The goose is getting fat...

Christmas is coming up so fast! I love this time of year, mostly because I get to share it with my family. 
I was very anxous to get our tree up- we did it a few days before Thanksgiving. (I would have done it after Halloween but Brett said no) The kids had fun putting the balls on it.

Brett put up the christmas lights a few days later. I am so happy that we finally have a house to put lights on. We have been in a townhouse for our whole marriage. And the most I could ever do was lights around the door and maybe a window... boring.

My girls met santa today at our ward Christmas breakfast. They all went and told Santa what they want for Christmas
Anavy- a choo choo train set
Khloe- a soccer ball
Savannah- an Elmo doll

If they are good girls, they will get them :)
They are very excited for him to come to our house. And to Nana's house.

Our plans for the holiday are that we will do as we usually do, and go to the Smith extended family party. Eat dinner with them, and then head to my Papa's house around 7 and do our traditional christmas carolling. I have done this since... Well, forever. There are several houses that we visit every year and they always expect us.

After that, we head over to my moms house. We open our stockings, and wait for Santa to come. When we hear the bells, we run and hide in the other room. We listen to all the things he says and when he goes, we come out. The kids loved this last year. Anavy was peeking under the door to try to get a look at him.

Last year- Christmas eve

 The kids go first and then we put them to bed.  We open all of our presents after that. I have always loved it because it's different. My mother always did this as a child as did my Nana. It is a Latin tradition and my mom carried it over to us.

This year we will start our own tradition. After we open gifts at my moms house, we will get the kids in the car and drive home late. We will do our own Christmas at our house in the morning. We thought it was really important to have our own tradition and that we can be together as an immediate family. We are very lucky that my mom does her Christmas at night because this way, we can have our own Christmas.


After our own Christmas, we will drive back to Orem and go to Brett's parents house. For them, it is ok to do Christmas there in the afternoon. Which we are very lucky for as well because it also allows us our own tradition in the morning. It is a little of a hassle to drive from Orem to Layton just to drive back to Orem about 12 hours later. But it is important enough that we are happy to do it.

Yay! Christmas is almost here... but not before an equally important day- Our sealing day. 2 weeks from yesterday.


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