Our Sweet Life in the Valley

Can't Forget Santa!

Milk, Jenna's incredible homemade cookies and carrots-- and believe me I know a certain little boy who was checking the trash in the morning for carrots. He didn't find any though! The milk jug was empty and the cookies eaten by a happy Santa.

Jacob tried to act like he was too cool for matching PJ's... but he really did love it and still asks me to wear them the same night he does. He still cuddles too, thank goodness!

Christmas Eve Program

Great ending to a great program with Mom sharing a story from her childhood and Dad sharing about the Savior, which led to a wonderful group discussion on service and the Savior's example. I always happy when we have opportunity to share testimony with our children and grandchildren.

Christmas Eve Program

Every Christmas Eve we have a "program" where all are invited to participate however they'd like. Jacob did a great job on the piano with his Christmas songs. The cousins were darling, singing, playing flute :) and sharing songs etc..

We gave Elise a pass as she had been completely overcome with work all December with the student body officers. They raised $5000 dollars and Walmart gave $2000 which gave AF High a total of $7000 for local needy families. They collected gifts in addition and organized the collecting and delivery. We were very proud of her. I know it was a lot of hours, a lot of stress and worry that they would make their goal, which they exceeded. Way to go! We were sad not to hear her play piano and cello though!

Eric playing beautifully

Alec playing the Viola-- beautiful!!

Seth on guitar-- Jacob was loving this- he wants to play!

Christmas Eve Fun

This turned into the "dance" portion of the Christmas Eve Program! The Chad Taylor family gave us a great talent show- reminiscent of the Jim and Pam's wedding from "The Office" Too funny!

Elise gettin' her groove on..

I should forward this pic to Chad's ward... Bishop's got some sweet moves...

with a little pleading, David showed us our favorite moves! Everyone got into it!

Annual "Stuff It" Game: Jacob with cousins Luke and Naomi

Candy Sled Racing!

Candy Sled Races- a very fun Christmas Eve tradition!! This year we split into more teams than just our families, because of the "heats" we needed. I have no clue about heats, but we had fun! Lynn and Jacob pictured below with their 2nd place prize- dinner gift card-yum! Eric and Alec won first place and the Dean family won the golden ticket this year (hidden inside one of the chocolate bars) One of these years, the Deans will take 1st place!! :-)

Elise and I were on a team. We called ourselves the "Spice Girls" and we thought our sled was the best decorated! Uhhh, we didn't win.

Grandpa built a new and improved track system this year. Very slick!

Elise and Cyrena watching the races...

Jacob and cousin Isabelle

Jacob and cousin Cyrena

Hard at work, making sleds that are aerodynamic... kinda.... ok, chunky and loaded with candy, but sturdy.

Christmas Eve Dinner - Kid's table

Holidays!

Fun evening out on Temple Square with the Blights.

My Favorite Time of Year

Dinner with Lynn's mom Betty and sister Pam before they left for the holidays. Niece Haley and cousin Alli from BYU came too- a fun night of food, visiting and catching up!

One of our favorite yearly Christmas traditions is seeing the musical "A Christmas Carol." It always puts us in the right spirit and reminds us of the true meaning of this beautiful season! We also have traditional treats- Milka Swiss Chocolate bars and Chocolate oranges.

Jacob pictured below at his Christmas piano recital. This year they performed for a local care center. Jacob commented how good he felt when playing for people who can't really go anywhere. He did a great job!!