High Tea at the Grand

It's always a Grand experience!

Yummy, beautiful, fun, lots of laughter.....just the way a girls day should be.

Cousin Party!

So fun for our kids to spend some time with Nevada cousins! It was a happy surprise to have them here over the holidays. We gathered with the local cousins for a little impromptu party.

Lots of Exploding Kittens was played...

Then Darin got going on his sugar glue for gingerbread house/boxes

Grandpa made rolls and turned half the recipe into cinnamon rolls.  

Clam chowder and rolls...nothing better.

While the kids played with the gifts they had exchanged... magic tricks & legos....Soren begged Grandpa for a ukulele lesson.  That boy loves music (doesn't grove so much on practicing but LOVES music). Grandpa was sweet to comply.

Grandma spent the day speaking with the kids one-on-one, making them feel important with her attention and questions. 

Darin got started on on of our gifts from them right away.  It's a biography of Major Howard Egan.  He lead a fascinating life.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Miracle!!

We woke up to about 4 inches of snow!

At 7:00 am sharp the kids knocked on our door so Darin went out to see if Santa had come.

(and...as per request, turn on the Christmas tree and Christmas music)

Santa always looks for unique treats for stockings....but at the toe of each stocking was the big surprise.  2 Xbox controllers and a TV remote.

Big Deal....we got a TV and an Xbox and bean bags to sit in.  Byron was thrilled, Miriam is happy, Soren was kind of sad because he liked being the only kid in his class who didn't have a TV...kind of a unique thing.  We haven't owned a TV for 12 years so he and Bub have never experienced having one.  In fact, when we moved here and Darin plugged our laptop into a slightly larger screen and plugged in little desk speakers, Soren told his primary teacher we had "A huge new TV with gigantic speakers!!".  This was of course before he started going to other kids houses to play and realized we did things a bit differently at our house.  However, after playing some games and watching a family movie together I think he is swayed.

Then we exchanged our gifts to each other.

This is the best part of Christmas, the thought that each kid puts into us and each other makes my heart sing. It's beautiful.

 Our traditional Christmas Breakfast!

We took advantage of our snow because who knows if it will last or when it will come again. 

Came home for some puzzle, video game, treat eating time until dinner. 

Our gift to the kids is always an experience so we try to present it in a fun way since it's not something fun right away.  This year we gave them a puzzle without the photo of what it was.  The finished puzzle was a clue to our experience this year.  We learned that it is extremely challenging to put together puzzle without the picture, but Miriam made enough headway for them to figure it out.

The napkins courtesy of Miriam.

I love how we had to use plastic IKEA bowls for the aujus sauce.  Perfectly imperfect and I embrace it!! Of course we had more Yule Log, so grateful Miriam took care of the dessert.

Then we all snuggled into our bean bags to watch Lego Nijago before bed.

Christmas 2017 over and out.

Christmas Eve

I wish we had taken photos before church, when we were all gussied up, but I didn't even think about it.

We had Church at 11, but had to go early for choir...which was good because the seats went fast! Lots of family visiting for the meeting.  Singing in the choir is one of my great joys, it's fun, very challenging and I always feel great afterwards.  It was a wonderful meeting...I just wish we could clap sometimes because it feels wrong to hear a cello solo and then let the dead air sit there....my hands ache to clap!!!

We came home and made ebelskivers for lunch.  I whipped them up, and Darin did the cooking.  

I unpacked our Christmas Dishes and then remembered that I had boxed these up to give to Julia because there are 4 settings.  I think I have done that every year since Soren could use a fork...I have been meaning to give these dishes to Julia who can use them without having to add a mismatched setting. They were my Grandma Rasmussen's,  so I want to give them to someone who will love them.

After making some Christmas Eve deliveries we opened our Christmas Eve gifts...

Jammies (of course)

and the card game Exploding Kittens!

We played a few fun rounds and then Miriam got going on her Yule Log while the boys Darin and I played some more.

The dessert turned out perfect!

Everyone watched Merry Christmas Mr. Bean while I got dinner going. It's part of our Christmas Eve Tradition (we had watched Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas earlier or we would have watched that as well). 

We had fig prosciutto pizza and ginger beer by candle light. Wellll....Darin Miriam and I had fig prosciutto pizza, the boys just had prosciutto pizza.  

and of course Yule Log....seriously so good.  Not like chocolate cake and frosting....like chocolate mousse cake with cream cheese and ganache.  I want M to try different flavors but I am kind of in love with this particular recipe!

I also handed out the Christmas Eve melatonin....

which ended up being a mistake.  It takes 2 hours to work on me...so I gave the kids 1/2 a dose around 8:00 when we were eating dinner.

We played a game where we draw a Christmas song...guess it and then sing it (my favorite was making everyone sing "Hard Candy Christmas"...one of my personal faves) Soren cracked us up by drawing a martini for "Baby It's Cold Outside"...I almost died laughing.

but the boys were OUT before Christmas Eve on Sesame Street was over (another family favorite THANK YOU OSTLER FAMILY)...before we could read our Christmas stories...or sing any hymns. 

So we put them in bed without brushing their teeth, and Miriam and I finished watching Little Women...and I cried of course because I love Beth so much.

We told the kids they couldn't come get us until 7:00 am. They were very obedient, too bad we heard them playing games at 5:00 am! It was nice though, because Miriam read them the Christmas stories I had meant to read the night before.

Christmas Adam

The kids call the Eve of Christmas Eve, Christmas Adam...just a little Christian humor for ya.

The kids and I had a choir practice at 8:00 that morning. Early, but fun because it was the first time we sang with the string quartet, and the kids got to be in front of the microphone.

We came home, got cleaned up just in time for G'ma and G'pa to arrive.  The kids performed their Christmas piano songs and then we went to Twigs for lunch. 

One stop at Cabella's for Christmas stuff, then off to Centerpoint's Christmas Carol.  I was very pleasantly surprised! I have seen the musical before, and read the story multiple times so I was planning on being amused and slightly touched by the performance.  

It was SO GOOD! They put on an amazing performance.  I was much more than amused and slightly touched. 

Then G'ma and G'pa had to dash off home to take care of responsibilities at home. We are so lucky they could drive up for the day!

Candle Light Christmas

We are still using up our Utah Pass from last Christmas. We specifically held on to the This is the Place voucher for their Candlelight Christmas.  We did this once before Soren was born (or right after he was born??) and Miriam has talked about it ever since.  Some things have changed, but the live nativity and the train rides are still there! 

Since we didn't send out Christmas cards this year, it was REALLY important to me to get a photo with Father Christmas. With this one photo my Christmas is already great.  I don't need anything else.

When they wrote their letters to Santa to burn in the fireplace Soren's letter said "Something good, whatever you think I should get". Alrighty then...

We all signed the naughty list...the coal chocolate is too good to pass up!

The live nativity included the cutest real live baby Jesus...in a real live stinky barn,  it was so adorable. The guide asked everyone to be quiet as we walked through and no photos were allowed so it was very serene and lovely. 

The kids enjoyed making candles, and the blacksmith demonstration (he was making jingle bells) I loved eating fresh Brighams donuts, we all loved the fresh gingerbread and pepper cookie samples.

It's always cool to look over the valley at all the lights.  You can see right into all the hub-bub at Zoo Lights.  It's a really cool alternative to Temple Square.

We still need to hit the UMFA, Leonardo, Lion House Pantry, Tracy Aviary, and Museum of Ancient Life to get the full use of our pass. Luckily we have till February but I am already happy with what we have seen, so those activities would be icing on our Utah tour pass.