Christmas 2013

What a fun Christmas Break!

We started off by heading to the cabin with Grandpa Randle

and Spencer, Steph and their family.

Love going to the cabin with the family.

Wish Nate, Ally and the kids could have been with us.

Spencer and Steph went up a day before and spent time alone as a family.

Trav, the kids and I and Dad came up Sunday night Dec. 22.

We ate dinner, talked and hung out.

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and headed out to play in the snow.

We went sledding down the hill, drove the snowmobiles,

 and pulled the kids behind the four wheeler on sleds.

 

 

 

 

Because Garrett missed his guitar concert for the Jr. High Semi-final basketball game,

his teacher told him he would need to perform all 5 songs,

for at least a half an hour, for his family over the Christmas break.

After we had all come in for the night, and after dinner, we all sat around the fire and 

Garrett put on a concert for us.

We had so much fun watching him play and sing his songs.

We even joined in on a few ourselves.

 

  

 

 Uncle Chub played Happy Birthday for us to sing to Garrett!

We watched movies on the big screen, opened presents, 

read the Christmas story, and had a blast.

We woke up Christmas Eve, played in the snow, cleaned up and 

left for home to get ready and wait for Santa.

 

 

 

 

 

 As per tradition......the kids opened their new jammies,

we wrote our hopes for gifts from Santa,

put out treats and milk,

and left our magic key for Santa to get in!

 

We had gotten that all ready, only to look over and see our own Little Santa

eating up the treats and drinking the milk as fast as he could.

He thought that had been set out just for him! 

Hilarious!

Christmas morning came and went just as fast!

As usual, the kids were spoiled and loved every minute of it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting their Lagoon Season Passes!

Wahoo!  2014 here we come!!!

Sis wrote a letter in to Santa in school, and told me about it 2 days before Christmas.

She had asked Santa for one of his hats.

An elf wrote her back stating that Santa was trying to fill her entire list,

and could quite possibly give her one of his hats!

Oh boy!

She couldn't wait!

Luckily Santa knows EVERYTHING and left her one of his hats next to the treats and milk!

She was so excited to read his note and wear his hat!

I love Christmas.

I love the feelings, the excitement, the snow, the decorations......everything about it.

Most of all, I love our Savior.

Even Austy knew who was the most important one of all when he rearranged my nativity set!

Melted my heart when I walked past the entryway table and found this.......

 What a blessing it is to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas.

We had just that opportunity this year to teach them through action,

 not just words.

Each year, Morgan Pavement does a Charitable Contribution fund.

What the employees contribute, Morgan matches 100%.

The last few years, they have given Trav the money and allowed him to take the boys and their

Basketball teams to the store to buy clothes/food for the Utah Food bank

and then take everything and deliver it to the Family Connection Center.

This year, we did it as a family.

But, the boys had mentioned it to some of their friends, and they begged to come with again.

A week before Christmas, we headed off to Target and split off into 2's.

Each group had 300$ to spend and each had an age group to shop for.

45 mins later we all met back at the register.

4 shopping carts and 1500$ later, we were on our way out to load up the car.

 

 

Trav took the kids the next day to deliver the toys.

The Family Connection invited Trav to bring the kids back in 2 days to help

hand out the toys and gifts to the parents who were coming to shop for their kids.

Julia asked every day if it was time!

I wasn't able to go with them.

Austy and I were at the church wrapping RS manuals for the New Year,

and dripping Sippy cup water all over my Iphone and frying it completely,

but that is a story for another day......it will only ruin the spirit of this post!  Ha ha

Anyway, Trav and the kids had a wonderful experience for the couple of hours they were there.

 

 

 

 Each of our kids talked about how it affected them to see each parent only be able to pick

one gift per child - the Family Connection was afraid they would be 300 gifts short,

so they had to limit the amount per child.

Christmas morning after we had opened all of our gifts, we had the kids look around the room

and realize how blessed they were to have gift after gift,

and then to think back on the parents they had just helped and the situations they were in.

We truly are blessed.

We don't have a lot ourselves, and the kids were spoiled, but not crazily.

This Christmas we each were reminded that we are blessed abundantly.

I'm so grateful they were able to have that opportunity.

As we look forward to the New Year, there is always a little apprehension of what will come.

I do love new beginnings, and having a fresh start.

I love thinking about things I would like to change and work on.

We have some big things coming our way and decisions to make in the next few weeks,

and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless us and guide our every step.

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year.

Love,

The Burke Family