I haven't been very good about my December posts so I thought I would just lump them all together. These are just some of the few fun happenings that we enjoyed this Christmas Season. They're not going to be in any specific order since uploading onto blogger is such a nightmare sometimes.
My parents
Skeen Family Christmas Party this year was so much fun! They got me and my sisters all rooms at the Ogden
Marriot. Then my dad sent us on a scavenger style hunt up and down 25
th street. Then they treated us to dinner at Union Station. Afterwards we went to see the lights display on 25
th street and the little village houses. We all got hot chocolate and enjoyed walking around. The
Searles were able to join us for the evening and it's so fun to spend some time with them as well. Afterwards we went back to the hotel pool and we all swam and sat in the hot tub. Then we had a treat exchange and went back to our rooms for bed time. Ryan played games in the lobby with Ryan C. and Josh. It was my favorite
family party ever!
This is Emma and
Jaken. My dad pushed them in the jogger while we completed our scavenger hunt/amazing race. They're so cute together.
We helped celebrate my friend Carrie's birthday by going to firehouse Pizza and enjoying every bite! She and I both have our birthdays fall right before a big Holiday, and so we are united in that. Sadly, I didn't get any
pictures of the birthday girl, but she got some of me, thanks Carrie :)
After firehouse we went to the 36
th street
cemetery to enjoy their beautiful luminaries display. This was a childhood tradition we did in our neighborhood when we lived in Arizona, so I especially loved it.
Afterwards we drove out to Willard to see their lights display. Jed had borrowed his dad's expedition so we could all drive together. Emma has a little friend her age, Addi, and so the girls loved sitting by each other and were so good the whole night. Emma looks like she's not having fun, but really she did :)
Kylee, my cousins who is like a little sister, and her husband both graduated from USU. Lee had a great celebration party for them and we had so much fun playing games and visiting with them and the
Searles, another family of ours who we just adore.
Ever since Emma stayed with the
Jensens for 2 weeks last year while we went to Thailand we've been really close with them. She loves those cousins so much and I just love the friendship we have developed with their family. So we had them out for a Christmas party with games and an Amazing Race.
I also enjoyed putting up my Christmas decorations this year. I have a Christmas tree collection that I have really grown to love. Ryan buys me a new tree every year and so it's fun to watch the
collection grow. Also for my birthday I spent my money from my parents on some new
tree decor, and I am so pleased. Emma is at such a fun age where she just loves all of our Christmas decorations and she is so good to abide by the "no touching" rule.
This was just before Thanksgiving but all of my aunts and cousins within a 2 hour radius came to Ogden for us to go to lunch and see the Premiere of Twilight. It was so nice to see everyone and enjoy this movie and fun afternoon together.
Hopefully a new tradition has started by us going to the starlight Christmas Parade in Ogden. The
Casperson's and my parents joined us. It was such a fun way to kick off the season.
Another new tradition we started this year is a baking day with my mom. Emma and I went up for the day and my mom was willing to help us bake whatever we wanted. I chose home made bread and rolls and Emma made suckers and sugar cookies. So much fun, and so yummy! Thanks mom!
Other activities we enjoyed this Season but didn't take pictures of:
A date night, just the two of us, to Salt Lake for dinner at Thaifoon and to see Australia
A date night with the Stowers to Olive Garden and to see 7 Pounds
Christmas Shopping
Dollar movies with Emma
Driving around to see Christmas lights
And we have loved every minute of every snowfall
We had such a great Christmas this year. Plans changed so many times, and in the end it just worked out perfect. We had my parents all to ourselves this year and it was so much fun. The snow and scenery was just beautiful!! 
Christmas Eve we had the yummiest Turkey dinner, my favorite being my mom's mashed potatoes and her gravy, I could drink it through a straw and be happy. We played the thimble game with Emma and then the elf knocked around 9 pm and she went flying off to bed, not to make a peep the rest of the night. We played cards and enjoyed a vegetable tray. Ryan and I won my parent's bag of change and I'm going to save that money special for gas money to Arizona this spring. Then we started a movie at about 11 of "Fracture." It's a rated R movie that we've always wanted to watch, but I bought Ryan a "clear play" dvd player from Deseret Book store and so we enjoyed the movie with no profanity and no violence. We were all ready for bed at 1:30 and it was so nice not to have to stay up assembling gifts and wrapping.
Christmas morning I finally woke Emma up around 10:30. She was so cute with her gifts and made sure that there were plenty of "thank yous" even if you hadn't even received a gift, she needed to make sure we were all saying thank you. Santa brought her a tent. My favorite gift this year was a "vintage" care-a-lot and cloud car that I bought off of ebay. These were the exact same toys I had when I was a little girl. They were a hit!! After gifts we had a yummy breakfast and then just enjoyed staying home all day with no obligations to go anywhere. Both my dad and Bundy took a turn snow blowing since there was such a big storm. Then we had left overs and watched another movie. It was literally a perfect day. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas time together as a family and really took time to reflect on the meaning for the season. Merry Christmas!
