We Went Camping for Christmas!

This year for Christmas we wanted to do something different.  Something to make Christmas a little more special with less focus on the presents and the sweet food.  Somehow we found ourselves planning to go camping!  James parents, his three youngest sisters, and his older sister Rachel and her family all went with us.  We met in Montana in the national forest near James' Grandma Staples house.  There is a little cabin there available to rent.  No electricity or running water, but there is an outhouse.  James parents and younger sisters stayed in the cabin.  Rachel and Tyler and their family stayed in their pop-up trailer.  And we stayed in our great big tent.

 

 

 

 

Santa was even able to find our tent out in the middle of the woods.

Christmas morning!



 

 

This picture is kind of blurry, but it shows our tent all lit up at night.



James and Rachel making breakfast in front of the cabin.

Lida and Noah

 

 

The Crumpley Family

 

 

 

The Mobley's



Our Family

 

Monique, Jada, and Dajae

 

 

 



Annie hugging her Grandma good-bye.

 

 

 

 

James and Rachel

We spent Christmas Eve setting up camp and playing around.  The kids all had lots of fun together sledding and playing in the snow.  Grandma Staples came out to camp to join us for dinner.  She brought doughnuts and all kinds of treats.  We read the Christmas story together, sang Christmas Carols, then let the kids play a little more before settling down for the night. 

We spent most of Christmas Day at Grandma Staples house.  We enjoyed visiting with each other and also got to Skype with Chris for quite a while.  We all had Christmas dinner together.  Then while the kids watched Despicable Me 2, the grown-ups played a couple of games.  Just before we left we all took a turn in the bathroom so that none of us would have to use the cold outhouse in the dark.  We got back to camp just in time to get ready for bed. 

The day after Christmas we had a pancake breakfast then started packing up.  We were sad to say good-bye to everyone. 

Now we have to decide what to do next Christmas.  Any suggestions???

Christmas Day 2010

A few pictures from Christmas morning at our house.

Naomi trying on her new scarf and hair bows.

James trying out his new sleeping bag.

Stephen with the electric train set Santa brought for him.



Santa also brought mustaches for the boys and big lips for the girls.  They are the kind that are made of flavored wax that you can chew like gum.  That is, after you are done goofing off and being completely silly with them.

Oh, yes, even Dad and Mom got in on the fun.

Feel free to laugh at this picture.   Especially since you won't see pictures of me like this very often.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2010

These pictures were taken at the Nativities Around the World display held at the Moscow Idaho Stake Center.

Cutting Our Christmas Tree: 2010

We had a great time with our yearly tradition of cutting down our own Christmas Tree.  We went out on Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The weather was perfect!  Not too cold, and it was snowing!

Playing around in the snow

I think we found the one.

Stephen was big enough to do the cutting this year.

Stephen, Annie, and Ellen sledding down the hill.

Naomi and Noah's turn!

Christmas Season 2009

I decided that I've got to hurry up and blog about all this stuff, or it just isn't going to happen.

Our Christmas season was quite busy this year. As I'm sure it was for everyone. We started off on Dec. 2 with the Light Up the Night Parade the city of Moscow has every year. Our ward Primary always has a truck pulling a trailer with a live Nativity scene then the rest of the primary kids walk behind and sing Christmas carols. I am the primary chorister so I get to walk and sing too, and it is a lot of fun. This year Stephen, Anne, and Ellen were chosen to be Joseph, Mary, and the angel. (I did not choose or even suggest.) James, Naomi, and Noah were able to watch the parade and even saw Santa Claus. It was quite cold that night so we hurried home as soon as we were done.

That Saturday, the 5th, we all went as a family to cut down a Christmas tree. It turned into quite an adventure. It's kind of a long story, so let me just say that we ended up spending about an hour - hour and a half all squished together in the Jeep. And I mean squished. Noah knew that we were looking for a tree and didn't quite understand why we weren't choosing one of the many, many trees right around us. Every now and then he would point out the window and say, "Tree!" But we did have a very nice time together. The snow was beautiful and we (mostly I) sang Christmas songs and I really enjoyed being so close to my most favorite people. And we did end up with a very nice tree.

Dec. 13th was our ward Christmas party. We sang Christmas carols, then enjoyed a nice dinner served family style (which means the food is on the tables and we don't have to wait in huge long lines and juggle plates! Yay!!!), then we did get in a huge long line so that we could see Santa. Except for Stephen. He decided that he is getting to big for Santa's lap, so he and James helped clean up. The rest of the kids all got to tell Santa what they wanted and got their picture taken with him. I wasn't sure what Noah would do. He didn't say anything, but he didn't cry either.

We had two Christmas concerts, one for Stephen for band on the 14th (and I forgot to take my camera) and one for Stephen and Anne for school on the 17th (I did bring my camera, but Stephen was sick so he couldn't go). They were both great concerts! This picture is all of the 2nd graders of Lena Whitmore Elementary. Annie is in the middle row, 5th from the right. It's pretty hard to tell which one she is. They did a really good job!

On Dec. 18 Stephen was feeling much better and I had a little shopping to do, so we all went down to Lewiston after James got home from work. There is a park there called Locomotive Park where the city puts up a huge light display. It was so neat!

All the trees were very bright.
The very biggest tree has lights that go off and on in time with the music that is playing in the park.

There is a large mat, probably 20 x 20 feet next to another tree. The mat has big square buttons under it that you can jump on. When you jump on certain squares certain colored lights on the tree will turn on and off. Very fun, even for James and I.

They had a nice big fireplace.

A tunnel of lights over the sidewalk.

Dancing Penguins!

We had such a good time!! We will definitely be going back next year.

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Day. It was nice and relaxing to have just us at home, but we did miss our extended family. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!