Grandma's Annual Christmas Party

Every year Grandma Hawkins has her annual Christmas party with pictures of our new church clothes, Grandpa Claus and the pass the gift game.  It always ends with a slumber party full of yummy food, craft projects and the Olive the Other Reindeer movie.  The kids love it and always have a great time with their cousins and grandma.  What a blessing to live so close to family! 

Elementary Sing Along

This year at the elementary Christmas sing along I only had one kid! I can't believe my kids are getting so old! Laiklie sang 3 songs with the drama club and one with her 5th grade class.  Sure love this cutie patootie! This is her with her friend Taylor.  She was the only friend we were able to grab after for a quick picture.  Funny they are in the same grade. Laiklie towers over her. Hahaha! 

Laiklie

Laiklie was helping me wrap the cousin presents one night while the kids were at mutual and as she was wrapping she told me, "My wrapping is on point!" Hahahaha! Funny coming from the girl using her toe to hold the paper down while getting tape. 

Christmas Dance Recital

Oakley and Laiklie's groups are doing a combined Newsies dance this year.  They danced it at the Christmas recital.  I was the backstage help so this was the only view I got of it.  Super cute dance though! Laiklie is in the tan had sitting next to her friend Ellie and Oakley is in the blue shirt and vest closest to me in the last picture.  Their cousin Ciara is in Laiklie's group this year too, so it makes it fun to be able to have a dance all 3 of them do together! 

Christmas for the Elders

Elder Davis and Elder Estrada have been serving in our stake for several months now and we have had them in our home several times.  We love these elders and are so proud of them for their service! They are working hard and we wanted to make sure they were taken care of for Christmas.  I had my primary children gather "things a missionary would need" to add to our Christmas box for them.  The ward got involved and we ended up having THREE big boxes PLUS new pillows to give them when they came to pick-up the package.  What a special day! We sang them a Christmas song and they stayed to shake the kids hands afterwards. The kids loved that probably more than putting together the package. :) What a great way to light the world this Christmas season!

Girls Night Out

Laiklie and I had a girls night out to the Nut Cracker.  Neither of us had ever been so it was super fun to go.  We loved it and both agreed that next time Oakley is totally coming with us! 

Christmas Deliveries

We took the kids out to do our neighborhood Christmas treat deliveries.  This bunch of knuckleheads are a crack-up! And yes....Laiklie was with us. The big kids just made her run to almost all the houses! Sucks being the youngest. :)

This year we also did the 12 Days of Christmas for a widower in our neighborhood named Bud Price. The kids don't even know Bud, but Ryan used to be his home teacher and we decided we wanted to make his Christmas bright.  It ended up being the highlight of our Christmas. They loved running things to his door each night.  He would watch for us and we were never speedy enough to miss him. Hahaha! It definitely brought the spirit of Christmas to our home!