{ward Christmas party}

Eli is not pictured with Santa because he panicked, cried and lunged off of his lap the moment I put him down. Oh well, perhaps next year. Dean, on the other hand, loved Santa and couldn't wait to sit on his lap ... until Santa gave him a little goody bag. Then it was all about the candy (sorry Santa).

And remember our beautiful Temple gingerbread house that we built with our friends? Well, we were pretty proud of it until we saw this as we walked into the party... I guess the Bishop and his family decided to brave a temple too. A perfectly-to-scale, no-detail-overlooked type of temple. Isn't it pretty? Needless to say, we placed ours nearly as far away as possible so that the two could not be compared, and I think it looks pretty nice in the ward gingerbread village.



Here is Daddy barely clinging to his sanity after practically a whole two hours of chasing wiggles here, I mean Eli, around the cultural hall.
Here are the boys pictured in front of the gingerbread house that now inhabits my living room. Dean was so elated to be able to bring this home with him!
And last, but not least, Here is Eli getting his groove on with Dean's future wife, Madeline, helping him out. She'll be a good sister-in-law someday.