Our pre-christmas festivities this year were less intense than recent years...not that I am complaining. Gav's work party was simple...they didn't charge us $80/pp and require fancy dresses (although, it used to be kind of fun to get totally dolled up). In fact, here's the only pic prior to the party(i think he's pretty DANG
hot!).
And sadly, we missed our ward Breakfast with Santa because we had a basketball game at the same time. However...Joel got to open his first Christmas present from Grandma Gerrie (the traditional PJs) at Gammy's house a few weeks early.
And now that Christmas is over and presents have been seen....here are some of the after shots of the Grandkids Photoshoot we did for GAmmy & Papa's gift...
Here's my fav pic of the bunch that we took...which, I might add, was no easy feat with 10 grandkids...2 three year olds and a newborn=)
And no Christmas is complete without a trip to the temple to check out the lights and nativity:
And I didn't get any pictures...but we did tag along on the annual Packard Carolling tradition...which always proves to be heart warming in some little way. I love that it brings joy to others with nothing but our voices. Speaking of tagging along, we also jumped in the my SILs friend tradition of driving thru PQ where there are about 10 streets that do the Christmas lights up right...it was awesome...very crowded...but we jumped in the back of Gav's truck and we had a great time.
The day after Christmas... we spent the morning watching some of our new movies while I packed for a quick trip to Utah. Somehow I have managed to avoid going there for over 4 years. But I succombed...for a good cause. My little bro was being sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a very neat experience to watch him and his wife and baby Olivia make that step. It was touching to see their little angel girl brought into the sealing room in her white...I cried. And it was also very neat that for the first time ever, all of my siblings were able to be in the temple together. The night I arrived, I was up all night sick as can be. So my 2 day trip was plagued a bit by my lack of energy. But I am still glad I was able to be there. A true glimpse at heaven...the only thing that would have made it better was to have my whole family there. Once again, Gav's darn work got in the way of it being a whole family event. 
