Polar Bear Club 2011

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year! Look at all these tough guys getting ready to jump in and swim the length of our pool.

Ty, Joey (first-timer), Dave, Paul, Dad, Jason, and Jack (first-timer)

Jefferies Reunion 2011

We just got back from an awesome family reunion in Pinetop, Arizona. My entire family was there! It's been a few years since we've all been in the same place at the same time. My brothers from Massachusetts, Texas, and Idaho had to travel the farthest.

We had the perfect weather: lots of warm sunshine and snow on the ground. We had two days together of sledding, games, eating, and playing.

My parents with their thirteen grandchildren

Me and Joey

Hailey and Jack parading their birthday hats

Celebrating my dad's 62nd birthday!

Christmas Morning

Welcome to Christmas morning at the Woods home!

Santa brought Jack a sweet new bike. Ty got a tool set and, for some reason, Santa wrapped it in a blanket. 

My parents and Paul joined us for monkey bread and presents. Here's our lovely traditional Christmas morning photo:

 Right before Jack opened each of his presents, he whispered "I hope it's a train, I hope it's a train!" 

Unfortunately, none of them were trains. I didn't know he was wishing for one. After everything was open, I asked him which one was his favorite. He quickly replied "the train." I informed him that he did not get a train, to which he replied "I'm just pretending." Does that mean I failed this year?

Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Gingerbread Houses

One of my favorite childhood traditions in my family is making graham cracker "gingerbread" houses. We try to continue the tradition with all the grandkids, and this year, we did them at our house. I think Jack probably ate twice as much candy as what went on his house.

A Visit From Santa

We had our ward Christmas party last weekend and the kids got to sit on Santa's lap. Despite the look on his face, Jack was so excited to see Santa. It was very real to him.

I thought this was pretty cute. A bunch of the primary kids wanted to help Ty vacuum up at the end. If only vacuuming was this fun at home...

Bell Ringing

I have an amazing friend Cherie that volunteers to be in charge of a couple Salvation Army kettles every Christmas. She asked for some helpers to take hour-long shifts this year, so we signed our family up for one. It was awesome. We will definitely be doing this again. Jack loved ringing the bell and wishing people a Merry Christmas. He also wasn't afraid at all to ask for money. You can kind of see in the third picture that he's holding out his hand. Hilarious.

The best moment was when he walked up to a car that was waiting in the loading area and held out his hand. The people in the car rolled down their windows and handed him some cash. We were all laughing.

Here's a little video, too:

A Page Thanksgiving

Jack was lucky enough this year to get to go up to Page a few days before Ty and I and spend a few days with the Tubmans. He got to have a lunch date with Madi and her friends, do loads and loads of laundry with Aunt Les, and get some good snuggling in with Uncle Rob.

Thanksgiving this year was awesome becuase the entire family was together. Everyone. That doesn't happen very often. Thankfully, we got lots of pictures taken and even some dressy ones down by the lake. 

Before we stuffed ourselves on turkey, we all went for a nice jog/walk.

After that, a nice jacuzzi soak was in order:

I'm not sure why Jack looks so stessed out about eating his dinner:

And that evening we celebrated Granna's birthday and each of the girls made a dessert:

Black Friday was spent miles and miles away from any store...we had a nice cruise on a houseboat to a remote part of Lake Powell and a beautiful hike:

Jack, Auntie, and Gavin:

Look at all these cute kids! What a perfect Thanksgiving.