Christmas 2015

We spent Christmas in Glendive with my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kyle who live in Williston, ND. It was small, but so special. I love doing our own traditions. We had fun putting up our Christmas tree, decorating it, and we had enchiladas for dinner (which was my Aunt Debbie's tradition).

Dawson loves the colored lights, but we kept changing it to white lights for J.D. and I. Monty pretty much broke all of our ornaments on the bottom half of the tree, so by Christmas our tree was half decorated lol!

Our little elf, Timmy came to our house this December too! Dawson is convinced he works at the library in the North Pole because every night he would bring Dawson and Monty a Christmas book!

For school Dawson had to disguise a gingerbread man so he wouldn't be eaten! So Dawson chose to make him look like Captain Hook......

I couldn't even tell he was a gingerbread man and he survived this holiday season ;-)

This Christmas we made our annual cinnamon rolls for friends in the area. They turned out to be HUGE this year, which was a bonus because there is more to eat right? 

One of our friends ;moved to the area and always did a Polar Express Night with her kids. SO we made it a big night with all of our friends and their kids. We reserved a Santa (who was President Clayton from the Stake Presidency). I was in charge of finding a Santa, so when I asked President Clayton he said he was done with playing Santa for his lifetime, but because he loved our family so much, he would do it one last time for us! It made it more special because he truly loves Dawson and Monty so much! 

We had tickets that had to be punched by a conductor and all the kids had to wear their pj's! 

Then we went into the gym and frosted lots of cookies, made reindeer food, and built a candy train! I had to wear my pjs too!

Dawson had SO much fun! 

Monty was with his best buddy Charles. This is the guy who got Monty addicted to Pepsi! We love Charles and his family, and Monty went to him every Sunday to sit with him. I think he associated Charles with treats and Pepsi, which will win Monty's heart any day!

We all went into the relief society room to watch a movie and all of the sudden we heard BELLS!! The kids ran down the hallway to find............

SANTA!!

We set up a sitting area so the kids could sit on his lap and tell them what they wanted for Christmas! Dawson and Monty were very first!

Monty wasn't quite sure what was going on, 

but Dawson came up to me afterwards and said, "Mom! It's president Clayton!"

That next evening, we set out cookies for Santa, and the boys went to bed immediately. Dawson and Monty both fell asleep as soon as I said it was time for bed. We told Dawson he couldn't come out of his room until we came and got him as 6:00 am. 

At 6:00 am we went to get Dawson and he was anxiously awaiting our 'OK' to come out. He had been awake for quite awhile, and was so obedient in waiting for us. 

The boys were SOOO excited to see their new toys from Santa!

Dawson got a DS! and a little movie player in the most "special box"

Monty was so funny to watch him play with Dawson and load up on candy so early in the morning. I've never seen Monty so happy so early!

Monty wanted to just play, but I had to get a picture of them with their Christmas jammies! They say "I'm a Nut" with a nutcracker gingerbread man. 

Monty got a little blow up house with tons of balls! He was in his glory!

Obviously, Dawson couldn't resist any longer.....

The kids got a few more things like a Globe

The game Trouble (which is one of Dawson's favorite games)

and lots of candy....

J.D. got a shotgun, and a couple movies. I got a jewelry armoir and a couple movies. The whole family got matching sweatshirts, the game telestrations, and then we got MORE in Utah. 

That afternoon of Christmas Day, we headed to Utah..... the roads were not so bad...

And they continued to be great the whole way....

Then we made it to Utah and it was a glorious site!

Monty started walking there and it was SO exciting!

The kids had a snow ball fight and played constantly every day we were there.

We got more outfits, toys, games, a United States map, expensive cleaning cloths, candy, and most importantly we got to spend time with family. While we were there in Holden, we walked through a couple homes in Holden. One was built by his great uncle in 1936.... which is important to remember as I keep posting of where we are at now. It was just a coincedence that we happened to just look through the house. :-)

Back to Christmas.... It was so special. There were so many wonderful things that happened in December. We are so grateful for the Savior and his life. We loved having Dawson start to truly understand the true meaning of Christmas.