Joyeux Noel

Getting ready for Christmas was rushed this year.  In a continued effort to do we tried to find time for as many Christmas related activities as we could.

The diabetes clinic at the hospital puts on a Christmas breakfast every year.  We've learned that drug company sponsored events have the best presents!

If it weren't for the "butt bomb" behind Luke this
would be a pretty good picture.

Decorating Christmas sugar cookies.

Every year the kids get a Christmas ornament.  This year I wanted to have something special from Paris.  We looked around for the last couple of weeks in France to try and find something besides the plastic Santa climbing the Eiffel Tower that seemed to be a favorite at the souvenir shops.  We found a little shop that had macaroon ornaments and after going back to the store twice we bought the last box.  Gratefully, I had packed them in a suitcase full of clothes to keep them from breaking which meant they weren't in the luggage full of souvenirs that we lost on the train in Aix.

It may be a little cheesy, but the Spanish Fork lights have become a tradition.

We took a trip to Salt Lake to see the lights on temple square.  It was really cold and really crowded, not my favorite combination, so we did a quick walk through.  Libby likes to say that the temple square Christmas lights gave her diabetes.  It was our trip to the lights 3 years ago when we realized something was wrong with Libby.  She had to go to the bathroom at least 5 times on temple square and then twice on the side of the freeway on the drive home.

Before seeing the lights we had pizza and
gelato.  Not the best choice on a cold night
but it was really yummy!

We (really just Chris and I) were having museum withdrawal since it had been over a month since our last museum visit.  We went to the Springville Art Museum to see the Christmas Lamb exhibit.  The Springville Art Museum is in a beautiful building and has some interesting exhibits.  When we were looking for a place to live it was one of the things that made us believe Springville would be an oasis in Utah County.  While that turned out not to be true, we still like the museum.

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of food and crafts with our Prusso cousins.  This year we decorated Christmas trees and made snowflakes and had Indian take-out.  Yum!

Libby 2 and Libby 1

Later that night we read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened a new Christmas book "C'etait La Veille De Noel" which Chris read to us in French.  

I'm attempting to read in French.
Chris puts up with my horrible pronunciation because he likes
my pouty French woman face when I make the eu sound.

We normally do Christmas pj's but I decided
to do Christmas socks this year.

Christmas morning Chris's parents came down from Logan to spend the morning with us.  And once again our kids were all spoiled well beyond what they deserved.

Libby was introduced to One Direction by
a number of study abroad students.

Most of the souvenirs that the kids had picked out in Paris were in our now infamous piece of lost luggage.  I had put a few things in other bags but they each lost an Eiffel Tower which was special to them since we saw the Eiffel Tower every day.  While we were in Italy one of our study abroad students who had gone back to Paris picked up a few things for us (including Eiffel Towers) to surprise the kids on Christmas.

Christmas afternoon we headed down to St. George to spend some time with my family and enjoy some warmer weather.

Grandma's trampoline gets a lot of use.

The kids like to take walks in the area near my mom's house.
A new development is starting that will put an end
these little hikes.

Playing "In A Pickle"

Learning how to use Libby's loom.

"Suspend" was a big hit.

We bagged about 50 bags of leaves.

We went bowling with my dad and the step-cousins.  You know you have a family of really bad bowlers when I am the big winner (some people thought it shouldn't count since I used bumpers, but I tried to make the point that it takes more math skills to get a strike with the bumpers than without).

Just missing Max and Fitz.

Isaac is acting as Santa's helper, drawing who gets
to open the next present.

Grandpa, Isaac, and Owen.

A cut-throat game of Uno.

On New Year's Eve day we hiked around Pioneer Park which is by the "Dixie" sign that overlooks St. George.  It is always a little stressful with my kids who think they are parkour experts.  It was a really nice day and everyone had fun.

At Pioneer Park there is a section known as the Narrows (not the Zion Narrows) or "Fat Man's Misery." Isaac, Libby, Luke, Owen, Sam, and me all squeezed through.

Owen at the top and Isaac at the bottom of
"Fat Man's Misery."

Luke

For New Year's Eve dinner we had appetizers and crepes.  It took me about 2 hours of straight crepe making but it was worth it.  We had ham/egg/cheese (jambon/fromage/oeuf) and ratatouille savory crepes and butter/sugar/cinnamon (beurre/sucre/canelle) and nutella sweet crepes.  We even had one French crepe mix that we brought back from Paris.  Tasty memories.

Overall it was a pretty great Christmas and New Year's.

Saying good-bye to cousins is always hard.

No idea what is going on here.