White with sunny and bright.

For years, my family and I have taken the journey to our family ranch located in the middle of nowhere (Panguitch, Utah) for Christmas. Over the last eight years, our family has grown with new sisters in law and grand babies, and the saying, "more the merrier" rings true.

This year, we had all but one brother, and his wife (we missed you Alex and Necia!) gathered together in small quarters to celebrate Christmas. We stuck to our tradition of trekking through the hills to find a Christmas tree. A few years back we jokingly gathered around the tree in circle in a "Whoville" fashion singing O' Christmas tree, and ever since the tradition has stuck. Later that day, we decorated the tree with old ratty ornaments and lots of of extra ones at the bottom (where little hands were able to reach.)

Other activities included, the boys shoveling away at the snow to create an ice-rink at the pond. Where we lacked in ice-skates,  we made up in awesome ability and only managed to eat it a few times on the ice. We also brought back the Nativity after a fifteen year hiatus at the request of our three year old niece, Annie.  She handed out the parts and made sure my mom brought "costumes" for us. Graham and I  were chosen for the role of Joseph and Mary, which would've been cooler if I really had a babe in my belly instead of a giant year long taco bell food baby, but nonetheless we rocked our roles, and only managed to only laugh half way through it.

Other highlights included: 

• My niece telling us that she heard the "North pole FOUR times last night" when waking her up on Christmas morning.
• My parents giving us gifts in an extreme style of "white elephant swap" with gift cards.  
• Kids and Christmas morning. (I'm thinking about renting some next year when we're alone for Christmas. They really do make the holiday way better.) 
• A bumpits hair accessory  given as a gag gift to my SIL Teresa, and her trying to cover up that she really liked it. 

With it all said and done, we feel so blessed to have such a rad family that enjoys spending time with one another.

*and sadly I did not get one good picture of my parents. :( They were probably slaving away in the kitchen while we were having fun.