A Couple of Christmas Advent Highlights

We finally got around to getting a tree with less than two weeks until Christmas.

Her face here says it all. We had to wake her up that morning for our ward Christmas party and then she had to be chased and corralled for two hours during the party. She wasn't really feeling it. We let her choose whatever tree she wanted. And she picked this little darling. I loved it so much!

This was supposed to be a trip to This is the Place park to see the reindeer. But I neglected to look it up and it turns out the reindeer are only out at night. But we had a great time at the zoo, it was probably the least crowded place in the valley on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Christmas Recap

Christmas Eve is traditionally a very special night at Grammy and Grandpa's and this year we held a wonderful Fake Christmas Eve earlier in the month at Greg and Andrea's house. Their house was beautifully decked out for Christmas and the food was fabulous. We had a wild nativity. (But if you want to see photos to prove it, you'll have to follow the link.)

So on real Christmas Eve we called in the skeleton Summerhays crew. We had Greg, Andrea, Will, Max, Claire, Jennifer F., Jonny and Haley over for a traditional turkey dinner. I only got one picture of the evening. Macy truly loves Jonny and Haley and instantly becomes super hyper when she sees them.


Christmas morning we knew we were in for a good day when this was Macy's response to the first candy cane she pulled out of her stocking . . .

Before:


After:

Macy wanted to play with the things she unwrapped and we had to persuade her to open another present. The hit of the day was the toothbrush that plays music.

That afternoon we went to Tom and Mine's adorable house for some crazy fun.

Opening presents:



And the Fifth Annual Pinata (which has become a much anticipated Christmas Day tradition)

Before:


After:
We had a magical day and hope yours was too.

Merry, Merry

We were supposed to prepare a musical number for our family Christmas party. Macy practiced for weeks beforehand to memorize her favorite tune. Since she tends to freeze up around crowds (and because we didn't want to tote her piano to the party), we just pre-recorded her performance. Please enjoy, Have a Very Macy Christmas:



If you like this, go out and buy David Tolk's Holiday CD (or download it from iTunes). It's quite simply the best Christmas album ever. Macy's working on his version of Good King Wenceslas for next year because it's her dad's very favorite Christmas song.

Photos (and I mean A LOT of photos)

We took 173 photos for our Christmas card this year. We went to Murray park and let her loose. And she ran . . .


And played with the geese .
And we caught the expressions I try to burn into my memory every day. The faces we don't normally capture in pictures. The looks that make up the day.




And I am reminded just how priceless pictures can be.

Christmas 2008

Christmas Trees

Macy made searching for the perfect tree magical for me. She ran up and down the rows laughing and laughing. She LOVED it.
And then marched right up to the tree.

Yep, the big tall one.

I wish I could have captured the awe on her face when she turned around and saw the tree on the car.
And with fond memories of the theme trees my mom used to create for us, we got Macy a little tree and decorated it with her animalz. Unfortunately, only the gorilla remains. A lone animal left to fend for himself.