The Christmas Post That Almost Wasn't

Ryan here.

Sorry for not posting sooner. It's been a hectic month. But I'm here to report we had a wonderful Christmas.

Here are Eric and Beth sitting with Santa at our ward Christmas party. Beth's still wrapping her head around the whole "Santa" deal. She wouldn't let go of my hand the whole time.


When we woke up on Christmas Eve morning, Santa had left us an early Christmas present: tickets to the Heber Creeper's North Pole Express!

Needless to say, the munchkins rejoiced.

Here they are posing with a train at the Heber station. It was a beautiful day for a train ride, clear and cold.


Here's Eric next to the coach we rode in. The crew all dressed like elves and entertained us with juggling, jokes, and chatting about Santa and the North Pole.

Beth mugged for the camera.

Eric was REALLY excited.

After a half-hour ride up the canyon to the North Pole, Mrs. Claus warmed up the crowd by handing out recipes for Santa's favorite cookies. Then Santa showed up and gave the kids spinning tops. We almost had a Polar Express ending when Eric dropped his top and we couldn't find it. Luckily, one of the elves ran after Santa and got us another one.


We all had a fun time. Thanks to all the good people on the Heber Creeper for helping us make some magical Christmas memories.

When we got home, we quickly whipped up some Christmas sugar cookies for Santa.


Each of the kids decorated a cookie for the big guy and we left them out next to our fireplace.


We read the Christmas story and sang carols, and in between we tracked Santa on NORAD's online site.

On Christmas morning we did our lineup.

We all got spoiled. The kids got pillow pets.

Zach and Alison visited over the holiday. Here they are reading a book Eric and Beth put together for Mommy. Notice how Zach would be hard pressed to extricate himself from Eric's Kung Fu grip.

Zach and Alison also brought presents with them from Grandma and Grandpa Alleman--a baby cradle for Beth (I think her expression speaks for itself):

. . . and a cool castle for Eric.

Later on we got Grandma and Grandpa Clines' gift--a beautiful rotating bookshelf.

Here are a few miscellaneous photos of the kids just having a grand ole Christmas time.

Eric loves his sister.

And the demented photo for this post. Eric built this LEGO construct around Christmas time. He excitedly told us it was Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, "but with GUNS!"

I think we can safely blame both sides of the gene pool for this particular innovation.

"Take THAT, Baron Bomburst!"

Merry Christmas to all!