Wednesday, December 31, 2008

T'was the Season...and we were Jolly!

I get soo sad when Christmas is over with! It's just constant fun for 2 weeks straight!! There was a lot that happened so instead of writing novels under each picture, I'll just write a brief description before each event!

You can't start the season without going to see the Temple Square lights, and since we live right down the street from them, it was a must!


Ok, this next event was one of my favorite of ALL TIME! This year the Elder's decided to help out some families in need instead of drawing names for each other. It was the most humbling experience. Me, Brad, Jeff, Lisa, Brads aunt, Sandy, and Brads cousin, Lauren all went and delivered the presents the Saturday before Christmas. We had 2 families that we bought presents for and me and Brad were in charge of buying for a 5 year old little girl name Melissa. Gosh, it was such an incredible thing that we were able to do and help out these families! I got a quick picture of the little girl we bought for, but couldn't get much of the rest of the family. They didn't speak a lick of English and didn't know we were coming, but you didn't really need words to see how grateful the mother was. After all of us hit up this little restaurant that was in the area called Family Tree....ummm there scones were INSANE!! Loved them.......absolutely recommend the place to anyone, anywhere.



Another thing me and Brad did together was go to the Spoken Word the Sunday before Christmas. For anyone who hasn't gone, you have to go at least once in your life time. The Tabernacle Choir sings every Sunday morning for about half an hour to an hour. It got us right in the Christmas mood.
These next pics are of Christmas Eve with my family and our Oma (grandma). We were so lucky to have her come down to spend Christmas with us for the first time. Promise nothing in this world competes with Christmas Eve with the Weidner family. Also a little taste of Christmas morn and what our house looks like after 5 seconds of opening gifts....that's pretty much how long our Christmas mornings last.

Next bunch of pictures are of Christmas day with the Elders! Lisa always gets the girls the same PJ's, but this years look like she spent about 10,000 dollars on them....they are, by far, the nicest pj's I've ever owned!
This next picture is the cutest of them all-right when we got to the Elders, Brad, no lie, immediately got into his snow stuff, grabbed a shovel and went outside without saying a word to anyone. He was out there for about 2 hours. He comes inside so excited wanting to show me what he built. I go out to see, and the whole time he was making a snow igloo for little Bree, his niece. She LOVED it! I'm sure no one else loves this picture as much as I do, but it really was so cute how excited Brad was to built it for her.
These next pictures were from our annual Cousins Dodge Ball Game!! By far the BEST PART OF CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! All of our cousins that live in Utah get together at a church for a huge meal and an awesome game of dodge ball! Everyone gets into it so much. Promise before every game each year I literally get nervous gut for how intense the games are. But man, they are well worth the year long wait..

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!! Thanks for enduring the long post:) and have a HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!

12 comments:

the fellers said...

oh my gosh Mel, I seriously started to cry when I saw those little kids that you guys bought presents for, how sweet and thoughtful, man I could not imagine. Sure makes me want to stop complaining about what I Dont have. My kids got some presents at Christmas, and we have food in our fridge, how lucky are we, I guess we need to take more time to really appreciate what we have. That is such a great idea. Also, I LOVE that last picture, I love every single piece of it, look at everyone individually, I just laughed, it was so fun last night, and your explanation of it is SO true!

Elizabeth said...

What a blast! We were sad to not be there with everyone this year, but we still feel a part with our matching pjs! Have a wonderful time in Hawaii and soak up that sun for us!

Ryan and Tori said...

Well, I had to do a double take to see if it was really you who updated. Love it when The Elders update. Uh- who is kissing Brad in that first picture. All I see is a beautiful model with long blond hair... has it really been that long? You look amazing!! So glad your Christmas was awesome- just miss seeing you :( let's please get together sometime this century. Whatdaya say?

Alli said...

Great pics Melissa! Looks like you guys enjoyed your holidays, and hope you have a great New Years!

Jessie said...

We did the same thing this year. Sponsored a little boy through Sub-for-Santa. It really was amazing. Nothing is better than giving to those that need it a lot more than ourselves!

And just looking at those dodgeball pictures made me excited. I think I'll be starting a new family tradition.

the murdocks said...

I miss it already meliss! I'm glad you got some pics from our dodgeball night. Twas a wonderful christmas season. It just wouldn't be comlete without you guys!

p.s. are you lying naked somewhere on a beach right now? I hate you.

Jeff and Lisa Elder Blog said...

Love it! The picture of Brad with Bree is priceless. Hope you are having the time of your lives right now-in the sun, in the warmth-it's 20 here with clouds and snow coming.

Utah Funeral Directors Cremation Center said...

I love all of it Malermie. The Weidner family is the greatest family I know. Really please call next time you come out here, I want to hang with you and Stace.

John and Erin said...

Thanks for the good times over the christmas break. I love chatting with you whenever I can.

Mary, Jeremy and Liam said...

Dude! Your hair is so long! I'm happy to see you had such a great holiday! Miss you!

RIndi said...

I can't believe how long your hair is! What cute pics and I loved the sub 4 santa stuff. I do it every year and it gets me EVERY time!!!! I never want to miss a Christmas of doing that!

sarjuh said...

oh man how fun!