Christmas 2010

I just went to a Relief Society activity where we celebrated the Chinese New Year. I learned that every year belongs to an animal. I was born in the year of the Rooster. No wonder I have Roosters all over my house! Well, I have decided, even though the Chinese may not agree, that 2010 will always be remembered as the year of the zebra at this house! Everywhere we turned, we saw zebra this Christmas. It was like a regular safari right in our very own living room!

I don't know how we did it, but we must have all been extra good this year, because we got to have Grandma C.C. for Christmas again! And if you know Grandma C.C. then you know we played lots of games, watched lots of movies and par-tayed!

Grandma looking over her calendar for 2011.

Kennedy had some big ticket items on her Christmas wish list this year. She will be needing a lot of things in the next few months before heading off to college. The top of her list was a new computer - but her dream was to get a Macbook. A few days before Christmas, Santa got wind that Kennedy was feeling a little too confident that she would be receiving a Macbook. What a perfect opportunity for a lesson in gratitude!

Santa left her a gift under the tree, but it wasn't a Macbook. About half-way through the gifts, Kennedy started organizing everyone's gifts in piles. She said it was to make the gift-opening process easier but she was really trying to find any box, with her name on it, that could be large enough to hold a computer. But what she got instead, was a smaller box containing a...wait for it...an external hard drive!!! It was all she could do to hold back the tears while I explained to her that the new hard drive would fix all her computer problems and she would be fine at college with her old computer. She was so upset, we didn't have the heart to make her wait it out much more than 5 minutes before leading her to her real gift. Scott asked her to go get his fingernail clippers from the bathroom, but she came back with something much better! She found the new Mac laptop on the sink and came running back out in tears. This time, they were tears of joy and relief!

And of course, second only to a Mac would be a new pair of cowboy boots!

This was mine and Scott's favorite gift - watching all the hugs and love between all the kids.

Got zebra?

All three girls got new cameras. Did you really think I would let Kennedy leave home without one?

Layton bought Will a basketball shooting sleeve - an XL adult shooting sleeve! Will was so diappointed when it didn't fit. His NBA wristbands however were a perfect fit!

The rest of our day was spent skyping with family and playing Bingo for prizes from the bingo basket.

Of all the gifts both given and received, the greatest was being all together. Our little family is growing and changing. But that is okay, I guess, as long as we continue to grow and change together.