Christmas Eve Traditions

Every single year, as far back as I can remember, we have had the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. The one present was always a new pair of jammies and on occasion some slippers. Now that we have our own little family, I have made sure to keep this tradition going.

Mathias was not sure of this whole wrapping paper thing but got the idea down pretty fast.

Dustin was in California for Christmas this year so we had mom come over to our place and surprised her with her very own pair of jammies .

Here is Mathias in his stylin' big boy pj's.

And every year we get the family together to get a picture in our pj's. It was way beyond Mathias' bed time so to get him to sit still was nearly impossible.

One other tradition we have is to read a Christmas story before going to bed. This year it was "The Night Before Christmas." I love carrying on traditions now that we have a family of our own.

New Traditions

So I want to start a tradition of making a gingerbread house as a family for Christmas. This, however, was not the best year to start it. First off, we were just too busy this year and did not get around to it until Christmas Eve afternoon, and even then it did not get completely finished.

Another reason it did not work to well this year was that Mathias just wanted to eat all of the candy.

Mom finally gave in and let him have a taste of the pure sugar frosting. Num num!

Dev did a good job of getting it started, then some how I was left with the rest, which was ok with me.

Once the house was partially up, Mathias decided to throw the candy in it and see if he made it in.

I know it looks like he is helping me here but really he just wants some of the frosting!

And here is the semi complete gingerbread house.

Temple Square

We went up to Temple Square on Saturday to see the Christmas lights. We do this as a family every year, even if it is beyond freezing.

We rode the Trax up. Mathias loved riding Trax and kept saying "choo choo" while also pointing out all of the "cars," "no"(snow), and "whites"(lights).

He was to busy looking out to look at me for a picture; I did, however, get a great smile.

We made sure Mathias was plenty warm. He had on a coat that is a size too big, mittens, a beanie, and a blanket. He was by far the warmest of the bunch.

The beautiful temple at Christmas time. It still amazes me that they made that beautiful building so long ago, with out modern technology.

I love coming up here and hearing all the accents of the people around us. It makes me think about how lucky I am to be in a place where temples are not hard to come by.

As always, the lights were incredible. Mathias made sure to point them all out. It was very fun!

Thanks, mom, for taking some pics of our family.

After the lights, we walked to California Pizza Kitchen and ate a late dinner. Here is Mathias coloring a plane(his new favorite) with mema.

I was feeding Mathias some mac and cheese and looked over at something for a moment and Mathias decided to help himself. I just took off his shirt and let him at it. I am learning to pick my battles! It was very fun and can't wait for next year.

Izzie Update

We just got Izzie back from the clinic after getting spayed today. They work that place like Wendy's works the drive thru - get you through the line as fast as possible, would you like fries with that, thank you and come again. Devin dropped her off at 8:30 this morning and they called at noon to say she was done and we could pick her up whenever. When we got her home, she was still loopy from the drugs - she couldn't walk straight and had trouble staying upright. But she's a tough little kitty and she'll be back in no time.

And it's been a week and some change since we got her declawed. Night and day difference! She seems to have totally mellowed out and doesn't try to kill you every time you walk past. She is now tolerable to Devin, borderline acceptable. With a couple more weeks I think he'll actually start to like her. But she has a reputation at the vet's office now. When we went back to have her bandages taken off, we ended up having to wrap her in a blanket to restrain her legs and muzzle her face so she didn't rip any of our fingers off, which she tried to do before, which led to the muzzle. Man was she a pissed off cat! And when Devin picked her up from the clinic (different from the vet, less than half the price to have her fixed!) after her being fixed, the nice lady at the counter commented on how much Izzie didn't like the staff. He chuckled and said the vet doesn't like her either. Maybe from now on we'll slip her some Captain Morgan to mellow her out and slow her reflexes when we have to take her in. Unless she's a mean drunk, then we'll be worse off!

