Christmas and Beyond

Showing off our new Christmas Eve Pj's

We decided to do something a little different this year.  Since we knew we would be spending Christmas Eve with just our own little family, we decided to invite an older couple from our ward over that would have otherwise spent Christmas alone.  This cute couple is Brother and Sister Smart.   They moved here quite a few years ago from England.  Their kids are scattered everywhere from Australia to England.   They are the most delightful couple to spend time with.  They still have their British accent and Brother Smart has such a funny British sense of humor.  We loved spending the evening with them.  They just loved watching the kids open their pj's and loved watching the kids play.   Klade even got Sister Smarts new cell phone up and running for her and gave her a crash course in how to use it.  It will be a Christmas Eve that we will always remember and treasure for a long time.  Kolby still calls them "Gramma and Grampa" and thinks that Gramma and Grampa gave him his Snowman pj's because they were there when he opened them up.



We had early church this year for Christmas so Santa left all of the "fun" presents for us in this cardboard box not to be opened until we got home from church.   It was a brilliant idea that worked quite well.  Way to go Santa!:)

Kolby had so much fun opening up presents.  It did not matter if they were his or not, he was tearing right into them.

We left the day after Christmas to go to Island Park and then on to Cody Wyoming where we spent a few days with the Mills Family.   Here we have Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids at the church history museum in Cody.

This museum was very cool with all of these murals painted inside this rotunda.  A great place to just sit and appreciate our mormon heritage. They also spent quite a bit of time at the Buffalo Bill museum but of course we don't have any pictures of that because I didn't go.

A funny attempt at an impromptu family picture.  The grandkids were the photographers.

Grandpa Mills rented a very cool cabin for all of us to stay in.   We were fortunate to have this big room all to ourselves.

we then went back to Island Park again where we spent some more time with the Williams Fam.  The kids left their shoes by the door on New Years Eve where Father Time visited them with a few more surprises to bring in the New Year.