The eve of eves....

The only event that could trump Christmas would be the wedding of Bethany Seibold, conveniently both of those monumental events were scheduled the same week.  The Seibold fam made a trek to the promised land on Beehive state soil for the holiday cheer and we enjoyed a Christmas even talent show and program that we could hold our heads high about...

Liv's favorite "Tay Tay"

Elliot and Esther led us in "Hooked on a Feeling..." which was synchronized...for about 2.1 minutes.

Kimber introduced us to Iphone idol which gave us some good cheap laughs

 Don't be jealous that you missed the sister in law dance to "All I want For Christmas is You." Mariah Carey would have been proud.

 Dyl did an egg trick....

Ben and Josh dazzled us with their musical talent of "Carry On"...

Tay recited a poem...

Cathy's talent of handing out homeade chocolates topped the charts as an instant crowd pleaser...

Good thing no babes were watching or they would have swooned at Tanner's musical debut...

We weren't worried about Savannah leaving the talent show early since she was in her body cast...

I couldn't be more pleased when Becky won our gift of the shark at the gift exchange. Some things are just meant to be. 

We enjoyed Bruce's cowboy poetry, but Live loved grandpa's playdough talent more.

Bacon at the hannakuh party...

Christmas traditions are always welcome but this year we started something new (so technically it can't be a tradition since it is its premiere showing) by having a Hannakuh party.  I would say the highlights included the homemade (or more accurately, home drilled, menorah by Tay), the personalized goblets from DI, homeade pizzas, bacon wrapped sausages, and the driedel game.

 It was a double celebration considering Cole was also reaching an important milestone...his one month birthday.  I always enjoy a good fun dip cake.  I don't know what those little colored beads are made of in that mix but it's always a delight to digest for me.

Even though eating bacon at a Jewish celebration was probably the opposite of kosher, I would say a good time was had by all. Perhaps a new tradition was born after all...

Pre Christmas festivities...

As cheesy as it sounds, some songs are just true. The lyrics I appreciated in all the full veracity this year were, "There's no place like home for the holidays."  Since G had a crazy work schedule, Liv and I went a week early to soak up some Christmas cheer.  There's something with being family that fills apart of you that nothing else can.  Maybe its because the things that are weird and quirky about you don't seem as weird and quirky since you're surrounded by people with the exact same quirky DNA so it's not weird, it's normal.  Maybe its the fact that I wake up and love having pancakes already made and feeling like I'm a teenager being taken care of instead of the homemaker.  Maybe its the fact that I love staying up even though everyone is too tired to say anything valuable but no one wants to go to sleep because it just feels so happy to be in the same room.  Maybe its all that and a million other things that make home, feel like home even when that includes an emu in the backyard and an alligator in the basement. 

 Liv loves being home because she is a celebrity and has non stop stimulation.  I never knew my brother Jeff was so good at pretending fisher price animals until this Christmas.  That's just one of a gizillion things I don't know about him and love. 

Another thing I love being the fact that he and I went and got facials at the beauty school together and I couldn't stop laughing under my warm towel and face mask thinking about Jeff in the next room.

Liv loved all the attention and soaked it up like a cheap slipper from Walmart on the snowy sidewalk.  It's so fun as a mother to watch people you love, love your right hand woman and constant companion. 

It's so fun to wake up every morning feeling excited about the day ahead because you know no matter what it is going to be memorable.  There's nothing better than family time. Nothing.