Chrismas Party '08

This past week we celebrated Christmas with my family. We have to reserve the church because there are so many of us but we love it. Unfortunately Jona's Christmas concert for percussion was on this same night. So Ty, Jona and I were only able to stay long enough to get something to eat. Then we had to run. But I left my camera there and they took pictures for me.

Most everyone was able to come, even though it had snowed most of the morning. I think that the only ones that weren't there were my brother Boyd (who was working in Nevada), his kids who are in Alaska and my niece Bradie and her hubby James who are in the Southern U.S. We missed them all.

Here's mom and I before I had to leave.

After we left mom sat down to read the smaller kids a very special story.
Can you see what it is? Can you? I'm sure you can't but can you guess what it was? Come on...guess!

It was....
Davey and the First Christmas!!!

I didn't realize that mom still had her old well worn and loved copy of this book. The pop ups don't work but all the pages were there so she took it to the near by copy center and had color copies made of each page. Then she put each page in a page protector and put the book together in a white three ringed binder for each of her kids. How cool is that?

Sidenote: Another VERY cool twist on this whole Davey and the First Christmas is that one of my dear online friends found a copy for me at another place online. When I went to look at it I wasn't really thinking that I could get it because it was a little over my budget and I didn't think that it would be able to be shipped and get here for Christmas. Guess what? Go ahead guess....

The place that is selling it is just a few towns over from where we live!!! I was so excited that I asked Ty if we could make it work with the budget to get this for her. He said yes. I made a call but unfortunately the store isn't open on Saturday's so I left a message for them seeing if I can just come in and buy it from them instead of ordering it online. I may be able to get mom this book after all! YAY!!! (Thanks so much Festi!!)

On with the party. After mom read her story a very special visitor came to hand out gifts for the kids. Santa himself made an apperance. Here is George telling Santa what he wants. Santa brought both he and McKenna Tech Deck Dudes with skateboards. They've been playing with them all day yesterday and today.This is actually the second chance our kids have had to visit with Santa. The first was at our ward Christmas Party a week ago. I didn't get a shot of George's first visit with the big guy but I did get Jilli and McKenna.

Here's Jilli telling Santa she wants a robot.
And here is McKenna visiting with the Jolly Old Elf. The second one is her reaction to me telling Santa "Don't let her fool you. She hasn't been good all year."

The elves that were there helping Santa on that day were cracking me up. They didn't crack a smile and looked like that was the last thing that they wanted to be doing. Maybe they were just over worked, tis the season for those poor elves to work hard and all. Or maybe it was just too early on a Saturday morning. Who knows? But they were funny.