Merry Christmas 2014

For Christmas this year, I donated my hair.  After years of growing it out, I finally did it! (Sorry Nichole--I'm so slow!)  Nichole has helped me run a marathon and now donate my hair.  What's next?

The bulk of it was 8-10inches which was perfect for Pantene.  Christian was super scared I would look like a boy, so my friend Kelsey took me shopping :)  Luckily, I didn't look so bad, so I had to return some of it, but not all!

Tyson gave some vanilla sugar scrub  to his teacher for Christmas.

I thought his jar turned out pretty cute!!

Merry Christmas!

And the card!

Christmas Eve, the boys got to open their pajamas from my mom!  Thank you!  Notice, the tree is only decorated lop-sided at the top.  Thank you Neal!  He was asleep by the time we opened this present!

They loved the books, too!

This year we had our friends, the Stephens over for Christmas Eve (as well as the missionaries from our church!  These 18 year old boys spend two years away from home, telling others about Christ and the reality of His life and teachings.  They are amazing.)  Here we are playing the candy bar game!

The Stephens brought a cake--we sang happy birthday for the Christ-child and the kids were in heaven! (We had café Rio style tacos for dinner!  Yum!)

Christian, lighting the candles!

We acted out the nativity.  This was the most fun!  Jason has the star, Neal, was the Christ-child, Austin the wise man, and Tyson was the inn-keeper!

When the wise men were to fall down and worship Jesus, Austin fall flat on his back!  It was hilarious!  He's smiling now because we all started laughing, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do!

Here was our stable, stuffed to the rafters with the animals.

Christian was the narrator.  Elder Spaulding was Ceaser and Elder Loveless was the shepherd.

Both Joseph and Mary got to ride on the donkey this year!

Our little wise man!

 

This year, we also made our own candy-canes and suckers!  Thank you to Kris, for showing us how!

Most of the time, the kids played...

But when it came time to pull the candy, we needed lots of hands fast!

My friends Kris and Emily!

Our finished product!  It was so fun to give home-made gifts to our neighbors this year.  I can imagine it getting over-whelming but for a few neighbors it was fun!

For Christmas, Christian gave me family pictures.  Thank you to our home-teachers for taking them for us!  Afterwards, I realized I didn't get any with me and this little dude!

He was pretty grumpy, but I just love him!  Merry Christmas everyone!  May the spirit of Christ truly permeate our homes and guide our actions.  I'm so grateful for each other and our opportunity to grow and stretch beyond anything we know now.  Merry Christmas!