Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has always been an important tradition with my mother's side of the family. We always got together for a night of family, fun, food, and a Christmas program. Now that my grandmother has passed on, my mother carries on that tradition at her house. We start off with wonderful food and visiting with each other. After everyone has eaten way too much (at least me:), we go into the front room for our program.
The most important part is of course, the nativity story. Lance, being the only "older" boy always gets the blessing of playing Joseph.


This year, it was Sierra's turn to play Mary. Doesn't she looks so sweet as she holds her baby cousin Grant, who played the part of Jesus so beautifully?

I need to frame this one. Why? Because these two are actually sitting by each other and not fighting. Miracles happen during the Christmas season:).

We were blessed to hear some beautiful musical numbers from my cousins and uncle....by James and Lybi (above) and the Tenney men (below). Beautiful voices!

The older children played musical numbers. So, Sierra and Lance played the piano.

Here are the cutest shepherds around! l to r: Justin, Weston, Charlotte, Joey, and Adam.

Of course, you have to have angels in a nativity story. Hannah, the oldest, played the angel Gabriel. Kathleen, Rachel, and Paige were darling little angels.

Samuel and Zane were wisemen who brought gifts to the Christ child. I think Tim was the third, but I am not sure where he is:).

too cute!

We sang more songs and played the bells while we sang.

Zane was intent on playing his note at the right time!

Then, who comes to our party? Santa!!!

The kids got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Weston was a little nervous about it.

Zane played along. But, everyone was skeptical cause those eyes and that voice sounded too familiar. oh well. It was fun. Sierra was onery and wouldn't play the game. She's lucky Santa still brought her things the next morning.

Lance was a great sport and jumped right on Santa's lap asking for a "kiss". A what?! Yes, a kiss. hmmm. no comment. Lance thought he was tooooo funny. Santa didn't give him what he asked for....just incase you were wondering.

The kids then all got to open their present from Grandpa and Grandma. The older two were given a book and money. Yea, those big kids love money....probably a little too much. Look at Lance's grin. Zane was given a airhog to fly around. Wes was given a CARS blanket made by grandma along with a Cars toy.

"Thanks" Grandpa and Grandma for a wonderful evening of yummy food and family togetherness. It truly is a beautiful time of year as we celebrate our Savior's birth here on earth....the lights, the music, the family time, and even the gifts are fun:).

Merry Christmas!

Here's a very short clip of Sierra playing the piano that evening.

Fun Video Clips from Up North

Our little desert dwellers don't know what to do in this below freezing temperature!

Way to fly Sierra! What a crazy, fun lovin' girl.

Lance and Todd racing down the hill!

Poor Wes does not get a good taste for sledding. I love how Sierra came to his rescue.

Here's what I meant about the men in our family never growing up. too fun. Hey, my man got 2nd! And I think Caleb (the 1st place guy) might have jumped the gun a bit anyways. :)

The snowball fight in the Pizza Hut parking lot. love it. How can a Mom not love any male bonding time that occurs between her husband and her boys?!

Building, Decorating, & More

Jason and Megan are the King and Queen of Hosting. They love to have people over. And, we love to come on over:). They invited several families to come on over for a Gingerbread House Decorating Party. And, so we showed up ready to build, decorate, and more.

Building takes intense concentration, of course.

And, one can't decorate very well unless he has tasted the goods to make sure they are house worthy. mmmmm.

Oh yeah. The goods were all good enough to decorate with and to eat.

Wes' finished house....yes, he had some help with Mom since his attention span didn't last long enough to do it all himself. Besides, Catherine had some fun decorating it anyways.

Sierra's masterpiece above and Zane's delicious piece of work below.

And, of course, they were all eaten that night.

Lance was nice and gave his house to a little girl who wanted it. So, he played with Brock the whole time. I don't think he really minded missing out on the decorating anyways, but I was impressed with his thoughtfulness. Now, if he could just be that nice to his own sister:)

A Weekend Up North....all the way up to the North Pole.

Wow. Where do we start? We had a GREAT time this weekend. Catherine's side of the family headed up to Williams for a ride on the POLAR EXPRESS.

But, as soon as we got to the hotel to check in, the hunt began. The hunt for the biggest icicle that is. The kids had so much fun. I think Sierra got into it the most. And, she won by far!

Zane is modeling the coolest icicle ever found -- the pitchfork icicle found by Lance. Unfortunately, Lance wanted nothing to do with my camera, but Zane was happy to oblige.

Wes decided that icicles were good to eat. yum.

Zane, being Zane, found a way to be a clown with his icicle.

And here are Sierra's winning icicles!

That evening, we headed off to board the Polar Express. The kids were so excited!

McKenna, Sierra, and Madison are all smiles....and such beautiful smiles at that!

Uncle Sean and Aunt Mary join in the fun.

Aunt Danielle with her Charlotte and Justin.

Zane sat by Uncle Caleb.

Jordan, Rachel, Aunt Debbie, and Conover enjoy the ride too.

