Warning - Christmas picture overload

You have been warned, this is WAY too many pictures. But we've been having tons of fun with CG and Sweetheart for Christmas, and so I'm going to share. The first bunch of pictures is from the Christmas celebration from my side of the family.

You know how they say that the best toys are free, and kids just want to play with boxes anyway? It's true. I got the most wonderful, soft, new towels for Christmas, and Sweetheart spent forever playing in the box.

Her own new presents totally were ignored, the towels were too much fun!


Olivia was jamming out on this Hannah Montana guitar. Too cute!


These lovely ladies were too cool to smile for the camera, but I promise that they really were enjoying the festivities.


Before too long Sweetheart got tired and overstimulated and had a melt down. And like the good mom I am, I took a picture and then laughed at her cute, grumpy face.


Opening presents.


And now we move on to Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve we drove up to East Canyon where Marquis's parents have a timeshare condo. This is where they have spent almost every Christmas for over twenty years. It is quiet and cute and has no internet or cell service. (Well, if you stand in one spot in the middle of the parking lot then you can get one bar of service, but you can't move or the call gets dropped.) I start to twitch after being there too long, my internet/cell phone addiction is too strong. Despite that, it's still pretty fun.

Christmas started WAY too early, though, as it always does.


But Santa did a good job and brought lots of noisy presents.






CG has reached the unfortunate stage of pre-teenagerhood in which it is no longer fun to have your picture taken. Therefore all pictures are stolen moments, and no smiles are included. She says she doesn't like any of these pictures, but I am posting them anyway and teased her that she ought to smile more often, she might like the pictures better.


There is a hint of a smile in this one, I was sneaky enough with the camera to almost catch it.


Then Sweetheart decided to play in my presents once again. Here she is trying on my new shoes. (Yes, this is a different day from the playing in the towels day, she just happens to be dressed in the same shirt.)


More fun toys!


After we opened all the presents, everyone settled down to do what Marquis's family does best. Here is Marquis reading to Sweetheart as she gets distracted by something on the floor.


Marquis working on his new book:


CG read this one within a couple of hours. Notice the tons of snow out the window in the background. There was so much that we decided to stay a second night in hopes the roads would be better. Also check out the Christmas tree. East Canyon is so far from everything that when you forget something, like the middle section of a Christmas tree, you just have to improvise and make do. I love this Christmas tree, so fun.

When it was finally time to leave East Canyon, Marquis's dad followed us for a while in his truck to make sure we made it safely. It's a good thing, too, because there was one very slippery, snowy hill that was too much for our little car. Marquis's dad just pulled in front of us, pulled a rope out of his truck, hooked us up, and towed us up the hill. He towed us awhile further to where the roads were actually plowed, and we bravely went solo from there. A few hours later we finally made it home safely.

We had a very good Christmas, and have continued to enjoy the time together. Marquis was able to get this entire week off of work, and it has been wonderful to just be together.

Happy New Year!