The Utah Mountains

The four of us Beatties spent a week of December in Utah to visit some family and have Ryan spend some time with some of the "Focus" hot shots. It was such a great visit and it felt like we were able to stay busy and get everything done that we hoped to. We went into Salt Lake and spend some time at Temple Square, we went to a couple of Ryan's cousin's (Nathan) basketball games, watch his other cousin (Alyson) cheer and spend time with Wesley (yet another cousin), who is leaving for his mission the beginning of January.

Out of all these wonderful things I think the highlight for Ryan was when we was able to go with his Uncle John to the top of a mountain and help some guys carry their elk down. These guys had got themselves a pair of elk and once the elk had been killed, they needed some help getting the big animals down the mountains. Ryan and his uncle made the way up on horseback and met up with the others who were cutting up the animals so the meat could fit on the houses for the journey down, then they all walked down together. John was able to catch the moment with his phone and I wanted to share the beauty of the mountains with you:

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning started at my moms house where Santa had filled the stockings and left some things under the Christmas tree. A tradition the Moffat girls have is we all get the same pajama's to wake up with on Christmas morning. It's always nice to keep the tradition alive! Brayden was really excited to open all the little toys and trinkents in his stocking.

After some breakfast at my moms we headed over to my dads house for the afternoon and Christmas dinner. There we relaxed, Ryan took Brayden for a nice walk out on the icey lake in the back and finished with a delicious turkey dinner. Brayden and Sydney seemed to have such a great time, especially Brayden who is starting to understand the whole Christmas and Santa idea.

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas with your families. It was so nice to be around so much family for this Christmas! Now that Christmas has come and gone I guess the process of starting to get everything packed up and organized for the next stint in the Philippines begins!

Christmas Eve in Beattie Style

Well a very busy, very wonderful Christmas has now come and gone and the boxing day sales have started. We had a great Christmas Eve which we spent with brunch at the Beatties. The kids were fabulous all day, running around with the cousins. I think the only time that they sat still was when we put in "Frosty the Snowman for them to watch!

We decorated snow with food colouring, made gingerbreadmen and a house, had a candy cane hunt in the basement where the kids willingly gave back all their candycanes to do it all over again!

After dinner most of Ryans family made it to the live nativity done at the church and then back to house for own nativity put on by the little ones. It was a good, busy day and by the end of it the kids were exhausted! Brayden had just enough energy at the end of the day to leave a letter for Santa with a couple couple of cookies and jerkey before heading to bed.

It's Beginning to Feel Like Chirstmas

Although last year it was great to spend Christmas on white sands instead of white snow, there is nothing that better then a white Christmas of snow, with the fire place lit and the smell of a pine tree all decorated.

A family tradition for my family is to spend one evening before Christmas decorating our tree with very personal ordaments. Mostly ones that my sister Kaitlyn and I made while we were young, or gifts recieved in our stockings each year, it's nice to pull them out and remember the days of leaving cookies by the fire place for Santa! This year I am so excited to start these traditions with Brayden and Sydney. We took the kids to the mall and they got to sit on Santa's lap and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Brayden wants a monster truck and insists that Sydney wants a small small monster truck, haha.
Tonight Brayden and his Auntie Kait decorated a Christmas Tree cake with icing and decorations followed by all of us decorating my parents tree with all those personal memories. It's the best way to invite that Christmas spirit into the home!