Christmas once again...

Well it's already been a month since Christmas and I'm finally getting a chance to get these pictures posted.  Christmas comes and goes so fast every year so now we're back to the countdown...11 months until the big day again.  Here's a recap on the happenings at Christmas time for us:

Kate and her friend Monet decide to not wait until summer to have the traditional lemonade stand but decide a "Christmas Cocoa" stand would be appropriate for December...I think they made 24 bucks that day.

Here are the beginnings of the Christmas Eve party at Aunt Lori and Uncle Shawn's house.  Clayton looks excited...heh heh.

There's good ol' Danny Boy...aka Grandpa

                                                                        





 Every year we take a shot at doing the Nativity story.   Josh does the narrating while the angel "Emma" prepares to deliver the message.

 Sam and Casey as Joseph and Mary

 So here you have the shepherds with their "swiffers" or brooms or whatever those things are, and Chloe as one "wiseman" and below is the cute sheep that decided to tag along...

 This year Eli wanted to be a "cloud" (see next pic to get the big picture)...Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember any reference to any cloud in the story...oh well, he made it pretty dramatic anyway

The whole cast, including Clayton who was the lighting specialist

 A gift for the baby Jesus

 Our shepherd is worn out after all that mopping

 Kate shows off her new calendar she gets for a gift

 Kate just had to jump into the middle of this picture being taken

 Ah yes, the ginger bread house making contest...

 This is Eli and Casey's creation

 ...and mine and Heather's creation which started out to be Noah's Ark then...I'm not sure what happened

 Chloe and Emma's creation...check out that fishing pole...they're going for the big fish I guess

 Here's a picture Liam laid out for Santa on Christmas Eve

 ...and Christmas morning finally arrives:

...somebody looks happy

Liam was pretty excited about his ripstik...

 

This gift for Clayton was quite the project for Heather to accomplish over the few days she had on Christmas break before the big day.  Clayton has collected t-shirts from his scout camps where he's worked over the past 3 summers, along with some random t-shirts that we're meaningful to him.  Heather got an idea to make this great quilt for Clayton to take with him when he leaves for school next summer in Logan.  Clayton thought it was the coolest...

Ski day at Wolf Mountain

 This year for Christmas both Grandma and Grandpa Peel and Grandma Cottrell gave us a day of skiing for the whole family.  We decided to check the kids out of school on Friday and head up to one of our favorite ski resorts-Wolf Mountain.  The day couldn't have been any better, we had sun, great snow and hardly any other people were there.   The kids had so much fun and all did really well.  Kate has skied a few times but this was her first time of really grasping the whole skiing concept.  Yes, there were plenty of crashes but as you'll see in the videos below, she is a natural.  We had a blast...