'Twas the Season

The first priority for Christmas vacation was the "Great Toy Round-up". Trevor took time off from work the week of Christmas so we had devoted one entire day to the task of collecting all the toys around the house (not including their favorite toys that were in their bedrooms) and putting them into our play room. We sorted through everything and gave a majority of the toys and books to Deseret Industries and a refugee family from Burma.
Below is the "after" photo. That's a much more managable amount of toys for one household.

One morning we woke up to an 8" snowfall. Megan was excited to play outside so I had her do the Rains tradition of measuring the depth of snow with a ruler (when I was younger and we lived in Colorado we'd have to use a yardstick).


We finally got some packing snow. You can't really tell but the bottom part of the snowman is up to Megan's chin and the total snowman is approximately 6'6".

This is Gabriella's first time out in the snow since she only learned to walk this past summer. This also marked the day that was the first time our whole family was able to go play in the snow together since I finally splurged and bought myself snowboots and snowpants.


Gabriella on Christmas morning. She loves horses and rocking chairs so a rocking horse is the perfect fit.

Caleb on Christmas morning. He's completely enthralled with Legos, both Star Wars and Mars Mission. Once he saw the Legos he forgot about all else.

Michelle on Chrismas morning. She can now join in on the Lego craze-can you believe they make pink legos?! She also loves her new Fur Real puppy. I love that I don't have to feed it or clean up after it.

Megan on Christmas morning. She also got a Fur Real puppy. She really like her Disney princess camera too.

The best Christmas dinner ever! Why? because I didn't have to cook one bit of it. My wonderful husband prepared the whole meal (even cleaning off the dining room table which also duels as the homework table) while I sat on the couch talking with my older brother.

The Sunday following Christmas with all the kids in their Sunday best. Santa brought Michelle and Megan the new Christmas dresses.

It was a wonderful Christmas season. We've really enjoyed spending so much time together as a family since my husband has only had to work for 2 days during the past 2 weeks.