White Christmas

This year Christmas was magical.  It was snowy and white and absolutely wonderful.  Christmas with kids is so much better than Christmas as a kid.  I love how excited Payton gets about the little things. And I really love being able to start some fun traditions with my own family.  

This year we spent Christmas at my parents house.  We moved out of our little apartment at the end of November and we have just about 3 weeks left here at my parents until our house is done.  

We always take the train down to see the temple lights and it is so much fun.

Tyler's work Christmas parties are always so much fun.  They always go over the top.  This year was so much better than last year.  The theme was Casino Royale.  They had tons of blackjack and roulette and poker tables set up to play all night.  Tyler and I turned our $1000 into $10,000 by the end of the night.  Too bad it wasn't real money.  But it did get us over 100 raffle tickets to win a tv and getaway somewhere fun.  Too bad we didn't win.  

We had so much snow this Christmas.  Payton is deathly afraid of water but she sure loves the snow.  Ty and Payton made lemonade Snow cones.

In line to see Santa

A local dance company put on a production of Nutcracker close to our house and I took Payton.  She loved it so much I think we will make it a tradition for the girls every year.  On the way home she told me that when Cooper gets older and can walk and dance she wants him to be her prince to dance with her.  

All growing up we usually see a movie on Christmas day after everything quiets down but this year we decided to do it Christmas Eve morning in our pajamas.  It was really fun and hardly anybody in the theatre.

In the afternoon we went to go sledding and Payton surprisingly fell asleep BEFORE we went not after being all tired out.  But she had a blast.

Christmas Eve Jammies

We got a ton of pictures more like this..

I realized I didn't get a ton of pictures Christmas day except of Cooper...

He would have been happy with just wrapping paper

And of course we woke up to this Christmas morning...

A White Christmas

Christmas 2014

It actually snowed for the first time this season Christmas Eve night.  We woke up Christmas morning to snow.  It was perfect.  I can't believe I grew up in a city where it doesn't snow (well....rarely).  Christmas without snow is just not Christmas.  

I am really glad we did so many fun Christmas things this month because despite all the fun Christmas Eve plans I had made we didn't do any of them.  I got a bad stomach bug the night before Christmas Eve and poor Tyler got it 10 hours later.  My amazing parents came and got Payton for us so Tyler and I spent Christmas Eve day (until about 7 pm) on our couch sleeping.   We even had a crab leg and artichoke Christmas Eve dinner planned and everything. Poor Payton.  Good thing she is 2 and won't remember this year's lame Christmas Eve.  But I was feeling a little better and we were able to do a few things that night.  Like make homemade hot chocolate and eat marshmallows while poor Tyler slept on the couch.

Good thing Ty and I wrapped all the present a few days earlier so all we had to do was lay them all out.  

Christmas morning was magical.  It was so much fun to see Payton so excited that Santa came.

Tyler's family has this fun tradition of taking a family picture in front of the Christmas tree with all the wrapping paper from opening the presents on the ground.   In my family my mom always had a trash bag ready as we were opening presents to throw away all the wrapping paper the second it came off the gifts.  I like the Radmall's method better.

After opening presents we went over to my parents house and celebrated most of the day with them.  My sister and her family live in Scotland and my brother and his wife live in Vegas so lately I feel like the only child.  But it was fun to spend the day with my parents.

This was the first year I started this, but we made a birthday cake for Jesus and sung him happy birthday Christmas day.  Payton loved it.  I will do it every year.  Especially with this amazing recipe I found for a gluten free chocolate cake.  Oh my gosh.  Whenever I try gluten free desserts I think "yea that's pretty good for a gluten free dessert", but this cake tastes like one you would get from a restaurant.  SO GOOD.  Here is the recipe. I did add cream cheese to the frosting recipe though and I highly recommend it.  Seriously make it.  My husband is super picky and he LOVED this.  He asked me yesterday to make it again.

We were lucky enough to get to have two Christmases this year.  We drove down to Vegas the day after Christmas to spend with Tyler's family.  It was nice to escape the cold for a little bit.  We even got in a round of golf.

We went to the Leid Discovery Museum while we were down there.  Payton was in heaven.

Nona took Payton to Build-a-bear for the first time.

Uncle Conner taught her how to play the guitar.

We went and saw Big Hero 6.  I didn't know if P would last since it is kind of for older kids but she loved it, although every 10 seconds she turned to me and asked "What happened?"  

Only in Vegas can you golf in December.  We took Payton and she had a blast.