December 2016

December was filled with fun festivities around our house. Take a look...

Autumn and Seth both performed in their school's Christmas Choir concerts and both did really great - Christmas Choir concerts are my favorite!!



We traveled to Logan early in the month for Megan's Institute Choir concert and it was so so good!! The music was beautiful and really helped put us all in the Christmas spirit.  My dad was in town for the weekend, so he made the trip with us. After the concert, we went out for crepes at this really great crepe place in Logan. The kids had fun in the hanging seats.





Seth performed in Lone Peak's annual Madrigal Feaste and we all went one night to enjoy dinner and all the singing.  Devin and a bunch of his friends from BYU joined us and since they were running late, I sent Autumn out to meet them, assuring her that she had enough time to get them their tickets without being late, since if you are late to the feast, you are embarrassed in front of the entire court. Well, as luck would have it, Devin and friends were just a little late, which made Autumn late, which meant she got to be humiliated with the rest of them in performing the chicken dance. As you can see in the picture, Autumn is not too happy with me...





Autumn performed in Odyssey Dance's "Redux Nutcracker" in Salt Lake City again this year as a party kid.  Unfortunately, she was really sick with a bad virus throughout her performances and early morning news appearance, so she didn't enjoy it as much this year, but you would never know it from watching her on stage. She did a great job performing and we LOVED watching her dance!!


Up at 3:30 am for a news appearance. You would never know she felt like garbage looking at this picture...


Backstage with all of her party kid friends

We had a Finch family Christmas party complete with food, a gift exchange and acting out the nativity. Time with family is always the best!!



Devin and Megan both finished finals and were excited to finish their semesters and have a break for Christmas.  They both worked so hard this semester and both did really well in their classes - we are proud of both of them.  Once Devin was done with finals, we went shopping to get him ready for his mission and then a friend of ours took a few pictures of Devin looking very much like a missionary.  He is excited to serve in Arizona!!







We went to Thanksgiving Point's new Luminaria Christmas light display and we all decided it needs to be a new family Christmas tradition.  The light displays were awesome, we all got to pet real reindeer (which Seth said he didn't know was on his bucket list until he did it) and walking through the statues of Christ in the Light of the World garden all lit with beautiful lanterns moved us all to tears. It was a wonderful night.











Christmas was wonderful this year! We loved having Grandma and Grandpa Ririe here for a visit and the kids all loved listening to Grandpa read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve



We also "acted out" the nativity with our nativity Christmas pillows:



Megan surprised Bryce and I with new Christmas jammies - the kids have joked for years that I am Wonder Woman and Bryce is Eeyore and now we have the outfits to prove it:



We had a great Christmas day! Presents galore, time with family and going to church - a pretty awesome day!



We celebrated New Year's Eve with Megan and Devin both inviting a bunch of friends over, our traditional New Year's Eve fondue and too many glitter filled balloons being popped - we will be finding glitter for months.


Before...


...and after!

Happy 2017 everyone!!