A Sano Christmas - Texas-style

Yeee-haw!!! Its Christmas in Texas too! We sure do miss having Keith, Candice and Remington to add to the excitement and festivities around our home. They report that Santa found their house and left lots of stuff for the good little boy who lives there.
Next Christmas there will be two little boys waiting for toys. I am counting the days until I get to go help when the new baby comes the end of February or first of March. We love and miss our Texas kids.

A Christmas Day Visit to the Deardens

Mike and Brenna were unable to join us for Christmas Eve dinner because they were on call for the mortuary. We joined them for breakfast and enjoyed seeing what Santa had left at their house too.

Bridget seemed to enjoy the Christmas festivities.

She really loves books and they seem to be her favorite toy of all.

Christmas Day Visit to AJ's Family

For the first time ever, Grandma and Grandpa got a chance to visit and see what Santa had left at the Sano's home. Santa was very generous and brought lots of fun things.

It was good to see them in their own home and watch them open some of their gifts.

Ty's Dinnertime Antics

Ty wasn't much interested in eating during dinner time but some time afterward he hopped up the table, found some leftover pasta on a plate and you can see what happened.

What a laugh it was watching him try to figure out how to eat a clam shell!

Christmas Eve Sano-style

The food as always was fabulous! Frank really knows how to feed the family. Here AJ digs into the steamed mussells. Soooo good!

Red sauce is one of our very favorites. Dallin got real brave this year and learned how to crack open a crab leg to find the good meat inside. We had a fun discussion about the family love of crabs which included the time we drove a bushel of live crabs from Maryland up to Pop-pop Wolfe in Pennsylvania. We stopped at a gas station to water them down in an attempt to keep them alive until we got there. A bystander saw our Utah license plate and asked if we were planning to drive those crabs all the way back to Utah!!!

The crab claw clusters were really wonderful and gave great flavor to the red sauce. The multiple days of cooking paid off in a big way as we all enjoyed a truly wonderful feast.

As a surprise for Ethan, Mia helped make a big box into a playhouse for him. Notice the chimney on top of the box...it was rigged to allow a stuffed Santa to come through the chimney and drop right in to Ethan's house! He loved it.

Mia even wrote his name on the door.

Here is the king of the castle. His house was complete with a Christmas tree, bed made out of copier boxes and a rug! Mia thought of everything!

He was very pleased with his "home" and played in it most of the evening.

Mia came over early in the day to help Grandpa get dinner ready. She was much braver with the eel than Grandma. Yuck, gross, slimy, icky!!!

Mia learned how to clean the shrimp like a pro and did a fabulous job of breading the shrimp and scallops too. What a good helper!

What Shall We Give?

What-Shall-We-Give?

Click on this link for a lovely Christmas message.

Merry Christmas!

School Pictures

Beautiful Mia!

Handsome Dallin!

Christmas Fa-la-la-ing

AJ and Cami attended their annual company party and we had the pleasure of tending the kids.

As always, we had a good time! Here the kids pose for some silly, wacky face pictures. We also decorated gingerbread men and snow man cookies, read Christmas books and watched Christmas videos.

Mia LOVES Pastina! Thanks to Frank's cousin, Lisa, who mailed us the hard-to-find pasta, she was able to eat to her hearts content. The other kids really like it too, but Mia is the one who jumps up and down at the prospect of a big bowl of buttered "stars".

Darling Ethan had fun setting up our kid-friendly nativity sets. He is a pistol! He keeps us laughing. We will have to tell you what happens after he says, "Now for the Cowabunga!!".

Here is a rare look from Ty. Usually he gives us an average camera face, but this wrinkly-nose pose was unique. We love the opportunity to fill our house with giggles, chatter and angel-prints. We love these precious gifts that we have received from our children!!!