We were excited to spend Christmas with our families this year, but we also wanted to have a Christmas of our own, especially now that we have a little family to begin our own traditions with. And speaking of our little family…we found out this month that we are having a girl! This is our first announcement since we waited to surprise our families with the news during our visit to Utah. I am due May 17. 
New books!
Story time with Daddy.
Ready to open presents!
Fun with blocks in a wagon.
Hailey's favorite new book--"Teddy!"
We woke up on the morning of December 22 to find full stockings and presents under our tree. We began the morning with a delicious breakfast of waffles with buttermilk syrup and then dug into our presents. Hailey knew exactly what to do when presented with a wrapped gift, and it didn’t take her long to unwrap everything with her name on it. Our gifts to each other were simple because we decided to get one frivolous family gift—a digital SLR camera! It has been such a fun toy to play with and we hope that you’ll see an improvement in the quality of our pictures as a result. After cleaning up our mess and letting Hailey take a much-needed nap, we took the subway into downtown Boston to spend the afternoon at the New England Aquarium. Hailey loved the fish and spent much of the time pointing to different tanks while making a fishy sound with her mouth.
Posing for a family picture on the way out of the aquarium.
Hailey tries to befriend the penguins.
Worn out from a long day at the aquarium.
By far the most meaningful things we did this Christmas was hold nightly devotionals where we learned about different symbols and stories to help us remember the Savior. Mark’s mom gave us a box with a devotional for every day during December, plus an ornament to hang on our tree that would remind us of what we learned. The whole idea is called 24 Days of Christmas and was created by Jennifer Lund (click here for the PDF or visit her blog for lots of other great family activity/devotional ideas). We loved this tradition and will continue it each year.