A Belated Christmas

I know it's nearly the end of January, but I finally found a few seconds to post about Christmas (it's been on my "to-do" list all month...sheesh!). So here ya have it. Better late than never!

Mike decided to get all gung-ho and put up lights on our house this year. Bryson thought climbing through his bedroom window out onto the roof was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Bryson was off track the ENTIRE month of December, so I decided to do an advent calendar and filled the packages with activities for him to do each day so he wouldn't get bored--things like card games, puzzles, art projects, movies to watch, etc. His favorite activity was a little wooden pirate ship that he got to build and paint.

Another one of his favorite activities was putting together (& eating) this ginger bread house.

Mike's parents let us use their very tall 10-foot tree this year and I had so much fun buying decorations for it and making it look festive and pretty. I love the lit up star on top.

We got an "Elf on the Shelf" last year as a gift, so we pulled the little guy out and put him to work this year. Bryson absolutely loved it! Personally, I'm not a fan of the whole Elf on the Shelf idea--especially after trying it out this year (I ran out of ideas on day four...ha!), but Bryson loved it and I have to admit, I loved watching his eyes light up with excitement when he found it each morning. Bryson got the biggest chuckle when the elf replaced all of our stockings with his undies.

We had our annual Hinckley family Christmas party at the SLCC institute building, which is always a blast. Here's a little clip of Mike biffing it on a RipStik (I love you babe!).


At the party my talented little sister Taylor filmed all of the grandkids talking about Christmas so she could put together a special Christmas video/gift for my parents.

We shared it with my parents at our Christmas Eve party and they absolutely loved it and were in tears! Here's the final video:


Because of some health issues, my parents got transferred back home to finish their mission here (they will now be serving at the Family History Library on Temple Square) and so we were lucky to get to spend Christmas with them.

They gave all the grandkids new Christmas jammies and cool name plates

...and joined us for a couple rounds of Uno for FHE.

Mike's sis-in-law Jessica sent us these awesome hand-made hats for Christmas. I had to snap this pic while they were Skyping with her & her family because I thought they looked so cute all decked-out in their hats.

On Christmas morning Bryson got this Star Wars Lego set (he is totally obsessed with Lego's and all things Star Wars) and Lilly got a little purse, baby doll and baby doll bed.

And that's that! Merry Christmas!

Favorite quote this week:

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

-Lao Tzu

Life rules!