The best part of Christmas

I think the best part of Christmas has got to be spending time with all the amazing people and we all know I love an excuse to party.

So far we've had 3 major activities at our house on top of all the other Christmas festivities.

The Young Men and Young Women of our Ward put up Christmas Lights as a service project and then came back to our house for pizza and cookies. Dustin mentioned this to me about 4 days before it happened and asked me to pick up some cookies from Costco. GASP! Store bought cookies?? Please sweet husband. Party, Christmas, baking. . . three of my favorite things. I baked for 4 days straight and easily made a few hundred cookies. With all those kids, pizza and cookies the biggest mess of the night was made by me when I let the cocoa pot boil over. If you can believe it, we even had a few cookies left over.

Last weekend we hosted the annual Elgin Street Christmas party for all of our old neighbors. Janel had planned on hosting, but due to a few conflicts we ended up having it here at the last minute. I was glad Janel was willing to give it up because I love a house full of people. We have been so lucky living on this street for all these years because the BEST people have come into our lives because of it. I loved just lounging around and talking with everyone and seeing the kids play together. Scott and Mark were even willing to leave in the middle of the party to pick Dustin up from the airport. Those are really amazing neighbors, right?

Janel made salt dough ornaments for all the kids to paint and besides that all of our plans fell to the wayside as everyone was happy just being together. Well, the kids were DYING to open their gifts from the gift exchange. You should have seen how excited they all were to open their $1 gifts. It just reminded me that no one really cares how much money you spend, they just want to know someone thought of them. And that is my favorite part of the season -- generosity of spirit. Christmas cards, neighbors gifts. . . they may seem like a lot of work, but I think they remind people that we love them and think of them and what better time to remind people of that than when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Luke reminding everyone to say a prayer.

A few nights ago we had our service Family Home Evening with 3 other families and divided the kids into groups for the shopping. We ended up with the two big boys and Ryder. When we were walking into the store, I was was pretty sure someone was going to stop us when they saw that little toe head and accuse us of stealing him. The bad part of being on a team with 5 boys is that no one cares what you buy and they want to get out of the store as fast as possible. The good part of shopping with 5 boys is that you can pick out whatever your want and everyone agrees that it's fantastic. I had so much fun picking out little tiny girl toys. Then we came back to our house for a wrapping party, treats, some caroilng and a quick lesson about The Christmas Orange. My easy going teamThe sweetie pie girlsTrouble with a capital T. I walked into the store and said, "I hear our children." Sure enough by the time we got to the back of the store there were the boys. The wanted to get EVERYTHING.

Have I mentioned how much I love squeezing everyone into our house? We always manage to make everyone fit.

And now I'm lucky enough to have my house full of family-- my sister and niece got here last night! We are having so much fun in this fantastic weather. We've already hit Target, Paradise, Cafe Rio and temple lights.