Christmas Eve

A few hours after we did the Gingerbread houses Tiffany and Bryce came over and we started our Christmas Eve Family night. Scott was put in charge this year and so he and my Dad sang O Little Town of Bethlehem, and then he showed us a General Conference talk on something that I fail to remember. I took a little of Scott's time and planned a Nativity with the kids. Ben and Kaylee were Joseph and Mary, Madison was an Angel; Megan, Taylor, and Blake did double doing playing Inn Keepers and Shepherds/Wisemen. Since I planned the Nativity I thought it was the best part. After the 'program' we had our annual dinner of pizza and pie. The kids opened one present- pajamas of course, and then on to the temple to see the lights.

This year we arrived at the temple a few minutes after the lights turned on. It wasn't really dark outside, but it was dark enough to see the lights. Since it was early the temple grounds were not crowded at all. Only a few people were outside with us. It was perfect, we didn't have to fight the crowd to see the outdoor nativities and light displays. Then we went inside and watched Luke II and viewed the indoor nativity display- no crowds anywhere. We all decided that we enjoyed coming to the lights early and missing out on the crowds. As we left the temple was becoming quite crowded.

After we got home the kids all headed to bed and I turned on the 'Christmas Story' a holiday tradition in my house. The show didn't stay on very long since my Mom and Dad are not fans of the show (blaspheme). At 9pm only Megan remained awake. She was too excited to go to bed, but after another 30 minutes all kids were asleep. I love Christmas Eve.

Gingerbread Houses

My Mom wanted to do Gingerbread houses with the kids this year so we decided to spend Christmas Eve morning building. Madison and I helped my Mom Wednesday night build the graham cracker houses so they would be solid in the morning when we added the candy. All of the kids got there own candy bowl and got busy decorating the houses. Blake and Baylee didn't last very long, but the rest of the kids ended up with great looking houses.

Gym Performance

Yesterday was a crazy day. It started off pretty good since the kids were all excited for the last day of school before Christmas break, and it was a half day. Doesn't get better than that. I worked until 3pm, and while I was sitting there chatting with people and reading a book Scott kept texting me. Blake pooped his pants, Blake filled the toilet with toilet paper after going to the bathroom, Brownie is eating the coffee table... That stuff never happens when I am home- glad Scott cleaned it all up before I came home.

When I got home at 3:30pm it was time to get the girls ready for the performance. In comes Megan crying that she couldn't find her new tights (expensive tights). We quickly do a search of the house and can't find them. I tell Megan she will just have to buy new ones, since I already paid for the first pair. As I am fixing Megan's hair I hear Madison searching her drawers for Megan's tights. What a good big sister. Then Madison comes in and says she can't find her new tights! We quick and call a friend who luckily had 2 pairs of tights from last year that will fit the girls. The night proceeded smoothly after that.

After the show we went to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream. Blake choose vanilla ice cream mixed with marshmallows. He also ate his the fastest. After ice cream we ran to the church party and were the last people to visit Santa. The day was pretty hectic, but the kids had a great night- and that is what counts.

Megan's 1st Grade Play

Tonight we went to Megan's class play. Her class has been getting ready for the play for the past month. We had to send in white shirts to dye yellow, empty wrapping paper rolls for star holders, and hats to make them look like they are in the army. The theme of the night was Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Megan and her class's song was a remix of Twinkle, Twinkle. Megan did great with singing and dancing when it wasn't her classes turn. Unfortunately, we couldn't see her since she was sitting on the floor and the way the benches were angled it completely blocked our view. We just kept thinking we would get a great view of her when she went up on stage. Again we were denied that- another, much taller, kid took her spot on the front row and Megan was put in the dark corner of the stage. Knowing Megan though, she rocked and sang during her classes part. If you need any proof, we have the video showing the corner of her mouth moving around to the music.

