A Visit from Santa

Believe it or not, Santa did come to the Palmer's house! Big time! The kids brought in the mother load! We are so grateful for those who helped the kids have such a plentiful Christmas. They were in HEAVEN! We had so much fun!. Clare woke up at 7:30 in the morning and had a little trouble getting in the Christmas spirit. But don't worry. It only took a couple of presents to warm her up and then she was rarin' to go! Hyrum was mostly interested in eating the candy from his stocking but after that was all gone (I know, I'm a bad parent for letting him eat candy before breakfast...and I usually don't, but it was Christmas!) He found that toys were almost as interesting as sweets. Clare found some monkey slippers in her stocking.

Clare wearing her "beautiful". That's what she calls the beautiful skirts that her Aunt Shelly made for her. She may never wear pants again. She just switches from one "beautiful" to the next ALL DAY LONG.

Santa was VERY generous and brought the kids a little play kitchen which Hyrum (interestingly) hasn't stopped playing with. The pot makes a bubbling sound when you put it on the burner and the frying pan sizzles. It's so cute!

Another "beautiful"

Hyrum "The Man" Taking after his daddy and loving power tool. He has hammered and sawed and drilled non-stop....(well, actually, that's what he does when he's taking a break from laboring in the little kitchen, slaving over a bubbling pot of.......air.)

So in a nutshell, we had a wonderful christmas, and not just because of the fabulous gifts. It has been, as always, a blessing to remember one of the most important and holy events in the history of the world. I especially enjoyed reading Luke 1 this year. I pondered a lot over the story of Mary's conception, the words of the angel Gabriel, and Mary and Joseph's path to becoming the earthly parents of the Savior of the world. I am so grateful for the humble people that brought forth the child of God and endured so much hardship so that the Christ-child could save us all. I am so grateful to a kind and merciful God for sending his most precious Son, knowing the anguish of body and soul that he was sending him to. And I am thankful for a Savior who inexplicably believed that we were important enough that He would 1. Live a perfect life worthy of making a perfect sacrifice. 2. Make the final and ultimate sacrifice. 3. Send His restored gospel to the earth in our day, so that we can have a shot at returning to live with Him and his Father again. Joy To The World! And may all of your holidays be joyful ones.

David's Creativity

David is so unbelievable. He can figure just about anything out. He is so patient too. If one thing doesn't work, he tries something else until he finds something that does work. He wanted to build a little kid's table for christmas this year. Our kitchen has a bar, but not room enough for a kitchen table. We can only fit three at the bar and since we have four in the family, it was getting pretty crowded. He had some oak cabinet doors that the cabinet shop that he used to work at was throwing away and decided to make the table out of that. He found a picture of a table on the internet and then just spent a Saturday out in the garage working on it till he got it all figured out. The only money he spent on it was for the bolts. Yeah! Good job David!

The kids LOVE eating at their "tiny table". Clare and Hyrum are having a princess tea party with the new princess tea set that Grandma and Grandpa Palmer gave Clare for Christmas.

I love Christmas....right?

I love putting up Christmas decorations. I love Christmas time and Christmas music. I LOVE wrapping Christmas gifts and going Christmas shopping. I love the smell of cinnamon and fresh Christmas trees. I think that's why I get so frustrated with my kids when they undo all of my carefully arranged decorations on the tree and any other reachable spot. David and I put the tree up and decorated it last night after the kids went to sleep. This morning they waited about 5 minutes before undecorating it. I've been snarling at them all morning but I just gave up. It's not worth being grumpy and mean till christmas. Dave-o putting on the lights. Thanks babe!

This sweet little bird's nest was in the tree when they cut it down and I had to keep it and leave it in the tree! It's just so precious.

Turkey with Mashed Potatoes and Trees

We spent our Thanksgiving holiday at my parents house in Crane, OR. My brother Matthew and his family were also there so there were GIRL cousins to play with! We had so much fun eating, playing games, and working! It snowed the day after Thanksgiving when we usually go up to the mountains to cut down a christmas tree so the kids and moms stayed home while the guys went up and got a beautiful tree for David and I. On Saturday it was beautiful and sunny so we got our warm clothes and headed up to cut down a couple of dead trees for my mom and dad to use for firewood. (Their only source of heat is a wood stove.) Crazy girls.

Erica and Clare having a snowball fight. Actually it was a snowball attack since most of the throwing of snow was done by Erica. Clare took it like a champ. She spent most of the time in the warm truck though.

Adorable Sofie.....good tree, good tree. There, there...soon we will have you cut and stacked in the warm shed.

The Saw man. My brother Matthew and the tree he just cut down.

Here is a little video of Matthew cutting down the first tree. It is actually really cool to see and here a tree this big coming down. The cracks and booms are tremendous and the ground shakes when it falls. I laugh when I here my little bro Mike yell "TIMBER!"