Christmas

OK so I know this is a lot of pictures, but here is our Christmas...

We went to Nashville to meet Karl's sister Hollie. We never did meet up with his sister in Nashville because they had some difficulties with thier moving process, but we had fun in Nashville. We went to The Grinch ICE! It was cool, a little too cool. Not worth the money.

My mom actually paid for it for my birthdaybecause I really wanted to go.

It's all hand carved ice sculptures, but it's so cold it's hard to have fun. Especially with 6 kids. It was fun to see though. And the gigantic ice slides were really fun.

Halee, Crson, Rebecca, Lydea, and Eldon McKay
Carson

Haylee

Karl and Rebecca

Eldon McKay and Meg

We then went over to the Opryland Hotel. The kids had a blast here. No real entertainment. Just indoor rivers they have made thoughout the hotel. After walking around for 2 hrs. we decided it was time to go and They were begging to go walk some more.

Run, Zacher, Run

Haylee

Eldon McKay watching the fish

Lydea Dawn

Check out Rebecca she's a crack up.

Eldon McKay getting told he needs to listen. I thought it was funny.

Pizza and dancing water

OK this is kind of a crazy pic of me, but I had to post it. Karl started the Christmas ninja this a couple days before this and said that someone had to be wearing the ninja head band at all times until christmas or Santa would not come. So this is me as the Christmas ninja.

Luke. Hollie, and Gracie made is to our house and we had a great time.

These are our Christmas eve gingerbread houses.

Luke trying not to go CRAZY with all my kids.

No really, he love the kids and they had a great time with him.

Haylee is the Christmas ninja!

Here is a pic or Hollis and you can see her baby Gracie on the right.

THe Christmas eve PJ's

Acting our the Christmas story. I was a bit of a disater this year, but I think it often is when there is a crazy toddler helping.

Karl reading some of our new Chrismas books to the kids. Beacuse we downsided in house while Karl is going to dental school we feel really cramped all the time. And I am ALWAYS tripping over toys. So when Christmas got near we decided that we were not doing toys and made the kids ask even Santa for books. It ended up being really fun actually and I don't think they even missed not having toys. They love books.

Eleven Christmases together

Ok So I failed at my twelve days of Christmas. None of them were really great but this one, so I had to do it. I had fun getting it together. Surprisingly enough it only took me about an hour to find all the pictures and get them scanned in.

Christmas 1998 - Provo, UT1999

We lived in Monterey, CA. Went for the holidays.

2000

We lived in Texas came back to UT for the hoidays. This is the year my dad died, so I stayed with my mom after and Karl went back to finish up his last couple weeks of training.

2001- Hawaii

2002 - Newark, DE

2003 - Elkton,MD

2004

In UT for the holidays again. This time we were moving from MD to Lompoc,CA

2005 - Minot,ND

Sadly enough I don't have a picture with all of us in it because Karl was sitting in a hole babysitting missiles a lot of the time.

2006 - Minot, ND

2007 - Minot, ND

2008 - Kentucky. We had Karl's sister Hollie come up and spend Christmas with us. Their stay was quick, but it was nice to have a little family around.

On the seventh day of Christmas

. . . the Chandler family had two leftover roast beef sandwiches . . .

and seven letters back from big man Claus.

Lexington has a special box. Letters dropped here go straight to the North Pole.





Each of the kids got a letter like this from Santa.


Santa was very personable. Here's how he responded to everyone:

Carson asked for Dove chocolates, a jump rope, or a fun book series. Santa told him to remember to say please and thank you. LOL.

Dad asked for Santa to pay his tuition. Santa wrote back, "Good luck with dental school!"

Eldon asked for Richard Scarry books. Santa said, "Rudolph is looking forward to visiting your house."

To Zachary, who only shared his love with Santa, the reply said, "Hello from the elves!"

Rebecca asked for some fun books. Santa was excited that she likes books.

Haylee asked for the Little House book series (Ingalls-Wilder) and Santa replied with... (we can't remember. We'll ask Haylee and update y'all tomorrow).

For Lydea, who requested some fun books, Santa said, "Thanks for the fun pictures you drew for me."

On the sixth day of Christmas

The Chandler family took our six kids to see Cincinnati!

The Duke Energy co. train display. The kids loved it.

All my kids walkng the streets in down town Cincinnati.

Town Square

Eden Gardens Nativity

We sure appreciate Sam and his family taking the time to show us around the city. It was a fun night.