Our Christmas Eve Festivities......

 We started our Christmas Eve celebration with a delicious dinner. Dylan had discovered the Italian tradition of having a meatless dinner on Christmas Eve and had requested quiche. Mike found a great recipe and made the quiche. We also had sparkling cider and crescent rolls. Another Italian tradition that we incorporated this year is to read a letter that the kids wrote and placed under Mike's dinner plate. It brought on tears when Mike read the note. The boys had written a heartfelt message telling Mike and I how much they loved us and thanking us for being their parents. They also gave us a set of coupons to help around the house. We have been blessed with such great kids! This is a tradition we will continue and was my favorite part of Christmas. Dylan squinting with the flash of the camera. I loved his smile here.

 Tate is tired of photos and is ready to eat....                                    
                                             
 A few sweet hugs shared at the dinner. We are so blessed!

 After dinner, we picked up Grandma Orton from Uncle Kelly's house and went and visited our favorite Nativity Scene while Mike read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible.  It was special to share it with Grandma Orton and then we drove around looking at Christmas lights. I forgot the camera for this part of the evening. The boys were excited to get home and get to bed so that Bernie and Sparky could bring some of Santa's gifts. They opened their pajamas and this year they had asked for a blanket with their PJ's. I made each of them a fleece blanket and they loved them. They helped pick out the fleece material.

Bathed, in Christmas PJ's with warm blankets, and time to go to bed so Santa's Elves can arrive.

Our Christmas Eve snow fort....

 We celebrated Christmas Eve on the 22nd since I was at the hospital on the evening of the 23rd. Mike took the boys outside and built a huge snow fort with them as things were prepared inside. The boys had so much fun and were very proud of what they had created.

 Tate worked very hard carrying this bucket full of snow. He slept great that night.

Dylan is being silly, once again, trying to avoid the camera.

The Annual Rowley Family Christmas Party.....

 We traveled to Parowan for the Rowley Christmas festivities. It was a long drive as we stopped at four different accidents. The roads were very icy. It usually takes us about 3 hours to travel to Parowan and it took 5 hours this trip! When we arrived the family was in Cedar ice skating. They shortly arrived back in Parowan and we ate soup and Chili and started our family sweater party. Uncle James was the official winner in this cute woman's turtleneck. He is very daring! I was hoping to get a photo of our little family in our lovely sweaters, but we were having so much fun that I forgot to take a photo.

 The kids having a fun snowball fight with their cousins.

 A little photo moment at the manger scene.

 We had a fun ride in a wagon as we looked at Christmas lights and sang Christmas Carols.

 Dylan being goofy.

Our sweet Grandma and Great-Grandma listening to everyone sing carols.  We were able to attend Church services while in Parowan and it was nice to spend a few days in pretty Parowan with wonderful family. We were also able to take Mike's Christmas gift and go target shooting.

The Annual Green Family Christmas Party.....

 Uncle John and Aunt Liz never fail to have a fun party! Once again, it was full of fun, laughter, good food, and great people. We had a great night visiting with family, eating, and a visit from St. Nicholas.

 

 The kids gathering around to sing with Santa Claus.

 Tate's turn to sit on Santa's lap

 Opening his gift from Santa....

 Dylan's turn and he did a great job of avoiding the camera. ON PURPOSE....STINKER!

The excitement when Dylan also got a treasured minecraft sword.

And then this began and it has not stopped since. Love these boys and how they play so well together.

Our Annual Neighborhood Food Drive.......

 We love having the food drive. This year it was cold, but we still had a great turnout and loved serving hot chocolate and donuts to our neighbors and collecting food for a good cause. The boys were able to go with us to the food bank and were able to see the inside of the food bank. They were amazed at the scale used to weigh the food. Dylan came home and was excited to draw a blueprint of the building with his estimation of what the square footage was. Mike and I were amazed that he did this. I wish I would have taken a picture of it; he may be a builder. I hope this experience teaches my boys the value of hard work, contributing to the community, and the importance of friendship. We live in a great neighborhood who donated generously. We donated over 200 lbs of  food and we had a great time doing it. Love our neighbors!

The Midway Creche and Thanksgiving Point......

 We were able to make it to the Creche this year again. It was also on our list of "must do events." The boys have gained an appreciation of the Nativity Scene through this activity and Dylan was the first to add the event to the list. This year they had old-fashioned Carolers who were singing Christmas songs, which added a nice spirit. The ride through Midway is always beautiful at this time of year.

 The Fontanini display scene. I am always partial to the Fontanini  and Dylan was way into the display, since he was doing a presentation in school about Italy and Italy's Christmas traditions.

These were some favorite light displays of the lights at Thanksgiving Point. Another family favorite tradition. We went for family night on a Monday and we thought it would be packed, but it wasn't and we all had a great time.

The end was the best for Mike and I with the display of Simon Dewey's photos to the song, " Once within a Lowly Stable." It was beautiful!

 At the barn, they were carving ice sculptures.

 And, we were also able to see Vixen and Comet.

We ended the evening feeding the kids a ice cream sundae. They were all smiles of course, ice cream is one of their favorite foods!

Sparky returns with a new friend.....

Sparky has been our family elf since Dylan was a babe. I actually knew I would have a family elf long before The Elf on the Shelf idea even started, and before Mr. D was born. When I was working at Primary Children's my first Christmas as a RN, a family told me how they have a family elf that helps Santa since the dad also works some Holidays as a pilot.  I loved this idea and knew I would adapt this tradition in my home. Needless to say, Sparky had been our elf for all these years.  This year I was scheduled to work around the Christmas Holiday at the hospital and so Mike thought it would be a great idea to have two elves helping Santa. Sparky would bring the gifts on Christmas Eve (the 24th) and our new elf would help to deliver gifts on the 23rd, since we would be celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day early since mom was going to be at the hospital. The boys thought this was fabulous since they would be getting, "two Christmas's."  It actually worked out really well and their gifts were just divided out in two days. We let them choose the name of Sparky's helper elf and they chose the name Bernie. So we had a new elf join our family this year and help out Santa and Sparky. The funny thing is that one night when Bernie was up to his elf tricks he had a fall and the boys found him laying on the ground in the living room with his head off. We glued his head back on multiple times and the boys called him, "Bernie with the head injury." It has become a family joke.

 Here is Sparky and Bernie enjoying some chips and salsa.

Dylan loved the elf idea this year. I think it kept him in the game(if you know what I mean).

Tate celebrates the Holiday at school.......

 Tate had some fun activities at school to celebrate the Holiday. We love his teacher, Mrs. Lauritzen and so does he. She goes all out for her students, and she had the annual "Polar Express Day." Here is Tate with his ticket to ride in his pajamas, which he wore to school that day. Tate's quote when he came home from school that day was, "It was the best day ever!"

 Here is the "little man," with his dress up for "Elf Day." Santa told him he was the "perfect little elf."

A Night in Bethlehem.....

 My Aunt Liz has been inviting us for a few years to go see the Draper Stake presentation of, "A Night in Bethlehem. This year we were able to make it and it was such an incredible spiritual experience for our family. I wish I could have taken pictures inside, but they banned photos. It was a replica of how it would have been in Bethlehem when our Savior was born. It was amazing and worth the two hour wait.

 They had livestock there, including a camel. We were able to pet the camel and it felt like mink.

 Tate petting a pygmy goat.

 The boys had a long wait. Luckily, my Aunt was familiar with the wait and so we had hot cocoa and snacks to make the time pass. The boys sat on the curb every chance they could.