"Gravell" Family Christmas

The day after Christmas we headed out to my sisters mother-in-laws Mountain House in the San Diego mountains next to Julian, CA. It is so pretty up there and we always have a great time.

Grandma Susan with kids and grand kids. (Missing Kurt and Skye this year.)

Grandpa Ernie and Grandma Debi with kids and grand kids.

My mom's favorite Christmas tradition is having Santa come and bring new jammies for everyone. This year Uncle Micheal played Santa, he was way nervous about doing so, but he did a great job!


The grand kids in their new Christmas pajamas.

One day we went to Kristine and Rebecca's cabin 20 mins. away where my dad and Debi were staying and played in the snow.

There is plenty of room for all our families there and a great place to relax, play games and enjoy being together. We had a wonderful time, like always!

Christmas 2011

Our Christmas traditions are... The kids 1st go through their stockings, which they scream more about the soda and candy in those stockings than any of their gifts. Check out the video below for proff.
Then we open our family gift. This year it was 2 DVD players for the van. They were a huge life saver on our 7 hour trip to Cali. the next morning.

Each child opens their "Santa" gift. Max, Hanna and Van each got a Wii game. They also got a Wii charger station and a Wii remote. (My brother got them the Wii last year and I haven't gotten them anything for it since then. They only had 1 remote and the batteries were always dead.) They have really enjoyed playing it daily during the break.

Notice the big gift in the back? That was to me from Danny. (We never get each other gifts, which actually stressed me out more knowing he got me something and I had to think about a gift for him). Anyway, I never took a picture of what he gave me, it was a beautiful framed picture of the Salt Lake Temple, but sadly the frame was broken and it was discontinued. Danny returned it and then when I started looking to buy another temple picture he said, "Christmas is over and I'm over spending." What's up with that?! What a stinker! I got Danny socks and right before he opened them he said, these better not be socks. :0 I also got him some really nice church shoes. I know, I'm boring. Anyway, Daisy got a Tangled doll with a matching Tangled dress for her.

And my personal favorite; Walt got his very own light-weight Dirt Devil vacuum and duster. As soon as we got it out of the box he was vacuuming the house.

We eat a big plate of a verity of our favorite fruits and have cider and hot chocolate for breakfast. This year Christmas was on Sunday, so we attended church.

After church we finished opening gifts. The kids each get each other gifts that they buy and pick out with their own money. I help the younger 2 of course. Then we go to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Cindy's house. Uncle Jeff (Danny's brother) just loves our kids, really he just has no little kids any more and enjoys the excitement that the little ones bring. This year he got them a computer with a lot of games already down loaded unto it. He presented a game to each child, he had them listen to a song to figure out "their" game. He even put an old childhood favorite on for Danny. I know that Jeff put in a lot of time on that gift and my kids have really been enjoying it! Too bad when Van realized Uncle Jeff was done presenting the gift he said I wanted an X-Box! (I say presenting, because anything with Jeff is way drawn out, it took a good 30 minutes for him to give them the full gift). Anyway, Uncle Jeff got a kick out of that one and will always remind me of the "wonderful" skills I teach my children. :)

This year we stayed the night at Uncle Jeff's and left the next morning to the San Diego mountain house for the "Gravell" family Christmas.
Christmas Morning...

Christmas Eve 2011

Our Christmas Eve tradition is held at Tom and Becky's house. We have Mediterranean food for dinner (yummy), the kids act out the Nativity Play, we sing songs, do a talent show and exchange gifts. We always have a great time!

Mary and Joesph played by Hanna and Van. (That is marker on Van's face, which I couldn't get all the way off for church the next morning and it concerned many people.)

3 Wisemen played by Max, Tanner and Andrew.

Walt was a Shepherd. Daisy was the Innkeeper and an Angel.

Hanna and Ruby singing "Picture a Stable."

Walt and Daisy singing "Where is Thumbkin."

Raquel, Ruby and Hanna singing "All I want For Christmas" (Raquel will be getting a permanent front tooth next month.)


