merry christmas!

Wow this month sure flew by! These photos were kind of taken on a whim with Christmas card intentions but I never got around to designing them so... here you have it! Christmas is becoming even more fun as Ruby gets older. I just love these sweet little girls. They have made my love so rich and we feel very blessed.

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My parents skipped town (with my sister Laura and her husband Ben) to spend Christmas with my sister Kate and her family in Seattle. With that crowd in Seattle, my other sister Sarah and her family in New Mexico, brother Brian in Berlin, and other brother Daniel in Korea... we were left to fend for ourselves and to hang with the Jones family at home. Even though I miss my family... it is kind of nice to not have to share our time with as many people. We went to a movie ("We Bought a Zoo") with Adam's family on Christmas Eve (during the day), and did our own thing in the evening... Chinese take-out and a quiet night in with our own little traditions. Christmas jammies, baking (Adam really wanted to make beignets... which were quite tasty), stories (T'was The Night Before Christmas & Luke 2), movies (Elf), more baking and leaving out Santa's snacks... etc. To be honest... it was a full night. Ruby finally went to bed around ten and we slaved like little elves wrapping and setting up the scene for the next morning. Playing Santa is really, really fun. Ever since I was little... I have loved the scene of a living room filled with presents, prizes, and filled stockings left by Santa... all dimly lit by the lights on the tree. Magical. Adam (like a 5 year old) woke us up bright (dark really) and early (6:45am) to start the festivities! He was so excited! We needed to start early if we wanted to be at church on time at 9:00 am. Even though I would have preferred to have church a tad later.... I am so glad that we made it and were able to celebrate and honor the birth of our Savior on this special day. We then headed up to Salt Lake for Christmas morning at Adam's parents. It is always so fun for the little cousins to get together... show off some of their favorite gifts and get spoiled even more by Mimi and Papa.

Christmas Day

Claflin Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family a little early this year because everyone (except for us) was skipping town for the holidays. It was a small group but we still had a great time. We made sure to keep all of our regular traditions. Dinner was divine, we exchanged gifts, read Christmas stories, and listened to good old Ray Conniff Christmas Caroling.

Dance

Ruby has been loving her ballet class. Their big recital is in June... but her teacher invited the mommies in for a little holiday piece they threw together.

They did the dance twice.. so both videos are basically the same...

the most wonderful time of the year...

There are a few things that are on our holiday bucket list every year and seeing the lights at Temple Square is one of them. We had a lovely night downtown tonight. We did a little shopping at Gateway Mall, then we took Trax up a few stops to Temple Square. The lights always amaze me. After stringing our Christmas tree and knowing how annoying it is to wrap lights around every single bough... I am in awe of the many many lit trees down there. It was fun to show Ruby where Adam proposed to me (almost exactly to the day) 7 years ago! She liked the huge nativity scenes from around the world, and going into the visitors center to see the Christus statue.

Another thing I love about this time of year is decorating our house. Our little house looks so cute all lit up.

This photo is terrible but I wanted to remember this cute wreath I made at a wreath making class taught by my friend Natalie.

Another must-do is to visit the Festival of Tree's. Some highlights were: going with our good friends Laura and Alice, visiting the kids corner for a few crafts and making a human sized bubble, perusing all of the awesome trees, and of course sitting on Santa's lap. When asked by Santa what she would like for Christmas... Ruby told him that she wants him to surprise her!! That's easy enough:)

"greta bean"

I don't really know why... but "GretaBean" has kind of stuck as a nickname. This little girl is SO easy, so laid-back, and really smiley when you talk to her. We are just so in love with her.

{don't mind the open pj's... she's just showin' a little leg!}