Saturday was the Las Vegas Bowl so the whole day was planned around getting to the game on time. My mom and I did some last minute Christmas shopping in the morning and got home in time for Brandon, my dad and I to run out the door for the game. I was really glad I bought a coat during the earlier shopping excursion because it did get a little cold. But to hear Brandon tell it, you would think we were on the verge of freezing. Granted I was in a big coat, my dad was in a coat and gloves, and Brandon was in a sweatshirt. The game was good, but there were definitely some plays that shouldn't have been made. In the last minute of the game one of these such plays seemed to have cost BYU the game. With the less then desirable temperature, Brandon and I were ready to leave the game just 30 seconds early, but we are definitely glad we didn't. The ending was phenomenal and BYU won.
Sunday night the Christmas festivities began. My sister was the last one to get in to town Saturday night. This year was an "on" year so the entire family was going to spend Christmas with my parents. When we're all together, with siblings, siblings in-law, and grandkids, we have 15 people. My parents hadn't decorated their tree yet (my sister wanted to help) so my brother with wife and kids came over Sunday night and we decorated the tree. Brylie helped for about 2 minutes and then decided playing with her cousins would be more fun.
Sunday night the Christmas festivities began. My sister was the last one to get in to town Saturday night. This year was an "on" year so the entire family was going to spend Christmas with my parents. When we're all together, with siblings, siblings in-law, and grandkids, we have 15 people. My parents hadn't decorated their tree yet (my sister wanted to help) so my brother with wife and kids came over Sunday night and we decorated the tree. Brylie helped for about 2 minutes and then decided playing with her cousins would be more fun.
Monday was Christmas Eve and the chaos really kicked in. I had to make an emergency trip to Joann's for something I had come up a little short with and then a trip to Best Buy with my dad. I swear every year never to shop on Christmas Eve again and every year I seem to be out shopping again. That night Dahl traditions came out in force. My sister Cari wasn't such a slacker as myself with getting her post about Christmas up, so I'll be using part of hers here.
"We did the traditional acting out of the Nativity scene, which has been taken over, in large part, by my parents' grandkids. (Thank goodness. My older siblings (this would include myself, Stacy, were shouting mutiny at the thought of having to don the innkeeper or shepherd outfits.) My five-year-old niece Kristen, who was thrilled at getting to dress up and cradle the baby doll, played Mary, and she was accompanied by her three-year-old brother Joseph, who was, of course, Joseph. The rest of the cast included my dad as the narrator, me as the innkeeper, Lindsay and my one-year-old nephew Benjamin as shepherds, Shelby as the wise men, my two-year-old niece Brylie as general stand-in/used to be angel, and great sport brother-in-law Brandon as the angel once Brylie had called it quits. (He even put on the tinsel halo. There must be a special place in heaven for Brandon. Seriously, though, some day I'll get to see that part of my life again and I'm going to rejoice. Brandon the angel. Sweet.) It was quite late after the play, but some of us stayed up to watch the Dahl family standard, Muppet Christmas Carol. Then we headed to bed and waited for Santa Claus.
Time out for my favorite memory of Christmas 2007: My nieces Kristen and Brylie are the cutest little girls on the planet, and no yours are not cuter so shut up. :) Brylie stayed at my parents' house over Christmas with her parents and baby brother Beckam, so we had a lot of time to hang out. Well, Brylie's mom (otherwise known as my sister Stacy) was trying to teach Brylie why we really celebrate Christmas, that it is really a day to commemorate the birth of our Savior and is not all about Santa. That statement translates into for two-year-old as, "It is Jesus' birthday," and to Brylie, birthdays mean balloons, cards, and birthday cakes. Therefore, Stacy and Brylie went out and bought a bag of balloons, a birthday card, and a Funfetti cake mix for Jesus' birthday. My siblings and I helped Brylie blow up the balloons and I helped her write her card, and then it was time to make the birthday cake. She was really looking forward to making Jesus' birthday cake, so when it was finally time she was really excited. I poured the mix into a bowl and then had Brylie help me crack the first egg, but she didn't like how messy it was so she let me do the last two eggs. After that she helped me pour in the oil and I put the used measuring cup into the soapy water and told her that next the cake needed water and turned around for a split second to get the right measuring cup. I turned around just in time to see her pouring a small amount (less than 1/8 cup) of soapy water into the cake batter. A bit of craziness ensued as people realized what had happened, and my poor Brylie was mortified and started to cry. I felt so bad because she was just helping me, so I tried to repair the damage by having her help me make funeral potatoes later, but she lost interest in that as soon as she found out that we were, in fact, making funeral potatoes and not birthday cake. Once the cake was cool enough I took Brylie out and we fulfilled another Dahl tradition of putting money in birthday cakes (she left a few craters in the cake, but no one minds) and then we frosted it in a lovely mint green completely-unlike-boogers-no-matter-what-my-dad-tells-you icing. Brylie was so adorable, ripping the top of the cake to shreds in her birthday cake vigor. After dinner we all went out and lit three birthday candles (one for each of my older nieces and nephews) and, because Brylie wanted to, sang happy birthday to Jesus. Some of my siblings seemed to think that this was sacreligious, but I can't help thinking that Jesus didn't mind at all. It helped Brylie relate to what was going on. And because I know you want to know, the cake tasted fine, and no one burped soap bubbles." Thanks Cari for letting me borrow your account. We also chose stockings and because of the shear number of people, only the little kids got to hang them by the fireplace.
The next morning was Christmas and that is pretty much self explanatory. My brother, sister-in-law and kids came over early so all the kids could experience Santa presents together. After the running of the kids completed and Santa presents were admired, many more presents were opened, wrapping paper discarded and kids overwhelmed with the morning. Someday I'm going to have to keep track of how much wrapping paper my mom goes through for Christmas. We had a great day and everyone got way more then they needed.
December 26th brings day after Christmas shopping for my mom and I and this year my sister Cari and Brylie joined us. We had a blast and were back in time to get ready for family pictures. The family picture experience was our normal experience with Brylie not wanting to participate and screaming when we tried to get her to do anything. I'm hoping some turned out for my parents sake. We left the next day and had, compared to the trip there, and easy trip home. We've been going non-stop since and fondly remember our slower paced time in Las Vegas.
Here is Brylie using one of her favorite new toys. It lets her play on the computer all by herself. Thanks again Gram and Grandpa.
I'm trying to convince her to try potty training so she can go to dance class. We spent a couple of hours at the festival and still didn't get to see everything. As we were leaving there was a little kid area. I don't know why we hadn't seen it sooner, but we had just enough time to let Brylie get in the big bubble. Luckily Brandon got enough tickets for her to do it twice.
We had a great time going to the festival and it will be something we will do again.
The excitement was great, especially in the last few minutes, so some took naps. Probably not the ones who really needed them. but we'll take what we can.
When we had him at the doctors for his 
And I went to check on Brylie to make sure she had calmed down and have a little chat and she was under her covers asleep. 
Now I know that Beckam can go to sleep on his own and Brylie does sometimes listen to me. It's turned out to be a good afternoon. That is until they wake up.
