Christmas Awesomeness

I have a bit of a mental block when it comes to blogging.  You see, even though my life is somewhat predictable, once in a while, there comes a week or two when a TON of things happen--all at once.  And each one is worth blogging about with a dozen pictures, at least.  But then I get all stressed about blogging and downloading pictures, and then I put it off, and then even more stuff happens that I know I should write down, but I feel guilty for never catching up, so I never do.  So, even though a bunch of stuff will be crammed into this post, I'm doing it anyways.  All at once.  Now I just have to decide which details to blog about.
You see, I could blog about our trip to the Valley to see my hubby's family...
and how our car got broken into (apparently we've lived in a small town for too long and forgot to lock the doors...oops)....
and some presents (including some handmade things that I spend quite a lot of time on), a phone charger, and a very nice speaker set got stolen out of said car (along with a gigantic box of Goldfish crackers, which upset Jack more than anything else)...
or how my husband rolled his ankle going to get something out of the car for me (which ended up not being in the car in the first place) and he ended up not being able to walk on it for two days....
or how between Clark, Jack, and Steve (not even counting extended family), there was a lot of nausea and vomiting that happened this week (I got the wonderful opportunity to catch some of it in my hands, even)...
or how my husband's grandpa was in the hospital the majority of the time we were in the Valley...
or how his great-great-aunt had a massive stroke and nearly died (also while we were down there)...
or how we lasted the entire weekend on approximately two hours of sleep because our children apparently can't sleep when they're on vacation...
or how my cousin got kidney stones (also while we were down there)...
or how we came home from the Valley to find my latest hospital bill in the mailbox, and it ended up being approximately three times as expensive as we were previously told...

But I won't blog about any of that stuff, because I'm trying to focus on the positive stuff here (Like how I did that?).
So, instead, here is what I will blog about.  First off, a week before Christmas, we had the incredible opportunity to go down to see the sealing of some dear friends of ours with their first little adopted baby (which was amazing and magical in itself) and while we were down there, my talented cousin took family photos for us!  Observe:

 

 

And, miracle of miracles, there was no screaming or tantrum-throwing this time!  I'm still kind of shocked. 

We then headed down to the Valley for Steve's family Christmas over the weekend.  I'm afraid I don't have any pictures to share from that weekend (yet...), but aside from the typical difficulties of traveling with three small children and the sadness we felt when Grandpa Busch was in the hospital with an allergic reaction (he's out now, thank goodness), it really was a very nice weekend.  The kids were spoiled ridiculously by their grandparents and great-grandparents, and, come to think of it, Steve and I were, as well.  We got to have lots of laughs with family, and we truly enjoyed getting to see everyone.  I sure love our family--both sides.  We're basically lucky to be related to such awesome people.

We got home just in time to get ready for Christmas Eve festivities, which included caroling on a flatbed trailer with possibly the loudest group of carolers ever, the funniest Nativity I've ever seen (thanks to my husband and brothers and their creativity with costuming), and then....CHRISTMAS!

We have secret elves that bring pajamas on Christmas Eve that have special magical sleeping powder in them for our kids, and they were SO excited to wear their special pajamas that night--and it worked!  We didn't hear a peep out of them past midnight, so Santa was able to come with no problem.

 

 Yay for Christmas mornings!!

 Shining, happy faces!

 I was surprised with a new camera (no more phone pictures!  Yay!), and as far as I could tell, the kids (and Steve--the hardest one to shop for by far) were pretty thrilled with their gifts, as well.
We then headed over to my parents' house in order to Skype with my brother, Levi, who is currently serving as an LDS missionary in Guatemala....

 And then we enjoyed game playing and just regular old Christmas fun for the rest of the day.  Nice, relaxed, and full of family, food, and friends.  I even got a nap in!

 ...My children, of course, ate all of the goodies they could hold (and then some--hence the vomiting on Jack's part), and looked like little homeless children all day long, but they were happy.

 That evening, Steve caught a stomach bug that's been floating around between members of my family, so he wasn't feeling well, but he still allowed me to snap a picture of him and Noah goofing off together:

 

And that's about it for this post.  So, all in all, our Christmas truly was wonderful, despite some of the bumps that happened along the way. 

I'm thankful for a season that gives us an opportunity to take time to spend with our loved ones, giving and receiving love, laughing together, and most importantly, focusing on our Savior.

Merry Christmas, all!