Christmas Eve Day

The boys arrived home Thursday evening - yeah!

Friday morning, Christmas Eve morning was the first and last chance we had to have our family picture taken with Santa downtown at Macy's - a 26 year tradition.  How could we miss.

Everyone got up and we were downtown a little after 9 a.m.  The kids always feel a little silly standing in line with all the little kids!  But they do it for their mother.

 They then all very obediently went and sat on Santa's lap and told  him what they wanted.  On the list were an AppleTV, a longboard (can you guess who that was/?), a new winter coat and a polaroid camera!

 And of course we had to have the family photo taken!

 Even though it has been years since they were small enough to ride the monorail and even if they were small enough it is no longer there they are always sad that they are too tall!

Aren't they cute!?

 Love seeing all those feet together on the same street!

 We headed across the river to the east side to have breakfast at the Cadillac Cafe.  It was yummy.  My hazelnut french toast was delicious!

 The rest of them ordered the Bunkhouse Vittles and as you can see Clark enjoyed his!  On the way back to drop Clark off downtown we had a bit of a car problem.  You see, the gas gauge does not work on my car.  So I have to keep track of how many miles I have gone to know when I need gas.  Well, recently the price of gas has gone up and unfortunately I didn't figure that into my calculations - I can't get as far on the same amount of gas.  And yes, we ran out of gas downtown.  Logan got out of the car to help push but we were going down hill so he just ran along.

 Jim, Cali and Logan walked a few blocks to a gas station but when they wanted twenty dollars for a one gallon can of gas they decided to call AAA which would bring us 2 gallons for free.  Fortunately it was only about a 20 minute wait.  While Tessa and I waited in the car, Clark took off on foot to meet up with Lizzy and Jim , Logan and Cali headed over to the Duck Store to purchase some new apparel.

Despite the minor delay with the car it was a fun morning and we headed home to get ready for the big night!

Breakfast with Santa

I think our annual Breakfast with Santa is one of my favorite holiday traditions.  Started several years ago when my children finally out grew the Meier & Frank Breakfast with Santa we went to each year for years!!


I decided I could keep the tradition going by inviting the neighborhood kids to join us! 

We serve the same menu they did at Meier & Frank - pancakes, sausage, fruit and hot chocolate!  Jim is the official pancake flipper!

The hot chocolate bar is always a big hit with the kids and adults!

 The kids all get to eat at the big table and the adults hang out in the kitchen.

 Fresh off the plane from New York Tessa had to try out her new hot chocolate mug!

 She was still a little tired as she didn't get to bed until about 4 a.m. New York time!!

 After breakfast the kids got to decorating their gingerbread houses.

 This year we had a few giant gingerbread men to decorate too thanks to the white elephant party Jim and I went too - we got a good gift this time!!

 And of course Santa paid us a visit.  Declan was looking out the window when he arrived and announced to us all that Santa drives a Honda Civic!

 The neighborhood kids with Santa - missing 4 of them.  Molly had to leave early for a birthday party and Logan, Clark and Caitie were missed too!

 The Wilkes Family minus two!

 The kids had fun hanging out for the rest of the morning playing games, hide and seek and watching the BYU football game with Jim.

 This is Cali's solution to keeping her eyes open when we take a photo - she holds them open!

Bridal Shower

We were in party mode this week at the house.

Cali and I hosted a bridal shower on Thursday night for her good friend Kat, we had our neighborhood Breakfast with Santa on Saturday and then the ward Christmas party on Saturday night.  The party was a trip back to Zarahemla so we were all asked to dress in period costume.  Since I didn't have any Lamanite attire hanging in the closet I made a trip to Goodwill and picked up some bed sheets.  I turned them into quite stylish Lamanite attire which I don't have any pictures of but rest assured we looked good!

The bridal shower was fun and Kat got a lot of fun gifts.

Cali is one of the bridesmaids.  We are having a headband making party at the house tonight with all the bridesmaids.  They are all wearing gray - a dress of their choice and will make their own headband.