{Christmas Eve . . .}

Our Christmas Eve is always more eventful than our Christmas day. It is filled with fun and laughter, as well as moments of peace, thinking about the true meaning of Christmas.

Here are some pictures of the Hammer family celebration:

{Sophie and the pinata}

{Ayden with the backside of the reindeer!}

{Soph with cousin Brandon}

{Back at the Hammer house Logan decided to grace us with a little "Yes Man"}

Next up was the Nativity. It was the one thing Ayden had been looking forward to all day. He couldn't decide what he wanted to be and after a lot of thought he told me, "Mom, I want to be the Hay." To which I replied, "Sweetie, I don't think there's a hay costume." And he said, "but what will be in the manger for the baby Jesus to lay on?" What a sweetie.

{So he settled for being a wise man, and Sophie was an angel}

{He took his role very seriously} 

After the Nativity, it was time for Santa to come!!

And then it was on to the Rife/Parsons celebrations:

{with the cousins: Alysha, Jenny, Karrissa, and me}

{For the program Sophie and her second cousin Mckinnley sang and played "Jingle Bells"}

{My uncle got this sweet shot of Ayden, mid-head spin!}

{Michael, Trevor, and Logan performed an awesome creative movement to a compilation of Christmas song}

{And the kids finished off the night by opening some presents from Nana and Papa!]

{Christmas PJ's!}

Scrooge

We go to the Hale Center Theater's version of "A Christmas Carol" every year with my family. It has been a tradition for a long time and it is one that I love dearly.

This year it was extra special because we got to take Ayden with us. It was such a neat experience to share with him something that has such a huge impact on my life. 

I wasn't sure how to explain to him what a play is so the best I could do was to say it was like a movie but with real people. To which he replied, "movies aren't real people?". At that point I was stumped so I told him just to wait and see. He loved every minute of it! He had lots of questions, but he was quiet and respectful though it all and as we were walking our he asked,"Hey Papa, how come they have to use real people there, don't they have a TV?"

I'm so grateful to my parents for instilling a love of this precious story in my heart. I truly believe it is a gift from God.

Dance concert

This is the second year that Ayden has had a Christmas concert. Last year didn't end well. He had a meltdown and wouldn't perform after his Nana and Papa had come up all the way from Orem to watch.  

So this year I was a little leery about inviting people to come, but since it Sophie was performing too, I thought we'd go for it and . . . .

It was Awesome! He did such a great job! 

He even had a solo at the end when all the girls fell down.

This is his best friend at school, Abrianna.

And Sophie performed too. She decided that she would rather stand with the teacher than on the stage, but we still got to see her perform for a minute.

It there anything cuter than a leo and tights in a size 2T?!

We were sad that Nana and Papa couldn't come up due to a bad storm, but it was fun to have Brammy and Aunt Jenny and Uncle Trevor there to support them!

I'm so proud of my little monkeys! I love to perform so much, but I could never have imagined how fun it would be to watch my own children perform. What a blessing!

Christmas lights

We make a list at the beginning of every December of all the things we want to do during the holidays. (and when I say we . . . I mean we, the "Flammers")

It usually consists of going to see lots of lights, having lots of hot chocolate, a neighborhood party, and many Christmas movies.

Last week it was time for the Flammers and Browns to see the lights. Originally we wanted to take the kids to Temple Square, but at the last minute we decided to go up to Ogden where they light up the park with a bunch of little houses decorated with different themes for Christmas. They also have someone performing at the amphitheater outside there. It is a really fun atmosphere to get you pumped for Christmas!

{Shelly and Texie}

{Daddy and Ayden (who just woke up from a catnap in the car. Doesn't he look happy)}

{Sophie and Mommy}

The kids had a blast! I feel really lucky to have such great friends here that we can do these fun things with.

Christmas ornaments

Logan and I started a tradition the first year we were married of making a Christmas decoration each year. We started with some wall hangings but moved on to ornaments for the tree. The kids have so much fun getting them out each year and remembering when we made them.

Logan picked them out this year again and the kids had a great time decoration their 2008 ornaments!

We made them strip down so as not to ruin any of their clothes.

Daddy helped Soph . . .

And I helped Ayden . . .

And then we got to hang them on the tree!

{like mother . . . like son}

I've always had somewhat of a phonographic memory. I remember lines from movies (inflection and all) with ease and quote them more than I'm sure my friends care for.

Apparently that is an inherit-able trait that I passed on to my son. This became even more apparent this morning when we had this conversation:

"Mom, how come you don't eat kid cereal?"

"Oh, because I don't like to eat sugar for breakfast"  (just the rest of the day)

"Hey Mom, do you know what has sugar in it?"

"What bud?"

"Candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup."  (Will Ferrell in ELF)

It was a proud moment.

{It's beginning to look . . . }

A lot like Christmas around here!

We had a tradition (that I'm sure many of you share) of spending the day after Thanksgiving putting up all of our Christmas decorations. We don't add to the decor we already have . . . we completely remove all decorations not pertaining to Christmas and box them up to make room for the winter wonderland! It's madness . . . but we love it! 

Carrying up the tree!

Just to give you a little preview of what's to come . . . here are all the Christmas boxes!

The kids were such good helpers and they could hardly wait to decorate the tree!

Ayden even got to climb up the ladder and put the star on the top!

While the girls worked on putting the finishing touches inside. . . the boys headed outside to put up the lights! Logan got really into it this year and ended up doing quite a bit more than we had last year.  I'm so glad he loves it though, he did such a great job!

And so . . . the finished product:

Like I said . . . it's a winter wonderland!