Vigue's Christmas Vacation

Hallelujah for Winter Vacation!
This vacation was even better than usual because we had Grammy and Pop staying with us the first half! We LOVE having family visit.

We started off introducing them to all our friends at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.

Eliza was a little nervous of those huge dino fossils!

Micah and Tyler tried to avoid getting eaten by some T Rex.
They were not successful.

We got to watch a Gar Fish feeding. Those prehistoric fish are FAST and sneaky and have poisonous eggs. I mean, they have nothing on a good ol' Great White Shark (Eliza would not let me put her down anywhere near that thing!), but they are really cool!

We even got a group shot after church services on Christmas Eve Eve. This one reflects our kiddos personalities really well...

But this one might be even more accurate of us all.
Look how poised Grammy and Pop stay, even with all our tomfoolery!

Grammy entertained kiddos with piggy-back rides

and with silly legs (she usually only does this with the babies, but for some reason the bigger kids were getting a kick out of it, too. A kick, haha!).

Pop yelled at the Eagles gave our kids a little education about NFL rules.

We even got to have Grammy help kiddos make cookie houses!
Miraculously, they all remained standing while in our possession. It was a Christmas miracle.

Christmas Eve Eve brought the wonderful opportunity to act out the Nativity. We had some very willing actors...

some somewhat willing actors...

and some that required a little persuasion. Wise.

The weather on Christmas Eve was beautiful and sunny (and COLD!) which allowed the kiddos to get out for a long walk with Grammy on the river trail.

We has some of our favorite people join us for our traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Eve.

Everything is better with dear friends and family!

Even if Amelia had to sit alone at the counter!

Eliza got her first real taste of sparkling cider and tasted true love for the first time.
She and that cider were inseparable the rest of the meal. 

My absolute favorite tradition is our Christmas Vigil. This year we actually lit candles (like Tyler grew up doing) and it really added such a special ambiance. The Spirit was so strong as we read the events of our Savior's birth and sang carols of praise and joy.

The kiddos got to open new jammies and hung their stockings with care.

Merry Christmas Eve to some of our absolute favorite people in the world!
The kids got their wished-for Christmas Eve storm during the night and it left us with several inches of snow.
Lucky kids!
They also got pretty spoiled.

Eliza wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing, but she embraced opening presents like a pro.

She's such a happy kiddo!

Gatorade was legit the first thing on Cole's wish list.
Santa delivered.

Dreams do come true!

Henry was super-excited for Harry Potter Legos!

Spoiled!

Amelia was stoked to finally get the instax camera she'd been hoping for.

Sheridan and Jack tried to keep expectations reasonable as they plundered their stockings.

She did not get a kitten.

As they move from kid to teen, their gifts sure start looking a little more grown up and boring! Toys are fun.

Micah got a beastly Batbot and more dragons for his collection.

He also got his first real Lego sets and loved putting them all together mostly on his own.

Amelia loved taking pictures of darn near everything until the film ran out.

And Sheridan got to enjoy another year of Legos. 

We got to enjoy this cute face.

The kids spent the rest of the year playing games they'd received for Christmas, including this fun Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts game. 

The last Sunday of the year, Eliza's little buddy insisted on wearing his sunnies to church. Thankfully Eliza had hers squirreled away in my bag so she could match! With the fur coat and the attitude, she just screamed Hollywood!

We squeezed in one last trip to the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point and this cute little butterfly landed on Sheridan! Eliza had been dying to "go see butterflies!" but was kind of freaked out by them in real life. It was a little too up close and personal for her!

She's already begging to go back.

We wrapped up the year with a family party. Lots of appetizers for our buffet-style dinner. Lots of rounds of Mexican Train Dominoes (there has got to be a more respectful name for that!). Lots of tired kiddos and rounds of sparkling cider (much to Eliza's delight). 

We hope that this year is full of wonderful memories to balance out the hard ones in your lives. May 

God bless you with what you truly need.

Happy New Year!