Holiday Festivities

Christmas this year was a really good time for our little family.  Over the month of December we had a Ward Christmas Party where Canon met Santa Claus for the first time.  He didn't want to sit on his lap, but he got close enough for me to take a picture.

Grandma Dahl helping out as part of the Primary Presidency, guiding Canon to Santa Claus.

Canon, not so sure about this whole "Santa Claus" thing.

The best picture I could get of Canon with our family friend Bruce Craven...Santa Claus.
   Canon later requested another turn with Santa, but the line was just too long and he really needed to get home to bed.

We also attended a Smith Family Christmas Party where we went caroling while on a hay ride, ate a yummy lasagna dinner, and had a fun little program where each family presented a song or story or something.  Canon was having a blast with the other little kids dancing in front while they all sang.  That is...until he ended one of the numbers by running face-first into the end of the guitar Uncle Rob was playing...on the last cord of the song.  nice timing Canon!!  Poor kid!  =(  (I'd like to post this video, but I haven't gotten it off Grandma's or LiLing's cameras yet.  I'm seriously considering sending it to America's Funniest Home Videos...once I get a copy of it.)

On Friday the 23rd, we went to my brother Rob's house for dinner and fun family time.  We got a chance to visit with my Aunt Sylvia and her family.  Canon loved playing with his 1st and 2nd cousins.

Lucia (sister-in-law), Eric (cousin's husband), Rob (brother) and Uncle Rick

Emma and Evan, Ragan and Eric's kids

Aubrey and Lucia

Lucia and all the kids getting ready to open the gift from Mark and me

the family's reaction to "Settlers of Catan"

still looking at the new game

Aubrey sharing some candy with Canon

We enjoyed a relaxed Christmas Eve with Mark's brothers (with respected family units) and his parents.  We had a nice breakfast and opened the presents we all exchanged to each other.  (There's a another video that I need to get off of Grandma's camera, otherwise I'd just post the video to show what happened...but I guess I'll just have to tell the story instead.)  Cory and his wife Sarah had a miscarriage about a year and a half ago, and since then have been trying to get pregnant, even using fertility treatments.  Well, Mark's mom gave them a present of a little toy crib and a baby doll with a wad of cash and a note: We'll provide the crib, you provide the baby! Mark's reaction was, "That's really rude!"  Tiffany's first thought was, "Are they announcing something?"  I wasn't really sure what to think because I was mostly in shock that Mark's parents would give a present like that...talk about putting on the pressure for them to get pregnant!  We were all watching Sarah for her reaction, and she choked up and started to cry.  It made us all really worried- How could they give them a present like that?!?!  Then Cory started to laugh and said, "Because Sarah's pregnant!!"   Needless to say, we were all really excited for them.  (It turns out that Sarah is about a month behind me, so our little ones will be really close in age. Their ultrasound pictures look a lot more like a real baby than my pictures did.)  We also opened up some pretty amazing gifts from each other.  Mark got a deck of cards and a book of card games to play with a regular deck.  He also got a certificate for an eye-exam and glasses from his parents.  I got a new pair of gloves, and Mark's parents got me maternity jeans and a sweater.  They also got me a vinyl cutting machine.  It's not a Cricut brand, but it's pretty amazing with features that the Cricut doesn't have.  It's an Craftwell eCraft Cutter machine, and  I'm totally excited.  They also gave one to Tiffany.  So far I've learned that there's a learning curve on how to use this thing, and I need some projects to start working on.  That night we ate a nice turkey dinner at Mark's grandparents' house, and we enjoyed that time with some family chatting and caroling.

Christmas Day we had to rush to get to church on time (because Canon was more interested in playing than letting me get him ready for church), where we had a lovely Sacrament Meeting with lots of music.  I directed the congregational numbers because I'm the chorister, but I also directed the 2 choir numbers because the choir director wasn't there that day.  So I conducted 6 musical numbers...and my arms were a little tired by the time I got home. :0)  After we went home, the 3 of us went downstairs to see what Santa had brought us. Canon got a "new" trampoline (thanks, Grandma!)  because he loves the one at the chiropractor's office so much.  He also got a little work bench with tools and fun stuff. (Thanks, Tiff!)  He loves the little Cars Lightning McQueen and Mater that he got too.  He's been carrying those around with him everywhere.  Then we opened our little family gifts to each other.  Mark got me a bathrobe and Canon got me slippers.  Canon got pajamas from us. Mark just got a bunch of junk-food! =D  That night we had a Christmas dinner at the same Grandparents' house where we went the night before and then exchanged gifts with our cousins.

Here are some home videos in case you like that kind of thing, but they're not terribly interesting or funny. Just a view of what our Christmas looked like.

-What Santa Brought

-Stocking Stuffers

-Family presents

-Presents at Grandma & Grandpa's (1)

-Presents from Blake

Monday morning we went to Mark's brother's house to see what their kids got for Christmas.  We played Just Dance on their Wii for a while and then had a snack.  Mark, Canon and I had to then leave to meet my brother Jeff and his family down in Orem to join them for dinner and a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Happy 4th Birthday, Joseph!!

Mark and I enjoyed a New Year's Eve party at Brian's house.  Canon loved playing with his cousins, especially the Wii Just Dance Kids game.  In fact, he still tries to sing the "I'm a Gummy Bear" song from the game.  The adults played a bunch of games like Taboo, Heimlich & Co., Ticket to Ride, and maybe something else that I can't think of...just a fun time chatting and having fun as family.  Cory and Sarah were there too, so 3 of the 4 brothers with their families.  It was pretty fun.  We put Canon down in a play pen when it was bedtime, but he woke up and refused to be put back down at about 11:30PM.  I tried about 5 times to put him back down, but he kept waking up and crying to be held.  I ended up staying with him through the stroke of midnight.  He heard the neighbors shooting off fireworks which woke him up a little more.  At that point he started talking a little bit and I was finally able to just tell him that he needed to go back to sleep.  He didn't fuss anymore after that, but I felt bad that he was even more awake than when we started.  He had a difficult transition into the car after 1AM because I had some technical difficulties with the blankets, but he fell right back to sleep in the car and transitioned just fine into his own bed.  (Thank goodness our Church start time changed to 11AM that Sunday, so sleeping in wasn't a huge problem!!)

Basically, we've been partying a lot, Canon has been going to sleep later than I want him to on a regular basis...and he's been foregoing naps, much to our dismay. I'm trying to get him back on schedule though, so we'll see how that goes.  We've been seriously blessed with great family and fun times to spend with them.   I'm looking forward to seeing my parents this week, so I guess all our festivities are not quite over yet.