Christmas . . . better late than never . . .

I am determined to catch up on my blog in the next week or so! My goal is to find some way to make a book of it and then hopefully all my guilty feelings of not keeping a journal, making scrapbooks for my kids, filling out a baby book for Justin, organizing my pictures, etc. will be a little less severe. There is just not enough time in my day to do half the things I need to do and my to do list is always getting bigger. So . . . here is how we celebrated our Christmas . . . over two months ago . . .

We started our celebrating early in the month with our Gingerbread House Party at TJ and Carrie's. As you can see below Justin was very focused as he placed his candies on. It was a fun night and will have to for sure be a yearly tradition.

Later in the month we went to the Marriot at Desert Ridge with some friends to see their amazing Gingerbread house display. It was all homemade and smelled so good! Needless to say it made our little houses seem pretty small.

Julia had a Christmas Performance at her preschool. She was very excited to sing all the Christmas songs and very happy to wear the pretty Christmas dress Grandma Janet gave her.>

She had her second performance at her dance class. There Julia and her cousin Madison danced to lots of holiday songs and pretended to be on a sleigh ride with her teacher Miss Carolyn. It was adorable!

Then we took advantage of the free Santa at Fry's. He was a little creepy and not quite jolly and plump as the kids expected, but hey, he was free. Can't beat that!>

This picture cracks me up. Justin was trying to be brave and trying to smile, but it didn't quite work out. He looks terrified!

Christmas Eve we had such fun festivities at Janet's house. We had a delicious dinner and then Janet had so many cute activities prepared for the kids, as always. She made the most adorable Swedish dresses for the little girls to wear with their crowns of holly and then made hats for the boys (notice Mason in the back). She is always teaching the kids about their heritage and doing the traditions she grew up with. I love that!

One of my favorite parts of this holiday celebration was the spontaneous handstand contest Chad, Kim and Natalie had on the street. It was perhaps even better than the year we measured our heads and the width of our calves as a family (that may have been Thanksgiving, but, oh yes, we did it). Natalie did prove to be the champion of this - sticking that exact pose she has here for an exceptionally long time. Kim and Chad gave a solid effort, too and impressed us all. Tyler was amazed - as you can see by his front row view. I think he was really concerned that they were going to hurt themselves.

Tyler and Joshua are getting so grown up! They still continue to have so much fun together and were dying laughing as they struck this pose for the camera. Had to post this for them.

Janet always gets the kids matching pajamas to wear Christmas Eve and had to buy quite a few sets this year. I don't know how she does it all! The kids loved their pajamas and Santa hats and we had them all sit with the Grandma they love so much for this wild and crazy picture.

After Janet's we headed to my parent's house and got there just in time for a visit from Santa. He has come to see the kids the last couple of years. He sings a couple Christmas songs with them and then is on his way . . .

Anyone that knows my mom knows we always have to pose for a family picture. We give her a hard time about it, we have for years, but we're always glad to have them. Here is our little family with my parents and my brother TJ and his little family.

Julia always gets really excited when she and I do things together. So, as Julia would say this one is "just the girls."

Here are my handsome boys ready to open presents.

Finally we're on to Christmas morning. Here are the kids so excited to see what Santa brought them.

I had to get a picture of Justin opening one of his presents. I thought I'd make it easy for him this year and put his presents in gift bags. Well, that plan was a bust! Christmas morning he was sobbing because he wanted to open the ones with paper. So, luckily his brother and sister let him help them with some of theirs.

Santa pulled through with his annual scavenger hunt for the kids. Tyler read the clues as the kids scurried around the house to find their presents. They always have so much fun doing this.

I don't know where she got the idea, but this year all Julia wanted from Santa was BROWNIES! Anytime anyone would ask her what she wanted that's what she would say. So, Santa delivered and had Mrs. Claus bake a delicious batch of brownies for Miss Julia. As you can see she was pretty excited about it.

We continued to celebrate Christmas when my brother David and his family came to visit around New Years. We went to see the Zoo Lights, opened more presents, and had the kids act out the Nativity. As you can see Justin wasn't so sure about dressing up. He was Joseph and, well, the picture says it all.

Here are all the Hazar grandkids for the final night of celebrating!

We had an amazing Christmas season with lots of fun with family and friends. Although it happened quite awhile ago, we can't leave it out of the blog!

One more post and I think I'm caught up. Stay tuned . . .