To our Santa. . .

We've always been taught that the spirit of Santa is the most important aspect of the jolly old figure. That is why I've never stopped believing in him. His spirit exists and therefore so does he. It is the spirit of charity, love and giving without want of receiving. The spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas.

Our special Santa truly embraced this spirit. He didn't ask for a gift in return, a plate of cookies or even recognition for his good deed. I do not even know who this special Santa is, which is why I'm posting this. I'm hoping that maybe our Santa will come across this post so that he will know how truly grateful we are for his kindness.

So Thank you Santa for the Gift Card! We can't tell you how much we appreciated it. The value of your thoughtfulness and kindness is worth more than the money on that card!

December 25, 2009: A Merry Christmas for the Strattons!

Christmas Morning. . .











Grandpa and Grandma Andreason's house. . .




Home Again. . .






Merry Christmas to all. . .



. . .and to all a good night!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful Christmas!

December 24, 2009: Our Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was a little uneventful during the day. I spent the day cleaning for Santa's arrival, and Craig ran last minute errands.

That night we made plans to drive around and look at Christmas lights with my parents and then come back and eat baked apples. This is a new and old Christmas tradition mixed together. I've always wanted to make baked apples so we decided that would be our traditional Christmas Eve treat. And my family had always enjoyed driving around and looking at lights and my favorite time to do this is on Christmas Eve. So thus begins our new Christmas Eve Tradition

Driving around looking at lights went pretty well, but the boys started to fussy so we headed home early.

The baked apples didn't cook right, but it was my first attempt and everyone still enjoyed them.

Later that night Craig and I helped Santa set up the toys while the boys kind of slept. I guess in our house two creatures were stirring on Christmas eve.



After Santa left a very tired mom and dad went to settle their brains for a long winters nap until they realized their sweet little pooch had left a nice, wet, little present on their bed. Thanks Ruby!

December 23, 2009: Dasher and Dancer and two of his reindeer. . .

Big H loves animals so we took him down to Thanksgiving Point on Wednesday. It was hard to get a good picture because all the kids crowded round, but when the reindeer came up close big H would always smile.




Little H got to see them too, but he's not as big of an animal lover as big H. He enjoyed it though.

December 19, 2009: The Guthrie Christmas Pary

For my whole life The Guthrie Family Party has taken place at my grandparents, usually on Christmas Eve. But last year my Grandma exclaimed that she is too tired so the kids need to take over. This year my Aunt Jackie volunteered. She, and her family, threw a wonderful party.

We started with dinner, which was delicious.

After that Santa came, and brought the boys some presents. He had a list of good and bad things the kids had done. Little H loved Santa, but Big H cried. I think he was just tired because our first Santa visit went great.








Then we moved on to a fun pass the present left and right game. We play this every year, but this year Jackie put together a fun story about the Guthrie family.


After that we played the price is right. The boys won a toy laptop and one of those wooden bead toys that you see at doctor's offices. I won a towel and Craig won some body wash. It was a way fun game!





Then it was present time. Everyone was so generous. We were so appreciative!





We all had a very good time at the party this year. Thanks Jackie and family! You guys did a great job!

December 11, 2009: Our Ward Christmas Party

Last Friday we headed to our ward Christmas party. It was nice to get introduced to some of the members. Everyone was very welcoming, and they all thought the boys were just the cutest.

Craig really had fun getting out and meeting people.



The boys had fun too! Little H really enjoyed discovering the pom-pom on Big H's hat.



Apparently it was all a ploy to get his brother's binkie.



And apparently he wanted his hat too.



During the program we ate our desert and the boys sucked on some candy canes.



Yum!



To finish off the evening we took some pics of the boys in their Santa Pants.



So cute!