A brief pictorial summary of our Christmas season:
The kids look forward every year to getting out our penguin collection.

Coral brought Marissa and Lance up from Provo to help decorate the Christmas trees. They did the penguin tree first-

And then moved on to the family tree.

This will need to become a tradition-the whole thing was really festive and took much less time and work than when I do most of it myself.

We celebrated Niall's 10th birthday with the Larsens-our great friends from CA who now live here! When Niall and Cade were little and best buddies, we celebrated his birthday this way for several years. It was great to revive the tradition.

Niall chose the making of gingerbread houses as the activity.

He became more interested in the destruction of gingerbread houses by the end of the evening.

The big kids finished up the project the next day.

They worked really hard and made a really ornate house that we enjoyed looking at for several weeks. Niall snuck out of bed to continue to feel destructive.

My holidays were dominated by a sewing project. I used the old jeans I have been saving over the years to make denim quilts for the kids. My Grandmother in Idaho made me a 'TV' quilt when I was young and I modeled my quilts after it. It was a huge task and took up every moment I could find around all the usual holiday events, baking, etc. The quilts were ready to be unwrapped on Christmas Eve.

Leith was so excited that he unwrapped his during dinner. Here, he is watching the girls unwrap theirs.

Niall was a bit unwell and is sleeping on the couch under his still-wrapped blanket.

Kevin's parents were with us and kindly admired my work on the quilts. Of course, the kids were not surprised, as they had been surveying the project all month, but they had not seen the finished blankets and were very pleased.

Opening stockings on Christmas morning

Breakfast

Gifts!

Hugs!

Niall is excited about his pink oxford shirt.

I insisted that the quilts be a part of all the photos!

After a relaxing post-Christmas weekend, Kevin and I flew to San Francisco to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary! Coral and India held down the fort here and did a great job-except what is that purple haze on the ceiling?!? ;)

We had a great trip! We stayed at a small hotel run by a French couple near Union Square. Our package included several very fine French meals in their restaurant. We shopped, explored the North Beach and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Park, saw the fabulous display of antique Amish quilts in the DeYoung museum, and educated ourselves on the Beat Generation at the quirky 'Beat Museum' across from the historic City Lights Bookstore. We looked through art galleries with original Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, and Chagall prints and paintings for sale, saw 'Wicked', and walked up Telegraph Hill to the Coit tower to enjoy the amazing views from its top. We looked through several Catholic churches with lovely stained glass and Christmas decorations and a Buddist Temple in China Town.

San Francisco is a beautiful, fascinating place, full of history, great people watching and thought-provoking contrast. We saw a lot of homeless people- plenty of whom were obviously mentally ill. We saw all forms of 'alternative' lifestyles. We saw great fashion and heard many different languages spoken. I have to say that most of the street performers were not that great, except for one guy whose singing was so horrendous it was very entertaining-riveting, in fact.

After a wonderful vacation alone together, we returned home to celebrate the New Year with our children. I am so grateful for 20 years with my loving husband and for the family we have together.