We kicked off our Christmas Season with our Randle Family Christmas Party.
It was held at Uncle Nate and Aunt Ally's house
Sunday, December 6th.
Rather than a dinner this year, Aunt Ally opted for a Chocolate Dessert Fountain.
The kids loved it!
We all ate some goodies, then watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas,
and opened Christmas Jammies from Grandma Davies.
We all love being together and catching up.
It's crazy we all live within an hour from each other, yet we really only see each other
on Holidays and special occasions.
I guess that's par for the course with everyone's families so busy with all they have going on.
I love that Grandma is still here with us and the kids get to love her and enjoy her!
It was pretty special to have Aunt Phyll with us as well!
Austy (4), Charly (4), Zach (8)
Zach, Austy, Teagan (5)
Sis is such a little Mother hen to the little cousins.
She is always right there to help or take care of any of them at any given time!
We had a wonderful time and drove home in the snow!
One of the traditions Trav started with our family a few years ago,
is to take the kids shopping with $ from the Morgan Pavement Charitable Account
and buy gifts for kids that are donated to the Family Connection Center in Layton.
Our kids have even gone to the center before and helped the parents shop for
gifts for their children from the items donated.
Our kids ask about this every year, as the Holidays get close.
They want to know when we get to go and how much $ there is to spend.
It is pure joy to watch their excitement as they shop for others and think less of themselves.
We always get carts full and usually get to spend anywhere from $500-1000.
This is what Christmas is all about.....giving to others.
I'm proud of the amount of money Morgan Pavement is able to raise through the year,
and the amounts of people that are helped by the generosity of the employees.
This is only a drop in the bucket of what the company does each year to give back.
We also saw Santa and went to the Christmas Lights at Layton Park
with the Hamblins and Mitchells.....that was a really fun, yet COLD night!
I was glad we made the kids ride in back with blankets and we got the inside!
Ha ha!
Austy and Boston's friend and Boston Mitchell
(Ty Mitchell, Brevin Hamblin, Sis, Caden Mitchell, Bridger Hamblin, Ty, Austy and Boston)
Lisa and I volunteered at the Festival of Trees.
We were in charge of the bread station.
We thought that would be a piece of cake, until orders started coming so fast we couldn't keep up!
I started having flash backs of Lucille Ball and her friend working in the chocolate factory!
It truly was hilarious! We were breaking a sweat by the time our shift was over and
we laughed until our sides and cheeks hurt!
But we did it for Marli......in her honor and that felt so good!
Our next Party was with our Burke Family.
Just a few days before our party, Grandpa Burke fell and shattered his hip bone
while serving as a Missionary in the Ogden Cannery.
He had to have an immediate Hip replacement surgery, so needless to say, he was unable
to make it to our family party.
We held the party at Morgan Pavement on Thursday, Dec. 17th.
Everyone came and ate and we watched our 2nd Annual Family Year End slideshow!
That has been so fun......hope it's a tradition we carry on with over the years to come.
Each family sends me 20-30 pictures from their year and we set it to music.
We also add any pictures from our get-to-gethers throughout the year.
Its fun to recap and see what each of us has been up to and accomplished through the year.
After we ate, we cleaned up and took the party to Grandpa's Hospital room.
It was a pretty special sight to see us all crammed in there showing Grandpa some love.
We stood as a family around his bed and sang, "Silent Night" together.
A special spirit was there......outweighed any gifts we could have given each other.
Garrett, (15), Ethan (16), Ty (14)
Wyatt, Trav, Carson, Logan, Ty, Ronda, Me, Garrett, Megan, Lea, Austy, Ryland,
Ethan, Julia, Ally, Evelyn, Grandma Burke, Grandpa Burke
Austy giving Grandpa some loves
It was the perfect way to end our family party for the night.
The kids had the entire next 2 weeks off of school!
I always look forward to having the kids home and Trav off of work with 2 weeks all together.
It always goes way to quickly!
Garrett had High School Bball practice over the break which made going to the cabin difficult,
but we found a way to get there for a couple of days at least.
We drove up on the 22nd and stayed through the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
It was super cold, windy and snowy again.....so we didn't get much snowmobiling in,
but just to sit and chill felt awesome!
I spend a full day there making our own Family 2015 recap video
and we had fun watching that on the movie screen in the basement of the cabin!
