Christmas 2013

For Christmas Eve my father came up with the idea to go to temple square to look at all the Christmas lights. For those unfamiliar with my dad...this came as a complete surprise. He rarely likes to go to crowded places much less bring up the idea.  We decided that arriving at temple square at dusk would minimize the amount of crowds that we would run into. It worked.

Andrew got to try out his dinosaur hat and gloves. We were worried about Andrew getting cold. I think I got cold before he did.

Arriving at Temple Square

Family picture in front of our temple

How sweet!

Andrew had a ball dragging Grandpa and Grandma around the square

Christmas morning Wendy and I woke up before Andrew. I'm anticipating that this is the last year that I will wake up before my children on Christmas Eve for a long time. We finally had to wake Andrew up so we could make it so the Stuart Christmas Brunch.  Wendy had filled our stockings and Andrew's boot with lots of yummy treats. Andrew had helped me wrap all of the presents the night before.

Boots with yummy things inside!

Christmas tree with presents

Christmas morning Stuart Family Picture

After eating a yummy meal with the Stuart family we moved over to the Ashton house. There Marsha gave the million and one presents she had bought to everyone. Everyone else passed out their presents too; just not in the same volume. By this point Andrew had realized that wrapping was a lot more fun to pull off than to put on. Wrapping, boxes, toys, and lots of people. He was in heaven. We had a fair amount of fun also.

Marsha finds the picture booklet we made

Finding Minion Stuart

Saffron and Babes in Toyland

Lisette in poncho and hot

Ian and Miles in their hats

Stuart family in their hats

Brian and Ashton Family in their hats

Samuel found the treats

Andrew played with Cora

After present board games!

The Stuarts get a new toy...and it's a fun toy.

For the past year or so we've encouraged those who would like to give us Christmas or birthday gifts to donate money to a cause near and dear to us. The purchase of a new DSLR Canon Rebel camera. Shortly after Christmas we were about to open a savings account to separate out those funds. When discussing how much money had been donated to the cause we were surprised by how much it actually added up to.  I had recently looked up the current balance of our cash rewards credit care; it was also higher than we expected.

The end result of the two higher than expected values? 

Yep. A Canon Rebel T3 with a 18-55 and a 55-250 mm lenses. Heavenly; is all I can say.

Temple Square Lights

We introduced Andrew to Christmas lights at temple square.

First Christmas Together

This was our first Christmas together and wespent it together in Logan since I worked Christmas day. Wendy's family has always had Christmas stockings and my family have always had Christmas boots. Fortunately both types of containers hold candy brought by "Santa" just as well as the other. I am impressed by Wendy's ability to extemporize for a Christmas boot.

We had a Christmas tree with Christmas presents. It's small, but at least it's a tree. There was even a fair number of presents for us underneath it.

Of course, we all know that presents are made to be admired...and poked and prodded until you know what they are.

Any tree is improved with a wife in front of it. No matter how small the tree.