Christmas

This Christmas was the first one we've ever spent at our own home. Anders' sister, Nisha, joined us for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was spent at my sister's house, where we had the Griggs' Family traditional meal and then had all the kids act out the nativity. Ellen played the part of baby Jesus and Summer played (I use the term lightly....she was quite distressed at having a costume) the part of a shepherd.  Overall, it was a wonderful evening.

Lyla the Angel 

 Janae and Daniel were the wisemen.

 Tyler as Joseph, Katie as Mary, and Ellen as baby Jesus.

Here are several of our actors.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Summer slept until almost 8:30, as did Ellen, so we had a late start to the morning. I joked that Ellen's gift to me would be sleeping through the night-and I was totally right! She slept from about 11:00 until 6:30 and then went right back to bed. My wish was granted! It was totally awesome. Don't worry, it isn't a consistent thing yet, but I'll certainly take it when it does happen.

Summer got way into the opening presents thing. She became a pro and was sure to put all of the wrapping paper in the designated trash box. Ellen slept soundly through most of the present opening-and decided at the end to grace us with her smiles. Following the gifts, we had the traditional Griggs' family breakfast and then we headed out to play in the snow (an entirely different blog post to come). We also got to chat with Anders' brother Porter who is currently serving a mission. That evening we headed up to Grandma Lyman's house and enjoyed sandwiches with a bunch of the Lyman's. Overall, it was a great Christmas. Here are a few pictures.

Ellen sleeping through it all.

 This is the beautiful quilt my mom made for us.