I saw Mommy kissing Santa!

I love the family get togethers at Christmas time.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without a Neeley family party at Janell's or Christmas Eve at the Dopp's.  The girls love having time to play with cousins while the adults gab and eat good treats.  "Santa" comes each year on Christmas eve and the boys take turn being "it".  This year was Jeremy's turn.  Don't get me wrong, he tried to avoid it and was successful for a few years but his number finally came up.  It is always funny to see the kids reaction as they realize who it really is.  But they all still love it and go along with it!  This year Grandma Marlene made pillows for all of the kids and many of them got matching jammies.  We all look forward to our new jammies for the year!  We feel so blessed to both come from wonderful families that are fun to get together with.

Girls Day Out

Once again it was time for our annual nutcracker with all the girls in my family.  We love the tradition of getting dressed up and going to see the Nutcracker.  It makes it even more special when I have nieces in it to watch.  Of course the tradition wouldn't be complete without a gift from the Nutcracker boutique and lunch at Union Grill.  This year was Lilah's first time being old enough to go.  The girls talked it up for her all year long explaining the tradition.  She was so excited to go and even proved she was mature enough this year by sitting still throughout!

Shepherds wear goggles!

Did you know that shepherds of old wore goggles?  Well according to Kate they did and we couldn't convince her otherwise.  So for our family Christmas pageant we had an angel, three shepherds (one with goggles) and Mary and Joseph.  Joseph was a little shy for the pictures so we are going to pretend he was just humble.  Growing up we had this tradition every year of reading the scripture story of Christ's birth along with singing songs.  I loved it and thought it would be a great tradition to uphold and a great way to bring the true spirit of Christmas into our home even with goggles!

Angels in the Choir

Our ward has a traditional Christmas pageant.  This year Neeley and Kayla were in the choir and Lilah was a cute little sheep.  My favorite part is watching the little sheep with socks on their hands and cotton batting strapped to their backs, crawl through the audience to the stage.

Santa's Little Elfs

Every year we have a tradition to go see Santa at RC Willey.  We like to visit him there because there aren't any long lines and he will spend time with each of them.  The girls love getting dressed up in red for the occasion. I love it because for the rest of the year Kate points to RC Willey as we drive by and says "There's Santa's house!"

Giving Thanks

To me Thanksgiving is all about gathering with family, eating yummy pie and taking a rest.  From the guys to the small fries, by the looks of these pictures it looks like we did just that!