More playing with my camera... I really need to get the editing thing down!

And the lining up my pictures thing!

Playing around with my new toy...

(the camera! not my friend's little girl, although can you even stand how cute she is posing and being such a ham!)

Oh beautiful Christmas tree, Oh beautiful Christmas tree...

We had such a great time spending Christmas at grandma and grandpa Woolf's house so it was kind of sad having it come to an end. On the other hand, though they are fantastically gracious hosts and made everything so nice, I'm guessing they weren't as sad to see us leave so that they could get back to some level of sanity without a house full of crazies running around tracking mud and who know's what else around their pretty home. They had all kinds of fun activities planned that made it very special and are things that we'll always remember. The first night we got there we went to aunt Liza and uncle Justin's beautiful home where mom and dad had arranged to have a horse drawn carriage ride for the whole family. When I say the whole family, that is quite a feat considering that there are 10 children with spouses and many grandchildren. Twenty I believe, and I think everyone was there, all of us sitting on hay bails or on the sides bundled up in hats and mittens that grandma had gotten for everyone and we had so much fun singing Christmas carols as the horses pulled us around the neighborhood for a perfect amount of time to sing and really feel the Christmas spirit. What a cool experience! Thanks so much mom and dad!
Then after a yummy dinner, mom narrated and the kids put on the cutest Christmas program that I've seen to date. I don't know where she found them, but all the animals were in the cutest costumes that they wore like suspenders so even the little guys could wear them and participate. Almost everyone of the cousins had a part, they only needed one of the many babies there are to choose from right now to play baby Jesus, so all of the parts were taken care of from Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, to the Wise Men, the shepherds, they even had an angel announcing His birth and stars hanging from the ceiling... It was such a reminder of how grateful I am, first for the Savior in my own life, but also to be married into a family where the gospel and the Savior are central in the lives of this family that has such a great influence on our children and us as a couple.
We had so much fun in general catching up with loved ones. The girls, of course, got an afternoon of shopping in and that's always fun. I always love an opportunity to get to know my sister's in law better. They all have many things that I love and admire them for. The newest addition to the family is Lane, Britton's wife, and it was fun spending time with her getting to know her better. She has a very warm, open personality and a uniqueness about her that I adore. Ben surely adores her, as she played with him one-on-one several times and didn't appear annoyed when he followed her around like a puppy dog. He made me promise not to tell her his special secret. There are only a few "girdles" that he reserves this special secret for, and that is "that I love her mommy!". And then he basically swears me to secrecy, but this is one secret that is just too dang cute to keep. (Sorry Ben!)
I also had some great talks with my mother-in-law, Diane, who is always good at making me feel great about myself. Despite my very obvious weaknesses, she helps me put things in perspective and often reminds me to always look forward, which I appreciate.

I have to end on a definite highlight of the trip and that is the night before we left. Several of us went over to David's sister Liza's house to hang out and play a little "Rock Band". Now I had never played anything like this before, but I have to say now that I'm a bit of a fan. It was so much fun watching everyone be so silly singing along to old songs and watching people rockin out on the drums and guitar, and I have to admit I even had fun busting out a little "Hungry Like the Wolf"... Although my favorite part by far was watching my husband sing his heart out to "Carry On My Warward Son" not caring about the points he was missing for lack of pitch.

I almost forgot the surprise of the century... and that was David giving me a Nikon D40 camera for Christmas. I've wanted a nice camera for a really really long time, but I never would have guessed that he was pulling that one out of his sleeve. Thanks sooooo much sweetie!!!

All in all it was, of course, the time spent with our family that made this holiday season so wonderful and memorable. Watching all of the little kids running around having so much fun and being able to catch up with everyone was so nice. I already look forward to next Thanksgiving!

Ben actually enjoying sitting on Santa's lap...

A great day in the snow to celebrate Ben's 5th birthday...

Auntie Lane... Ben's newest love. But sshhh, it's a secret!

Some of our cute family at auntie Anne's baby shower...

Kind of random rambling about bathing and ?opera? of all things...

So- I had the wonderful pleasure of taking a really long bath last night. Yes, I realize that this is the second time I've mentioned bathing on my blog, but you busy mother's probably understand the luxury it is to be able to really bathe. I'm not talking about the rushed rinse cycle that we're all used to when your kids are banging on the shower door every 10 seconds demanding something new, but the kind when their are no distractions. David was on a daddy-son night out with the boys, and so I went straight to my first choice when the house is going to be quiet for any extended period of time which is to run a hot hot bath and just soak. I lucked out with this house and it has the most luxurious bathtub on the planet with jets that point at all your major pressure points down your back and feet. It's really fantastic!
So part of the reason I think that this was so wonderful, therapeutic, amazing... I could go on and on adding expletives, was because I had pulled out a really old cd of opera (of all things), which I happen to love. Not the Wagner, typical German bouncy opera that to me is enough to drive anyone crazy (no offense to Wagner lovers), but beautiful Italian opera that's so full bodied and rich in emotion that as cheesy as this sounds... I feel like it pierces my soul and makes me unbelievably happy like not a lot things do. I have many that I love, but La Boheme is by far my favorite and as I was listening to it, last night from start to finish in the bath, I cried harder than I've cried in a long time and I smiled bigger than I've smiled in a long time too. Like I said, it's very rich in emotion and I feel it very deeply, and I love love love it. It was really great for me. I really needed it. That's all...

More family photos...