Parties, parties, parties

Is this not the coolest Christmas tree ever?

We went to a family Christmas party at Eric's sisters house in Laguna beach. Since they live at the beach their tree is all beach, ocean ornaments complete with a starfish at the top of the tree- so cool.

Here are some random photos of her cool house.

I hardly saw the boys all night because they were rocking out upstairs.  Every now and then I would go listen to them and it was hilarious.  They were very serious but sounded like wounded cats singing things like "I wish I was special.... but I'm a freak".  So funny.

The girls were playing school with Grandpa. They finally get out of school on vacation and they pretend to be in school??? The rest of the night they were dressing up and putting on performances.  I brought gingerbread ornaments to decorate and Shonda brought a yarn craft for the kids to do, but they were so busy and happy, we never busted out the projects.

This is a photo of me, Shonda and April at the end of the party.  Can you see what's wrong with the photo? Two of the girls are wearing normal/ light weight shirts... I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, velvet jacket and scarf and I was still cold!  Either it was the humidity from the beach or like the boys.... I'm a freak!
The next party was Grandma Hawley's and Grandpa Johns.  They made super yummy Mexican food, it was so good.  Then they turned on the Wii fit and everyone was cracking up the rest of the night. We hula hooped, skied and tight rope walked. It was really funny to see Eric and his brothers shaking their hips like crazy.  I have seen people playing the Wii, but this was the 1st time I tried it- very fun.


My niece Larkin (the tallest one in the red shirt above) made these amazing fairies.  She makes them all by hand and embroiders them too, they are so beautiful. She made one for each of my girls and one for me too.  Thank you Larkin!!!

Last but not least (technically it was last weekend) we had our Ward/church Christmas party.  Ruby and Lucy both sat on Santa's lap, but Haley continues to be afraid of him (she claims she is not).  She refused to get within 20 feet of Santa. 

For dinner we had deep fried turkeys, just like when we lived in the South, they were sooo good.