Five Boys & a Girl: Christmas: The Festivities

Before we shipped out to Utah we went to a Snowman Party at our cute friends, the Boyers. We watched Frosty the Snowman, ate

melted snowmen (potato soup), drank white hot chocolate, and made marshmallow snowmen. The boys (6 in all, as the Boyers have 2 little guys) all had great fun.

The ward Christmas Party is always a good time. A little crazy with a lot of people, but fun none the less.

Talmage and Truman were both shepard's in the Nativity and Tae sang some fantastic Christmas songs with the rest of the primary kids & was the only one of our boys' daring enough to sit on Santa's lap, so only one photo op with the big man in red. In the end the after party "clean-up" had to of been Taede & Tal's favorite part.

They

helped pretty good...until a game of soccer (with a basketball) got underway. The played until the lights went out.

....Utah here we come! We were so excited to spend the holiday's with our family! We had a countdown on the wall, not for Christmas, but for our trip home!

The boys were super good on our flight out. One of the first thing that we got to do was go to one of my sisters basketball games. We got stuck in traffic, lots of it, on the way to

Logan. Talmage had to go potty and there was no way we were loosing our place in the traffic line so we improvised. We were stopped and only moving about 1 mile per hour so Talmage peed out the window. I know we are

great parents, but that's the great thing about having boys. So, we made it to the game and we played Utah State...they didn't fair as well as we hoped in the game, they lost, but it was so fun to see my little sis play college ball.

Taede, Talmage, & Truman were by far the best fans there. Go SUU!

Taede was watching the game....and the cheerleaders.

Back to Bethlehem is a yearly tradition in the Stucki Family.

The family dawned pajamas and bath robes and we enjoyed a wonderful array of

breakfast foods (my creative sister-in-law made the chocolate mice). Grandma Stucki read a story and quizzed the kids

afterward and we watched a video about a pioneer family who sacrificed so much for the building of the Salt Lake temple. It it such a wonderful time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Family pictures all around. We had pictures on both sides of the family since everyone was in town.

The Hosking Family 2008

The Stucki Family 2008

The reason for these pictures, was to get a huge family photo of the entire Shaum Family (I don't have a copy of that one yet). Every single member of the family was there! Spencer's cousin put the whole thing together for Grandma and Grandpa. It was wonderful. We enjoyed yummy turkey steaks at Maddox after our photo session.

The Anderson Family Party was held at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's neighborhood clubhouse. The boys always love swimming, and swim they did. There was food, a white

elephant gift exchange, and BUNKO (I tied for the win thank you). It was so great to see my family, many of whom I hadn't seen for almost 2 years!

We also got to meet my sisters boyfriend, Tyler, who we have heard so much about.

Great-Grandma & Grandpa Anderson have 7 children and I can't even count how many grandchildren and great-grand children. We loved seeing them.

We made a visit to Grandma & Grandpa Peaches (aka Great-Grandma and Grandpa Stucki).

It was great to visit with our grandparents and actually get to talk with them. The boys loved the tractor, maybe we'll get one when we move to Texas.

Christmas Eve brought a party at Grandma & Grandpa Angel's! Always great food and so much fun. Taede played the part of Joseph, Talmage was a wiseman, Truman was a donkey, and Tag was the baby Jesus, in the Shaum Family Nativity. We sang, shared stories, & just loved being together.

The main event...Christmas!! We stayed with Spence's parents until the 24th and then we

moved over to my parents house for the remainder of the trip.

We woke up and the boys went running. Santa must of thought the boys good...because they got what they wished for. We traveled from Bountiful to Willard and everywhere in between on Christmas Day. We carried on with the Pig's Breakfast tradition at GG and GP's. Always delicious, always fun! The boys also got to get what may now be termed the "Christmas money grab" instead of the "Birthday money grab" (I'll have to clear the new name with GP first :).

Anyway, Taede, Talmage, Truman, and their cute girly cousin Cambria got to grab 3 or 4 or

5...maybe 6 handfuls of money out of the huge glass piggy bank. Spoiled little great-grandkids. We also enjoyed the annual Stucki Family get-together that evening. Lots of food and LOTS of people

. And every year Grandpa Peaches makes a candy sled for EACH person in the family...that's a lot of candy sleds! Once again my boys got way to many presents and were totally spoiled. We are so very blessed, not only monetarily but through such wonderful examples of generosity.

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We also got to bless sweet baby Taggart Sidney in Utah with our family. He was big enough to smile at everyone...almost big enough to wave to everyone, but I really wanted him to be blessed by his great-grandfathers, grandfathers, uncles, and his father. It was a beautiful blessing. All of my boys are so blessed to have such wonderful examples in their lives. Tag is such a sweet and happy boy and we love him so much!

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In between all of the action we also went shopping with GG, to Chuck E. Cheese...not once but

twice (1 time with each of our families),

sledding, GP's famous fondue...yum,yum as well as the celebration of GG's 76th birthday, a trip to Hill Air force Base Museum,

made gingerbread houses, watched Bethany & Braun perform in the Savior of the World production, visited friends, played games, watched movies, and just laughed and enjoyed our time back home. And I am certain that I forgot something!