Before I post all about our big Christmas vacation, here are some pictures from the first few weeks of December:
Typical December Saturday at our house – Rachel and Lizza working on some art projects, Cynthia watching Henry do puzzles on the computer, and Tristan and Oliver playing Madden in the background. 
Cindy managed to get some lounging time in with her puzzles, too:
The next few weeks were spent doing fun things while I got ready for our trip.
Coloring Christmas pictures:
Dressing up like Captain Darth Batman: 
Making random “All About Me” posters for school. Lizza decided to make this poster just for fun, so her teacher would know a little bit more about her. (She might be an overachiever. Also, I love the “Awesome Games” corner in the top left of the poster. There’s a “what’s different?” section, a “draw yourself” section, and then plenty of tic-tac-toe games to play in case you get bored.)
We also spent some of December getting to know our cousins before the big family reunion. There are 28 grandchildren, and I knew my kids were going to get mixed up on who everybody was, and which cousins belonged to which aunt and uncle. I had all my siblings send me pictures of their kids, and then I made them into flashcards with their name and age. I printed and laminated two sets, so we could play the memory game with them, but it seemed like the favorite thing to do with the cards was to set them up by family (each family was a different color, and there was a card with the parents’ picture on it, too), or set up all the cousins in age order. 
Henry loved learning all the cousins’ names and finding out how old they were:
And it wouldn’t be December without a big Christmas puzzle on the table:
Or our annual nativity picture:
It’s fun to compare it with our pictures from other years. Here’s last year, with a 1-year old Baby Jesus:
And the year before, when Cindy was just about 6 weeks old:
I wasn’t sure if it was going to work to have her be Baby Jesus again this year, but I’m glad we did. She was so happy to get to pretend to be a baby, and she loves the nativity story, so she took her role very seriously. She kept giving pointers to Rachel on how to hold her “like a baby”, and then she’d close her eyes and shout “take a picture of Baby Jesus sleeping!” I’m pretty sure it was her last year, though. Maybe next year she can be Henry’s sheep. 
The kind and patient mother Mary: 
The joyful angel:
And the solemn shepherd: 
Henry also took his role very seriously this year. He kept coming up with fun little ideas on how I might improve the picture. In this one he wanted to be closing his eyes and cuddling his sheep to show what a good shepherd he was. Love him. 
The Sunday before we left for Utah we did a little mini early Christmas, so we didn’t have to take a bunch of presents with us. 
The kids had each drawn a name and picked out a special present to give to that person. They were so excited to finally be able to tell who they had and surprise them with their gift:
Cynthia gave Lizza a paint-by-numbers dog picture, Henry gave Rachel two gymnastics books, Lizza gave Oliver the Pass the Pigs game, Rachel gave Tristan a card game (Dutch Blitz), Oliver gave Henry some Legos, and Tristan gave Cynthia a dress-up bear puzzle set. Perfect presents for everyone.
There were also a few presents from Mom and Dad - the girls were surprised with their first real pair of boots. And don’t let Rachel’s face fool you – on the inside she is feeling like Lizza’s face. 
And some Legos for Henry (this is one of Tristan and Oliver’s sets that has been sitting on a shelf for about 5 years). We’re slowly easing Henry into bigger Lego sets as he learns to be a little bit more responsible with them.
I could watch Henry open presents all day – the level of pure excitement he shows just makes me happy.
Rachel and Lizza using some of their new Christmas art supplies:
Here’s Cynthia a few days before we left, all bundled up against the cold Texas winter (30 degrees outside counts as really cold here). (But as I write this it’s 73 degrees outside, so I know I can’t complain). 
And there’s nothing like getting all cozy on a cold night with a blanket and a good book and then falling asleep. 
Next up – Christmas in Utah trip posts. Hopefully before Valentine’s Day.
