The whole month of December in one really long post

I decided that I don't really want to do write post after post detailing all of our Christmas fun so here's a quick rundown of our Christmas activities for posterity sake (or something like that).
-For our ward Christmas party this year our bishop wanted to focus more on Christ than on Santa.  We had a Saturday night devotional in the chapel, Sunday dress.  I'm sure many of you are thinking how unfun that sounds and what a pain to get everyone dressed up - or something like that.  I know that's what my feelings were beforehand.  In fact at the last minute I almost decided to bag it and not go.  But it ended up being so good that I was totally repentant.  The spirit was strong and it was so nice to sit for through an evening completely dedicated to the real reason for Christmas, the Savior.  After the meeting we went to the gym for cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa.  For me, it was definitely a highlight of this Christmas season.
-The main cardiologist that Benjamin works for threw a party for the department.  He reserved Braza Grill for the evening and we ate until we couldn't eat any more.  It's a churrascaria with food similar to Toucanos.  After eating, the doctor's wife handed out gifts to all the wives and did a drawing for 2 more expensive gifts.  It was so nice to see the appreciation of the doctor for those who work for him.
-Of course we followed our yearly tradition by attending my parents Christmas breakfast with Santa.  That was our first encounter with the big guy for the year and the kids had some big requests - wii, ipod touch, and a trampoline.  They sure had alot of faith in santa.  But Jaxon did inform me that "that's not the real santa, the real one is in the North Pole".  We forgot our camera but luckily the Ipod takes ok pictures.

 

This year for our annual dinner with our friends, the Pays and the Burgesses, we all met at Buca di Beppo in Salt Lake.  The traffic was AWFUL and it took us 2 hours to get there.  But once we were there we had a great time.  It's a fun restaurant and although I didn't love the food it was pretty good.  The best part, of course, was dessert.  Once the waiter mentioned brownies and ice cream (my favorite), I knew I had to try it.  Here I am enjoying it, terrible photo of me but it shows the massive dessert.  Ok, I do need to mention that I did not eat that entire thing by myself.  I did let the others have a little.  It was yummy!

-My family party was held at my parents church where the kids could run and play.  This year is was potluck and we ended up with a fabulous spread.  We participated in all the usual - counting jars, white elephants, $1 gifts for the kids, and the treat exchange.  It was fun to hang out with everyone and enjoy some laughs (white elephants are always very amusing and not much stealing goes on)

-Benjamin's family party was at his sister's place.  We also did white elephants but his family brings things that people actually want to steal from each other.  We did lots of eating (ham, yum!) and played bunco, a family favorite.  Santa visited and once again we forgot the camera.  We need to get copies from someone else who is better at going prepared.  We also had a short program and it was nice to take a minute to focus on Christ.

-For Christmas Eve this year we decided to do our own thing again.  We went to a neighbors for soup and to decorate cookies for santa.  Then we headed home to upwrap the christmas pj's, put out the cookies and milk, and go to bed.

 Whew!  If you made it through that, thanks for sticking with me.  I think I covered the highlights of the month.  I will do a separate post for Christmas Day.