Our Christmas Celebrations

As we prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Savior, Logan was able to put his two little hands to work. He helped us hang the red balls and his new car ornament! Logan has grown to love cars this year. No doubt about it that this years ornament had to be a car. Kevin and Logan took a break from decorating the tree and had some fun juggling. It was too cute watching the excitement that came over Logan as he watched Daddy juggle. Logan as also become obsessed with hats. I did not realize this when Logan and I were out shopping one afternoon. I thought it would be fun to see what he thought about a Yoda Santa hat. As you can tell from the pictures below it came home with us that day. It also never left this little boys head! 

Visiting Daddy at work for his Christmas party!

We were not sure if Logan was too young to spend an evening looking at Christmas lights, but we thought we would give it a shot. To our surprise he loved it! After asking around we decided to enjoy the lights at a local campground. Logan was able to lean out of the window as we drove around the grounds. Grandpa and Grandma Youel joined in on the fun. We all enjoyed baked cookies and kettle popcorn. This will definitely be a yearly tradition!

Another Christmas family tradition that we started this year is Christmas movie night.  This years movie choice was Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas. It was so cute watching Logan's face light up during all the songs. I would say that movie night was a hit!

Crafts with a toddler is anything but boring. Much fun was had during the days making Christmas crafts. But  by far my favorite was our snowman. Logan will gladly participate in any craft that involves glue! 

Our first family Christmas celebration was with the McMillen's. We enjoyed a wonderful brunch, opened a few gifts, and spent time catching up with each other. We also celebrated Logan's 2nd birthday. We left with full and thankful hearts. Celebrating the birth of our Savior and the birth of our son, with the Mcmillen's, will always have a special place in our hearts. It truly is priceless!

Before the whole Youel gang rolled into town we had our small family Christmas. I had so much this year as I put together Kevin's Christmas gift! I pre-paid and planned 12 dates for Kevin. We have already enjoyed the 1st two dates together. He has made the choice not to look ahead and be surprised each month. He will be shocked at some of our dates, as we have never experienced some of the things I have planned!

Aunt Tami made Logan an "Who's Who" book.
It has really helped Logan know my side of the family.

I was a little overwhelmed as I was going through all the pictures from this years Christmas. Just way too many fun pictures!  I picked out a few that touched my heart and summed up the entire week we had hanging out as a family. We enjoyed a fun Christmas Eve service at home. The kids surprised us and acted out the Christmas story. Each of their unique personalities came out in the parts they played. Great memories for our Christmas Eve service! It was a wonderful week of relaxing, playing games, eating, and just hanging out. Our family is growing and it has been a blessing getting to know Steve and Cheng-Hsien. This is going to be one exciting summer with wedding after wedding! When it came to opening gifts Logan still was not into ripping the paper. But, once the gift was open he played and played with his toys. The highlight this year was him wanting to "ride" his toy truck. It was too cute. With such a big family we draw names each year. This year we had Kim and Steven. I think they approved of their gifts! It is always exciting to have the family in town for Christmas, but next year we are all going to celebrate Christmas at the cabin. We are also hoping to fly home to Texas to make a few Christmas memories with my side of the family!

All the Nieces and Nephews. (Missing Luke, Josh, and Rachael)

Oldest and youngest sibling!