Christmas Time

Hey everyone. Us Howells have been super duper busy with the holidays, baby growing, Noah learning, and just being awesome. I finally am on here to update about Christmas. Let me tell you it was a great day. First Christmas Eve I got off work early, which was just great. And I still got paid for a full days work, even better! Sean, Noah and I went with my family to go caroling as is a Rogers family tradition. We go to families in my parents ward. We have been doing this every Christmas Eve for the last 6 or 7 years. People actually look forward to us coming. Funny thing is we arent really all that great at singing. I guess they just love our happiness and cheer. They invite us into their home and we sing to everyone in the house. Then we hand out candy canes. We started caroling at 5pm ish. By 6:30 we still had 5 houses left to go to but I was puking in the street and Noah was getting fussy and was ready for bed so we decided to stop and the rest of my family went to the other houses left. We spent the night at Sean's moms house so we wouldn't have to wake up too early to get to my sisters house at 7am.

We opened gifts with my family in the morning. Noah had a fun time ripping open the wrapping paper and playing in the boxes. He loved all the toys and things he got. Amanda and Andrea bought him a GIANT pillow pet. Its a giraffe (which noah now knows how to say) and its bigger than he is. We gave him a small puppy that barks when you pet it and wags its tail. The best gifts we received this year was from my mom. She made each couple and the singles each their own quilt and each grandchild got one of their own. Yes my mother is amazing. She made like 20 quilts in the last 3 months. Each one was personalized to what that person or couple likes. Ours was yellow and green with daises. Noah's had trucks. Thats another word he learned this weekend. He even points them out and happily says "truck!" We had a yummy breakfast with the Rogers clan and then just hung out for a couple hours. Then we all met up with Sean's family at the movie theater to see the new movie Les Miserables. It is a beautiful story of redemption and mercy and had great music. Sean even cried at the end. He was really moved by the story. My dad had to take Noah out for the last 30 minutes because he got fussy. Luckily Harkins has really nice employees because one of them gave him a free ticket to see it later. Other than that Noah was really good during the movie. We had to take him with since both families were there with us we had no option for a babysitter. He just went back and forth between laps and ate popcorn and slept for an hour of it. He didn't even make any noise til the end. What a big boy!

After the movie we went back to Sean's mom's house to have Christmas dinner with them. We exchanged gifts there too. We got his mom a great book about missionary work. Jason and Melissa had our names this year. We got a target gift card ( I finally got to buy a blow dryer!) Noah got some great cardboard books, a cute bow tie Melissa made that matches one that Alden has. Now even miles and miles apart they can match.

We really enjoyed having a nice relaxing day to spend with family. We also had some time to reflect on the reason for the holiday. We are so grateful for our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. For the sacrifice he made for us, that we may return to them someday. I am so thankful for the atonement and the opportunity I have to become clean through Him. I know that the Gospel is true and I know that my family will be together forever. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to enjoy it with Family and Friends.