At home, the kids sleep in our room on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas

Here is our 2011 Christmas card. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Dear Family & Friends,

The fabulous Christmas season is here again! We feel blessed to have so many wonderful family members and friends in our lives. We always enjoy letting you know about the changes life has offered us within the passing year and look forward to hearing of yours!
We’ve been in Pahrump for three years now; oh how time flies! We enjoy living here and being surrounded by so many wonderful people.
Danny has been serving as the Bishop of our ward for almost 2 years and his love continues to grow for our ward family. Even though Danny’s business has not been in the colleges for over a year now, his company still manages the concessions out at the Henderson Pavilion. He has also been a huge help in managing our home; by taking over a lot of the cleaning, patiently rearing children and even paying bills. Danny is an entrepreneur and continues to amaze me with his brilliant business ideas, one in which he is currently working on putting to action.
Jenny keeps busy of course! Between running a preschool (with 2 full classes), being a Webelos Scout leader, couching girls soccer, expecting Baby #6 in March, helping Danny manage our home and taking care of 5 children she finds it hard to take a breath some days.
We are all very excited to meet our baby boy at the 1st of March. It has been a long time since we’ve had a sweet new spirit in our home and we all can’t wait to meet him.
My mom is thankfully still living with us and has been a big help in my school and with the cooking!
Max is 8 and enjoys: T.V., Computer/Wii games, P.E., Scouts, Guns, Knives, Camping, “Collecting” & Money.
Hanna is 6 and enjoys: Reading, Spelling, Coloring, Soccer, Receiving money from the Tooth Fairy, Kissing on Walt & Making Friends.
Van is 5 and enjoys: His Pre-K Class, Playing Memory, Building Cup Towers, Computer Games & Making Everyone Laugh.
Daisy is 3 and enjoys: Her Blankie, Thumb Sucking, Preschool, Dolls, Dress-up, Playing Fashion Star (a computer game) & Bossing Walt Around.
In February Daisy started to get extremely sick. Her tummy was always blotted and she was throwing-up daily. After a long 5 months of tests and dealing with her sickness we found out she has Celiac Disease. Thankfully, with just a change of her diet she is back to her old feisty self!
Walt is also 3 and enjoys: His Thumb, His Dad & Going Bye-Byes. Him & Daisy ask when baby Clark is going to be here almost every day. Thankfully, Walt has managed to stay out of trouble this year, for the most part!
We feel so blessed to have our crazy lives with our five beautiful healthy children. We wish to extend our reverence and love to the Savior as we commemorate his birth at this time of year and at the same time extend our love to you. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love, Danny, Jennifer, Max, Hanna, Van, Daisy & Walt Jensen

School Play

Max and Hanna had there school play last week. I was so excited about it until the night of and neither of them would cooperate with my fine ideas! Max could have dressed up as a tree, but wouldn't, he only would wear a green shirt. And Hanna could have dressed up as an elf, but wouldn't, even though I had an elf costume. These children would not have fit in with my mom. I still have hope with my other children :)


It was still fun to watch them sing. I love that Hanna always knows all the words to the songs and lets just say singing is not Max's passion.

Live Nativity

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to see the Live Nativity Play. This is performed in South Las Vegas at the Opportunity Village put on by the L.D.S. Red Rock Stake. It is so fun to watch and remind our children of the true meaning for Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Sadly, I forgot my camera this year, but here is a photo from last year.

Santa Train

We went to Boulder City yesterday and rode on the Santa Train with, Grandma Susan, Dee Dee and Tom and Becky's family. It's a fun train ride and Santa walks through for pictures during the ride. We enjoy visiting Boulder City, it's a cute town were Danny's Grandma Roma Jensen lived until she passed away 8 years ago.

With Grandma Dee Dee.

With Grandma Susan.

Cute Walt.

Grandma Susan, me and Daisy.

Dee Dee with grand kids.

Family Activities

I need to take some pictures, but here are a few things we've been enjoying doing around the house lately.
Building paper cup towers.

Roasting marshmallows over the fire.

"Fighting": either pillow fights, fighting with dad or jumping over/ducking under the pillow. One of these games are played almost nightly and if the kids break the "Law of Respect" they don't get to play the game that night.
Playing Memory. This is because of Van, it's his favorite game right now and he plays it a couple times a day.