Christmas Eve at the cabin

We made it to the cabin just before some major snow storms moved in. We couldn't leave until after church at 4 p.m. because Justin was singing in a quartet and in the ward choir. He did a great job and we got on the road straight from the church parking lot. We enjoyed snow for two days straight at the cabin... truly a white Christmas! I'm glad we didn't have to drive in it.
This year, we were joined by my parents and Keeley's family (minus Bryson, of course, who is serving in Mexico). It felt like Elder Lawrence was with us at times, however, because we were able to Skype with him on Christmas Eve and on Christmas afternoon. It was so fun to see him! He was actually struggling to come up with some English words because he is doing so well at speaking Spanish (after only 2 months in the field!).

We missed Grady (in Austin, TX), Darian (with her Mom in SLC), and Lacey's family this year (they spent Christmas at home because Rob had to work the day after Christmas).
I was so excited for Christmas Eve to arrive because I knew that Justin would finally let me open my big present. We've been needing a new camera for several months. It took forever for the flash on our old camera to charge and then it would send a whiff of smoke up every time it finally took a picture. We chose our new camera together (the Sony Nex-5R), but Justin liked to inflict the pain of making me wait and wait. But we're so pleased to see that it takes excellent pictures! And I love that it is so fast! Justin spent most of the time at the cabin learning how to use it and pestering everyone by taking WAY TOO MANY pictures. By the end of the trip, I think we all finally started to ignore his picture taking.

The day was so lovely. We made gingerbread houses, ate our traditional Chinese dinner (we even did the ultra traditional chop suey instead of orange chicken), and opened the new Christmas jammies from Grandma Sherri. When we tried to tell our boys that the p.j.'s are from Grandma and Grandpa, my Dad said, "I have nothing to do with it... they're from Grandma." I guess he doesn't want to take any credit! There was even hot wassail to drink before bed.

  

 Practicing with the new camera.

 Uncle Bryan loves to tease. Ezra was resisting the opportunity to snuggle and take a nap!

Snuggle/Tickle Time:

Finishing up the egg rolls and chop suey. Delicious!

 Christmas jammies! We seem few in number this year.

 Grandma read Twas the Night before Christmas because it seems that Grandpa John went to bed early! (I realize that I've still got some red-eye editing, but it'll have to wait!)

Our boys are at such a fun age for Christmas. Even Ezra really "gets it" now. They love talking about Santa and all the magic of the season. After tucking them into bed, I later walked by their room and listened to them whispering the following conversation:
Nolan said, "Ezra, did you hear the clatter of Santa's sleigh on the roof?"
Ez says, "Yeah, I heard the clatter, too!"
Nolan: "I hope Santa leaves me a bell from his sleigh just like on the Polar Express."
The boys have loved singing Christmas songs this year, too. Their favorites were Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, Feliz Navidad (which they sang for Bryson while skyping), and singing Dad's choir song called Shepherds Shake Off your Drowsy Sleep.