Merry Christmas and so much more!

OK.... so much to post about to get caught up! First of all, Derek had a little Christmas program for his school. It was a nice little production at the college fine arts auditorium. Derek is wearing a green shirt on the top left.

Last week we grew candy canes! We ordered special north pole candy cane seeds and special north pole dust. Grandpa martin even let us plant them in his garden, glitter and all. We planted at just the right time because that night it rained. When we inspected the next day, we had a bunch of new candy canes!

Tad inspects the mountain everyday to see how much snow is on it. Hopefully we'll get some in the next few days so we can go play!

We took a trip to Mesa to visit cousins....

While we were there we went and saw an elaborate display of garden trains (these pics are for both Grandpa's!!). It was pretty impressive and I'm sure pretty expensive!

Darci sure loves her baths. I turned around the other day to grab a towel and she hopped right in with Paige and Kevin.

We had a Christmas Eve party at Nana and Grandpa's this year, complete with the grandkids performing the nativity, a talent show and a white elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun.

Cute little angels...

Uncle Brad as the donkey...

What a messy girl!! It doesn't take long for her to go from clean to a complete mess. She definitely had fun!

Christmas Day... Since Tad was working, we all got up bright and early at 5:15 to open presents so he could participate. So thankful for all the grandparents and aunts/uncles and Santa for all their gifts! This year Darci understood what was going on and sure got excited with the little baby dolls she got. Derek got some dragon things, Kevin got some trains and dragon stuff, and Paige got a doll and necklaces. Tad and I are still arguing about whether Santa should leave the presents wrapped or unwrapped under the tree. I think they should be wrapped because otherwise they wouldn't have that many presents to unwrap and he says that Santa should leave them unwrapped.

We are also very grateful for the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ, as he has given us the best gift, the gift of eternal life where we can be with our families forever! We are grateful for his ultimate sacrifice for us, and we are glad that our children are learning about Him in the midst of this crazy season and the excitement of getting and giving presents.