Christmas 2012 has come and gone......

We had a dump of snow on Christmas Eve after having a very mild December so we had our white Christmas. We spent early Christmas Eve at the Hall Family Christmas Eve party from 5-7 which included over 40 people. It is getting too big now with 4 great grandchildren added this year alone. Mom Hall has declared that from now on she will be visiting us at our houses. We will see...she has mentioned this before but has continued the tradition started years ago when her mom said it was time to start doing it at your own houses. She might be right now. Next year those 4 babies
will be toddlers.

More than a room full of Hall relatives

Scott and Chantel with Grandma Hall
holding the newest great grandchild (Not Scott's and Chantel's)
Emily Rose McKinney (daughter of Eric and Brie)
She is just over a month old.

Just in case, we had the great grandchildren act out the nativity. We have not had a life navitiy since the youngest grandchildren were in elementary school. The two oldest great grandchildren who are 16 and 12 agreed to be a part wtih the many young ones. This was their first time at New Year Eve since they were very young. They have recently moved back to Utah from Tennessee. Hopefully someone got a good picture of them. (I will add it later if I get one form my nephew.) All of our kids made it to grandma's except for Ben who hung out at our house. However Scott and Chantel were leaving to go to her family's house just when Tosha and her boyfriend Roark were showing up so they were all there at the same time. He felt it was way too many people for him.

After cleaning up at Grandma's, everyone head to our house for the post party Eve event. We read a new Christmas Children's book and the kids opened their Christmas Eve present from Mrs. Claus (formerly know as the Christmas Eve pjs. but now a children's Christmas story to add to their home
collections. Jessica and Tosha opened their big gifts from us but took their smaller gifts home to open in the morning. We were planning to have a "Milkshake Bar" but ate too much at Grandma's so skipped that. Soon after they all left, Scott and Chantel arrived to exchange some gifts as well
before they headed off to hang stockings at their house as well. Our Christmas train was short this year as just Gary, Jena and Ben and I were here for the night to hang stockings. Despite having wrapped all but one gift last week, we still didn't get to bed until mid-night.

Ben and Jena opeing their pjs on Christmas Eve

We slept in (which was great) and had a quiet but fun morning with Ben and Jena.

The tree--notice the sunshine in the window

Jena helped Gary wrap up presents.She had fun making up names
to write on the gifts.

Jena with her book about Broadway Musicals.
We were teasing her about her big smile when she opened it
so she covered her mouth.

Here is her smile---uncovered.

More smiles for the Karaoke machine

Jena got a Karaoke machine which we sang with for awhile after a late brunch. Tosha and Roark stopped by briefly and sang with us. Around 1:30 Gary's mom came over and we went over and played a new game with hsi sister Valerie and her husband. Then headed up to Ogden Valley to his other sister, Vonette and had a game playing afternoon. Then we had another visit with Chantel and Scott in the evening and, you guessed it, played games. Unfortunately, Jessica and Elessia both had to work on Christmas day although thankfully, it was a quiet day for Jessica as she mans a crisis line for the State of Utah Division of Family Services--perhaps it was a good day for all children in the state.

And that was a wrap for the celebrating....at least for now.