Happy 22nd birthday Dustin

Dustin turns 22 today! Happy birthday, Dustin. We celebrated his birthday on Tuesday because he will be in California for Christmas.

Cherry-O Cream Cheese Pie - our tradition

Ah, what a cute fam.

Getting sick of taking pictures....

Boys will be boys.

He got the new 8g iPod Nano, a cd, and some speaker thing to put the Nano in. He was pretty excited.

Tour of Jerusalem

On Monday Night we went to Hee Haw's. It's a farm next to our condo that every Christmas season they have a nativity wagon ride. The people who own and run it live in our ward and let the ward in for free on Monday. They take you through a field on a wagon pulled by a tractor to see scenes where the "cast" tells you the nativity story, from the angels singing to the wise men traveling to King Herod wanting every male child killed. It is only about 20 minutes long, but makes you remember the story and feel the true meaning of Christmas.

When you first get to the farm they have some goats and a little bunny town.

Then they take you to "Santa's Green House" where you wait for the wagon. Luckily they had a nice little heater, it was really cold outside.

Santa was also there giving out suckers, unfortunately Mathias is terrified of Santa this year, so Mat didn't get any lap time
.

Here we are on the wagon. At every stop/scene we would sing a song that went with it - those are the words you see in the picture.

Izzie the kitty

We finally took Izzie in last Tuesday to get declawed, both for our sanity and for her safety. It seems to have made her a little more snuggly and less feisty than she used to be. We can actually leave our bedroom door open at night and not worry about her clawing us or the sheets to death. This week she also goes in to get fixed, the poor thing is going to think we hate her.

Here she is using her bed for the first time since we got her.

When we first brought her home she would swing her paws around trying to get the bandages off, it was actually pretty funny to watch.

Christmas Caroling

My aunt Lori and her family invited us to go Christmas caroling with them while they handed out gifts to their neighbors. I have never been and thought it would be a little cold but fun. Mathias loved it. They live in Salt Lake, not to far from the airport, so there were quite a few planes going overhead, and planes are one of his new favorite things to point out. He can point them out even if you can barely see them. So in the middle of singing, you would her Mathias scream "plane!" at the top of his lungs. Everyone got a kick out of this. Thanks Lori, for letting us come along.

This is my cousin Brandon and one of his two boys.

Here is Mathias waiting patiently to go.

And we are off...

My arms were getting a little tired from Holding Mathias (he is getting so stinkin' big) so Dustin held him for a while. We would have just let him walk but I am pretty sure that if we did we would still be there. He would point out every single car, plane, and all the Christmas lights that he could see.

Check out all the people, that is not even the whole group!

Stylin Dude

Mr. Cool

On the way up to Lori's it was pretty bright out and Mathias was getting upset that the sun was in his eyes and would screech every time he wanted to look out the window. We got him some glasses this summer but they were huge at the time and he would not keep them on, so we decided to see if they would work now or if he would even keep them on. They are still a little big but he thought they were pretty cool. As soon as we put them on he started his little goat giggle.

Rummikub

We were just sitting there watching tv one day when Mathias grabbed the box on the floor and dumped it all out and then preceded to load up his tray. I swear they learn all to quickly!

Mac n Cheese

"num num"

Mr. Handsome

I have to take a moment and brag about Mathias. After all, that is what this blog is all about! I just wanted to put these pictures on because he is just soooo stinkin' cute!

I absolutely LOVE this picture, it is by far one of my favorites.

Look at that smirk on his face! It seems like he is saying, "Yeah, I know I'm cute".

More "NO"

Saturday it snowed a ton so we decided to enjoy the weather and go out and play in it. I usually hate this weather, but having a little one makes it a little more enjoyable.

OK, I am ready, let's go play in the "no!"

(Look at those beautiful long eyelashes, thanks daddy)
Hey, I knew there was grass under here!

Love that cheeser!

My little poser, even though he refuses to look at the camera.

Snow angel?

You guessed it, he is pointing out every single car.