sometimes you get more: Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year. It was pretty relaxing and low key.

My favorite part of Christmas is the Singleton party. It was always held on Christmas Eve until a couple of years ago when we moved it to the 23rd. It's always been at that party when it really starts to feel like Christmas. This was our first Chirstmas without Grandma Singleton and the party just happened to fall on the 6 month anniversary of her death. It put a little sober feeling over the party but it was still a very enjoyable time.

As a kid I always remember having a little talent show at the Singleton party. All of my cousins would play amazing piano pieces and my family would do things like put nylon stockings on our heads and sing Jingle Bells as we pulled the stockings off and our faces were smashed and funny looking. Good memories....

This year my cousins Shannon and Brooke played Sleigh Ride on the piano. It was the only talent of the night but it brought back great memories. It is a seriously difficult piece and they played it wonderfully. They are amazing!

On Christmas Eve we had Adam and Megan over for our Arnesen party. We are the only Arnesen's around so it's a pretty small party! We always love getting together with them but don't do it enough.

Megan made homemade ice cream for dessert. The kids loved the toppings and especially loved crushing the oreos.

Here we are with the spread for our ice cream.

After the party we got ready to put the kids to bed and read The Night Before Christmas by the Christmas tree. The kids actually went to sleep pretty good this year and Nate and I got to work! We give one gift to each child and Santa brings one gift. At 11pm I realized that the one and only gift I had for Alex was no where to be found. To this day we have never found it. After a bit of panicking and some quick thinking we turned an extra gift that we were planning to give to all the kids into Alex's gift.

Here are some of the Christmas morning pictures.

After opening presents at home we drove to my parents church to attend with them. I LOVED having a few presents in the morning and then off to church to enjoy the spirit and remember exactly why we are celebrating.

After church we headed to my parents house for breakfast (for lunch) and then more gift giving and recieving with cousins. I wish I had gotten a picture of the pile of presents there. It was massive!

Here is Abby almost getting lost in her pile of gifts from Grandma and Grandpa (they love to spoil the grandkids!)