Ho, Ho, Ho, Who Wouldn't Go?

 As soon as we returned from Hawaii, Christmas was in full swing.  We had family home evening the next night with our friends, the Bosh's.  The kids reenacted the Nativity.  Isaac was a lowly shepherd.

 While the thespian skills may have been less than professional, the effort was dazzling.

 Daisy was our official gift wrapper this year.  Each day with a to-do list a mile long, I would delegate wrapping to Daisy.  She was careful to make sure the wrapping paper and custom designed bow were ideal for the recipient.  I was thankful for her help!

 One of our Christmas traditions includes going to see the lights in Spanish Fork and visiting Grandma Jean. Grandma wraps $10 bills around candy canes that she places on her Christmas tree, then each of the kids get to choose a candy cane.  I think it is one of their favorite Christmas traditions. They love going to the store and looking at all the toys and choosing something all by themselves.  This sometimes backfires since Levi chose a rifle that shoots rubber bullets at CAL Ranch and then came home and shot his sister in the eye.  No, I'm not kidding.

 We start the night at Pizza Factory and end it, where else?  Cold Stone.  Of course.

 On Christmas Eve, we had another Nativity rendition.  This one was a little less reverent since the kids were all so excited to open their gifts from Grandpa and Grandma.

 Isaac was thrilled with more "big trucks."...and big brother was a little jealous until....

 ...he opened this Spiderman shooter from his cousin Davis in Ohio (thanks a lot, Rachel hehe.)  Now he is the real Spiderman, so watch out.  Lucky Grandma had web ALL over her kitchen and living room.

 Daisy was so excited about her PillowPet, and some "not-skinny jeans."

 Daisy's Christmas list included a new baby sister, an iPod, and a Hilary Weeks Barbie.  Luckily she was happy with this mP3 player.

 When you asked Isaac what Santa was going to bring him, all he ever said was "treats" and "I nice."  So on Christmas morning when he found candy, that's all he cared about.  He didn't even look at the rest of his gifts until Daisy and Levi did it for him.

 Jeff fell in love with Grape Crush in Hawaii (since he abandoned his Dew addiction.)  Only we can't buy Grape Crush anywhere in our village.  So when Daisy and I found this when we were Christmas shopping we knew it would be his favorite gift.

Christmas this year was different from any other Christmas of my entire life.  After we opened gifts Christmas morning, we got ready for church.  My family drove up from Cedar and went to church with us since I was speaking.  After church was over, we made Christmas dinner.  While it was cooking, my dad and Daisy and I did something that we've never done on Christmas day before.  We tried to spread some Christmas cheer.  We visited our neighbor who was spending her first Christmas as a widow.  We visited our friend who was spending her first Christmas with cancer and was just given a year to live.  It was a good way to spend Christmas afternoon.  After we returned home and enjoyed our Christmas dinner, we loaded up and headed to Cedar City where we Skyped with my sister who lives in Korea.  Then we opened gifts at Grandma's house.

 Grandma Jones exceeded all Christmas expectations with this Bumblebee suit.  What more could a 5-year-old want?

 Isaac was hilarious opening gifts.  He would scream because he was so excited and then jump up and down because he couldn't contain himself.  He liked to help everyone else open their gifts too.

 New clothes were exactly what Daisy needed, and she was happy to put them on right away.

 Santa brought the two older kids tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I was so excited to take them to Salt Lake for the show.  I just knew it would be the perfect way to conclude the holiday, besides, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was sure to be the perfect mix of cultural experience and fun for the kids.  Jeff doubted me a little when he saw the price of the tickets, but I reassured him this would be well worth it.  The kids were excited to ride Trax into downtown.

 Then the excitement ended.  This is Levi enthralled with the concert...

 ...and Daisy too.  Jeff just kept looking at me rolling his eyes beaming "I told you so" as loud as a silent glare can scream.  I just shrugged my shoulders.

After they played one, yes one, song we recognized, the kids were rudely awoken when Trans-Siberian Orchestra shifted into Megadeath Rejects Live.  I've never been to an ACDC concert (for a reason) but I'm pretty sure it would have been something like this.  Where was the "orchestra?" Who knows?  All we saw were leather-clad long-haired head-banging electric-guitar wielding scarries on the stage. So we cut our losses and got out of there fast.  I was so mad that I had wasted so much money on tickets!  We could have gone to a good concert for that price.  Just warning you in case you ever think you want to see the Trans-Siberian Megadeath Concert.  You don't.

 Next stop:  Temple Square.  My kids had never been here before.  It was amazing how the contrast between the feeling at the concert and the feeling on Temple Square was so pronounced.  We all felt so much better at Temple Square.  This was the perfect conclusion to the holiday that I was looking for (and it was FREE!)

Bonus to visiting Temple Square on a weeknight after Christmas: not crowded.  I've never been to see the lights at Temple Square that I didn't feel like a sardine.  But this time?  We could walk around and enjoy it as we pleased.

We enjoyed every minute of our Christmas break this year.  Having both Jeff and Daisy out of school was so much fun.  We stayed up late, we slept in, we made big breakfasts and played with all of our new toys.  We had no place to go and nothing to do except hang out with each other.  And that is just the way we like it.