Santa rocks!

After a group sleepover in the family room ....

... the kids finally woke up and were begging to come upstairs.

Drum roll please ....

Elle asked Santa to surprise her this year.  And she was.

She loves her color-me castle. :)  Been coloring it all morning.  Grandpa helped, too.

Paige also told Santa to surprise her.  So he definitely did.

With a cute new desk for her room.  She was a little bit speechless. :)

Haley asked for a Hunger Games cookbook, which Santa did bring her.  But he also brought her One Direction concert tickets, which she was only a tiny bit excited about.

Christian asked for a new electric guitar.  He sold his other one and then Santa made up the difference for a nicer one.  He's been playing it nonstop.  He's a happy camper, too. 

As Haley said, "Santa sure knows me.  He totally knows what makes me happy."  The girls shouted, "Thank you!" up the chimney, so I'm sure Santa knows how happy they are.  Makes me happy, too. :)

Snapshot on Christmas Eve

Lazy morning.  Haley made buttermilk pancakes.  All by herself.  Love it.

Christian & Elle played Minecraft, our kids' latest joint obsession.

I went to the gym for some exercise before the feasting began.

Paigie perfected the song that she's been writing.

A white Christmas!  A skiff of white, but white nonetheless.

And Mikey had a long winter's nap after wrapping all of the gifts he bought.  Cute boy.

12/24

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to spend it at Grandma Farley's with the Sharples.  Don't know why it's always been just our families.  I think because the other siblings always had other in-law plans.  But our tradition continues anyway ...

This year, we had a nativity re-enactment, with a reluctant teenage Joseph and a shy (but secretly thrilled) Mary.

Stellar acting performance by the donkey....

Emmy was our shepherd/wiseman/whatever other character was needed in the story.  Haley is a cow, for some reason.  Guess the shepherd was herding cows that night.

Mary and the only baby we could find in the toy room.  Furry baby.

Back at home, the kids put on their Christmas jammies and set up the huge fort in the basement.

Elle put out 9 reindeer bowls with carrots,

.... and a large quantity of cookies for Santa.  She also asked for his autograph.

Then everyone disappeared down to the basement.  The rule is that they can't come upstairs until 7am, which thankfully they all obey.  No peekers this year.

A Beautiful Birthday

The last of our holiday birthdays -- Elle Grace turned 6. For her birthday, she had several fun celebrations. First was a birthday breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa Mayfield. Having them all to herself was a gift in itself.

Grandma Farley gave her this Ellie the Elephant, another ginormous stuffed animal to add to her collection.  This has got to stop.

Then, birthday morning was finally here ....

We took several of her cute friends to a beauty college for beauty treatments.  Up-do's, nails painted and a little bit of makeup.  Perfect for such cute girlie girls.

Ta da!

Strike a pose ....

Good day for the birthday girl.  :)

Our very own Helper Santa

You know how Santa can't personally be in every mall everywhere at Christmastime?  How are there so many Santas, then?  If you ask Elle, she'll explain all about Helper Santas -- how Santa does make the occasional appearance at various events or malls, but that he also has lots of Helper Santas who cover the rest.  They all report back to him, of course, so it's still a legit operation.  She knows all about it.  And last night, she got an entirely different view of how it all works.

Ever since our early married days, Mike has occasionally played Santa for family or ward parties.  He's pretty darn jolly himself anyway and he's a natural people person, so it's a good fit.  Every time he has a Santa gig, he repeatedly comments that it's the best job he's ever had.  I mean, everyone loves Santa, right?  Driving him to and from gigs are fun, too, since we usually get people waving at us at stop lights and cars honking as we go.  It's a fun, covert operation for us both.

He hasn't played Santa for a few years so it was fun to elicit the kids' help in getting him ready and in helping to keep the real Santa's secret.  We actually bought him a Santa suit this year so now he's set for future events.  We colored his eyebrows white, added the accessories and he was ready to go ....

My favorite Santa ever.  

Santa getting a little action ...

We hid out in the bishop's office until it was time for his grand appearance and then he 'Ho Ho'd his way into the party.  The kids lined up and had their one-on-one with the Big Man himself.  The primary president sat behind his chair, handing him treats for the kids and telling him the kids' names so Mike could address them personally.  He'd call out, "Sarah!  You've grown so much since last year!"  It was pretty cute.

And then my girls jumped in line, too.  Pretty sure Paige laughingly asked for a unicorn, which Santa apparently promised to bring to her.

And slightly more bizarrely, Haley asked Santa for an elf.  Not sure what we'd do with our own elf since I totally despise the Elf on the Shelf idea.  Way too much pressure for me.

Elle totally loved watching her dad pull Santa off so convincingly.  She later said to him, "I believe in Santa, dad.  I believe in you."

My favorite part of the night was when Mike made his initial appearance and everyone started clapping and cheering.  When it had sort of quieted down, one little girl loudly said to her parents, "I thought Santa was supposed to be fat!"  While her parents tried to shush her, Mike laughed, pointed to the girl and said, "That little girl gets a pony!"

*** MERRY CHRISTMAS! ***

We're thankful ...

Thanksgiving was so fun this year!  I love that we have room enough to host big groups now.  "If you build it, they will come", right?  We had 32 for Thanksgiving last year (the kitchen had been completed just the day before -- we were wiping sawdust off of counters and everything) and we had about as many Farleys here this year.  Love it!

The day started with a little turkey oil massage ...  Kinda creeping' me out here but the end result was well worth the nasty beginning.   Brining the turkey is a 'thumbs up' way to go, we've decided.

The Sharples, Blakes and grandma came over several hours early so we could all cook and hang out together.  That meant we had moments like these:

After a Farley girls' movie night to see Pitch Perfect a few days before, Maddie taught us all how to do Anna Kendrick's cup song.  There was serious cup rhythm stuff going on around here.

Auntie KK took the littles out for a nature walk.

Sydney & Haley mastered the art of potato peeling in mass quantities.

My 2 sisters.  I love these girls so much.

My Mikey carving the turkey.

The Sharples boys are serious about their electronics.

Finally, it was time to eat.  We had a teenage boys' table....

... and a teenage girls' table (not all seated yet).  Paige was feeling pretty cool to be included.

This is one sign of a successful Thanksgiving dinner. 

My brother, Quinn, and his family had planned to come but the flu made a nasty appearance in their family instead.  Boo.

After dinner, we played beauty salon with Kate.  She's always willing to let me paint her nails or do her hair, the cutie patootie.

I can't believe this is the only picture I took of Linsey & Ryan, my favorite Utah cousins ever. :)  We sure love their family.  Tyler was showing everyone something obviously funny on the iPad.  I love that their cute family can be with us for family gatherings now -- the only Farley cousins who live here in state.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving moments .... this lot, lip-syncing for themselves on the Mac. :)  I love seeing cousins together.

The Thanksgiving weekend also included:

* A unique and amazing temple trip for some of us, even another Farley cousin, Chad, who was here for the holiday.

* A trip to City Creek to see Santa and play at Elle's favorite playland ever.

* A date night with Ryan & Linsey -- and since I didn't take a picture that night, I'll include one from our Breaking Dawn party the week before.  Love this girl.

* Cousin sleepovers, fort making, pre-Thanksgiving late night runs to the store to make sure we had enough food & supplies, Chopped competitions (where the girls have to make something edible out of random ingredients), plenty of Nintendo DS, iPad and Mac games happening, toy room playing/destroying ... it was a fun weekend.

And then we finished it all off with a Mayfield stomach flu fest!!!  Yay!!! :(