{Holiday recap . . .}

It's taken me a while to get around to this . . . but I want to post (mostly pictures) about the wonderful holidays the Hammer family just experienced. I tried to appreciate and enjoy all this thing that made this Christmas much more simple and easy going then our next one will be. (baby on board)

We had a lot of wonderful things planned with our family this year. It started with my sister Laura's family making the trek out to celebrate with us! Our children are so close to the same age, they just get along so well and have a great time together.

They got here on the 16th and it just so happened that Sophie and Ayden's dance concert was on the 17th! Once I figure out how, I'll pull the videos off my camcorder and post them but for now, I only ended up with 1 picture of Sophie and Abby. That was the night I sat on my digital camera and broke it! (not a very good self esteem booster for a 7 month pregnant woman)

This is my kid's preschool teacher. Her name is Mrs. Marsha. They both absolutely adore her. She does an incredible job with those kids. Ayden has had her for 3 years now and he is always learning and growing in her class. We love you Mrs. Marsha!

Next up on the party til you drop December was the Kurt Bestor concert. No pics unfortunately but it was a very memorable night. We had all of our immediate family members (including Gramps and Gram) up to our house for dinner and then went to the concert up in Ogden. We don't usually get the opportunity to have our whole family in our own home, and it was such a great experience. The concert was great, as usual, although I was a little tired from spending the day getting the house ready for our guests.

Next was A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theatre. . . an awesome family tradition. Ayden went for his first time last year and loved it so this year he knew exactly what to expect! He was thrilled to have his cousins there with him!

The play was wonderful as usual, this is a family tradition I hope we continue to share with all of our children.

The next night was our trip on the Polar Express! We've never done this before and it was such an incredible adventure. The kids got to wear their pj's that Nana and Papa gave them. (and they nicknamed themselves "The Zip-up Team")

Of course Papa got us nothing but the best so we were lucky to be on the first class train!

We had Rudy (not Rudolph . . . but a reindeer in training) leading our tour. She sang songs with the kids and went around asking them what they want for Christmas. We had hot chocolate along the way and once we arrived at the North Pole we saw Santa waving to us! And as we headed back to the station Santa came through our train and gave us all a bell. It was a magical experience, one I'm sure the kids will never forget! Thanks Nana and Papa!