did anyone else love to sing this as a child? anastasia is one of my all time favorite movies…anyway
December is always the busiest month of the year. It’s usually a good kind of busy though. family, food, fun. I just love the holidays. It was 10 times harder and more fun with a new baby! Everyone wanted a piece of the calvinator and so we were at every family function, but we had a blast!
Palmer family Christmas party
Palmer family Christmas party is the party of the year ya’ll. It’s the one time a year that my grandma’s siblings and all of their children, their children, and their children get together….that’s a lot of people.
I have to be honest with you, I dreaded this party when I was growing up. I’m pretty much the brunt of jokes about this party every year because until I got married my name was always called to sit on santa’s lap. I know I should have had a better attitude about it, found the humor in it or something, but as a 14 year old girl I was completely mortified and traumatized to be forced to go sit on uncle so and so’s lap and answer questions into the microphone for a bajillion relatives that I hardly knew to hear so I could receive my little toy or candy cane. pretty much scarred me for life…
I haven’t been called up since I was married, so for the last 4 Christmas’s this party has been something I look forward to. Grandma’s delish 7 layer dip, talent show where all my little cousins sing, nativity performance (love those crazy little sheep), and of course santa. this year was especially fun because Calvin was called up to sit on santa’s lap! I finally went on stage without being traumatized… :)
we released balloons in honor of great grandpa palmer who would have been 100 years old this year!
Annual Saunders family dinner/gift exchange
I look forward to this gathering with my close family every year. It was especially fun this year since we had two new family members: Kim’s husband David and Calvin baby! My mom always goes all out with a fauncy dinner before we exchange gifts between siblings. we ended the night with wits and wagers. always so much fun
Christmas Eve
Christmas eve has us bouncing back and forth to make all the grandparents and great grandparents happy. dinner with one family, dessert and gift exchange with another. we end the night with our gift exchange with Nick’s family in our Christmas pj’s. this year it turned into a Calvin love fest
Christmas
family, family, family. it was a beautiful day
Triple date with cousins, besties and a baby
This is one of the best things we did in December. Nick’s cousin Chad and his wife Chantell were in town from school and since it’s our solemn quest to find Dan a wife, we set him up on a date with Chantell’s best friend. And to make it less awkward for them, we all decided to come. including Calvin :)
We had so much fun. we went to a park and had a chalk draw off to see who could come up with the best new Pokémon character, lol. Dan and Desi made “aceublades” which did everything from fly, swim, sting, and shoot swords out its back. Chad and Chantell made “jawsome” which was a fire breathing shark-octopus hybrid with a hypnotic eye. Ours was “turtlecorn” a turtle-unicorn hybrid with a light saber horn and the ability to kill with mind bullets. We had so much fun debating why each one was better than the next. afterward we came back to our place, started a fire and ate popcorn, mini cheese and meat sandwiches, and hot chocolate.
Mesa Temple lights
one of the highlights of the season this year for me was going to the mesa temple lights. I love walking around admiring the beauty of the temple grounds lit up with so many lights. We made sure to cross the street afterward for 50 cent hot chocolate and donuts.
by the way, is that picture of the manger scene not amazing? love the clouds in the night sky
New Year’s Eve
new year’s eve is always so much fun. all of the families on my parent’s street come and try to out-do each other with fireworks. It was FREAZING this year!
oh ya, we also came home to our dumpster on fire from a smoldering firework. nbd. the firemen came to the rescue.
I hope you’re not too overwhelmed, but I wanted to get December done all in one post.
loves, K
