A Very Merry Christmas!

We had an amazing Christmas this year!  We were all healthy, Derek had the day off, and we got to be with Derek's family, and with my family via google+.
Some highlights include the Family Fun Run put on by the Fillmore Family.  I was quite proud of my time.  We had a fun time at Maren's on Christmas Eve.  We played the bells and did a nativity with Libby as Mary and Clark as Joseph.  Christmas morning was fun watching the girls open gifts.  My favorite was when they saw the Barbies in their stockings.  They instantly rushed to their bedroom to "introduce Barbie to her boyfriend Ken."  They weren't as excited about the kitchen and table and chairs as I had hoped, but they have used them quite a bit already.  Libby was really stoked about the pistachios in her stocking.  It's the little things, right?
Then we had an hour meeting at church where Derek sang with the choir.  We ended up sitting in the front row which was a huge mistake.  Libby kept trying to dance to the music with all that space in front of her.  But the spirit was really strong with the amazing music.
Then we headed to the Norton home for Christmas brunch.  It was a super windy day and they ended up losing power.  But, because my father-in-law is such an emergency preparedness guru, it wasn't a problem.  We still had sausages and waffles cooked amazingly well on indoor emergency cookstoves.
We came home tired and did a little relaxing to finish off the evening.  We were all pretty exhausted.  Why are holidays so tiring?
 

Clark pushing Libby in the Family Fun Run put on by our friends the Fillmores on Christmas Eve Day.  He did a .5 K fun walk with Libby in the stroller.  Sarah mostly played at the start/end point.

Ben did his first 5K. I pushed the stroller and we finished in 31 minutes.  Not bad, right?

Maren was my running partner for the first 1/2 .  Due to injury she had to walk a spell, so Ben and I continued on without her, but she finished soon after we did.

One of the girls favorite gifts--a giant bear from Uncle Davey.  They immediately  named it Bruce after one of their favorite books, Big Bad Bruce.  Sometimes now it is also called Roxanne (after the witch in the book.)

I was pretty excited that Santa brought them a fun little table.  Now they have somewhere to eat when we have guests.  

With Auntie Maren on Christmas Day.