May All Her Christmases be White....

It definitely doesn't happen every year in the Great Pacific Northwest, but we had a white Christmas this year. And, to make it even more special, it was Lia's first Christmas! Although we were only successful in taking her outside in the snow one time over the entire holiday break, I love that we will always be able to tell her that her first Christmas was a white one. The snow started falling for the first time on December 13th and continued falling on and off until December 25th. Here is a picture of the 6-8 inches? (never made it outside to actually measure it) that fell on Ron's new deck over the series of several days.

Here is a breakdown of what we did over the holidays:

On December 17th, Lia had her Christmas photo taken in her Christmas dress!


On December 19th, we had our annual Christmas party for my mother's side of the family held at my parents' house. Dinner, holiday program, and the traditional white elephant gift exchange were all part of the evening's events.


As part of the holiday program, my dad lit the candles on the tree and then turned off of all of the lights. We then sang (or tried to at least) "Silent Night" in German. This is always a special family tradition that we do each year in honor of my father's heritage.


On December 20th, Ron and I hosted an Elders Quorum Christmas party that we decided to throw this year. Despite the fact that it snowed several inches that afternoon and evening, 25 people braved the weather and showed up! It turned out to be a fabulous evening with delicious food (thanks to the help of the other two wives in the presidency) and a hilarious white elephant gift exchange. We might even try to do it again next year!


A few of our friends gathering around the food!


Th full line-up of all of the homemade goodies that we baked or cooked!

The fam poses infront of our Christmas tree (I know I look pregnant here, but I promise I'm not! ;-) )


On December 22nd....
Ron shoveled the snow off our driveway,

Lia turned ten months old,

and we took Lia out in the snow for the first time! But that only lasted a few minutes as she refused to keep her hat on!

We went on a "walk" in the Puyallup library park as it was one of the only places we could find with cleared sidewalks. Here Lia and I are after we put the stroller in four wheel drive and ventured off of the path!




And, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at Lisa's parents' home.

Here Lia is playing with an ornament on her grandparents' Christmas tree. I think this is such a sweet picture of her as it captures how she carefully and timidly touched every tree and ornament she saw this year. Such a good baby!

And, finally here is a photo of her favorite Christmas activity--playing with tissue and wrapping paper. Who cares about the gifts!