Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We have had a lovely Christmas day, and hope all of you have had the same!

I have about 300 pictures to post of our trip to Utah, fantastic family reunion, Christmas festivities, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

But the cord I need to transfer my pictures to my computer has disappeared.

:(

So the pictures will have to wait.

In the meantime, here are some of our favorite quotes from Katelee today:

"I'm having so much fun!"

"Santa brought me a lot this year!!"

(side note: Santa always fills her stocking and brings her one 'big' toy. That's all - same every year. But we're glad she always feels like it's a lot! She always gets plenty for sure!)

"AAAAAAA!"

(Her high-pitched scream when she finally noticed her stuffed stocking sitting right there.)

"I wish I was one of Santa's elves. La la la la la la!"

(Apparently elves sing 'la la la' a lot.)

And a few other facts about our Christmas:

Time we woke up: 7:45 a.m.

Time we opened the last present: 2:40 p.m.

(It was so nice to take our time. After Katelee saw the train Santa brought her, we played with that for over an hour before even thinking about opening another gift! Then we would open a new present, and play with it for as long as we wanted, and repeat. It was awesome!)

What we ate: eggs, sausage, and english muffins for breakfast / ham, cheesy potatoes, green salad, pretzel salad, fresh bread and banana cream pie for dinner

Number of hugs Katelee gave us: 3641

(Okay, we really didn't keep count, but probably our favorite thing about Christmas Day is how much Katelee loves and appreciates everything. She was so darling today, and kept giving us so many hugs and kisses and saying thank you. It was the best gift we could have received!)

What Katelee gave Gerald (She was allowed to choose a few items from the dollar store for each of us): blue aftershave, black church socks, a candy bar and a blue mug.

What Katelee gave Jennifer: purple frisbee, rubber stamp, and teal fingernail polish.

New tradition we started this year: Before we could open a gift, we had to answer one question from each other member of the family. The question could be anything, and ranged from "What is your favorite Christmas food?" to "What do you know about Jesus' birth?" to "What do you like best about mommy?" and so forth. We had a lot of fun thinking up questions and answering each other's questions today and think this might be a fun tradition to continue!

Other activities we did together today: watched a new movie (Cars), played a game, took a drive and saw some special Christmas lights, talked with extended family members, and read stories.

Now Katelee is tucked in her bed, sleeping in the new purple sleeping bag Grandpa & Grandma Thurston gave her, hugging her dolly and smiling in her sleep.

Life is good.

We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. We know He is the light of the world. We love Him and honor Him today, as we celebrate His birth.

We love you all! Merry Christmas!