Train ride to LA

We took the Metro to downtown LA to the Science and Space Museum.  I'm not sure what was more fun, the train ride or the museum.  Both were great.

The kids loved the arctic region...buuuurrrrr!

Fun Family Time

All Aboard!

Newport Boat Parade

Storytime with Grandma

Christmas Eve mayhem!

Look at those kids

PJ time

The Nativity

It seems we've started a new tradition...a living nativity.  Last year, for the first time, we had the kids act out the Nativity.  It was such a big success, we did a repeat of it this year.  In fact, the kids performed it for the adults on Christmas Eve afternoon and did such a great job, they did it again that night for a "packed house".  I loved it.  Some things that will be remembered by me...the very serene Mary, played by Emma, the beautiful angel, played by Sophie, and the repeat performance of the donkey/midwife played by Kathy.  Great memories.

Meeting Santa

The Nutcracker

One Christmas tradition that we have had for many years is attending the Nutcracker at Golden West College.  It started when Amy was dancing at OCDC.  Every year they put on the Nutcracker Ballet, and every year Amy wanted to be in it.  I always put her off, not wanting the time commitment it would take.  Finally, when she was in 6th grade, she talked me into it..and away we went.  Every Christmas after that meant months of Saturday practices and tons of performances.  And I wouldn't have changed one bit of it.  I loved watching her dance everything from the entertainers to the Chinese, from flower to snow lead, and everything in between.  This year, as every year, during the entire performance, I saw not the dancers on stage, but Amy.  And it always brings tears to my eyes, a lump in throat, and happy memories.

Two of my favorite dances from her senior year...

Dew Drop Fairy

The Maid

Part of this year's audience

Amy's room

This what got me started on wanting to redo Todd's room.  Mark gave me a queen bed for Amy's room, and so of course, I had to get a new bed set to fit...one thing led to another...and this is what we got!  I love it. It took a while for Todd M and I to get the hang of installing the beadboard, but by the end, we were pros.

New bedroom

I have been wanting to redo Todd and Kathy's room for ever so long...and I finally got to it!  The timing wasn't the best, trying to finish painting while finishing my Christmas shopping, But I'm so happy with how it all turned out.

 Who would have thought that all of this fit into one small closet!

I still have a headboard that I want to try to make and some family beach pictures to arrange on the brown wall, but I absolutely love colors and the way everything worked together.  All of the sand, driftwood, and rocks came back with me from Hawaii!  The bathroom shells and coral is from my Fiji trip.

FHE--the Christmas train

One of my favorite evenings in December is the night that Amy, Todd, and the kids come over to help set up the train.  This year we had dinner and a family home evening.  Aunt Kris gave the kids the new book by President Monson and it was perfect our our FHE lesson.  He told the story from his boyhood about a time when he was given an expensive train and how he shared part of it with a boy who had little.  It taught a great lesson, and fit right in with our train theme.
The train joined our family many years ago when Todd and Amy were in elementary school.  We only had three cars and enough track to go around the tree.  Now, we have a new engine that smokes and makes sounds, many cars, and enough track to go through the front room, down the hall, into the kitchen, and back to the tree.  It has been a real joy to watch two generations enjoy the magic of the train.

Monday's Memory--Christmas socks

I love this picture...one of the few times dad came down for Christmas.  I'm glad he got the message and brought his Christmas socks!

Monday's Memory--Christmas Eve dinner

For many years, the only way to have a sit-down Christmas  Eve dinner was to move everything out of the "den" and move the ping-pong table in.  It always seemed so cramped, but was worth it to all sit down together.  When I think of it now, there were only about 12 of us.  Several years after this picture was taken, we enlarged the dinning area to accommodate our table that extends to seat 12.  That fixed the problem for a while.  This year, though,  it wasn't enough!  We had 27 people for our dinner; our regular table and two big tables set up in the front room and computer room.  I love that our family has grown so much.  It still is pretty cramped, but so much fun!

Sea World--Christmas style

 Because we had season passes, we ended up going to Sea World several times this year.  Halloween was fun with all of the trick-or-treating...but Christmas was equally fun.

  The kids had a great time visiting with Santa...

 but really enjoyed "snow world".