A Southworth Family Christmas (2011)

There's nothing quite having family around you during the Christmas Season.......the laughter of little children, Christmas music playing, the aroma of freshly baking cinnamin rolls and hot spiced cider. To be perfect, there would be snow lightly falling outside. Well, this year was almost perfect.......we were just lacking the snow

We only had our daughter and her family close by this year, but even just having one child home at Christmas, is better than not having any. (Below: our family photo right after we got home from Church on Christmas Day.)

On Christmas Eve, Ron and I went to Jenni and Will's house for all kinds of hors d'oeuvres, cookies, spiced cider, smoked salmon, summer sausage, crackers and cheese, shrimp and vegetables. There was SO much to eat......we STILL have leftovers.

Preston had been taking a nap, and was not quite ready to wake up yet.....so he was quite content to curl up on grandpa's lap instead of eating. Afterwards, we watched "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Mr. Kruger's Christmas". We usually watch "Scrooge" but we had watched "A Muppet Christmas Carol" with the boys a day earlier....and we thought that "Scrooge" might be a little bit too scary for the boys, with the ghosts and all.

The next morning, Christmas Day, we went back over to the Thomas's and watched everyone open their gifts. Jenni & Will gave me a set of Victor Borge DVD's.

Taylor is very musically inclined. He got a little keyboard for Christmas and loved it. There was one time when we found him seated at Jenni's piano (while no one else was in the living room) and he was playing the piano, singing and bouncing up and down to the rythym. Then he would stand up to reach the music that was on the piano, turn a page on the music book, then sit back down and keep playing. It was pretty darn cute. He was just copying what he saw Jenni do. Will took a video of it.....I'm glad....then when Taylor gets older, they can show it to him.

Grandpa playing with Taylor and his new "microphone."

Grandpa and I gave Taylor a little train for Christmas.....it played music, so that was a big attraction.

Grandpa and I gave Preston a remote controlled car.....a Ferrari......and he loved it! (He always likes to play with grandpa's little Ferrari that we bought in France) so this car is "just like grandpa's!"

I can't find another description of Taylor than just plain "CUTE."

After at least 45 minutes trying to get the Ferrari out of the packaging, Preston finally triumphantly has it in his hands.

It was a nice Christmas Day. At 1:00 we went to Sacrament Meeting, then everyone came to our house for dinner; turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, cranberry fluff salad, veggie tray, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, and then pumpkin and blackberry pie with ice cream for dessert. (I'm glad that I don't have to cook like that every day!!)

Stephen and Ileana had given us the gold tablecloth and napkins as a gift while we were in Florida, so I thought that Christmas dinner was the perfect time to use them. The only thing missing was the snow outside. Maybe next year............