A good old fashion Patten Family Christmas!!

Here we go a Christmassing!! It has been a week of family, fun, food, friends and festivities! With Shawn here from Utah and Cory and his family here from Tracy we have packed about as much family fun and food into one week as we could! We have had a great Christmas and hope to have a great new year! Here are some pictures from this weeks fun.

Monday we went to San Jose to the Egyptian Museum. We got to see real mummies and go into a tomb! There was a lot to see. Mike took a lot of pictures...we think he took pictures of almost everything there so if anyone is interested I bet he could show you a slide show that would go on for hours!

This is a picture of the whole gang in front of the museum. They were all complaining because I made them look into the sun...notice the scrunchy faces!

Megan and Jonny peaking through a tree in the museum gardens.

Pam jumping for joy!

This was our Christmas Eve Turkey dinner!

Adam playing with XBox. Then came the making of the gingerbread houses...or I should say the graham cracker houses! This is Shawn with his master piece! He filled the whole house with candy on the inside!

Grandpa made his house with a toilet, urinal an sink in the inside. Way to mix it up Grandpa!

Once again Jimmy has the winning design!

Cory and Ethan with Ethan's Christmas graham cracker house.

Jonny had a little trouble getting his together but the result speaks for itself!

Megan as cute as ever!

Before Cory and his family went home to wait for Santa they opened a present from mom and dad. They got cute PJ's made by mom and stuffed animals also made by mom! They were sooo cute!Christmas morning....Jimmy and Butters sitting in the debris!

Megan and Jonny Christmas day.

Shawn Christmas day.

Playing games----Fact or Crap!

Friday we went to Sunol Park and took a hike on a beautiful sunny day. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had some good rain storms so it was nice of it to clear up for a nice hike in the wilderness!

Here we go a hiking!

Shawn and Kim...Kim flew in from Utah on Christmas night to join us in the festivities!

Megan

Ethan

Saturday we went to the coast. It was beautiful and we all had a fun time!

Kristal and Adam.

Ethan

Mike and Pam

Jimmy...we found a cave with the name Jimmy carved into it!

Cory, Megan and Jonathan

The Ocean as we walking back to the car! Oh the fun we have had!

A visit to the Oakland Temple to see the lights!

Sunday night we went to the airport and picked up Shawn who flew in from Utah for Christmas. We then drove to the Oakland Temple where we met up with Cory and his family to take our annual hike around the Temple to view the lights. It was raining when we left but we were hoping that it would stop by the time we got to the temple. Well we were wrong! It was raining pretty good when we got there. Cory and his family were already walking around the grounds when we got there. We walked up to the Temple to enter the gates to walk up the stairs and walk around the top of the Temple. The views are spectacular from the top! Anyway when we got to the gates they were locked! I guess they didn't want anyone going up to the top...we don't know if that was because of the rain or what. So we took some pictures, got wet, got cold and then got in the car and headed for home!

Here is a picture of the Temple...it was so foggy and misty that you could hardly see the Temple...looks pretty cool though!

They had a new nativity this year. It was all in white. It was very pretty!The kids had a lot of fun with their umbrellas in the rain. Adam and KristalShawn and Jimmy...It looks like snow but it was just rain!Jim, Cory and Ethan and Shawn.When we got home from the Temple we celebrated Jonathan's birthday. He turned 6 on Saturday! We wanted to wait until Shawn got here to celebrate it. Jonathan wanted a Christmas tree cake. I made the cake, Cory cut the cake into a Christmas tree shape and frosted it. Jonathan was excited about it!

We got Jonathan a star wars ship for his birthday. He really liked it. Chalk one up for the Grandma and Grandpa! Santa Dog and Jimmy...Butters wore this hat and beard to her doggie class last week. It didn't stay on for long though!

GOOD FOOD...GOOD FUN...GOOD TIMES...AND SANTA!!

We had a great Ward Christmas party this Saturday. Maybe it was so great because Mike was in charge of it...actually he just had to delegate...but he did a good job picking wonderful people who made our Ward Party a huge success! We all had a good time eating too much and enjoying the company!

Ethan loves Jimmy. He always wants to be held by Jimmy. He is such a cuddle bug!

Waiting for the food!

OK who took this picture!? I need to get a better photographer! Mike looks fine though!Santa showed up on the scene before the night was over!

Adam wasn't impressed! Jonny had a long list of things to tell Santa!Megan was wondering who did Santa's hair! He needed a detangler!

Cory and Kristal enjoyed the evening! Here is a picture of the winter scene that Jimmy made for the front and back of the Cultural Hall. Great job Jimmy...and so clever...he used plastic table cloths. The back one had snow falling on it. I will take the credit for doing the cutting of all the trees though!