Christmas!

It was nice to have all the kids home for Christmas! I hate having them live so far away!!! I found this saying the other day and I love it, I am going to have a friend make it out of vinyl to put above our kitchen table, "Time spent together makes our home a house"! LOVE IT, it is so true! the only bummer for the kids that came from Utah and Idaho was all the rain we got! It is usually sunny and warm and we always take a trip down to the beach... but not this year! Look at all the rain we got! This is our back yard!

The lemon tree probably loved it though...

Here are pics from a couple of our family traditions...

Dipping pretzels for our friends...

And, making tamales WITH our friends...

Then we come home and mess around...

We always open our ONE Christmas Eve gift, the girls got pajama bottoms and the boys got "Lakers" pillow cases. We always read Luke 2 before going to bed... We DO have to remember WHY we celebrate Christmas! How grateful we are to our elder brother, Jesus Christ, that came to earth to be an example and to atone for our sins!

Christmas Breakfast!

And opening gifts...
Mom (Grandma Measles) went to the Holy Land this year (2010) with a tour group and she brought back all the boys (including Brad) oil from the olive trees in Gethsemane.

Stockings!

The girls got rolling pins from Anthropologie!

Derek's new scarf...

Blake in his new Lakers hat

Hummmm... wonder what Chad got Devin? °Ü°

It seemed to be the year for shoes!

or boots! °Ü°

Chad got a new cell phone!

My mom got Brad and I this beautiful picture!

This is where I hung it... okay, fine, this is where I had it hung! °Ü°

And, our sweet children went in together and got Brad and I this fire pit! I love it! I have wanted one for a long time!

So, Derek built a fire in it for us!

And we got in the jacuzzi!

We had a a wonderful Christmas... (although we did miss Dallin.... a. lot.!)