Caleb asked Santa for a ball and, on a later visit, a light saber. Daniel had a list which included Star Wars legos, a scooter, and fixing his green bike. Liam wanted a camera, scooter and legos. 
When they got home, they all became Santa's elves...
At one point, Daniel decided to be one of Santa's elves and build toys when he grows up.
We all got a chance to visit with Santa on the annual Santa train at Hagan Park. 
Liam insisted on shorts and it really wasn't that cold, but it is funny in a leaf picture. I tried to get a few close-up so we wouldn't see the shorts, but this funny one is my favorite. 100% Liam.
Daniel's were OK but not my favorite. I think I'll use one from earlier to replace his pic. Notice his barefeet. 
The best picture I could get of the 3 rascals together...
Here's a few more fun ones...
Liam making 'leaf angels'.
Daniel 'supermanning' into the leaves. Crazy! They aren't that deep.
They had fun singing Christmas songs. Their favorite was Jingle Bells.
Liam was Joseph (fitting since Joseph is his middle name) in their performance of the Nativity.
And of course there were Christmas treats. This is the Santa Train that Liam made.
Our boys' favorite part of decorating the Christmas tree, is always putting on the ornaments with their pictures. (We add a new one each year, which they love, but they get really excited to find their baby picture ornaments.)
I refused to decorate outside until I finished inside, so the boys decided to help. I love how all of the ornaments in the tree are on the bottom. A few days later we used a ladder to cover the rest.
Daniel took part in his school's Winter Spectacular. He did a great job (the red and white striped sweater). His class sang Jingle Bells in Spanish and another Spanish song (something about colors and animals).
The boys worked hard to butter-up Santa with some very decorated cookies.
We visited Nathan downtown and he took us first to the huge kids' section in the downtown library (my boys' dream come true!). And then to the Christmas tree lighting at the capital. 
Santa and Mrs. Claus were there! (So was David Archeletta. He sang a few songs and we wish we could have followed him back to Utah to hear him sing with the MoTabs.)
There is so much fun in this busy Christmas season. I love it. Christmas is for parents--it is so great to watch the kids having fun. 
Meanwhile, we girls took advantage of our break and had a girls' day out. (Which for a mom of 3 boys was heaven sent.) I decided to take my mom and sisters to Old Folsom to peruse the shops. I tried on hats with my mom (one of our favorite things to do together--I have a bit of a hat fetish). My sisters and I had so much fun together. We went in some antique shops, boutiques, and a few other shops on the path. We were talking and laughing most of the way. We took some silly pictures, including Emily as Princess Leia, and a flower child. Saw books about real witches and the effects of fuzzy red slippers. Then my mom introduced me to one of the finer things in life...Gelato! Yummy. A little bit goes a long way. I love ice cream and frozen yogurt, but Gelato is in a league all its own. I had the dark chocolate. It was like eating frozen fudge brownie mix. I also had the pumpkin. Also yummy. (You can be sure, one of the next date nights we go on, will be for Gelato.) Then I took the girls to Old Fair Oaks to a few additional shops (that aren't much fun when you are worried about what 3 boys are touching-or breaking). Mom got us each a few Christmas decorations. We about doubled over reading some great cards. I don't like mushy cards--it doesn't seem heartfelt when a total stranger writes the message. Funny cards, on the other hand are an entirely different matter. I love them. (Nathan has been known to buy me a totally mushy card as a joke.) Honestly, the fun we had together that afternoon, made the whole trip worthwhile. I would love to live closer to my sisters and Mom. We would love to have one day a month to just relax and go out with the girls. I came home feeling totally rejuvenated. What a great day. 
The guys were nearly exhausted, so we all went out for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.
The next day we weren't sure if our company was staying or going. The Arnolds had to schedule an early return due to weather, so part of the day was spent packing and cleaning up (Mom got a little carried away cleaning-and left everything spotless). Once that was taken care of we decided to go to the Capital to take family pictures. Of course it was raining, so there were very few places dry enough for a picture outside. It is so difficult to get a happy family picture. My boys seem to think that family picture is synonymous with torture. Daniel started out really upset, then we went inside and unbeknownst to us, Liam was pulling faces in the pictures that the rest of us were smiling in. Then back outside and Caleb decided after just a couple of shots that he was done. After the torture session we tried to go see Tangled, but it was sold out. So we went back home and played Apples to Apples and ate pizza. What a great game. We had a lot of laughing. At the end of the game someone suggested that the cards we won described us. My sisters held cards like beautiful, charming, feminine, honest. I held the most cards but they were things like grumpy, miserable, boring, cold, difficult. Yikes! It was pretty funny.
By this time, the family decided to stay the night in hopes of avoiding the storm in Donner Pass. They got one hotel room and then Andrea and Paul stayed with us. Unfortunately, in all of the chaos, the Arnold's key disappeared and we were all stressed out looking for it. We had to tell the Arnolds that we weren't sure where it ended up, and were so relieved when they told us 'no biggie'. My family had left them lots of toilet paper and the new Thomas Monson book as a thank you. Their brother had lost 2 or 3 of their keys. What amazing friends. --It did turn up in a bag of stocking stuffers that Grandma left for the boys. (But not for a week.)
I tried calling my family as they traveled back to check on their progress and found out that my sister had hit a patch of black ice and slid off the road, hitting another car and rendering the truck undrivable. No one was hurt. The other driver was caravaning back to BYU and said that his car was old and falling apart anyway. (So nice.) They were delayed about 6 hours or so and made it back in a rental at 6 in the morning! Then they had to drive back to Elko to retrieve the truck a few days later after it had been worked on. Nathan and I felt so bad. Here our family had come so far out of their way to visit and it ended on a bad note again. (On previous visits, my dad cut his hand to the point of needing surgery, someone hit their car and ran, my dad got really sick and had to get a blessing...the list goes on and on.) I worry every time that my dad will decide he's had enough. No more visiting. My dad assured us that we're worth it, but I feel horrible. He said that it could have been much worse, which of course he was right--at least no one was hurt. I guess this is one time that we need to revisit our Thankful list and count our blessings. Hopefully, we haven't scared off visitors for next time.
