Disneyland

 One of our family gifts this year was a trip to Disneyland.  We spent Monday and Tuesday at the most crowded place on earth....I mean the happiest place on earth!  Despite the tremendous amount of people who all had the same fabulous idea that we had, we really had a wonderful time on this trip together.  We learned that long lines actually gave us a fun opportunity to bond, that our team-working skills were improved by maneuvering through seas of people and planning logistics of line-waiting, lunch-table-finding, and fast-pass stratigizing.  We also learned that we could count on the good ol' Enchanted Tikki Room to have no line when faced with the one to two hour waits on everything else in the park, and that an entire family of five can bust a move on the dance floor when an eighties band is playing live on stage!  One of my favorite lessons that I learned is that an hour is not too long to wait in a line leading to "its a small world"  when it brings a smile and a giggle to a stone-faced, hard-to-please one-year-old, and leaves a constantly chatting 7-year old speechless!  I am so glad we had this fun time together!  We also got to meet up with newlyweds Lorraine and Steven for a couple of hours inside the park, since Disneyland was a stop on their honeymoon.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning in front of the tree.

Our tradition of acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve is a family favorite!

Grace (shepherd), Eve (Mary), Aaron (Joseph), Uncle Cameron (Donkey), not pictured: Sarah (Wiseman)

Grace loves American Girl books.  She got the "Rebecca" set for Christmas.  She also got a boxed collection of 15 Roald Dahl books (of which she has already read almost 3 in the last few days!)

Eve on her new "big girl" bike.

Daphne conquering one of her sister's presents.

Maybe Daphne will be ready for a two-wheeler by next Christmas!

Lorraine and Steven's Wedding

 Aaron's sister Lorraine got married last Tuesday.  It was fun to have the entire family in town for the occasion.  The girls especially enjoyed having their cousins stay at our house for four days.  It was also exciting for them to see their beautiful aunt bride on her special day and to be "flower girls."  It was wonderful for them to be at the temple, waiting for the happy couple to exit afterward. We love Lorraine and her new husband Steven, and are grateful that he is now part of our family!