Christmas with the family

Can Christmas just last another week or two? I'm not ready for it to be over. I'm still singing "Silent Night" every night to Pearce to get her to sleep and we're still having family get-togethers/dinners since there are a couple post-Christmas birthdays and Brandon and Brittany are still in town for a few more days.


My heart is full. It feels like it's grown 5 times bigger this year sharing it with our sweet little girl who makes me smile everyday. I feel so blessed to have such a loving and caring family.

CHRISTMAS EVE we had a lovely dinner at Natalie's house. And afterwards did a first time White Elephant Gift Exchange. 

Pearce lovin' on all her cousins, especially baby Scarlett.

Nicole is so sweet with the baby cousins. 

McKay got a Barbie doll, and was asking for someone to "steal". Pearce seemed very interested, so I stole it for my gift. I'm getting excited for the "Barbie stage". Brings back many childhood memories of Megan Garcia sleeping at our house and bringing her huge bin of Barbie Dolls. We were in Barbie heaven.

McKay was so sweet to open it for her and play with her.

yay for Barbies!!

Jeremy was so excited to see one of the Hancock boys open his white elephant gift---a Mexican Luchador Mask---that he received from a white elephant party many years ago when we were dating. Dave totally got a kick out of it, too.

Brandon ended up with his dad's "Painless Dentist" sign that he had in his office for 20+ years. It was pretty funny though, because it was Leslie who brought it, and when it was Clyde's turn he stole it from whoever had it at the time, before Brandon had a chance to. I guess he wasn't ready to part with it. But then handed down the torch, if you will, once he knew Brandon wanted it.

We ate lots of yummy treats dipped in the chocolate fountain as part of our Christmas Eve tradition. And lot of people (kids, mostly) had little chocolate mustaches for the rest of the evening.

After the chocolate fountain, Clyde always reads from the book of Luke and we sing lots of Christmas songs. We get pretty "spirited" while singing the 12 days of Christmas.
And then we did our annual Christmas sibling gift exchange with all of Jeremy's siblings and spouses.
Here is a little snapshot from my phone of the pillow that I made for Natalie. I cross stitched for the first time since I was like 8! It took a lot longer that I thought it would, but I love how it turned out. I saw this in November's Martha Stewart Living magazine.

And afterwards the kids each got to open a gift. Shannon got Pearce this cute little crown, that Pearce wore for the rest of the night and ran around saying "crown" or "princess" (she doesn't really pronounce it "princess" but it's way to hard to try and spell how it actually sounds.) And Jeremy's handmade marshmallow guns were a big hit with all the nephews. 

It was full on war once we handed over a bag of mini marshmallows. Marshmallows were flying everywhere. Whoops! Totally a coincidence that we left soon after for bedtime. Have to be to bed on time for Santa!!

---------Christmas DAY----------

With church at 10am, we scooted along pretty quickly in the morning with Santa's gifts. I LOVED seeing Pearce soooo excited that Santa came. For days before I would ask her 'who's coming?' 'what is he bringing?' She would shout "SANTA!!" "PRESENTS!!"


Church was wonderful.  There is so many musically talented people in Jeremy's parent's ward. Seriously, like a mini orchestra. I could listen to (well tuned) violin's all day.


We had a big family dinner in the afternoon. And Pearce got to play with all the cousins again. I'll be sad for her once we go home tomorrow and she doesn't have any kids to play with. She is so happy when she is around kids.


Pearce (borderline) attacks Scarlett whenever she sees her. She tries to hug and kiss, but sometimes it ends up that she is standing on top her her suffocating her. (not really, Jenny, I'm exaggerating!! ;-) She is SUCH A CUTIE PIE!! AND makes me want a little 8 month baby again!! I miss that stage. She is such a happy baby.

Rachael and her cutie pie doggie, who Pearce is also obsessed with. She says "doggie eat" about a million times a day.

Pearce got a few more presents from her Aunties. And it was so cute when she ran over to Aunt Natalie to give her a huge hug for the doggie-back-pack she got from her.

Shannon made this beautiful pillow. She sews the prettiest pillows.

Ended the night with dessert and BINGO--another tradition.

I think we have a winner!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by loved ones. Merry Christmas!