Bailey's December

We were excited to get Bailey home with us starting December 20th, but were sad when she had to return the morning after Christmas to return for her roommate (and best friend) Caiti's wedding. We missed having her smiling face with us longer!

Here a few pictures of her December. She hosted a bachelorette party for Caiti at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin in Heber earlier in December. Afterward she washed the sheets and re-made all the beds, including this tricky upper bunkbed one.

Beautiful Bailey at Caiti's wedding. It was really cold that morning!

 

Ali took Bailey with her kids to a showing of A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater!

I love all the things Bailey posts on Instagram and Facebook. This was on her Instastory one day. 

Bailey perfected her makeup and hair Christmas night, before heading back for the wedding. 

On January 31st Bailey attended the mission farewell of her cousin/super good friend Mianna. Mianna is going to Rome, Italy on her mission. 

Bailey at Wedding #2 (of 3) the week after Christmas. This one was for another roommate. She and friends Lauren and Marisa took a picture in the fancy bathroom at the country club where they attended the reception. 

New Year's Eve was kind of a bummer for Bailey, and so we were able to facetime her for awhile.

Christmas Joy

Thanks to the fact that our kids are getting older, Dan and I got a little extra sleep on Christmas morning. We talked the kids into sleeping in until 7 a.m. The day began with these 3 cuties waiting at the top of the stairs while we checked downstairs to see if Santa had arrived.

Aubrey was extraordinarily happy about this gel pen set Santa left for her, with all the colors she could ever possibly want. Maybe Santa should have saved some $ and skipped giving her the expensive Macbook??

Oh wait, she was pretty darn excited about this gift too. Aubrey's most hoped for gift . . . a Macbook she can take to college!

Joseph reading Santa's letter, which was heartfelt and hilarious, like always.

Joseph's most hoped for gift . . . a Nintendo Switch!

Bailey didn't really know what to ask for. Santa gave her two tickets to all the awesome upcoming Hale Center Theater plays in their new Sandy theater.

More fun gift opening moments

Bailey had a very "grown up" Christmas. She got a recipe book, a Costco card, a AAA card, and a subscription to a grocery delivery service.

Posing with their gifts.

One of Joseph's favorite gifts was his hoverboard. He spent most of Christmas afternoon mastering it. The rest of us tried it out and sported some bruises as a result of falling off!

We ended the day playing games, including our new game, Exploding Kittens.

We like the way our Christmas Days are so quiet. We spend all day in our pjs, forgetting about the world outside our little Porter bubble!

Santa's on His Way!

Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year, and it was a magical day. Our church was at 1 p.m. and we had plenty of time in the morning to enjoy the miracle Christmas Eve snow falling outside while listening to Handel's Messiah sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I can't imagine a better morning than that!

Before church we read the last of our Christmas books under the tree. We had saved one of our very favorites for Christmas Eve.

Church was only one hour and was mostly a musical program. Aubrey sang in the choir. After church we took a few pictures before heading home to get ready for our Christmas Eve fun.

We made broccoli soup and apple crisp for Christmas Eve, and we ate our soup with Great Harvest wheat bread and sparkling cider. Perfect!

Then we acted out the Christmas story. It's hard to tell from this picture, but Aubrey acted out all the parts of the story (angel, shepherds, etc) other than Mary and Joseph. It was hilarious!

And here are Mary and Joseph.

After reading/acting out the Christmas story the kids opened up their new Christmas book and pjs. Sadly, the pjs I had bought didn't fit great, so most of them were returned and exchanged later. Oh well - can't get everything right!

And then the kids set up their mattresses on the floor of the bonus room for their traditional Christmas Eve sleepover. They watched The Grinch before falling asleep, and then Santa was able to visit the Porters! 

Here is this year's communication between the Porter kids and Santa. I hadn't read them closely during Christmas, and when I just took the time to read all of the letter and responses I cried happy tears for the amazing kids I have. I think their words clearly show their kindness, Christ-centeredness, and persistence through hard things. I'm so grateful for them (and for the Santa who answers their letters), because they are all the only Christmas gifts I need.