Madison's First Violin Concert

Madison had her first violin concert this evening. She has practiced the last few months for the program, so we were all excited to go watch. Maybe excited isn't the correct word- Ben would say he was forced to go. Megan was prepared with paper and crayons, and Blake took his cars with him to reduce the boredom of waiting for the concert to begin. We dropped off Madison 30 minutes early to warm up and tune her instrument. When the concert began we listened to the teacher tune the instruments for 10 minutes. What was the time in the band room for, if all the instruments had to be re-tuned?? After watching my own band concerts several years ago, I was prepared for a screech fest. I was pleasantly surprised that the music was actually pretty good. Madison played 4 songs: warm up, jingle bells, dredel, and something else that I will have to look at the program and input later. At the end of the concert the music teacher said to take your kids out to ice cream. Amazingly, my 3 kids who hadn't been paying any attention during the concert, decided to start listening right then. The next few minutes consisted of begging for frozen treats. LOVE IT when other adults suggest that your parents will buy you ice cream without clearing it first. I told the kids that we would go out for 'good' ice cream after the Friday gym performance instead. All ended on a happy note.

Christmas Past

Christmas is my favorite season of the year. Everyone seems to be in a good mood, great food is always in the kitchen, beautifully decorated houses are everywhere, and the weather is perfect to play outside. I sat in Sunday School today trying to remember my favorite holiday traditions from when I was younger. Maybe Jen, Tif, Kyle, and Karl can help me add to my memories before we all forget them.

When I was younger I always enjoyed building snowmen in the front yard. The backyard was reserved for playing 'rabbit and the fox' if the snow stayed footprint free. That was one of my favorite games of winter. My Mom was always baking treats at Christmas: fudge (the best), peanut brittle, peanut butter chocolate things that I didn't care for (peanut butter and chocolate should never mix), chocolate pretzels, and tons of cookies. We always put up our tree during family night the Monday after Thanksgiving. I enjoyed unwrapping decorations and remembering Christmas's past. Some of those decorations died-thankfully- while others are hanging from my tree (look in the back). We usually made an ornament to hang from the tree. I remember stringing red and white beads on wire to create candy canes, then there was the clothes pin reindeer, imitation stain glass ornaments that we had to carefully put the colored beads to melt in, and regular candy cane reindeer. I also remember going to the Freeport Ward Christmas party and performing in the Nativity each year. I remember being a sheep one year and another year I was a candle holder. We also celebrated Joseph Smith's birthday (Dec. 23) each year with a cake. That was my Dad's idea, I think he liked any reason to have cake. We also would go Christmas caroling every year to people in the ward. We would sing a song or two outside, get invited in if we were lucky for a few cookies, then leave singing We Wish you a Merry Christmas. That tradition died when we moved to Mesa and there were much better singers out caroling.

Christmas Eve brought us putting together our cardboard nativities while Dad read in Luke, and putting out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. A few years when we were younger Jen, Tif, and I would sleep in the same year- but that never lasted long since we wouldn't go to sleep. Christmas morning we would go into my parents room at 7am and wait for my Dad to slowly get out of bed, slowly go to the bathroom, and slowly check to see if Santa came in the Living Room. He would always come back and say that Santa didn't come, might as well go back to bed. We never believed him, so we would line up by age and go out to the tree and see the presents that were left. After going through our stockings we would take turns opening gifts and admiring all the new toys. Later in the morning we would go over to Grandma's and open more presents and spend the rest of the day with family. When we moved to Mesa we no longer would go over to Grandma's for dinner, instead we usually had my aunts and cousins over to our house for dinner and then the cousins would go to a movie. Great times.

Hopefully Scott and I are creating memories that our kids will look back on 20 years later and remember how much they too loved this season.

McCormick Railroad Park

Blake and I went on a preschool field trip to the railroad park this week. He loved playing on the HUGE playground, and having the freedom of running around everywhere. I think he also liked having my un-divided attention since the other kids were at school. When the time came to ride the train he (and all of his preschool friends) choose to sit in the back car that is enclosed. So unfortunately he didn't get to see any of the holiday decorations, but when we go back in a few weeks he will see them then. He also rode the merry-go-round horses for the first time. He usually picks the bench on the merry-go-round, but it was already taken so he had to use a horse. I think he enjoyed it even though he kept shouting, 'Mom, hold me tighter'.