Okay, so I saved the best Christmas pictures for last! I know some of you can't believe I take this many pictures - and I won't mention the countless pictures I didn't post! But, who could resist these prime picture taking moments! This is by far my favorite Christmas Tradition - acting out the Christmas Story! 
This year Jesi was Mary - most of the time :)! Her cute cousin decided she wanted to be Mary, towards the end of the story, so they switched costumes and Jesi got to be an angel for the end of the story. It is amazing how much more willing Jesi is to share with her cousin than her sister. I have a feeling if another little angel - with a name starting with "K" would have asked to be Mary, she might not have been so sweet :).
Handsome Joseph with cane and all! 
This little angel couldn't resist chatting on what she thought was a cell phone half the time! Why am I worried?!?
I think this is where the change of plans in costumes started to take place in little Avery's mind :). Is this not the most hillarious picture?
Listening intently to Grandpa's reading of the Christmas story in Luke.
I should have cropped this picture. I think it is so precious. Grandpa Walker is explaining the scriptures to his grandchildren and Kassi decided to get a closer look!
Our new favorite Christmas book is "I Believe in Santa Claus" by Diane Adamson. Jesi had it memorized after a couple readings and has been reading it to us ever since. Drew helps her with a couple of the big words! It is a sweet telling of how Santa is a symbol of Christ and talks about how he loves little children, he brings gifts, he comes in the night, etc. Then it has pictures of Jesus and talks about how he loves little children, he brings gifts, he comes in the night, etc. A sweet friend of mine bought it for our family, so I didn't have to wait for the after Christmas sales this year to pick a favorite Christmas book to add to our collection! Occasionally I'll wrap all the Christmas stories and put them under the tree for a nightly story each day of December. This year, we just enjoyed them all throughout the month and this story was definitely read it's fair share!
I'm not sure how Bert became the symbol of Christmas this year - I think it was just for lack of a real baby who would sit still. But, the kids didn't seem distracted at all by the fact that baby Jesus had an orange nose. Jesi is giving Jesus a gift in this picture. This year we also started a tradition of hanging a little white stocking and writing down our gift to Jesus on a slip of paper - to put in the stocking until next year - something we will work on this year as our gift to Him and read next year as we prepare to give him another gift. This was a cute idea and gift from my aunt and uncle and the kids were very excited to add this little tradition to make Christ that much more a part of our Christmas each year.
After church, we had a hard time getting pictures of the kids. First, Drew wouldn't cooperate. I have a few pictures of him with quite the scowl. Then Kassi was all smiled out! So, by the end we had to find the dancing chicken to make everyone happy! And, it did the job a little too well! 
The dancing chicken! It works every time - although it might keep Kassi from looking up!
The whole fam!
Again, why am I worried?!? This is Kassi in her new tutu with her new cell phone that Santa brought! In all the Christmas packing/prep, I forgot to pack leotards for the girls, but that didn't worry Kassi in the least bit!
Avery, Jesi & Kassi in their adorable matching Christmas outfits from their Grandma and Grandpa!
Our little nonexpressive daughter playing in her cousin's new kitchen in a lovely tutu!
The highly anticipated and miraculously discovered "Travis Tanker". Mrs. Claus was very thankful to find this "no longer available" Chevron car on e-bay. Drew's old neighbor friend had quite the collection of Chevron cars, most of which are no longer being made. And, of course, Drew remembers them all! Mrs. Claus took care of this one and boy was she glad when it all worked out and didn't cost a fortune after all - and she learned a little about internet bidding in the process!?!
Jesi saw this commercial one day for "pillow pets" and held onto that wish faithfully to the end. She was SO excited to finally get her unicorn pillow pet!!! (Almost as excited as Santa and Mrs. Claus when the unicorn finally came off of backorder - just in time for Christmas!) Yes, this Christmas was a little stressful for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Next year I think they'll ask the kids to be a little less specific?!?
Then there was Kassi, who would have been perfectly happy with her stocking candy and nothing else!
Andy got some great shots of his parents' nativity this year. This is one of my favorite shots because Kassi is wondering where baby Jesus is. I guess Bert is available now?!? We could swaddle him up really good!?! I'm just not sure how we could hide that orange nose?!?
Lovely picture of me, but hey we were having fun and didn't care about our lack of make-up and double chins :). We were glad that Kassi woke up from her nap in time to join the fun and she was too! We've had a lot of fun sledding this year, twice with Grandma and Grandpa Walker!
Sledding with Grandma!
And Grandpa too! Can you tell that Jesi and her cousin, Avery were inseparable?
Kassi sledding with Daddy!
Drew getting ready for the big hill in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house! They have the perfect yard for sledding - we just had to avoid the Nativity and that was quite the trick sometimes requiring a little sacrificing of the body :)!Well, this finally wraps up my multiple Christmas blog posts. Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. Andy starts playing Christmas music in the summer - almost always, but only plays it daily in November and December :). At first, it drove me a little crazy because I was one of those - you have to wait until after Thanksgiving people, but it has grown on me and sometimes you might catch me playing a Christmas favorite in July now! Some other memories from this Christmas include going to cousin Sydney's Nutcracker ballet performance. We loved the darling simplified version and Sydney did a great job! I also am loving more and more each year, how thoughtful and carefully each of our kids pick out the perfect Christmas gift for their family members. Drew and Jesi also had the chance to pick out a special gift for a boy and girl from Drew's school's angle tree. We used to get to do this in our old ward, so we were excited to find that Drew's school did an angel tree when we moved here. We also love to go look at all the lights and this year we were told about a really fun house in Lindon that has their own radio station and the amazing lights move to the Christmas music on that station. The whole family LOVED it. It reminded me of the Grand Coulee Dam Light Show that I grew up watching! So fun! Andy had the fun opportunity of speaking in church about his memories of Christmas' past. He did a great job and I was touched by his thoughtful memories of the joy we have felt year after year at this special time. I was very happy that he got to speak and I got to sit and listen! I think, just like our new favorite book, the thing I love most about Christmas is all of the symbolism that reminds us of the Savior and his priceless gift to each of us. The lights, the music, the greenery, the colors, Santa Claus and all of the other symbols of Christmas should remind us of Christ and his life, which will forever, if we let it, change ours. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with cherished memories with family and friends and the spirit of Christmas! And, thank you once again for putting up with another one of my novel blog posts/journal entries :).
