Merry Christmas 2014

My brother, Coulter, flew out to visit us for Christmas. We had a lovely time with him in town. On Christmas Eve day, we played games and had the Elders over for dinner. I made our traditional dinner of peasant soup. Afterwards, we delivered plates of Christmas treats to our neighbors. It was wonderful and I think we might make that a tradition! Later on, Tyler, Coulter, Anna, and I played some Settlers of Catan (my favorite game) and then we set up all the stockings and put out all the presents. Tyler wanted to keep the tradition his family had of not putting out any presents before Christmas Day, so there would be a lot of presents when the kids wake up. My tradition is that the kids can open their stockings up in the morning, but they have to wait until after breakfast before opening presents. We made biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for breakfast. We never buy orange juice - the kids were thrilled! Then we opened presents. Later on we had a nice ham dinner. Other than my becoming dehydrated and Tyler feeling super sick with a cold, we had a great day.

We made sugar cookies for FHE!

A badly needed pedicure.

Anna getting some braids on!

I sang at the Washington DC Visitor's Center. Beforehand, I attended the temple. It is beautiful!

My good friend, Karen, who accompanied me as I sang COME UNTO HIM.

I introduced my brother to my favorite Mexican restaurant. He loved it, of course. 

Setting the Polar Express train up.

The kids look forward to playing with the train every December.

Settlers of Catan! I lost count on how many times we played. I could play this game everyday.

Aren't those minion hats the cutest?! I love etsy.

Even Maggie got a stocking.

Tyler's stocking is huge. I bought it on eBay last year. I had no idea how big it was going to be.

Footsie jammies! Calvin was so thrilled to be getting new socks in his stocking, that he put them OVER his feet.

Simply delicious dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, corn, and fruit salad.

Reading scriptures. 

These guys are so similar...it's scary!

Pizza on my new pizza stone that Tyler bought me. 

Yes...we played this game a LOT.

Coulter showed me how to make fried plantains. I made locrio and he made a drink with some kind of fruit that I cannot remember the name of...

The next night we made La Bandera. Our Christmas present from Coulter was Merengue soda. It is so good.

There was a lot of Mariokart 8 wii played with these guys.

The day before Coulter left, we went to the temple and performed some sealings for family members. It was a great way to end a fun week. Hurry back, Coulter! We miss you!