Another Christmas in Oregon

This year for Christmas we decided to stay in Oregon. With our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving we felt it would be good to stay at home and enjoy a Christmas with our little family. Something to know about me is I love the holidays and I love to make them fun. I especially like to plan fun activities when I know we won't be with family. That way I don't have time to miss anyone and I get to just enjoy time with Ben and the kids.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went up to Mt. Hood to go sledding. It had been raining for weeks straight at our house and I just wanted to see some snow! So to Mt. Hood we went with some sleds we borrowed from our friends.

We weren't disappointed. There was A LOT of snow!

Ben and Nayeli headed down the hill!

Ben decided the snow was just perfect to dig a snow cave, so we all dug in

We had so much fun! The weather was great and everything was BEAUTIFUL!

Our final snowcave- about the time the kids were tired and wet and we called it a day.

We had to have snow chains on our car since all the roads on the mountain looked like this

All the trees were beautifully frosted with snow

Once we arrived home, we got to cooking dinner. After enjoying a yummy ham dinner, we frosted gingerbread men to leave out for Santa and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, even though Nayeli told me she was too afraid of the Grinch to watch it (she's a very sensitive child when it comes to entertainment). 

This is how Ben rigged up our snow clothes so they would dry- genius.

Once we finished the Grinch, we acted out the Nativity story. Nayeli was Mary, Teddy was Joseph, Ben was the donkey and I was the angel.

After that the kids soon fell asleep and Ben and I readied the house for Santa to come. The elves had worked very hard to make fun stick horses for the kids and were so excited for the kids to see them!

Santa came! And we were even all in bed by 11pm.

The next morning at about 7am Nayeli came to my bedside and said, "Mama, can I lay by you?" I let her crawl into bed with me, wondering if she had forgotten that it was Christmas. Then she excitedly asked, "Do you think Santa came yet?" to which I replied, "Well, we'd better go see". 

Stick horses! They were so excited!

A pink flashlight!

Elsa and Anna bandaids! Whenever anyone asks what she got for Christmas, that is the first gift she mentions. 

Teddy got a dinosaur from Grandpa Dave!

Elsa and Anna figurines from Grandpa Dave!

Teddy got an airplane and wasted no time in making it fly.

Our friend Veniece gave Nayeli unicorn slippers

Of course Santa had to bring Legos

The Christmas morning mess is the best mess of all

Stick horse rodeo!

Showing off her gifts. Can you tell her favorite color is pink?

After we opened gifts we ate breakfast casserole and berry drink. That was Ben's family's traditional Christmas breakfast growing up and we have adopted it as our own. As for the rest of the day, we stayed in our pajamas and didn't leave the house once. It was wonderful.

Ben spent the entire day flying this mini-drone that I surprised him with for Christmas. He has always wanted one, so when I saw one at Costco in September for a great price, I jumped on it. He loved it.

In return, Ben surprised Nayeli and me with tickets to the Nutcracker ballet. She has been into ballet for months and so she was thrilled. It was performed by the Oregon Ballet Theater on the 26th downtown so we made a date night of it. It was so great!

My favorite moment was twenty minutes into the performance when Nayeli turned to me and excitedly asked, "Mom, are they doing ballet?" She was so well behaved and I loved it. It was magical.

In our seats

In summary, it was such a great Christmas. We had so much fun as our little family making traditions together. I'm especially grateful for the time I had to reflect on the gift that the Savior was to the world. Every Christmas I feel closer to him. It's because of Him that I have all that I have and love. I couldn't ask for more.