After Christmas Outing

We usually go to the DC temple before Christmas to see the light and catch one of the musical shows, but with everyone getting sick it just didn't happen this year.  Instead we took the kids during the day a couple days after Christmas.  They have a display room of nativities from around the world.  It was kind of nice not having to wait in a slow line to see them like we would have if we had gone in the evening.  There was hardly anyone there so it was nice for the kids to have room to roam.

Hanging out with the camel which is out side of what used to the the live nativity.

At the Visitor Center each Stake in the area decorates a tree.  This was our Stakes tree.

These were in the nativity display room.  I just loved them and now want to make some of my own.  The sheet music behind the silhouettes are Christmas songs.

Family Christmas

Christmas was a month ago so I figured it was finally time to get around to posting it.  Christmas was Sunday this year so that made things a little tricky.  We had to adjust things a  little from what they might have been, but in the end it all worked well.  The kids got up knowing they only had enough time for stockings and breakfast before we had to get ready to church.  You see we are not early risers on Christmas.  When we got to church everyone I talked to said they had already finished all their present opening.  Not us!  We take it slow and the kids are pretty good with that.

 The kids were so excited except for Amy who needed a little more time to wake up.  30 seconds after this shot she was fine though as soon as she saw the tree, presents, and stockings.

One tradition we have is a full Christmas breakfast so we had breakfast took some family pictures and headed of to church. We took a couple outdoor family shots after church before heading inside to continue with the rest of the festivities.

Girl after my own heart loving the cream cheese frosting from the cinnamon rolls.

Look!!! They are all looking at the camera and smiling!!!

Grandma and Grandpa

G'ma and G'pa Paul with the grandkids.  Asher we needed you to complete this shot!  We'll get one this summer.

Let present time begin!  Amy was so excited to get her Pascal.  She is a huge Tangled fan.

This was Seth's Geotrax Christmas.

He was pretty darn excited.  His excited face is kind of freaky.

Tade loves videoing so we got him a fun cheap little camera to make his movies.

Thanks Grandma Wangberg.

See a little freaky.  Other than Geotrax Seth wanted "the claw" Toy Story garbage truck.

Amy loved her stuffed animal Christmas.  She's a penguin fan so what better to get her than a pee wee penguin pillow pet.

Andelyne slept all through the present opening after church.  When she woke up we had her open some presents, but she was still out of it and had no clue what was going on.

Seth wasted no time setting up his Geotrax.  They were pretty popular with everyone.  At one point or another I think everyone went over and played with Seth.

For Christmas dinner Kathryn, Gunnar, Dan, Jenny, and the Dymonds came over to join us.  The kids loved having more cousins to play with and the adults liked sitting around chatting.

This is an after Christmas picture.  We brought Rudolph and his family home from the ward party and placed them in the front yard.  The boys had fun riding the reindeer.

Christmas Eve

We have several Christmas traditions forming.  One has actually been around a long time.  It's Christmas Eve dinner.  This is not a fancy dinner.  Growing up with consisted of fast food on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.  It has since changed to Chinese food.  This year we switched it up a little and tried Burmese.  We gave the kids a choice between Burmese and Mcdonalds.  Which do you think they chose?
The second tradition reflects what we should be focusing on during the Christmas season.  Our kids are old enough now that on Christmas Eve we can have them do the Nativity story.  This year is was so much more fun because there were more kids there.  They were just adorable from fighting over what parts to play to wanting big 9 month old Evan to play baby Jesus.  In the end Amy got the sought after angel part and a much more still baby doll got to play Jesus.

*The Cast*

Seth the Shepherd

Amy the Angel 

Brielle and Tade as Mary and Joseph 

Andelyne the Nanny

I think Seth was still holding a grudge because Amy got the Angel role.  It was all about holding the star.

Brielle was such a good Mary.

Scott even got in on the action as a wise man.

The third newer tradition is Christmas pajamas.  On Christmas Eve the kids got to open their annual Christmas Eve pajamas.  Last year it was BYU this year Tara and I made initial jammies.  They loved being able to match each other.  We could spell "A BEAST"  with all their initials.  We didn't line them up this way in the picture though.  Once they were sitting we just started snapping pictures.

The boys

The Girls

The Pauls

The Wangbergs