Ok I've missed some stuff

First of all, Merry Christmas!! Yesterday was Christmas and it was wonderful day despite any financial problems. It was more fun to watch the kids open their presents and see how excited they got.

Next, our new ward had a very fun Christmas party and we moved just in time to attend. The title was Christmas in Samoa. They had Samoan dancers and an actual barbecued pig. We have a family that moved into our ward that are Samoan and they are so nice and they were kind enough to talk about Samoan culture and how they celebrate Christmas. After the Samoan dancers, a special guest showed up, yep Santa! Patrick was so excited so we quickly got in line.Patrick loved talking to Santa and posed for a picture perfect snap shot from Jesús' phone. Then it was Elena's turn. As soon as we got about 5 feet from him she started screaming and squirming to get away from him. She actually grabbed for a total stranger just to get away.

Yes I'm laughing. I know, bad mom. I thought it was hilarious and I couldnt help myself. I got her away quickly though and she was fine in a few minutes.

The next day our old ward was having a Christmas party too and we really wanted to go that because it was all about the Polar Express. It was in the morning and there was going to be breakfast so we crashed it. There was no Santa, I think Elena was relieved, but conductor Dan red the story of the Polar Express and everyone got jingle bells. We got a photo in the conductors chair and the kids were not very cooperative. So then Christmas eve was sort of sad because it was only us and my parents and Sara. It was great to spend that special evening with them but our traditional Christmas eve program was rather pathetic but Mom pulled it off by bringing out the bells by number to play a song or two and she and Sara whipped up a piano duet with no practice that was a lot of fun. Then Jesús and I made some cookies for Santa.Elena was having her own little crazy party

Sara, Patrick and I hung out under Moms tree

Christmas morning we woke up early for some reason and the kids werent awake yet so we laid in bed for a while and after about 30 minutes we couldnt wait any more so we got them up ourselves. I went into Patricks room and he was dead asleep but he woke up from the sound of the door. He looked at me slowly and rolled over to go back to sleep then I asked him if Santa had come. He looked at me so fast and said, "oh yeah, where?" I said "under the tree!" we followed him slowly down the hall and he stood there and looked at the tree. "Nope" then he looked back "wait, yes. He brought me a bike! Santa brought me a bicycle!!" It was the funniest thing. He went over to look at it and said "Its too big for me but let me check" he climbed on and started pedaling and got the hang of it immediately. He was so happy. Then we pulled his stocking down for him look in it. He loved his spiderman toothbrush. As we started opening presents he kept saying "Be patient, be patient. Dont tell me what it is!!" We were laughing the whole time. Then we went over to my Mom and Dads to open presents with them. Elena just wanted to eat chocolate from the stockings but had fun ripping the paper off her presents. The toys she loved and clothes she tossed over her shoulder.

Good times opening presents

Pushing Hannah around on the Hand truck

Jesús and Stephanie putting together the marble thing-a-ma-jig

Everyone playing with the marble thing-a-ma-jig

Moms beautiful Christmas morning set up

Here is Elena in one of her new cute outfits and Grandmas necklace, isn't she adorable??!!!!

New Family Pictures

We had Laura Mayberry take some family pictures of us this Thanksgiving. I love the pictures and I think she did a wonderful job. Here are some of the ones of just us.

I love this one of Elena

Jesús and I had some taken of us

Here are the original Randalls

The whole family on the golf cart. The sun was a little too much for the kids.

Elena driving on the golf cart

Us gals and our shoes

Sisters

The Patrick slide

The benefit of wood floors

Well everyone else is doing it...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our first fall in Old House

We have a huge tree in our front yard which looked beautiful this fall with its bright yellow leaves. In the sunset it almost looked like it was glowing. Unfortunately, that only lasted a week. The wind came and knocked all the leaves off the tree which then created a mess of leaves on our front lawn. Jesús went and bought a very large rake and raked all the leaves into a pile and Patrick couldnt resist.

Look at the joy on his sweet face. If only thats what it took for all of us to be happy. How simple.

Then the kids made up a new game. Its called "Lets push the chairs in a circle from room to room." It was a very fun game all of 2 times when the game was canceled due to my bleeding ear drums.

That leaves these final two sweet pictures of the kids. I found them on Patricks bed snuggled up and reading books. I went in now and then to join them while dinner simmered.

Its Christmas time at Old House

I pulled out the Christmas tree yesterday so we could decorate it as a family. The kids thought the whole process was pretty amazing. Elena couldn't stop pulling at the strand of beads and wanted to keep all the decorations to play with. She was a little upset when she couldnt.

But Daddy showed her how to put them on anyway

Patrick got to put the star on this year

Elena loved sitting under the tree to look at the lights and the beads. The pics are a little fuzzy because I liked the light by the tree lights.

The morning I set up the tree I found a couple of Santa hats and the kids loved them. They were a little big and they got a little lost in them.

I did get nice one of Elena

Before this happened....

Check out our Old House blog for before and after pictures.