Merry December

So much for being caught up.  Oh well, I'm still close.  December was a good but busy month, as always.  We had lots to do.

The first week of December was concert week for me.  I decided to let the boys come on Thursday night since we were playing along to the video of The Snowman.  It was fun and they really enjoyed it.  I don't have any pictures, however, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

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We got the tree up before my concert because I knew it wouldn't happen unless we did.  A friend of mine sells these cute Biblical Names of Christ ornaments and I was excited to get some from her.  This is the best picture I could get though.

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 My family Christmas party was fairly early in the month since it's so hard to get together.  We did our Nativity and Brigham got to be Joseph.  He looks bored but he really enjoyed it.

 He liked seeing "baby Jesus."

 This is how he smiled when I asked him to smile.

 We also celebrated December birthdays.  Poor Jonathan wasn't feeling well.

 He was still excited to open his birthday present from Grandma.  He had to close his eyes first.

How exciting!

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 Nathaniel's orchestra spent a day performing at several elementary schools in the district.  I grabbed these pictures from their Facebook page.

My parents came to watch since they wouldn't be able to come to his regular concert.  You can see them in the back.

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We had a busy day on the 17th.

 First, Brigham's school sing-a-long was in the morning.  His class sang Mario the Mustached Reindeer.  He put on his mustache a little prematurely.  They also sang It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas/Pine Cones and Holly Berries.  He actually sang the songs.  This is the first time he's ever sung the songs with the class.  It was so fun to watch.

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Second, we had Nathaniel's Christmas concert that night.

 For some reason they decided use the formation that has the cellos in the middle so I couldn't see him.

 Later when they combined with the Jr. Youth Symphony he was a little easier to see.

He looks annoyed in this picture because it was taking me so long to get a good picture.  I had to reach way over to get him in the shot which made it hard to frame and keep in focus.  He did great, though.  They're a really good orchestra.

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Third, was Jonathan's birthday.

 We celebrated after Nathaniel's concert.  He chose plain brownies.

 He was super excited for his present.  He wanted to close his eyes for this one too.

 What?  A BB-8!

So cool.  He had fun trying it out.  Suki went a little crazy trying to catch it so we had to pick her up.  It was a great birthday.  We went to the planetarium the next day, too, but I don't have any pictures.

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This is how we have to play with BB-8.  She tries so hard to catch it but no dice.

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Christmas Eve!  The boys got new pajamas, of course.  But this year there was a little surprise with the pajamas.  Nathaniel and Jonathan got new phones!  Well, they actually got Jaaromy's old phone and my old phone.  I decided I wanted a new one for Christmas since mine was getting old and Jaaromy wanted the bigger model.  I was just going to let him get a new one and then use his old one but when he went to get a new one they were having a deal where if you buy a 6 Plus, you get a 6S which is exactly what we wanted so it all worked out and I even got a new phone out of it instead of a hand-me-down phone.

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Christmas morning!

I didn't get a picture of it but Jonathan got some cool games.

Nathaniel got a subscription to all the Adobe programs!

Brigham got a roller coaster, a slot car track, and some of his favorite books.

Nathaniel often complained that he plays such a big instrument so I decided to let him try out a viola.

Brigham loved the slot cars.

Nathaniel got some cool books.

Jonathan was excited to start his Amiibo collection.

Brigham really enjoyed his art projector and star lantern.

Jaaromy got me the coolest new toy!  Unfortunately, it's too cold and snowy to try it out.

After we opened presents we went to my parents' house for breakfast, it was super yummy.  I spent the rest of the day assembling Brigham's roller coaster.  It was kind of a pain but he loves it so much it made it all worth it.  Also, we added it to the list of toys that make Suki freak out.

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Christmas break was great.  The boys loved playing with all the fun new toys.

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We went to see the lights at temple square the Sunday after Christmas.  It's the perfect time to go.

 Brigham saw me trying to take a picture and he happily turned and smiled for me.

 Then he saw me setting up for my next shot and again happily stood right in front of me and smiled.

 This is the shot I was setting up for although I'm happy to take pictures of Brigham.  I take this shot every year and it's almost always blurry.  I got it on the first try this time.

 We waited in line to see the Christus, Brigham loves to go see it.  When the sister missionaries were done talking he hurried up there so I could take a picture of him.

 Then we tried a selfie with my new phone.  Indoor pictures are still hard.

 Jonathan wanted to try one too.

 Jonathan was excited to have his own phone to take pictures with.

 Then we saw the Nativity.  I used my phone for this one because of the wider angle.  I was able to get the stable and the star in the same shot!  Not bad.

 I love the floating lights, it makes the pool so pretty.

 Another wide angle from my phone.  Sweet!

We walked around the plaza looking at the different nativities.  The steam coming off of the fountain was kind of cool.  I love to see the lights and this year we all wore our thermals so we were able to stand being outside longer than usual.

So there you have it, our December.  And that concludes 2015.