Stratford Family Nativity

Cambrie loves doing plays.  A couple weeks before Christmas she asked if I would help her do the Nativity play.  It is a little difficult with only two people, so I told her no.  But I assured her that when we went to visit my cousins we would get a chance to do the play.  It is a Stratford family tradition that each year for our Christmas party we reenact the story, complete with a scripture reading and song singing.  When we were little it stayed very true to form.  As we grew older it shifted to a little bizarre.  But now that we are older and more mature,it is basically back to normal, minus the fact that due to marriages we have more cast members. 

Cambrie couldn't wait for her chance to be in the play.  We all dress up and when she saw all the costumes she couldn't make up her mind what role she wanted to play.  She finally settled on Mary and was very proud that she was able to play the part.  McKenzie on the other hand was harder to please.  She wanted to be a princess, but we were sadly out of princess costumes.  After we had extinguished nearly every costume option, she finally settled on a black tunic and she was a sheep like me.  I don't know if the shepherds had black sheep, but at least she was participating. 

Mary got to ride in for her entrance on the tallest donkey I've ever seen, Matthew. 

When it was time for the shepherds to appear we had more than enough to take care of McKenzie and I. 

The story progressed and it went well without any hiccups-well, we did almost forget to grab a baby Jesus for the manger but we fixed that. 

The Wisemen.

The Angels.

A...patient...little sheep

Our Cast picture

Our audience

Once it was over I announced that next year I could provide the baby Jesus and everyone was very excited.  It was an unexpected surprise that we were around for the Stratford Christmas party this year and I really enjoyed it.  I simply don't get to see my cousins enough, which is a shame because each family has a comedian and we spend every get-together laughing.

Ski the Beav

My family took advantage of some amazing Christmas snow at the Beav to teach the girls how to ski, and to get in a few great runs ourselves. 

The girls started on the magic carpet and were obviously a little hesitant but that quickly changed.  While Camille was working with Cambrie, I was working with McKenzie.  By run three McKenzie was daring enough to want me to let go of her while she was moving.  I maneauvered in front of her, skiied backwards, and would let her ski by herself for about six feet before I would grab her to slow her down.  We would repeat that the whole way down the bunny hill.  She laughed the whole way down and thought it was the most fun thing she had ever done. At the bottom of the hill she would step onto the magic carpet by herself and insist on getting off by herself at the top.  Miraculously she only tiped over once on the carpet and never crashed while getting off. 

Cambrie had a few practice runs with Camille on the magic carpet at the same time McKenzie and I were there.  From what I could tell she was a little tentative to begin with but was soon moving by herself down the hill.  She slowly learned how to keep her skis in a wedge and began making wide turns across the hill.  After a couple of great lessons with ski instructor Camille I went over to ski with her.  We played follow the leader and she did a wonderful job following me and staying in control. 

Once it was time for lunch we decided to take a quick run up Little Beav to avoid hiking back up to the lodge.  Both girls were pretty excited about riding on the big lift but didn't like waiting in the line.  By the time we got to the top McKenzie was tired and hungry so I just put her between my legs and we cruised down the hill.  Cambrie spent the time getting better and becoming even more confident.  At the bottom of the run I could hear Mom calling out "dolphin" and Cambrie would swerve to the left, and "duck" and Cambrie would swerve to the right playing the silly game. 

In the lodge we met up with Ryan and his friend, Maddi, and feasted on sandwiches and hot cocoa.  There was just enough sugar in the meal that the girls were totally wired and ready to get out again.  I was so surprised.  I expected McKenzie to make it a couple of runs on the magic carpet before she was cold, tired, and ready to take a break.  But that girl was basically begging to get dressed and go skiing again. 

After lunch Cambrie stayed on Little Beav with my mom and Camille and we stuck to the magic carpet.  McKenzie was so confident that she didn't want my help at all.  However, she would keep her skis parallel to each other and would catch a lot of speed so there was no way I was letting her go completely solo.  She also started skiing with her eyes closed...what a goofy girl!  She made it to about 2:30 and then was too tired to keep going.  Cambrie showed up about the same time so I took her on one final run too before both girls headed to the lodge.  That last run with Cambrie was my first time with her on a real run.  She made sure to tell me everything that Grandma had taught her as we worked our way down.  She did such a good job.  I was so proud of her.  She stayed in control.  She kept her ski tips together.  She turned down the hill.  Even when we got to a cat track and she had to stay straight, she kept her balance over the bumps and ruts.  I can't wait for this girl to have more practice and get even better.

All in all it was a perfect day skiing with the girls.  They never complained about being cold.  They never complained about it being too hard or about falling.  They never even complained about being tired.  They just had smiles on their faces the whole day and thought the whole thing was awesome. 

Once we had them situated in the lodge with Grandma and a movie, Camille and I took a few runs by ourselves.  I wasn't really ready for tough runs so we kept it simple.  We found some open fields that still had untouched powder which we flew through.  We practiced carving on our edges on the groomers.  And had a great time with just the two of us. 4:00 came too quickly on the mountain like always and too soon it was time to head home.  But what a great day. 

Sledding...in the backyard

My parents house received some amazing snow while we were there.  The girls were so excited to go sledding that we couldn't say no.  What the girls didn't realize is that we can sled in my parents yard...yea!  It made quick trips inside a cinch for McKenzie and made it really easy on the rest of us. 

We started the morning with three sleds, and ended with...none that worked very well.  The best ride was the inner tube.  It was big enough to stay on top of the powder and we got the most distance out of that one.  Cambrie loved that one because she could hitch a ride about half-way down by jumping on the rider.  Unfortunately it had a leak...and we caused another large hole while we were refilling it for the third time. 

