and my mom got together at to eat, hang out, wrap and deliver gifts to a family in need. it was a great experience. 

 on christmas eve, we all got together again (this time with kyle and his family from cali) at mom's house for our traditional christmas eve family get-together. we acted out the nativity, had a lovely meal, and then went home. here, kyle, don, brian, and tyler (kneeling) are dressed up for the nativity. the top row are wise men. tyler was a shepherd i believe.

 jackson and leah playing the bells that don's family brought. we played christmas songs with the bells.

 kirsten and tricia holding up the music for the bells.

 christmas morning, we woke up to a lot of presents and, of course, our stockings (which are so narrow, we just put all of the goodies outside/on top of them).

 it snowed a lot during the night. it was a true winter wonderland on christmas morning!

 doesn't the gong make everything like classier?

 s playing with her nested dolls that she got in her stocking. (also, the byu clothes she's wearing was her gift from grandma leslie.)

 w loves those fruity-filled chocolate sticks. (the byu track-style pants he's wearing was one of his gifts from grandma leslie.)

 b has such big, fun hair!

 s was really excited to get a new fuzzy blanket. her excitement made me feel a bit nervous.

 w makes a lot of great faces in these pictures. here he is with his new pair of pumas.

 b gave me some fun books.

 a picture of me with my big anniversary-trip tiger trout. we are still looking for a frame to put this in. this was one of b's christmas requests.

 s's gift from aunt emily--the secret garden.

 w getting his big christmas gift--a bobcat/lynx fur.

 another great book from b. i've heard the goldfinch is really good.

 a new oil flask that w gave to b.

 s got a big book of american girl doll cards. she enjoyed this gift!

 w showing off his kachina (while wearing his pelt).

 me excitedly getting a koshari kachina. i have wanted a kachina for many years, and b found this one for me--a favorite character from the acoma myth narrative we've been reading lately.

 i love this kachina!

 b opening his acoma puebla ceramic bowl. i ordered this and thought it would be much bigger than it ended up being. but it is still a beautiful pot.

 s got e costume she can wear for playing dress-up.

 w got a vintage yellowstone clock that still works and is currently tick-tocking in his room.

 s gave b a new journal.

 s got a weaving loom. 

 w made me a necklace (and note the lovely scarf i got from my good friend carol).

 b got a wheat grinder!

 w gave s a glass cleaning kit that has "ctr" on it.

 so happy to get socks!

 b ordered me a few water coloring books. they didn't arrive by christmas day--so he printed off the covers for me so i could know what would be coming.

 b opened a ceramic/leather drum we got. 

 w showing how to play it.

 and now b showing how to play it.

 w opened his gift from grandma and grandpa roberts--this cool new coat.

 the other watercolor book. this one has arrived and looks to be very helpful.

 i made this shirt for b.

 just another way to commemorate his favorite fish!

 s got some fun new books.

 w has always wanted a snow globe. and to get one about the slc olympics (which happened exactly when he was born) is the coolest.

 this is a book written by our good friend carol (the same carol who gave me the scarf).

 b got a copy of president eyring's book.

 s's big gift from grandma and grandpa roberts was a big, super cool loom to knit with. the other knitting thing is small potatoes compared with this one.

 b got a sticky thing from s for christmas. it's fun. you hold on to one end while slinging the other end across the room. that end sticks to something and can lift it up.

 s got me a funsies little owl toy.

 here b is lifting up a box with the slimy, strong thing s gave him.

 a fun book for william--deadly animals!

 b gave me red hair dye so we can dye my hair soon.

 a fun book about the middle fork of the salmon river i found for b.

 s and w got picture books of indonesia. this was a true labor of love as i spent hours creating these books online. but they seemed to really enjoy them.

 a fun t-shirt i found for b that looks really good on him. he wore this t with the brown pants and his old green docs over the break, and he looked so good!

 s got new pink binoculars. 

 b got the last unicorn in his stocking. i like his face here.

 w got a book all about bird feathers.

 b got a new bird feeder, which, hopefully, will attract goldfinches for us.

 s got scented body sprays. she was very excited to get this!

 w got a book of jack london stories from aunt emily! how does she know exactly what w and s like?

 one of our fun family gifts was a lovely hardback copy of audubon's the birds of america. i've always wanted a copy of this.

 it is such an endlessly fascinating book.

 and we were happy to see that the yellow billed cuckoo with the pawpaws is the third print in the book. not too shabby.

 if only we could eat those pawpaws (and see those cuckoos)!

 david and bonny sent us the lego movie.

 funsies!

 s got a bracelet-making set.

 w got book 2 in the wildwood series. he is reading it now!

 another family gift was the rubik's cube.

 and a set of bird flashcards--so we can practice and learn some good old american birds.

 s got a set of rudolph the red-nosed reindeer figurines.

 s gave w a byu bracelet.

 what, another family gift?! seasons 1 and 2 of studio c.

 a gift from grandmas leslie was the cokeville miracle and once i was a beehive. 

 s got a new, bigger pair of fun pants (she has this exact pair in a smaller size).

 w feeling happy that he got a snuggly new hoodie.

 grandma and grandpa roberts sent w and s fun playing cards--with pictures of w and s from indonesia on the backs!

 here w is with a snake draped around him and one on his head.

 s's cards are of her in bali next to a female balinese statue.

 finally, s got this fun chair. we actually had to take it back, but she picked out a new pink chair that she likes and uses every day.

after we opened gifts, we cooked a chicken bbq pizza and ate that for breakfast. the kids started watching their movies, and b and i shoveled the snow from our driveway and walkways.

 here you can see the tops of the yuccas pointing out.

 me shoveling.

 it was a beautiful day.

another of our gifts from grandma and grandpa roberts was tickets to go see the new star wars movie! we went and saw that from about 1-4. it was super fun--we all really enjoyed it. once we got back from that, we got together a few things and then drove over to whitney and matt's home. we ate a really delicious ham dinner.

 and then we had our annual roberts/ehle family christmas program.

 matt's brother, jake, was there too. he read a story called the christmas donkey.

 b did a good job of patting ray ray on the head.

 ray ray sang jingle bells really (really) well.

 kirsten sang rudolph the red-nosed reindeer also really (really) well! these are talented kiddos.

 whitney played a beautiful christmas song on the piano.

 sierra played a christmas song on her melody harp.

 and plucked away a little tune on her guitar.

 matt read the christmas story from the scriptures while the kids used a nativity set to act out the events.

 the not pictured parts in the program are b's, which was singing malam kudus--silent night--in indonesian. i sang with him. and then i had everyone in the room share a favorite memory from the past year. and william explained how he pulverized turquoise rocks to make turquoise sand and then made a christmas picture using glue and the turquoise sand. unfortunately, we left the picture at home, but he told us about it.

 after the program, we shared gifts. w got a puzzle.

 s got a sand art kit.

 w got a book.

 s got a book (which she has really enjoyed reading).

 b got a big summer sausage!

 matt got a meat carving fork.

 kirsten and ray ray got sticker books and a water snake (that's a toy).

 whitney got a set of old church magazines written in german.

 and she also got a ceramic container that says "christmas 1984." whitney's first christmas.

after christmas day, some of our highlights were w carving out a snow cave and then sleeping in it. he spent two nights in it. he didn't make it completely through the night on either nights--but he lasted a remarkably long time given how cold it was outside. we also went sledding, we watched the new snoopy movie, we had a nye's dance party with some friends, we acted out the nativity and had a fun middle eastern-inspired dinner, we hung out with other friends, we ran at the indoor track, had a great salmon and steak dinner at my mom's house on new years day, etc. we got to do a lot of fun things over the break!