We had four more days of school to finish up this week.  Gifts had to be delivered for Relief Society's sub for santa.  Cali and Chey had another day of tennis.  Ben had two more days of Karate. I still had a couple more gifts to obtain and a funeral to oversee the luncheon for on Friday!  Not to mention, two birthdays and Christmas!!

Kevin's birthday was on Wednesday.  Someone donated tickets to the Heber Train's Polar Express Ride to all the first graders and one parent,to be used Wednesday evening.  So, for Kevin's birthday, he got to take his son on the Polar Express!  Pretty fun, right?  They had a great time and went out to eat for burgers afterward, but no worries, I made Kevin his fried chicken the night before and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.  We love that dad of ours!

The next day was Megan's 18th birthday!!!  How did she get to be that old?  It's like she's all grown up or something!  To celebrate, we headed over to the Brick Oven for pizza and root beer and free chocolate pie.  Oh, and the teen boy making balloon creations, spent extra time at our table!  Afterwards, Meg REALLY wanted to see Christmas lights.  So, we went to Christmas in Color in Provo where the lights are synchronized to music and very incredible.  The pictures don't do it justice.  We went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's after that for a very special cake and finished up by opening presents including a phone headset Meg could plug into her cell phone--from Savannah!  It was a very fun day.

Saturday was Christmas Eve!  Sarah, with varying help from her siblings, made gingerbread men and shortbread cookies on Friday while I was helping at the church.  So, on Saturday, we were able to pile in the van and deliver to our church teachers and friends and thank them for all they bring into our lives!  That night we went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's for our traditional candlelight dinner, talent show, nativity, and Grandma and Grandpa gift exchange.  It was lovely.

Sunday was Christmas Day!!  The kids woke us up at 7:00am.  Actually, I should say that they woke me up.  Kevin had been up for an hour shoveling already.  Our world turned from wet, black shiny streets to deep white everywhere overnight!  We opened presents and had French toast breakfast and opened more presents.  Then, guess what?  It was time for church!  So we got dressed up and headed over to the chapel through the snow.  Mariah, Cali, Cheyenne, and I sang in the choir and we sang three songs.  There were also two great talks and afterward there were hugs and Merry Christmases from so many of the people we love!  Then back home to work on our turkey dinner and to get the computer set up for . . . OUR TALK WITH SAVANNAH!!  It was just too short!  But it was so great to hear her laugh and see her face and listen to her stories.  We sure love that girl!  Having her face on our screen was the best part of Christmas.  *Sigh* Then we went back to dinner preparations and had a lovely dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik.  After cleanup, we played the game Megan gave us for Christmas, Ticket to Ride, where Kevin beat us all by a gazillion point margin, just like he does in every game!  How does he do that?  Anyway, we love him and we love our family and we had a great time being together all day!  We are so grateful for the gift of God's son and our chance of eternal life and eternal family because of Him.  We hope your Christmas was just as filled with love!