Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! We had a really great christmas this year! I was really excited that we were able to get a real tree this year! We have been using a fake one for the past couple of years, which was fine, but I just love getting a real one. Since we moved, we realized that we had left our box of christmas decorations at his parents house in Utah, so I was bummed to not have my christmas village and stocking and everything else. Luckily I have a really awesome mother in law who helped us make our house and our tree beautiful and christmassy!
I started a tradition last year of doing a christmas countdown thing with Makella and everyday we do some kind of christmas activity. I guess its not really a tradition yet since we have onle done it once, but I would like it to be! Well, it didnt really happen this year. I had a hard time getting into the christmas spirit at first, but I did get around to doing some fun things with the kids! It will be better next year! One day me and Ella went by ourselves to do some christmas shopping while the boys stayed home and did boy things. While we were out we stopped at the mall and Makella was so suprised that Santa was there. Her face was priceless! She was so excited! I wished that Noah could have been there, but it was ok, because I dont think he would really care anyways. It was fun to just be out with my girl! Here is Ella with Santa!

A few days before christmas we were planning on going to our ward christmas party but we didn't end up going. Well, ella was super upset about not going, so we decided to do gingerbread houses instead! Poor Noah ended up just going to bed because he just likes to sleep, so the rest of us stayed up and decorated our house! It was lots of fun!
We have tried to focus a bit more on the Savior this christmas, so for the 12 days before christmas, we read a christ focused story with ella and noah (more just ella) every night. She really loved it. Then on one of the last days, we watched the nativity movie with her. Just the shortened one, and she loved it! She loved being able to See the story instead of just reading about it.



It was a Graff Christmas this year which worked out since Jon had to work on Christmas anyways. Since most of the Graffs live up here in Boise and some of us had to work right around or on christmas, Jon's parents came up here to celebrate! I love getting together with family so it was fun to have them here! They came on Thursday and dropped off all kinds of presents for us and the kids, which was super nice and it was fun to have some presents under our tree! Then on Christmas Eve, we went to Kami's house and spent the evening there. There was awesome food, treats and great company! The little girls dressed up as Mary and an Angel and watched over baby jesus. Malia took her role as Mary very serious. She was so sweet and definetaly had the "meek and mild" thing going on. Makella was more of a silly Angel and just liked the fact that she had everyone's attention on her! I guess its ok for and angel to have a little fun! Jon's dad gave a really great christmas devotional/message. He challenged us to take this next year to really get to know Jesus Christ and become closer to Him. A challenge that I plan on doing!

After the party was over, we packed up so we could go get ready for Santa to come! As we went out to the car we looked up and in the sky was a bright slow flashing red light the looked just like rudolph. Im sure it was a plane, but you couldnt see it. Makella couldnt believe it! It was rudolph! She was SO excited she was like shaking! So we ran back in and got Malia so she could see it. She went Racing outside as fast as she could and they were both so excited! It was pretty much the perfect way to end the night! Christmas morning was a different because Jon had to work from 6:30 am to 2:30. So we woke the kids up at five and opened our stockings. I wanted to get a video of the kids getting up and stuff. Makella woke up to the sound of jingling bells and Santa outside her window. She was so cute and her face when she saw the tree and all the gifts was so cute! Noah Loved his stocking! He got a bunch of dinosaurs and cars and a big foam battle ax! Makella got a bunch of girly cute things. After all the stocking stuff I realized that my video camera had stopped recording for some reason! I was so upset! So I have no pictures or video of the morning! It was a bust, but they were both so cute! We waited to open all the gifts when Jon was done with work. So we spent the morning, being lazy, taking naps, and getting ready. Then we headed over to Aaron and Kelly's for a little christmas brunch. It was fun to just relax and be with family. Then we headed back home and opened all our gifts! We all got such great things and we are so grateful to all the grandparents and family that got us and our kids such awesome gifts! We felt so blessed and grateful! After that we went back to Aaron and Kelly's house to spend the evening there. Kelly made an amazing dinner for a large group and we had a really great time! We were one of the last to leave and both the kids managed to do pretty good for staying up so late! We definetaly enjoyed our first christmas here in Idaho! I hope that everyone had a wonderful christmas. This turned out to be an incredible long post, so if you are still reading, Im impressed!