Christmas

Here we go, get ready for a long post.

The Thursday before Christmas, Clint's Sister invited us to go to Zoolights with their family. It was really fun - not because of the animals, because there weren't many animals that were out, but it was fun to hang out with them and see Jonas's reaction with his first Carousel ride, and he was super excited to see the little animals.

Then, it was Christmas! That was super exciting! On Christmas Eve, we had the Stoker family part at the University of Utah Institute. I love having the party there because there are 22 of us - and we don't fit in a house anymore. So it's nice to have a big area to eat, open presents, and for all 10 grandchildren to run around and play. Jonas had so much fun! He wanted nothing to do with us because he wanted to be an independent big boy. I just love that he has cousins to play with.

Then that evening Clint and I got to be Santa for the first time. I was hoping to get some sort of reaction out of Jonas Christmas morning, so we never put any presents under the tree (even though he'll have to memory of this Christmas). So that was fun. Christmas morning, Jonas just looked at the presents and didn't say much. I think he was too tired from the day before. A 20 minute nap is not enough when he was running laps all day.  But we still had fun video taping Christmas and opening gifts. It sure took a long time to open gifts though because Jonas mainly opened the presents by himself, and he wanted to play with each gift after he opened it. So fun!

So here he is with his presents. It looks like a lot, because we got a ton of stuff at the dollar store for his stocking. 

I mentioned this last year, so I'll do a quick run down again. But we get 3 gifts for christmas.  They represent the 3 gifts that Christ received when he was born - Gold, Frankincense, and Murr.  A Gold gift (wrapped in gold paper) is something that you want (it usually is the most expensive, but not always).  Frankincense (Wrapped in red paper) is a meaningful gift, and Murr (wrapped in green) is a useful gift or something that you need.

For Jonas's Gold gift:  and Elmo Guitar and a Stuffed Bear 

meaningful gift: The quiet book I made him

Useful Gift: A nursery rhyme book and some puzzles to help him learn colors, numbers and his letters (he will "use" this gift to get smarter) Jonas already had a ton of clothes and things like that, so we improvised. Useful gifts can still be fun, instead of boring stuff like socks and clothes (although I love clothes)

Clints gold gift: Jurassic Park Trilogy on Blue-ray and a mini-foosball set

Meaningful: A frame to put his diploma in

Useful: a gun cleaning kit with oil

 My Gold Gift: Tangled on Blu-Ray

Useful: sewing stuff, like a mat, a rotary cutter, and the ruler to go with it

Meaningful, an Apron that Jonas helped "color" and we can put his hand print on it each year

 So the 3 gifts are from the parents (that way they can appreciate that we are spending money on kids), and Santa fills up the stocking and puts presents in the stocking.  In the picture below, you can see that our stockings are really big. This is where you can put more presents in. And you can also see the gifts wrapped in the colored paper. It looks really cool when they are all under the tree all wrapped beautifully. So that's why Jonas looked like he got a TON of presents, because we filled his stocking with lots of dollar store items, and also a bowling set that we found for cheap at ross. Next year I don't think we'll go so overboard on his stocking. We could barely fit all his stocking presents in his stocking. I also like this tradition because I will never have to worry about this kid looking like they got a ton of presents, but the other kid doesn't have as many, even though we spent the same amount of money on them. That's why my mom liked it and started it.

So there you have it. I really like that tradition, hence why I'm continuing it. And Clint is so great to go along with it, and he likes it too. 


Then, we went to my parents house Christmas Afternoon, and we had a wonderful dinner, and opened presents with family there. It was so awesome because my brother, Cody, was back from his mission to share in the joy. I LOVE having him home. He's so amazing. I forgot what a wonderful spirit and lightheartedness he brings to our family. I sure do love that guy!

We spent the night at my parents house and had fun until later Wednesday evening. Then went home. Poor Jonas's Schedule was all messed up from such a crazy week.

Then we went sledding on Friday, and had a family party and saw "The Hobbit" on New Years Day.

 It wasn't that big of a hill, but Jonas thought it was a blast anyway. There was so much snow, we had to pack it down at first, so we didn't go too fast, and it was really hard to get it packed down. But we still had fun. I just love seeing Jonas's first reaction to things.

Wow, what a long post - sorry. Clint has had 10 days off for the Holiday break.  SLCC shuts down, so it's a nice vacation for him. We've been doing something every day, so I had to catch up on all the fun things we've done for the past 10 days. He goes back to work on the 2nd of January. It will be weird not having him here in the mornings, but we'll get through it. It's been such a fun Holiday, and no I did not stay up till midnight on New Years Eve. I can't do that to myself, because Jonas doesn't sleep in (he woke up at 7 am). New Years eve will be more fun when he gets older, but for now, we watched a movie and went to bed early.  Happy New Year everyone!