Christmas 2012

It has been 9 years since I have been home for Christmas, and like the Christmas song, it is always in my dreams, so it was a nice surprise when Derrick found out that he had a couple of days off.  We packed up the car and headed up north in hopes that our girls could experience a white Christmas.

Growing up, Christmas Eve was my family's big holiday.  The evening started with a several course Finnish Christmas dinner set by candlelight.  I always loved having the room only lit by candles- so magical.  After dinner, Joulupukki, the Finnish Santa Claus, always surprised us with presents on the doorstep.  The evening always ended with my dad playing Christmas music on his accordion and all of us kids dressing up and performing the nativity.

This year was no different, except for the fact that the grandchildren now perform the nativity.

We also had snow.

Christmas morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast, compliments of Grandma, then took off to Soldier Hollow for some tubing.  Fun!

 That evening, we took the girls to Temple Square to see the lights for the very first time.  Beautiful!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!