Tis the season for celebrating!!!

Christmas is definitely my very favorite time of year. I love all of the traditions that we have as a family. This year was even better than most because some of our favorite people came up from Texas. Breven and Luci decided to brave the snow and cold to spend the holidays with us. My kids love hanging out with their kids. This is the first time we've ever been with them at Christmas and it may be the last (unless we go down there). They said that they will never drive to Utah again in the winter. They had an awful experience with the snow.

We did lots of fun things together. Temple square is always a must!



Tanner and his bud Koby
The girls with Cora
Ashlyn with Avery

For Christmas Eve this year, Baylen's dad decided to do something a little different. We had a big party at the church. It still included the clam chowder, french cheese and bread, but we also did some different things.

The kids had fun hanging out together

No Sillito gathering is complete without a little volleyball!

We had a special visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. They were a big hit!
I think that grandpa was just as excited about Santa as the kids were!
We did lots of different relay races...

Ashlyn really hit it off with Breven while he was here. She was so excited that she was his partner for the races.
Of course, there's always an incredible production of the nativity...
and lots of presents!!!
It was a really fun day. We got home around 8:00 that night and the kids wanted to go to bed right a way so that Christmas morning would come sooner! So, we read the nativity and put out stockings and cookies for Santa. Then Baylen and I stayed up and watched the Polar Express by ourselves. It was a perfect night!

Christmas morning came really early. I can't remember exactly what time we woke up but I remember it feeling like the middle of the night when the kids came bouncing in. Here they are at the top of the stairs waiting for us to go down and turn the Christmas tree lights on.
Here are Ashlyn and Tanner checking out their stocking loot. A favorite stocking stuffer was definitely the huge amount of Chuck E. Cheese coins that they each got. Santa must have gotten the memo that I'm tired of "junk" sitting around my house :)

I think Tanner and Mickell's favorite presents were their new MP3 players
Hailey LOVED her new roller blades!
Out of all of her presents, I think that Ashlyn's favorite was her Dora uno game. I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of it... oh wait, it's because I was playing it with her over and over and over and over. The picture must have slipped my mind.

Baylen has to try out his new backpacking mummy bag
I love hats on kids. However, because I am so cheap, I can never justify buying them. So, I decided that Christmas is a great time to justify just about anything!
Here are a couple of the kids in their new hats...

After we were done opening presents at our house, we packed up and went to grandma and grandpa Whipple's for more presents and a delicious breakfast.
We were definitely spoiled!!! That evening we got together with the Bird clan at my Aunt Janet's house. Apparently I didn't take my camera because I can't find any pictures. But we had a lot of fun hanging out with them.

Well, there's Christmas 2010 in a nutshell. We sure feel blessed to have so many amazing people that we were able to to spend it with!