Our next sled was a classic blue plastic dude.  It's tip had been angled downward while in storage however, and it would kick up loads of snow in your face and slow you down at the same time...not our favorite ride. 

Our third option was a foam boogie board.  As long as the snow was packed down then it worked great, otherwise it got bogged down in the fluff. 

 

Cambrie was pretty fearless on the tubes and loved the fun, at least until she and Jeremy started wrestling and she ended up upside down in a snowbank.  That was the end of that.

Ice Skating

With all of the snow in Utah during Christmas, we were looking for a warm, family-friendly activity that would keep everyone happy.  We decided to go ice skating at the Olympic Oval and it was such a blast.  McKenzie has never been ice skating before, and I think I have only taken Cambrie once.  I wasn't sure how they would do, but we bundled them up and hoped for the best. 

 

 

The girls absolutely loved it.  It took awhile for them to get used to the sensation of simply standing up, but with the help of some child-sized walkers, they picked up on the skating part pretty quickly.  All of the adults took turns pushing the girls.  Some pushed calmly. 

 

 

 

Some spun them wildly. 

 

And sometimes the girls wanted to do it on their own.  McKenzie's skates often slipped out from underneath her, but she always managed to hold on to the bar and never truly crashed. 

 

 

Once they were comfortable with the walkers, both girls wanted to try skating on their own.  Cambrie actually became pretty stable and was able to go around the whole oval without falling. 

 

 

Although when she did fall she was always a great sport and simply picked herself back up without any complaints. 

 

McKenzie never made it far, she preferred holding hands and swinging...which is really hard in ice skates. 

 

 

When we weren't on child duty, the adults had some fun.  The boys would race, show off their awesome balancing acts, and hold their sweetie's hand. 

 

 

The girls were truly tuckered out after our cool adventure, but it was well worth it.

Four-wheeler tubing

While I napped Christmas afternoon, Jeremy took the girls out with the four wheeler and a tube.  He gave McKenzie a fairly gentle ride first. 

 

But Christmas morning had taken its toll and she went inside and fell asleep with Alysha by the fireplace pretty quickly. 

 

Cambrie on the other hand proved to be a more adventurous customer.  Jeremy started out in nice straight lines, but quickly ditched that for spinning donuts in the cul-de-sac. 

 

 Behind him on the tube, Cambrie would spin wildly racking up some sweet G-forces. 

 

 There were times that even after Jeremy stopped Cambrie and her tube would wrap around him multiple times until she came to a stop.  It looked like a blast.  Too bad I was seriously enjoying my nap.  I'm glad they all had fun.

Christmas

Christmas doesn't start Christmas morning, it actually starts Christmas Eve. We each get to open a present and we get the cookies set out for Santa. As a surprise this year Cambrie, McKenzie and Brody also reenacted the Christmas story.

Christmas Eve gifts. We all got...

New jammies!

 

With our new stockings we were all jumping in anticipation for the morning.

 

The girls got new bunny slippers, and they literally were hoping for joy...all night long.

The girls also opened up....diapers?  Cambrie almost stopped right there.

 

But never fear, they were actually new cuddly blankets for the girls.

And Papa was thrilled about his grandpa pants.  What a stud!

After round one, we went to bed fairly early on Christmas Eve. But before we hit the sack, Brody asked about what time we could expect the girls to wake up in the morning. In years past their excitement hasn't resulted in their waking up early and they get up around the same time as always. The window of time we gave Brody, as well as the other adults in the house, was any time from 6:30-8:00. Imagine my and Jeremy's surprise when Cambrie came bounding into our room at 5:20 AM and announced that Santa Claus had come. She knew because she had already dumped everything out of her stocking. 5:20? Really? There was no way we were getting the rest of the Rogers sleeping adult children up at that hour so we turned on a movie for Cambrie and told her once she heard other people moving then she could go back upstairs. We were awakened again at 6:30 by both girls and decided at that point we were going to wake the rest of the sleeping household. They weren't happy about it. But Christmas continued and we all opened our presents. We took our time handing the girls their gifts and dividing the rest for us. By the time we were finished we had been opening presents for three hours. Not because we had thousands of gifts, but because everyone was still half asleep and we were moving pretty slowly. 

Checking out the loot from their stockings. 

Gifts from Aly and Brody: more Legos for her Lego friends and a new Rapunzel Barbie

The big ticket item this year were LeapPads for the girls.  They each got games, carrying cases, and skins for their new toys.  Both girls have picked up on them really quickly and they were a huge hit.  Are they really old enough to be getting electronics already?

New ski goggles, because she is going skiing this year!

A golf ball goof ball pic of Bruce.  All the boys got new balls with their names printed on them.  They are all waiting for the snow to melt so they can use their new balls.

I'm not even a die-hard Packers fan but I am totally digging Dantley's new hat.  Doesn't it look comfy?

But I did get a hat of my own.  I've always wanted a fedora.

This is just not any Real Salt Lake jersey, oh no.  This is an official jersey from the equipment manager of the team.  The coolest part about it?  The star.  Jeremy can't get enough of that shiny star.

Have you ever seen girls so excited to get coloring paper? We go through a lot at our house.

This scroll shows all of the food storage items that Jeremy and I got from Bruce and Leesa.  She didn't want to wrap each can, imagine that :)  We are so grateful to have that kind of help getting it going.  We must be old since we're asking for food storage huh?

 

Pictures with the girls' complete gift piles.

After presents were done, Grandma and Grandpa Pearce showed up for Christmas breakfast.  We gorged on breakfast casserole, smoothies, and cinnamon rolls, then most of us tried to roll back into bed while the girls played with their new toys.