Family Christmas Dinner.

As our family has gotten pretty big with grandkids having kids, ( for mom and dad.... not me yet! My grandkids are way too young yet!) and trying to work out schedules for visiting extended family with the holidays, we set up a new tradition where we would plan on having our big family dinner the Sunday before Christmas and Thanksgiving. It works out well as we know when to plan and have the holiday to be with other family members on the other side, or spend a quiet day at home.

We usually have the dinner at Sandy's house as she is pretty much in the middle for those in the Salt Lake area and those down in the Provo/Orem area. That and she has a larger kitchen/family room area. My house is a split level with too many stairs for the kids to fall down! It has worked out pretty well, at least for us, poor Sandy and Bryan..... It can get pretty noisy with all the little kids running around as they get excited to see their little cousins (well second cousins!) that they haven't seen in a bit. We really need to do this in the warmer weather at a nice park so they can run and play! My mom and dad really love watching the little ones play.

My sister Sandy, with Lily, Victor teasing Lily with a bottle, Cassie and their baby. Victor and Benjamin.

Jordan wasn't too happy, he was a bit tired, until the pictures down below......

Brooklyn and Pyper had fun playing all day together.

Spencer and Ashton. It was funny to see Ashton by his two 2nd cousins.... one was a couple of weeks older than Ashton, and one was about 5 weeks younger, and they both were quite a bit bigger than Ashton. Of course Ashton was only 4 1/2 pounds at birth! Brooklyn, Pyper and the rest of the kids waiting to be pushed in the bag!

Jordan sat down on the large plastic bag that Grama and Grampa Great had all the great grandkids gifts in. He had been a little fussy, so Andy pushed him on the bag across the room, and that was it.... he loved it so much he came back for more...

Christmas Traditions

So when we were kids growing up, I remember mom and dad yelling at us all night long.... "Get Back into Bed!" everytime we tried to sneak a peak at what Santa had brought us. I remember one year my dad had gone outside and peered through the window with some sort of Santa face and a flashlight! He rapped on the window and I looked out as it was by my bed, and uh oh! Santa! "If you don't go to sleep I will not come! I am going to Zentera's house and if you aren't asleep by the time I am done you won't get any presents from me!" Boy that did it! I don't think we ever went to sleep quicker than that night!

Another time we tried to sneak out, they had placed the loveseat across the doorway into the living room, with stacks of boxes all up pretty high.... I wonder how long it took them to come up with that one! ha ha.... anyway I thought I was pretty smart and was trying to crawl under the loveseat, which had a bar across the bottom from one end to the other attached to the legs,..... I got stuck at first! I knew I would get a serious lickin if mom and dad got out of bed... thankfully they just did the usual.... "Get back into bed!" and I got myself unstuck.... and of course my cohorts in crime,,, Sandy, Kathy and Rick left me to unstick myself and get caught alone!

We usually would spend a couple of hours watching all the Christmas programs.... Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is coming to town, Miracle on 34th street, older version of course, and musical specials, like with Donny and Marie Osmond.... Ahhhhh the good ol days..... And then would start the ritual of the all night chorus of.... "Get Back in Bed or Santa Will NOT Come!"

When we had our kids I thought I would be smarter than my parents were, ha ha.... We WOKE OUR KIDS UP!!!! after midnight and Santa had come already.... How is THAT for a switch???? I figured they could play for a bit and then go to bed. They would be tired so we would sleep in for a bit longer, and then spend a quiet Christmas day... it was nice as it also broke up the Santa bit from the actual day and spent it as a family or visiting family when we were back in the States, or in Utah with the rest of the family. It actually worked pretty good! And when the kids got a bit older, they could stay up and play or what ever, and we could go back to bed! This was of course when we could trust them not to make a horrific mess.

Christmas Eve 2008.

Tiff and Kaydance stayed with us this Christmas, for once. They had come up a few times but ended up spending most of the time with Brad's family. Tiff decided she wanted to keep with the usual Faulring tradition of waking Kaydee up to open her gifts. I had to work Christmas Eve until 1:30 a.m. so she waited till I got home so I could grab some pictures as well. Poor Kaydee was pretty tired, but woke up pretty fast!

Kaydee opening her gifts.

Look at all the stuff that was in the stocking! Kaydance is excited about the Sleeping Beauty movie from Grama. She had opened her other gifts from grama a couple of days ago, as she was soo anxious!

Kaydance's mommy got her a Tinkerbell jacket. A Barbie bedroom set.

More furniture for the Barbie house. Boy, Santa sure liked Kaydee this year!

Kaydance is excited about her Barbie car.

It was a Barbie Christmas, for sure! Santa also left Kaydance a Barbie dream house back at her home in Phoenix. Look at all the loot! My dachshund puppy Heidi wants to see what all the excitement is about! Kaydee in her new Tinker Bell pajamas her mommy got her.

Christmas 2008.

I love Christmas with the decorations, and especially driving around looking at all the houses with their lights and decorations. I hate when I can't (well maybe can't is too strong a word,... but you know what I mean....) turn the lights on after New Years day, or end of the holidays. I am so bad with the holidays, and always have been (shame on me!) I have always been the one to put the tree up and decorate it; it has always been "My thing" I would usually put it up in my birthday or the day after Thanksgiving, sometimes they were the same day. I was pretty selfish that way, my poor kids. They probably couldn't wait to grow up to get to decorate the tree! A few times we had another tree, though a little smaller, that they could decorate. This year was hard with the dogs and cats knocking it over constantly!

Christmas dinner was as Jon and Bri's this year. As Bri had just had Adelyn Grayce the 4th of Dec. they did not want to take her out in the cold and all the snow.... reasonable enough. I worked for a few hours and then came home and had Tiffany help me with the ham. I also made a green bean casserole. We had a wonderful meal with ham, greenbean casserole, Bri's fabulous funeral potatoes, rolls, salad, and what have ya. If was pretty good and filling.

Spence and Renee were there with their kids, and Tiff and Kaydance and I. Scott wasn't feeling too good and stayed home in bed. I took some dinner to him a bit later. Joe had to work and missed the fun,..

I didn't get pictures of the dinner but I did get pictures of the kids opening their gifts.... as seen below........

Merry Christmas from the Faulrings

I love Christmas sugar frosted cookies... I love this shirt! I saw this at Shopko when looking for a gift for a friend. If you can't read it, it says, "Who needs Santa when I have Grandma." This is Ashton at 5 1/2 months.

Bri and baby Adelyn Grayce. Addy is about 2 weeks here.

Ashton sleeps through all the noise and excitement.

Jordan opening his monster truck from Grama.

Kaisa loves her ballerina pajamas from Grama.

Jon and Gage. Gage loves his new pajamas from Grama.

Kaisa opening a gift. Jordan likes his new pajamas from Grama.

Jon and Gage, watching Kaleb opening his Transformers. Spencer helping Pyper