Jonathan and Uncle Sterling.

Grandma Beanie and Catherine.

Lance, feeling the need to show his teenage rebellion?, avoided the camera at all costs.

As we all settled in for the ride, the attendants served hot, hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. yummy.

When the train ride first started, these two boys just sat and stared out the window for the longest time. They were so excited to be riding in a train!

After we enjoyed our goodies, we finally reached the North Pole. Weston was awed by all the Christmas lights at the North Pole. We actually saw Santa there. He was outside in his sleigh with some of his reindeer. He waved to all of us on the train. What excitement!

Our attendant then led us in singing some Christmas songs as we turned around and headed back home.

But, who's that coming into our train car?!

Why, it's SANTA CLAUS!!! He must've come aboard the train when we stopped to turn around. Ho Ho Ho. Santa gave all the children their very own bell to help them to remember to BELIEVE.

**On a side note** We have to include this story of our first experience with the Polar Express. When the movie first came out 3? years ago, we went to see it at the movie theaters right before Christmas. Well, Lance was almost 11 and let's just say he was "doubting." So, wouldn't you know it, that Christmas morning Santa left Christmas bells in their stockings. As Sierra (being almost 8) and Zane (almost 5) shook their bells, the magical tinkling sound went off. "I knew it. I believe. I believe," exclaimed Sierra and Zane. It was so cute. Then, there was Lance. He quickly looked for his bell when he saw them with theirs. But, as he pulled his bell out of his stocking and gave it a shake. nothing. absolutely. nothing. happened. No tinkling. No noise. He didn't believe. For a brief second, there was a look of sheer panic on his face. Why couldn't he hear his bell tinkle?! But, then he looked up and saw the smirk on his Dad's face. Gotcha Lance.

Believe! We had a wonderful time with our family. But, it was just the beginning of the fun.

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The next morning, we were all getting ready to go sledding in Flagstaff. As we were all standing around in the parking lot, Sean brought up the ol' Christmas Story movie. He was trying to get Lance to lick the stair railing. Lance being 13 and having seen the movie was not going for it. Unfortunately, Zane was nearby. Zane being 7 and never having seen the movie...and being too gullible and willing to try anything......STUCK HIS TONGUE TO THE RAILING! Poor kid!

Not good. It really does stick. As someone ran to get warm water, I took pictures while laughing at my poor boy. What an awful mom I am.

One has to know that my brothers have never really grown up. Call it the Peter Pan Syndrome. Although their bodies have aged, their personalities are still at the adoloscent stage. Most family gatherings are entertained by these guys and their antics. Unfortunately, Zane was just too close by this time and so he was pulled into one of their shenanigans.

But, Zane was a good sport. We then decided that Uncle Sean needed to pay for taking advantage of Zane's innocence. Yes, we made him do it too.

And, so here is Sean....really, in truly, stuck to the railing also. He's also a good sport.

So, that started off our morning with some good laughs. We then headed to McDonald's for a breakfast of champions. Then off to hit the sledding hill!

First, Zand had to build his very own snowman. And, he really did it all.by.himself. We were impressed!

Lance couldn't avoid my camera when he was too busy sledding down the hill:).

Sierra flying down fast!

When Zane was finished with his snowman, he and Todd hit the sledding hill. Look at his smile!

Check out the air that Zane got on this one....a good few inches! Woo hoo!

But, this one was even higher. He accidently went off this jump. He did not want to, but somehow ended up going off of it. WOW. You go, Zane!

And, then there was Wes. He didn't like his first sledding run cause he tipped over. So, later, I convinced him to go with me on some easy ones. He loved it....until we eventually tipped over again . Then, he was done. no more. He went and played with his cousins. But, later when Wes saw Justin going down on his rump, Wes decided that he could handle that. And so, Wes went down on his bottom.

Off to go play.

After a couple hours of sledding, we went to lunch at Pizza Hut. And, the entertainment continued. Zane asked his Dad if he'd pay him a dollar to eat some of the red pepper. (He recently saw Lance earn a few bucks for eating a mouthful of wasabi). So, this one was self-inflicted. OUCH. Poor kid. He didn't know what he was getting himself into.

Unfortunately, no one noticed that Wes was eaves-dropping and getting ideas of his own. Really. We DID NOT tell our 3 year old to eat red pepper. We didn't even see him do it until it was too late. He didn't like the red pepper one bit. Poor kid.

We really don't pick on our kids that bad. Please don't call CPS on us.

As lunch ended, we headed out to the car to go home. But, the entertainment continued once again. This time it was a snowball fight between Todd and our boys in the Pizza Hut parking lot. Note: the snowball on Todd's back.

Lance throwing hard at his Dad.

Wes joining in on the action.

And, Zane getting pelted with snow on his neck...and it ended up in his ear. I think Zane really did have a good time despite his tongue being stuck to the railing, despite going off sledding jumps that he didn't mean to, despite eating red hot peppers, and despite getting snow in his ear. We're lucky to have such a good sport in our family. Way to go , Zane.