¡Feliz Navidad!

We have had such a fun holiday season. We started off with an early Christmas present of a membership at the state museum. We are excited to spend some quality time at the museum.

The kids didn't visit Santa this year, but we did sit in his throne.

This time we went to see The Polar Express in 4-D. It was awesome with smells of hot chocolate and fir trees and snow.

We were less impressed with The Star of Bethlehem show at the planetarium.

Annual family picture in front of the Christmas tree.

We made goodie plates for friends and neighbors. I finally figured out how to make the divinity!

We didn't get out of school until really late this year. When we finally got out, we went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and we LOVED it.

We loved the reclining seats, but I was bummed that my seat warmer didn't work.

We had a big Christmas Eve dinner and invited the missionaries to join us.

I didn't feel like doing a turkey so I made ham and it was so yummy. I think we will do ham from now on.

We have also swapped mashed potatoes for salt potatoes.

I have to confess that our nativity is a little pathetic, but we still enjoy doing it. We were grateful to have two more players with year.

Jedi Joseph

Joined by the donkey and the sheep.

Shepherds

The whole cast.

Waiting for the family picture.

Family picture in matching jammies and socks.

Before the opening.

During the opening.

GQ.

New dress.

I made Jalen a Clemson hat.

 Baylie got scriptures with her name on them.

After the opening - so hard on my Type A personality.

It has been a beautiful holiday full of tradition and thoughts of our Savior. We don't have to go back to school until January 6th so we are looking forward to several more days of relaxation and family time. AND FOOTBALL!!

Dress Up Days

I love my job. Teaching is hard. It doesn't pay well. Many times it is a thankless profession. But I love it. I love my students and I love my school. I love the people I work with. I'm so grateful that they create an atmosphere of fun, love and support.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have had several dress up days. I had a lot of fun getting into it.

One day I was part of a 12 days of Christmas and I chose "Seven Swans a Swimming." I took a little liberty with the theme.

One day was tacky day. I think I represented well.

One day was Christmas tradition so I chose the Nutcracker ballet.

On tacky sweater, I wore this beauty that lights up.

Tree topper day - I LOVE THIS HAT!!

Apparently these aren't palm trees like I thought...

PJ Day.

I won the award for tacky sweater, but I think it was in recognition of my overall efforts :).

I also wore an awesome hat on glitter day, but I can't find a picture. I'll have to wear it again!

Thankful

Guess I better blog about Thanksgiving before Christmas gets here! We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We were so happy that our nephew Cameron chose to spend Thanksgiving with us. He's been stationed in Korea and recently was transfered back to the states. We hadn't seen him for several year and it was such a pleasure having him in our home. He's really a great young man and he was fantastic with Baylie and Jalen.

I did a big Thanksgiving spread, even though I couldn't eat most of it. It's a mix of the stuff I grew up with, some southern traditions and salt potatoes from my parents Upstate New York mission (we like them better than mashed).

Apparently the guys in Korea all talked about Zaxby's and Cameron had never been, so of course we had to go! He liked it. (Although I think he may have thought it was over-hyped.)

That night - Friday - we went to see the lights at Saluda Shoals - one of our favorite holiday traditions - although if they keep jacking up the price, it may become a memory. It was $5 a carload when we moved here and now it's $20. 

Making s'mores is always a favorite.

The tubing slide is fun (although as a Utah girl that actually went tubing as a kid, it seems pretty tame).

Saturday morning we went to see the new Frozen movie. It was awesome and we all loved it. I didn't even fall asleep! I love the comfy reclining seats and the fact that with the reserved seats, you don't have to get there early. We were joined by Jalen's friend Hamilton. Those two are TNT together.

Cameron had a friend drive down from North Carolina and we all went to the zoo. It was kind of crowded, but our zoo is awesome and crowds don't hurt the experience. We love taking people to our zoo.

I love these pretty flowers that look like Japanese lanterns.

The whole gang.

The sea lions put on quite a show, although there seemed to be a bit of a domestic squabble.

I liked that he wasn't ashamed to jump on the scales.

The meerkats are always fun to watch. Such cute little families.

The gorillas are always a favorite for me, especially when there are babies. 

I also like the goldin tamarin monkeys. They are so cute. They seem like they would be cute pets, but I'm sure they would be stinky and destructive.

Checking out the tree house.

And the aquarium. 

It was a fun day.

We really enjoyed hosting Cameron and hope to see him again soon.