We have never seen this much snow at the cabin. We had to dig our way to the deck!
It was awesome!
Moose across the way!
Sis and I surprised the family with a new Christmas puzzle of one of our family favorites!
It took the kids forever to get all of that snow off of the deck.
It was almost to the top of the railing!
We had one day of beautiful skies, but looks are deceiving!
It was SO COLD!
We left mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve to get home and get things ready for Santa!
A few years ago, we started a tradition of drawing names in our own little family.
We set a $10-15 limit and then we all go to the mall together to shop for our name.
On Christmas Eve, we open our gifts we bought for each other.
We all look forward to this.
This year, Dad had Garrett.
With Garrett almost 16 years old, Dad gave Garrett a Gas Card to help fill up his truck!
Sis had Dad and she bought him a new brown belt.
Garrett had Ty. He walked the whole mall over trying to find something for Ty,
and in the end, he called Ty and told him to meet him at a certain store.
Ty picked out what he wanted and Garrett paid for it! Ha ha!
Surprise Ty.....you're getting a hoodie!
Ty had Sis......he got her a really cute, sparkly scarf at her favorite store....Charming Charlie.
I had Austy.
The whole night he kept telling me that all he wanted was a Dinotrux Troy.
I was so excited that with a coupon I was able to get him one within the budget we had set!
However, when Austy opened it up.....there was pure disappointment on his face!
He immediately held the toy up and said, "I Didn't want THIS one!"
We all died laughing! Out of the mouth of Babes!
It all came full circle though when Austy gave me a pair of flip flops for our trip to Cancun,
and I ended up trading them for a different pair!
Ha ha!
After we exchanged our gifts, we read in the scriptures about our Saviors Birth.
We then got our Santa Plate and cup out and started writing our list of
wishes, hopes and dreams on it for Santa.
Ty and Austy were up this year for putting Santa's key out on the porch!
Once the key was in place,
we all met in Austy's room to read Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree -
my very favorite Christmas book from my childhood that Grandma Davies used to read to me,
that our kids have always loved reading too!
Once we finished that, we had prayer and got the kids off to bed.
Austy had a hard time sleeping......we had been tracking Santa, so he kept
wanting to know where he was now! What about now? And Now?
Finally, his eyes became heavy and he was out!
I love when the house is quiet and still on Christmas Eve
and the tree is lit.
We were all so exhausted that we really didn't even wake up until around 8:15-8:30.
Grandma and Grandpa Hale were planning to stop by at 9.
They were able to make it to watch the kids open the last half of their gifts.
Sis got lots of crafts, book sets, tons of earrings since she was now able to change them out,
coloring books, clothes and a Build-A-Bear bear.
Austy got Legos, clothes, Dinosaurs, Dinotrux, Spiderman and
his own Build-A-Bear bear.
Garrett got a TON of new clothes which he really needed and was mostly what he wanted....
including the all ever popular Joggers!
I won't ever understand what the kids see in those, but I can't say a word....
I wore Levi Overalls with one strap hanging down! Ha Ha!
He also got some new VANS shoes, a razor, and more gas cards.
Top gift was probably his new Iphone 5s!
Ty got clothes and shoes as well, but he had also been wanting a FITBIT.
Santa delivered and Ty was happy.
He tries his hardest to get his 10,000 steps in a day and usually does, if not, he comes close!
Ty also got a Iphone 5s!!
Grandpa Hale surprised me with my Family Geneology Chart for my Grandpa Davies side!
I was so surprised and grateful, I became emotional over it!
I will forever cherish that!
Thank you Grandpa!
Trav and I got some clothes for our upcoming trip to Cancun,
and some things we needed around the house.
We also got a selfie stick for the family......
which proved to be more fun throughout the day than some of our other gifts! Ha ha!
We even got Grandpa Randle in on our Selfie Fun!
Seriously......we spend all of this money on expensive gifts,
when really......the kids just want a $10 selfie stick and they're satisfied!
Lesson learned! :)
We had fun changing Sisters earrings all day too for the very first time!
It's so fun to spend the day laying around, eating all kinds of food
and playing with all of the fun new things!
These Magformers kept us entertained for a while too!
Merry Christmas!
We are so grateful for the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ.
I pray our family will always follow His example and be found doing those things
that would lead us back to our Heavenly Father.
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