The Most Wonderful Christmas!

This has been a truly wonderful Christmas break in Washington!

We got here on Wednesday, December 21. We got to the SLC airport at 10 in the morning, and it only took 15 minutes to get our boarding passes and get through security. Our flight wasn't till 1210 Utah time, so we just sat around for an hour and a half. I slept and Daniel played his computer game. Our flight went smoothly, and we got to SEATAC (Seattle Tacoma airport) at 1:30 Washington time. Mom, and Christie picked us up from the airport; we then spent a few hours eating at Sizzler and shopping for Christmas gifts at the mall. Daniel lost his phone at some point during this evening :( (we still haven't found it).

Waiting at the SCL airport

On Thursday Mom, Christie and I baked goodies allllll day long! Sugar cookies, Banana drops, Bread, Rolls... And that evening we put together plates of goodies and took them caroling to friends and neighboors.

Decorating Cookies

On Friday we slept in (yay!) We spent time through out the day helping santa wrap presents. In the afternoon Mom, Christie and I went to visit Peggy Meitmann (we visit her every Christmas). In the evening we got to walk through a really awesome live nativity that  local church was putting on. It's supposed to be a drive through, but there was a half hour wait, so we just got out of our car and walked next to a car that was driving through. When we got home we decorated gingerbread houses. This is not a tradition that we usually have, but Mom heard about it from our good neighbor, Kamala Plaisted. We had so much fun decorating! Mom bought pre made housed, so we didn't have to go through the struggle and pain of having  to build the houses (that's my least favorite part and Daniel's favorite part). Decorating was really fun because we all just went crazy. Dad and Mom made a fun house with lots of candy and frosting. Daniel and Christie started off with a nice house like mom's, but Daniel turned it into so kind of creeper death house, with the grinch/ peter (his roommate) as the gingerbread man on top. Daniel and I took a long time, but we made a beautiful gingerbread house :) After the gingerbread houses were all done we sat down for our tradition of watching "Scrooge". That's Dad's favorite Christmas movie, so we watch it once every Christmas. I love the music in it, but not really the movie itself :p

On Saturday (Christmas Eve), in the morning we went to clean the church building (what a great thing to wake up to on Christmas Eve morning). Then I went home and went back to sleep, I don't know what everyone else did. Again we spent some time through out the day helping Santa wrap presents. At 2 we went to the Buckel's annual Christmas Eve party. They always have great food and this year they had a cool photo booth type thing, so we took some fun pictures together :) We usually would have gone home and made our big dinner (we have our big dinner on Christmas Eve), but because we were all still so full from eating at the Buckel's we decided to postpone the dinner till Christmas day. But we still kept with our other traditions. Mom got us all Christmas pajamas, we read about the birth of Christ in the scriptures (Luke 2 of course, and other scriptures in the Bible and Book of Mormon). Then we hung our stalkings so Santa could fill them, and we moved our family presents out from under the tree so Santa had room for his presents. After that I went up stairs and read, and Daniel and Daniel played video games until about midnight when Mom told them they had to go to bed so Santa could come :p

Christmas Day, December the 25th, was wonderful :) Because it was also Sunday, Christie and I woke up at 7 in the morning so I could do her hair for church. At 8 we all had breakfast (cereal and cinnamon rolls) and then we opened the presents that Santa had left for us under the tree. We were all done by like 830, and were all ready for church by about 9, but we didn't have to leave till 10, so we sat around for an hour. We went to church at 10, even though it didn't start till 11 because Dad, Mom, Daniel and Christie were all going to sing in the choir so they had to go early for choir practice. After practice church started. The Christmas program consisted of the choir singing some beautiful songs, some soloists singing, and some instrumental duets and trios. It was a beautiful Christmas program. I was really grateful to have Christmas on the Sabbath because being at church on Christmas is the perfect time to think about Christ's birth, his life and ministry, and his death and resurrection. I don't know who or where I would be without the things Christ has done for me, and I want to strive to live my life worthy of his sacrifice!

Christmas Sunday after Church

After Church we came home, put in the turkey, and opened stalkings. This year Santa gave us mostly fruit and candy... yummm!After stalkings we started working on making our hunts. Every year for Christmas we each make a hunt for someone else in the family which leads us to some cool present that Santa has left us (It used to be that Santa made our hunts... I guess he thinks we're more capable now). Daniel and I made hunts for Daniel and Christie. After making our hunts and hiding our clues we made dinner. Daniel and I made the mashed potatoes... and we made LOTS of them :) After eating a wonderful dinner of both turkey and ham (we usually just do turkey), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, candied yams, rolls, and "sparkling cider" (Apple juice mixed with sprite) we did our hunts.

We always go youngest to oldest, so Christie was first. Her hunt started with a scrambled word which spelled harry potter. She is reading the 4th Harry Potter book, so we hid the second clue there. Her second clue was: What goes up, but never goes down? Answer: age. The clue said p_ _ _ : _ _. Christie is 14, so the clue was page 14. We handed her a book of mormon. Page 14 talks about Lehi's dream of the tree of life. That lead Christie to our Christmas tree. The clue she found their said "Which is your clue?: head, red, bed, said, dead, lead, tread, feed." Because we've been doing this for so long it was easy for Christie to know that "bed" was her clue, so she went and looked under beds till she found her present. :) Brother Daniel was next, Husband Daniel and I also did his hunt, but I wont write all about it, you get the drift :) But poor Daniel didn't get a present at the end because "santa" had lost it! It was supposed to be an x box game, but all Daniel got was an IOU. We'd spent the last few days looking everywhere for his game but couldn't find it. Later Daniel found it out with the food mom stores in the garage. Then It was my turn, Brother Daniel did my hunt... he didn't make it very hard, which was really funny :p I got a beautiful coat for my hunt! Husband Daniel was next, he got a macbook pro cover for his computer. Mom got new towels for her bathroom, and Dad got new slippers.

After hunts we ate pie (we were all still really full though, so we didn't eat too much), and we ended the evening, like we always do, by opening family presents. The last present that was opened for Christmas was from Christie to mom. Christie had asked all of us to sing to mom for her gift because this will be our last Christmas all together for a few years because Daniel and I will be in Meadow next year, and Brother Daniel will be on his mission for the next two years. It was the perfect way to end Christmas. Mom joined us when we sang White Christmas because it's one of her favorite songs. It was just perfect having us all sing together :)

Singing :)

Monday, December 26th. In the morning I tried on a lot of the clothes that I got for Christmas :) Then we all went on a hike together. It was a beautiful hike, and it was great to get out side in the fresh air (there was no snow).

In the evening we went to the Botanical Gardens lights. They were beautiful :)

Then we went to Celebration Lane (Snow Flake Lane, but after Christmas).

When we got home we played Nertz, FINALLY! :) I was so happy to play games :)

Tuesday, December 27th, I went to lunch at Cuchina- Cuchina with Lianna, Lisa and Elyssa :) We like to go there for lunch when we get together. It was really great getting to see them again! I hadn't seen Lisa or Elyssa since my wedding!

 Wednesday was our last day in Washington :( Daniel and I spent the morning/ afternoon sleeping, doing laundry, packing, and playing nertz and shanghi. We got to beat up our gingerbread houses :)

 Then we went shopping for a little bit, and now Daniel and I are sitting at the airport waiting for our flight. We leave at 8, so I bet we'll be boarding in the next 40 min.

What a wonderful Christmas!

Jessica :)