December

I have been a slacker this month. Normally I try to get the blog updated the first week of the month but I didn't work much the beginning of the month (which is when I usually do my posts, and when I have worked, it's been BUSY!  Now that the month is over half over I'm finally getting a chance to do it.
We started the month by getting the house all ready for Christmas.

Mia loved helping decorate the tree this year. She didn't like it when we had to rearrange her ornaments that she was stacking all on the same branch.

In the end it ended up looking pretty good I think.

 Mia started this odd thing where she likes to wear plastic bags.  She pushes her feet through the bottom and runs the handles up over her arms. I don't know where if came from but she has done it several times...silly girl.

 We had our ward Christmas party which is always fun.

 We had some pretty good entertainment and they did an adorable slide show with all the primary kids dressed up as various parts of the nativity.  Mia got to dress up as Mary for her picture.

 Of course no December is complete without a visit to Santa.  Mia asked Santa for a scooter with 2 wheels, a whistle to go around her neck, and How to Train Your Dragon.

 Monty's mom had her annual grandkid Christmas party.  They had pizza, made cookies, and made ginger bread houses.  They also got all matching pajama pants. (All the grandkids are girls so don't worry there aren't any boys running around in butterfly pants.)

 My parents came down to work on a couple Christmas projects.  It's always lots of fun when they come down.  Mia loved every minute of it.

 We took them with us to see the Christmas Villages in Ogden.  My dad had never seen them so that was pretty fun.  My mom saw them once probably 7 years ago and a lot has changed since then.

 They had tons of other lights this year in addition to the villages.

Mia and I went on an adventure one day and took the train  to Station Park and did some shopping.  Mia was really good for the shopping and absolutely loved the train ride.  She keeps asking when we are going to do it again.

Every year we also go to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square.

 Mia liked all the lights but her favorite part was the train ride down there.

 They had cool lanterns this year depicting various scenes from the nativity. They were pretty cool looking.

 We got a picture of the family all together but they didn't manage to get the tree behind us.

Another tradition we have is s sisters lunch with Monty's family.  Only the 2 younger cousins got to go this year because the other 3 were in school.

On Christmas Eve we went to Monty's parents house for the annual Fa Ra Ra dinner.  If you've eever seen A Christmas Story you would understand but it's a big Chinese dinner.  Monty's sister made sushi.  I've never had any sushi before and I have to admit this was pretty good, although there wasn't any raw fish in hers.  While we were waiting for dinner Mia got to make (and then eat) Olaf.

After the Fa Ra Ra dinner we headed home. We drove around and looked at some Christmas lights.  There were a couple houses in our area that had music synced to their light show.  They were pretty cool.  When we got home Mia got to open one present.

 It was her new Christmas jammies.  Don't mind her hair she used hand soap as gel before we left Nana's.

 After a quick bath she left milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.

 What the living room looked like after Santa came.

 Mia was really cute this year at Christmas.  When she came walking out she said "Wow oh wow it's a scooter with two wheels.  She was excited to open presents but didn't throw a fit when everything didn't revolve around her.

She enjoyed handing out presents for us to open as well.

 One of Mia's favorite presents was her Utah State blanket from Uncle Shawn.

 I got an awesome new pot and pan set.

 Mia also got a bunch of new art supplies.

 Needless to say she was spoiled once again this year.  This was even before we headed down to Monty's parents where she was spoiled again by everyone else.

 She would have been happy as a clam riding her scooter around the kitchen for the rest of the day.

 Christmas finally brought us our first snow fall of the year.  Mia helped Monty shovel the driveway before we headed out.

 I forgot to take pictures while we were all opening presents.  After presents all the girls put on their matching pajama pants (capris for the adults) for pictures.

 Although the snow didn't stick around too long Mia enjoyed sledding while she could.  She was really good at hauling her own sled up the hill this year.

 One of the times she took her new whistle with her and would toot her whistle all the way down the hill.

Hopefully we will get some more snow so she can do some more sledding.  I guess I need to start taking some pictures this month.  LOL. Guess I'm still a bit of a slacker.