Remembering Christmas

We took down all of our Christmas stuff today... makes me sad because I love to have all of the Christmas decorations up! So I thought I should take a minute to remember the great Christmas we had not too long ago.

Visiting our families and spending time with them is always great! Especially since we don't have the chance to drive to Roosevelt all of the time and everyone gets really busy. 

This year, we stayed at my parents' house so we could get up super early with the little people. So on Christmas Eve..day, we made visits to Spencer's family and to Grandma&Grandpa B. We dropped some of our Christmas gifts off at the Wallace residence, but Grandpa B made prime rib so there was no way we were going to miss that! (Ashleigh was very upset that we didn't say 'hi' to her. That's because she was asleep the whole time we were there!) Grandpa really likes having people over. Mostly so he can feed them. Spencer has decided that he will just bring a take-out box with him whenever we go to Grandpa's.

After Grandpa's, we drove home to meet up with Jared! Hot Rod Hicken is back from his mission! So we spent some time catching up.

That night, we acted out the Nativity with my family. Spencer usually does that with his family. Next year! :) My siblings can't do anything seriously. We had a "Groovy Shepherd" and a Wise Guy who couldn't make a normal face... and another shepherd that fell to the ground, trembling with fear because the Angel of the Lord (his mother) stood up on the piano bench with her arms stretched out toward him. Also Mary wouldn't let them shove anything up her shirt (me), she didn't want anyone to be getting any ideas. (we fail..no pictures)


Christmas Eve, my siblings and I always watch The Grinch (which is totally not the same without Jayde) and all sleep downstairs. So the next morning, we heard Cache waking up Cole and Brynne at 6:00, on the dot! We had a great time still, even though it's a little too early. My Christmas present is already hanging up in the condo! ------------------->
We also got a tent for camping, a lantern, and a couple of flashlights. Spencer is all ready to go. I ask if we could wait until it was warm outside before going camping! Spencer also found some hot sauce in his stocking and has already put it to use.

After Christmas with the Bertoches, we left to have Christmas with the Wallaces! We got spoiled some more there. And Aunt Ruth was there for Christmas which was really great!

(and Carrie is much better at taking pictures) Spencer and I exchanged our gifts there. He was absolutely wonderful and got me 3 Pentatonix Cds!! Which I was SUPER excited about! :D And he got me a very beautiful pair of earrings :)
All Spencer wanted was jumper cables.... so that's what I got him. Whatever. He was very excited about it though!

And Yes, we are wearing matching hoodies :)

After all the presents fun, we got to talk to Aaron and then Jayde! Both missionaries are doing great!

Aaron is having a hard time with English though, and he has a pretty awesome accent. He kept slipping into Portuguese and his companion would remind him that we couldn't understand. He has been out for almost a year now and is working hard. Aaron and his companion get along great. Both of them are super tall and Aaron says they don't get messed with. His companion also has relatives in Roosevelt!

Jayde is doing well too. He says he has even become a big city driver! He also said he has never been so tired in his life. He has transferred areas and is currently opening up a new one. He says it is hard because they just knock on doors all day long. He really likes his companion though and they seem to get fed a lot by members. He loves the area and says he is filled with the Spirit and just wants to baptize everyone!


Talking with our missionaries made Christmas really great!

That afternoon we had fun shooting each other with Nerf guns. My brothers are in no short supply of Nerf guns, so we just went at it for a couple hours.

If you got hit, you had to dramatically fall to the ground and then count to ten.

I'm wearing the sweater Jess gave me :)

Dad mostly played basketball, but then he let us each take turn just shooting at him. His object was to dodge the bullets. Cole got him pretty good though!

 Then we played around with Cache and his cool helicopter thing he got for Christmas.

Then (yes, there's more) we had dinner with Spencer's family. We were late because Jayde got on Skype around 6. But they saved us dinner and we all had lots of dessert. In all, we had a great Christmas! And we ended up bringing a lot of Christmas home with us :) Thanks to everyone! Although Christmas is over, it is important to always have family and Christ in our hearts.