Halliday Family Blog

As always, tonight we had a GREAT Christmas Eve!  As in years past, we had a great dinner, caroling, and nativity!

We got together with 3 other couples and their families for dinner and had a wonderful spread!  By the time we finished eating, we weren’t sure if we could walk out to the cars to go caroling!  🙂  It’s always fun to get together with friends for a great meal and to socialize.  We really appreciate this tradition that we have now been doing for about 5 years now…

After dinner, we all piled in our cars and drove around the area singing Christmas carols and delivering plates of cookies to families.  We were well received.  The only issue we had is that at one place (along a busy road), Zach and Ben jumped out and ran across the road without looking!  😐  There were cars coming and it was a close call!  They were so fast, that I didn’t even have a chance to get out of the van before they were gone!  One of the other ladies that was there with us about had a heart attach along with me!  Fortunately we had two cars with us and Angela was already around the corner so she didn’t see it first hand!  Boy did those little guys get a talking to!  Other than that, we had a blast!

We then came to our house and acted out the Nativity.  This year we had a baby, so we didn’t have to use a doll!  🙂  It was a lot of fun and although it seems and looks really corny, it really makes Christmas Eve complete!

After acting out the Nativity, we went upstairs for a hot chocolate bar.  It was wonderful and everybody drank hot chocolate and ate cookies and pastries until they were ready to go to sleep from food overload.  🙂  What a great time we have every year!  We really look forward to that.  Other than the kids getting presents on Christmas Day, we almost look more forward Christmas Eve and the activities we do then!  Well, time to throw out the reindeer food and put out Santa’s plate, so we’ll see you tomorrow!  Merry Christmas!

Tonight, Kirstyn and I went to the second night of the Collage Concert at Metea.  Again, all the groups sounded outstanding and did a GREAT job!  It was a little more relaxing because Kirstyn and I didn’t have to worry about the boys making noise.  🙂  The Severn family in our ward sat by us.  We gave the two extra tickets we had to them.  They enjoyed it very much and were amazed at the talent the kids in the school have.  After the concert, Kirstyn and I came home and then Angela went up herself and volunteered to sell CDs.

Welcome Black Friday!  For some VERY STRANGE reason, the girls were totally excited to get up early and go shopping!  😐  They left at about 4:30am by themselves.  Angela stewed about this for awhile.  She couldn’t sleep with them out by themselves so she got up, got dressed, and went and found them.  They had a lot of fun together and it wasn’t too bad.  I guess the places they went weren’t too overcrowded.  The cool thing that happened is that Sarah entered into a drawing for a $100 shopping spree at one of the stores and WON!!!!!  She was totally excited and spent every dime!

As for the rest of the shopping, most of it was done on-line from the comfort of our own warm house.  I have sworn off going outside and shopping on Black Friday.  The funny thing is that the deals you get on Black Friday aren’t as good as the deals you get if you wait until closer to Christmas!  The retailers start to get nervous and start discounting things more heavily!  🙂

One of the things that really bothers me as well is that people have been starting to celebrate Christmas earlier and earlier.  This year, right after Halloween, Christmas stuff starts going up!  I hate that, as we really do need to celebrate Thanksgiving!  We need to celebrate our blessings and what we have been given.  That said, I refuse to put up even a single Christmas decoration, a single Christmas light on the house, or anything until AFTER Thanksgiving!  I know it will be colder to be outside stringing lights, but I guess I’m stubborn that way!  🙂  That said, we started bringing things up and decorating our house.  We didn’t get very far, so we’ll finish tomorrow!  🙂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!  We hope you had a wonderful day today!

Angela and Brittany started off the day healthy and well!  They got up early and went to our Stake President’s house (Scott Clark).  He hosts a Thanksgiving Day neighborhood 5k run which is becoming quite popular.  There were quite a few people there this year.

The rest of us were smart (or dumb if you love running in the cold) and stayed home in our nice warm house.  We then started feeling guilty so Sarah, Kirstyn, Zach, Ben, and I bundled up and went for a nice walk around the lake and the neighborhood.  It was nice to get out!  🙂

Brittany worked the rest of the day (with a little bit of help from Angela) to prepare our Thanksgiving Day meal!  She really wanted to be in charge this year, and did a GREAT job!  She made a great-looking turkey cheese ball that was a hit, and everyone loved the spread she made!

Great job Brittany!  We sure enjoyed our meal!  This year, we decided to relax and not do anything with anyone else.  I think that Angela really needed a break from stress and Brittany sure helped out with this!  🙂