Christmas Parties and more Christmas Parties

 Carter had his fun group of friends over for a christmas gift exchange and whatnot. They had a great time eating pizza watching the Happy Elf movie and doing a white elephant game. They laughed and laughed so that seems like a good night to me.

 It's a good thing I got that fireplace clean since our house is on the market and all. These monkeys are roasting marshmallows over the gas fireplace and its not working but it is getting little marshmallow spots all over the glass. They look cute but really they are mischievous.

 Byron working on a little smoker dinner for us. It's much trickier in the winter but always turns out delicious. Well, almost always.

 Carter got his blow torch going. He hooked it up to a gas tank for the grill and was pleased that it works so well. I was terrified that it works so well. I may have secretly been wishing this project would never come to fruition. Now what on earth do you use a blow torch for?

 Christmas Eve dinner at our place. We had pot roast and a bunch of delicious sides. It turned out okay for my first try. I do wish it had been a bit more tender though. The boys didn't seem to mind.

 Christmas Eve presents. The kids never have any clue what's inside these ones. Some year I'm going to have to not give them pajamas. They would really be surprised.

 Jason made this cool t-shirt for Carter in honor of his dirt bike project he finished this year.

 Ally is pleased with her BYU soccer ball.

 Carter is super pleased with his truck key. It's a little broken but it still gets the job done. Just like his truck he got. It's a forest green toyota tacoma. Circa 2000 just like Carter. He was very pleased.

 We sent the kids on a treasure hunt to find the last gift. We searched all over the house and eventually ended up heading down to our neighbors garage and ahhhh we got a boat. Should be great fun this summer boating all over Montana. We have no idea how to drive boat so hopefully we can find somebody who knows how and is willing to show us the ropes.

 Christmas dinner at grandma and grandpa Livsey's. There was a bit of family drama but luckily Pie Face pulled us through and we all ended up in stitches with whip cream on our faces.

 Grandma Livsey was nearly in tears waiting for her clicks to go by. She really did not want to get hit with the cream. Kate really wanted her to. Haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Carter made me this awesome ring for Christmas. I love the alpaca face on it. He takes the wood and soaks it then shapes it and sizes it and carves out the design and fills it with metal shavings. It's impressive. 

 A fun Christmas tradition is to head to Juanito Bandito's Christmas Show with our friends the West's. This year I thought we were going to be moved already so we didn't buy tickets until the last minute. Luckily we still got to go our for dinner with our buddies and made it to the show even though we weren't sitting really close together.

 Super fun night with this cute gang of friends. Ty and Jaggar have been hanging out since preschool. Ally and Ethan have been in many home room classes together. They have been great friends of ours for years. It is going to be sad leaving them. MarLyn and I worked the front desk together at Legacy. Good peeps!!

 My Mom called with tickets to the Nutcracker so Byron took Ally and Tyler because Carter said he had to speak in sacrament and I was supposed to give a lesson. Turned out Carter didn't have to speak and I could have gotten out of my lesson if I had known Carter wasn't speaking. Those who got to go had a great time at the ballet though. I love seeing the Nutcracker. I'm glad Byron snagged a photo for me at least.

 Ally and I snuck over to waffle love for a treat. She probably scored a goal and I owed her something or another as a reward for her awesome soccer skills.

 Carter has been working on this blow torch for a while now. It has taken him many trips to all sorts of hardware stores to get it all lined up right. I think he's getting close, Thank you u-tube for another how to video that has kept Carter entertained for weeks.

For some reason she really wanted a candy-cane after Sonja's concert at the U tonight. She wanted it enough to sit on Santa's lap and let me take a photo. Probably one of the last chances I'll get with this gal and Santa. She never did care for the old guy much and I hardly even have any photos of Santa and Ally. It's a shame really as they make such a cute pair. She earned her candy cane.