Christmas morning was spent at the Burk house. It was pretty quiet, but great. Lily loved opening her presents and getting new stuffed animals in her stocking.
She also LOVED playing in the empty boxes. Silly girl.
She even helped Bud open his presents, sort of. She mostly watched. Maybe next year. All the excitement of opening presents wore her out.
The Burk family parties are getting louder and louder every year. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s so fun to see (and hear) all the grandkids laughing and playing together. It’s a good thing my parents have a playroom in their house or it would really be chaotic!
Justin couldn’t resist putting on Kolton’s hat. Thanks Curt for catching it on the camera! It’s a tradition to have soup and bread bowls for dinner. Saley REALLY liked her soup :)
Grace and Lily loved playing peek-a-boo.
Lily really liked the soup too so she got to have a wardrobe change.
The grandkids all dressed up and helped tell the story of Christmas. This year we were lucky enough to have two Mary’s! And for some reason I didn’t get a picture of the wise men, but they were there too.
Then it was present time. All the grandkids do a gift exchange. Lily got a nightlight seahorse that plays music from her cousin Maya. Her other cousin Lexi kept putting her seahorse back in the box so this picture is actually the second or third time she opened it :)
We (I mean, Lily) gave Payton the coolest gift ever! What 7-year-old wouldn’t want a potato gun, glasses, and a whole set of moustaches (for his disguise, of course!) It was a hit! He couldn’t wait to put it on.
NEW JAMMIES
All the grandkids also get new jammies every year from Grandma and Grandpa. As soon as the boxes were open, they immediately put them on. What a cute bunch of kids!
And every family gets a new Christmas book. This is probably my favorite tradition that we started a few years before Matt and I were married. We’ve got quite a good collection now. This year everyone got Penny’s Christmas Jar Miracle. Cute book.
The kids gift to my parents was a framed picture of each of the families and a big family picture. Of course I had to get a picture of her opening our family :)
The grandkids picture has all their handprints around the frame with their names and ages. It was super cute.
When Matt holds Lily like this, she almost always goes “stiff as a board.”
From my parents we got lots of great things – they always spoil us!
I love Christmas. I love all the family time. I love all the yummy food. I love all the traditions that we have. I love that my family enjoys being together.
I feel very blessed to have the family I do.
The day of Christmas Eve we spent with Matt’s family. Matt had the honor of oiling his Mom’s mantle clocks that she’d been collecting for the past few years. She actually got all her mantle clocks from antique auctions in Virginia. She would watch the auction website and whenever there was something she wanted she would call us to go and see if it was worth bidding on. Alexander’s Antiques Auctions were one of our Thursday night activities while in Virginia and we miss it dearly. Every time we get a postcard in the mail, or Matt gets a call on his phone, we get a little sad.
One of these clocks has kind of a funny story to go along with it. The whole time we were waiting for this particular clock to come up Matt noticed another bidder looking at it, and even saw him opening up the back. The man talked to Matt while Matt was looking at it and said it didn’t work so it probably wasn’t worth much, trying to convince Matt not to bid. Well Matt said, “I’m a dentist and I like clocks so I’m still going to bid on it.” As soon as he said that the man left him alone and even left the auction before the clock came up. So Matt won the bidding on the clock and when we got it home he noticed that one of the pieces inside was bent so it wouldn’t run. He figured the other bidder bent it so other people wouldn’t want it. Little did he know that wouldn’t stop Matt from bidding on a cool clock.
Jaycee was “Miss Jabber Gums” when Lily was next to her. She sure loves her cousin, maybe a little too much. When Jaycee started pulling on Lily’s shirt, Lily just kept looking at Candice like “Are you going to do something about this?” They are going to be best buds!
Cameron and Haley (and little Claire) came to visit for a little bit before we both had to go to family parties. It was so great to catch up and meet sweet little Claire. She is such a doll! The guys loved being able to talk about dentistry and the girls talked about life with babies. It was perfect.
There’s no question why Jason is the favorite uncle in the family. He can turn plastic cups and an empty pitcher into a fun game.
Isn’t Jaycee so adorable?! I love those cheeks!
We made it to Salt Lake the day before Christmas Eve in time to go to the lights downtown with my family. The lights at Temple Square never disappoint!
We learned our lesson from the Parade of Lights and bundled up and even had hand warmers. We were roasty-toasty! Curt and Brittany were awesome and brought hot chocolate for everyone. Thanks guys!
Now get ready for PICTURE OVERLOAD!!! Enjoy…
After we were all thoroughly chilled we went into the Visitor Center to see the new temple display. The detail was amazing.
I think it’s so great that people can come and see all the beautiful rooms that are inside the temple and get a better idea of what goes on there. 
