Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the best time to go hiking!  So at 10:30 we gathered at the Sugarloaf to have some fun.  

Kyle helped josh climb the face of this rock and then he couldn't get down.  For fear of Josh falling on Kyle, Joel stepping in to help him down.  Lesson learned.  I hope.

 Here are Seth, McKay,Evan and Jack.

 JoEllen was trying to throw Evan off and I was trying to get it on film and all Evan would do is stick his tongue out at me.  Little stinker!

Emily and Sophie.

 All of herding from one side of the hill over to the other side to get to the narrows.

 Fun place.  Here's Sophie helping Matty up.  Matty went 3 times!

 Laynee and Maycee.  I thought this was a cool picture.  I don't know how they ever even got over there.

                               Josh goofing off having fun.

 We got back to the cars before anyone else so Jack and David decided to see if they could jump from rock to rock.

After we got done we took our kids to Joellen's and got them pizza while the rest of us went to BDubs which is short for Buffalo Wild Wings.  It is the Wells family favorite.  Spencer got hooked on it when he was back east and was thrilled to have one open here in town.  We were glad to just go out to eat with everyone.  While we were waiting for our food Joel got a call from Brian wondering where we were.  Come to find out that they were in a booth behind us.  So we had them join the group.  They were celebrating Holly's birthday.  It was a really fun lunch.  Great to be surrounded by family.

That night we always spend with the Beckstrands.  We had dinner over at Brian and Holly's house and then do the Nativity and play games.  It's always a lot of fun!  Here are Mary and Joseph, otherwise known as Mary and Luke.  Which is funny because that's where you can find the story of the birth of Christ (Luke).

Shepherds abiding in the field...Kai,Taye and David.

Angles coming to the Shepherds...Baylee and Kali.

                                                                                           The three wise guys...Josh, Alex and Ben.

Bringing cologne, a candle and a basketball of course.

Many generations have gone through this tradition.  But this one is by far the cutest.

 The Ghost of Christmas Past.  1988

Here they are doing the gift exchange with the story of Lefty the Elf.  They love doing this.

Holly gave everyone a picture from Family Reunion during the summer.  The Brothers and Sisters got one of the 10 of them and the girls got a picture of the 4 of them.  Super thoughtful!

 On our way home we had to stop by my work to get a present I forgot and to see this one certain house that I'd been dieing to see.  Ever year they change their house into a castle and this years theme was Phineas and Ferb.  It was AWESOME!  They have Santa and sell treats and shirts to help raise money for BACA (bikers against child abuse).  It is amazing.  Besides the lights dancing to the music they also had bubbles and lasers.  It is going to be a new tradition that we stop by this house every Christmas Eve before we head home.  During the day the boys had been tracking Santa online with the Nordad Satellite Network and as we were driving away from the Phineas and Ferb castle David said, "I wonder where Santa is right now?"  And Sophie said, "He's right there sitting in front of Phineas and Ferbs house."  It was pretty funny.

 Then we finished off our night by opening the P.J's Grandma Shelton made and going to bed.

Thanks Grandma!