December

Welcome to December!  A happy month.  Even my cute Jack thinks so:) And yes, as usual, this December was full of activities and cold weather. Actually as far as the weather goes, it was freezing!  Way too many recesses lost due to temperatures being below 10 degrees and with the wind chill feeling like a lot colder. Combine the cold with the inversion/bad air and it's a good thing we were busy with happy things...because if not, the weather might have sent us into a depression.

Our Gingerbread house-yes, we go the easy route and just buy it all ready to put together.  In this photo the gingerbread house happens to be surrounded by the piles of bounty my wonderful students bestowed upon me before winter break.  They really know how to spoil me.  I am so lucky!

Our winter break began with Tyler's 16th birthday.  Yes, you read that correctly--16! Holy Cow! That is crazy!! We celebrated by getting some exercise at Airborne-the local trampoline place and then filling the house with boys, pizza, soda, video games, and ice cream brownie sundaes.  Tyler also ended up with a set of  keys (for the family cars) and a licence plate cover that lets everyone know his other car is a Tardis:)

Keeton, Cole, James, Tyler, Tayio, and Mac

Our next favorite thing in the month of December is our annual Hatch Family Christmas Party--always one of the best nights in December. We had the usual table full of treats and  filled M&M dispenser--but look we also had some token bowls of fruit:)

With such a large family and so many of us living close, the Hatch family Christmas party is always a crazy, fun, sugar infested, silly gift, cousin filled night.

Who's taller? Tristin or Tyler?

Matt and Everette

Kids gift exchange

Tristin ended up spending the night with us that night and the next morning we got winter break started off the right way by going sledding.  Kind of nice now that the kids are getting older, mom didn't have to participate:)  There wasn't a whole lot of fresh snow, but the boys still had fun.

Another amazingly fun thing we did over winter break was have an older cousins night.  We had 9 of the "older" grandkids come for a sleepover and a downtown SLC excursion.  We had a great time!  Thursday night was all about playing games and eating treats. The kids had a great time just being silly.

Matthew the horse, with Owen, Holly, Nathan, and Cara

After a yummy pancake breakfast and more silliness, we headed off to the TRAX station.  Yes, driving to downtown is much faster, but taking the train is much more fun:)

Our first stop downtown was the planetarium where our resident alien Logan got a chance to scare everyone.

And then, of course, what's a stop to The Gateway without getting gumballs?

For Christmas, The Gateway had this huge tree flown in--perfect for a group shot:)

Tyler, Tristin, Holly, Cara, Sierra, Logan, Jenna, Owen, Brooklyn, Matthew, and Nathan

Next stop-Temple Square and then on to the new City Creek mall.  It was so fun being downtown with these kids.  I know people would think I'm crazy for taking 11 kids downtown by myself, but with these kids it was easy--they're AMAZING!

And then Christmas finally came.

And Christmas ment Skyping with our soon to be returning missionary son!!!! I LOVE that new technology allows us to see him him while we speak to him!  This call was a lot easier than the rest.  Well, easier to end because we new it was just weeks until we would get to see him in person!

We had a great Christmas this year and as usual, the kids made out like bandits.

The gifts:

Tyler

Nathan

Miranda

So, now we are all ready to start a new year!