THE Holiday Season

Ok- I have eaten a big piece of humble pie (and every other pie in sight apparently...) and have decided to just do one huge Holiday Season post with everything. I know it is lame, and late- but Miss J just had her school Christmas party today so I am still good. Right? Put your Santa hat back on- because we are taking a big ole' step back in time!

Aren't these cookies adorable? My neighbor brought them over for us!

We were super excited and happy to have Sunny & her darling family along for the whole sha-bang. We started out getting the all important Christmas tree..

Gosh- they eve helped us put up the tree and decorate! As quick as we decorated the tree, Hyrum un-decorated it. He is such a cutie.

A few days later, we were lucky enough to have some other visitors from out west. Grandma & Grandpa Avery came out to be here for Saroya's Baptism. They were such a help in getting the final preparations underway.

The Baptism was so great! We had family members there from all over! (Utah, Nevada, New York and GR!) Everyone braved the blizzard and joined us for that special night. So touching. Saroya decided that she wanted her cousin Jillie and Ethan to do the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. At first I wondered about how that would go, but then I got to thinking. Who better to learn from than someone that sees things so simply still and can explain things so she could understand them. Ethan forgot his talk at home so he had to do it all from memory, but both talks were short, sweet and absolutely perfect.

We had a quick meal for everyone after the baptism, took some pics of the grand kids that didn't turn out

and then went BOWLING!!! :) Random, I know- but we had everyone here so we had to have a party!

This is a picture of Nathan's dad... and if there are any Avery's reading this- you know EXACTLY what happened next. :) He is a trooper though and has a good sense of humor about it all. Thank goodness because it was pretty funny!

So after the busy weekend and many hugs and goodbyes, we took the Grandparents back to the airport (I think they had seen enough snow to last them a lifetime!! :) and wished them well on their next adventure on a mission in Texas!

After we dropped them off, we headed over to Grandma Old Ears to decorate for Christmas. I think it is something we all look forward to. Grandma wasn't too sure about the "pink flowers" in the tree and we took bets on whether she was taking them off as soon as we left, but when we went back after Christmas they were still there. :)

After Grandma's we scooped up Sunny and Hyrum and took them home with us for the rest of the week! We had lots of books read by Sunny...
and we saw lots of sleepy baby yawns.
and we were CRAZY busy as always, but we LOVED having them here.

The next week was spent quickly making and shopping for last minute gifts. The weather just got worse and worse- lots of watching this at night

and this during the day. Even got the last day before Christmas break off for a snow day!

Then the BIG DAY!! We got Derek back from Utah and we were ready to party!

Could you just eat this kid up??
We made sure to keep to tradition by doing the Christmas Caroling we all love! But we also stopped for some service snow shoveling along the way- and then helping ourselves up a driveway we got stuck in (we couldn't skip that house you know!)

We did finally make it back, just in time for a reading of the REAL Christmas story from a kids book this time, and then a quick visit from St. Nick before he headed out for the night. So nice of him...

The next morning the kids were excited to see what Santa had brought them this year. We tore open all the gifts- and can I just say this? My camera had a VERY good Christmas....The kids ran downstairs and spent the next little while like this... Before long the next party had arrived ready for our traditional Christmas breakfast and more present exchanging.

We went ice skating too but those pictures are on Ethan's new camera (!!) and we haven't downloaded them yet. It was fun and funny all rolled up in one freezing cold night!

There were of course other family and friend parties which are so good to connect with everyone you haven't seen in so long.
The party that we have with my Dad's family is always a rousing "White Elephant" type game with nice presents instead of silly ones. This year was no exception! We ended the night watching a DVD my cousin put together of pictures of my sweet Grandma Nellie in her younger years and even had her singing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" (I think it was). Such a treasure! Thanks Andy! You did awesome!

Next up... New Years in New York!!

Seriously...

More than 61 inches of snow THIS MONTH, and 10 more for tomorrow.


We had to dig a way to out neighbors house to bring a Christmas treat,

Saroya's bedtime prayers usually go something like this, "...and help us to get lots of snow. Not too-too-too much snow, but a lot." Tonight it was a little different. "Heavenly Father, we are thankful for all the snow, but we have enough, I think. Jaleigh won't be able to walk in it anymore."

It's true. I think we have enough. And as far as Jaleigh goes? We just made her into a snowgirl...

This,

this,
and this

can only mean one thing...


SNOW DAY!!!!


Some parents might get a little worked up about the fact that the day BEFORE christmas break, we had a snow day. Not me. I took all the teacher gifts in yesterday, Saroya had her class party yesterday, and Ethan had a movie day yesterday (well- if you had your homework done).

For me, today was going to be run, run, run to all the kids schools with christmas parties and sing a-longs. Instead we had a BIG family breakfast at 11am and stayed in pj's until after noon. :) Then Nathan took the kids out to play in the snow. I was able to get a lot of christmas sewing, christmas card writing, and laundry done. And hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I will get caught up on blogging tonight so I don'thave to rename this blog, "What the Avery's did a really long time ago." I actually might still need to... Scroll down to see any updates I may have had time to do. Sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to stay home all day! ... Now if we can just dig out of this 10 inches before the next round comes tomorrow night! AHHH!!

My 8 Year old girl

Happy Birthday Saroya!!!



(Thank you SOOO Much to Nikki for putting this video together. You didn't have time, but you did it anyway. THANK YOU!!!!)