Remember that one time when it was Christmas?

Nate here. Bear with me as I go way back in time and document our Christmas festivities. Call it family history.

This was our first year not going to either Georgia or St. George, and I was worried that it would be a bit sad to not be around a huge family. But it turned out awesome, and it was exciting to start our own family traditions. It would have been helpful to have extra mouths to eat Michelle's gigantic birthday cake on Christmas Eve (or to help her blow out all those candles . . . ) but we ended up just pawning half the cake off on some friends in the ward. That night, we hung the stockings on the staircase and acted out the Nativity. Not the most reverent re-creation that ever was ("Joseph, get back here! It's not time to go play in the loft!"), but what can you do?Then we put the kids down for a long winter's nap, and Santa Claus came - aka Grandma W., who either has a little too much discretionary spending or really knows how to shop a sale (hint: it's the second one).

Christmas morning came and went, and we've still got boxes and paper in the shed waiting for room in the recycling bin. Bryn's favorite toy is her Johnny Jump-Up, though she's a little too short for it and mostly just sucks on the side. I'm happy to report that Addison's favorite toywas the tool set we got him. Either that or it's Bryn's pink hippopotamus that plays Brahm's lullaby. He loves to hold it close and dance a waltz. I'd be worried about his manliness if it weren't for the tools. We'll just call him well balanced. He also really likes the photo album with a picture of each of his parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. That's 31 people, and he can name them all. We also used those pictures to help create picture calendars for our parents. Michelle's mom got teary-eyed when she opened it, but I don't know if that's saying much, because she would've gotten teary-eyed if we'd gotten her a toilet brush. :)

Michelle reminded me that one of the best parts of Christmas was the food. We continued some of Michelle's family traditions, sausage balls and horse-plops (chocolate covered oreo concoctions), and started some of our own - a delicious spiral-cut ham (it was only about a quarter ham but fed us for weeks), real maple syrup for pancakes, Brazilian limeade, and frozen nutella hot chocolate (in honor of our glorious four months in Boston).