Christmas in Utah 2012

 Christmas in Utah was so much fun!  We got to participate in all of the family traditions we've missed out on the last few years.  We went to temple square to see the lights with my family and  we went to the Winder Family party.  There was a huge storm on Christmas Eve that kinda changed our Christmas plans but we made the best of it and had a lot of fun.  We spent Christmas Eve with the Reese family.  We went to the graveyard to sing Christmas carols and light luminares.  Then we went back to Tom's parents house to eat, play chimes, and open presents.  It was snowing so hard, that we didn't get to drive up to Midway as planned so we ended up staying at the Reese's and spent Christmas morning with them as well.  Ainsley and Sam had a wonderful Christmas morning, they were spoiled!  Ainsley got a princess castle, ballerina barbie, clothes, and books.  Sam got a racetrack, trucks, books, clothes, etc.  After opening presents we ate breakfast with the Reeses and then headed up to Midway to spend time with my family.

 

Playing the chimes, a Reese family Christmas Eve tradition

 

All the Butler Grandkids

The day after christams we went to Soldier Hollow to go sledding with my family.  it was so fun!  We had a blast.  Ainsley loved it and went on every run.  Tom and I had to take turns sitting with Sam as he and Landon were not allowed to ride on the tubes.  We pulled them around a little on the ground, but it was snowing so much that they mostly hung out in the lodge.

 

 

Ainsley and Sam loved to play with their cousins.  

 
One thing we did while in Utah was to head down to St. George.  It is one of our favorite places to go.  Both my granparents and Tom had condos down there when we were young so we grew up spending summers and holidays there.  We hadn't been there in years and it was fun to go down and hit all of our favorite places.  We went to Snow Canyon to hike around the red rock.  This was Ainsley's first time in Red Rock country.  She loved it.

Christmas 2012

I know it has been almost  six months, but I finally uploaded my pictures from Christmas....but I figure better late (really late) then never.  We were going to be going to Utah to spend Christmas as a family for the first time in 3 years, but we wanted to have our own little Christmas at home first.  This way we wouldn't have to take any presents on the airplane.  We wrote a letter to Santa and asked him to come to our house a little early-which he did!  We did all of our same Christmas traditions.  We ate Chinese food on Christmas Eve, then went out to see the lights, then read a Christmas story, and then we set out carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer. 

 A couple of days before Thanksgiving, we got out the Christmas tree to decorate it for FHE.  We let the kids do a lot of the decortating themselves.  They loved it but when they went to bed I had to "fix" it because all of the ornaments were exactly child height.  It was really cute and they had a lot of fun.

 This year we started a new tradition for reading a Christmas story every night.  I wrapped up 25 Christmas stories and each night, Ainsley or Sam got to pick one out of the basket, unwrap it, and we would read it for the bedtime story.  They loved it!

 My dad had served his mission in the Netherlands and so when I was growing up, it was my family's tradition to set out wooden shoes for Sinter Klaus (the Dutch Santa).  He would always bring us Dutch Candy  and chocolate letters on Dec. 5.  This year we set out our own wooden shoes for him.  He brought a combination of Dutch\, Swiss,Austrian,  and German candies.  They were all of our favorites from living in Europe.  Manner cookies from Austria, Haribo gummies, wafer cookies and Kinder Eggs from Germany, mentos from Holland, and Toblerone from Switzerland.

 Racetrack from Aunt Annie

 We went to our first "ugly sweater party"

 Ainsley got a new bike, porcelin dolls, a puzzle, books, clothes, snow boots, play kitchen pots and pans, and small toys for Christmas.  She was so excited to test out her new bike!

 Sam got a bike seat, shoes, clothes, a set of 6 tonka trucks, magnetdoodle, Little People race track, golf clubs, and small toys for Christmas