Christmas 2016

I should say at the outset that I did not take any pictures of Christmas--I forgot my camera, and then I decided I'd rather be in the moment anyway. So if you clicked over excited by the prospect of my kids with their presents . . . sorry!

Pictures aside, we had a lovely week. Dan and I went to the new Star Wars movie on Monday and were both quite pleased by this newest installment. I'm not exactly a fan girl, but Star Wars was such a big part of my childhood (I'm not sure how many years I dressed as Leia for Halloween, but it was at least a couple)--and I think Star Wars was the first movie we both saw in theaters. I was six months old, Dan was about 10 days. (Also, our family may have all gotten Star Wars pajamas for Christmas.)

After the movie, we joined Bubby and Poppy and our kids at the Top Spot (aka The Cow) for one last celebratory fry and drink, since the Cow closed it's doors on Christmas Eve. It was more crowded than I'd ever seen it--we will definitely miss going there with our family!

We spent the lead-up to Christmas spending time with our kids, including the obligatory sugar cookies and frosting (and then massive clean up). But the kids had a lot of fun decorating--especially Oliver, who went through at least three knives before we convinced him he couldn't lick the knife he was using to frost cookies. (Not sure he was totally convinced).

We took the kids ice skatins on Tuesday. Dan and Oliver bowed out early--Oliver's response later was, "that was way not good!" Evelyn was shaky but determined and Andrew was, as per usual, a trifle faster than his skills allowed for. After tightening my laces, I did much better.

Thursday morning, Dan woke up early at Andrew's request to wake him up at the moment he turned 10 (3:57 a.m., for those keeping track). Andrew went right back to sleep--I'm not sure he ever really woke up--but Dan struggled a bit.

We'd planned a big breakfast for his birthday--crepes and sausages, at Andrew's request--but then Bubby and Poppy surprised the kids with Great Harvest cinnamon rolls, so breakfast became brunch instead. Andrew got to open one of his birthday presents (a Playmobil castle).

Also on Thursday, the cousins finally arrived and there was much rejoicing from my children, who were getting bored with just our family.We played games during the afternoon, then went our separate ways to prepare for dinner--as is becoming tradition, Christmas Eve dinner was a bunch of side-board dishes: potstickers, ham/sausage/pickle skewers, pigs-in-a-blanket, Asian salad, sandwiches, Aaron's famous Spanish tortillas (made with potatoes, and thick). Desert, at Andrew's request, was a sour cream lemon pie.

We rounded off the evening with a talent show from the children (mostly piano performances, but Andrew recited, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," which his teacher had all the kids memorize), and a hastily organized nativity that may or may not have involved several Star Wars cloaks and a Yoda costume (minus the Yoda hood, which we lost a long time ago anyway) . . .

Christmas morning, the kids dug through their stockings and we opened a couple of presents before heading back to Bubby and Poppy's house for breakfast and more presents. I tried to restrain myself this year, but I'm not sure how successful I was. We did get some electronics: kindles, a new WiiU (after our old one died), etc.

Oliver's favorite gift, after the Spot It! junior set (which he has made everyone play with him--warning: he cheats if you aren't careful!), has been an electronic race car course. I tried to get a video of him giggling delightedly when he did it, but he didn't giggle during the shots I took. But I think you can still catch some of his delight.

I also spent this week making pomegranate jam. Lots and lots of it. And then delivering it, which was fun, both to remind myself what a wonderful community we have and to hear how many people had loved the jam last year and were excited to get more this year. Which is, come to think of it, why we keep making it.

Today, as the last Sunday of the year, was a little hectic in my position as primary president--I taught a combined sharing time, and spent all of singing time making sure my teachers had their manuals, etc., for next year.

We curled Evelyn's hair for once, so we had to document it with a picture.

Looking forward to another week of vacation before school starts again. Hope everyone reading this had a lovely holiday and stayed safe and warm.

Sledding into Vacation

We survived the last week of school before the break, with all its activities and treats.

 

We also celebrated Andrew's tenth birthday party with a party at the aquatic center and a bunch of his friends from school. That wound out being just about perfect, because they had plenty to do, they could be as energetic as they wanted and they didn't destroy my house (and I didn't have to clean!) After the kids were done swimming, we had cake and presents in another room at the center. After the kids went home, we had dinner at Alberto's (Andrew's pick) and then drove to see some of the lights in town. All in all, a pretty close to perfect day for our birthday boy. (Well, his birthday isn't until Thursday, but we wanted to celebrate before everyone left for the holidays).


To celebrate the end of school, the kids and I went sledding Friday afternoon--and again on Saturday with Dan. The sun was shining, it was almost warm, but the thick snow from earlier in the week (see photos above) was still on the hill so the sledding was great. The kids especially enjoyed breaking in our newest sled.

All the fun wiped Oliver out. He took a nice long nap and then snuggled with his dad when he woke up (I was busy making pomegranate jam). 

Come Let Us Adore Him

This week has been pretty ordinary--school, work, writing (that is, trying to figure out how to reorganize this new book I wrote), etc.

Friday was our ward Christmas party. We arrived a few minutes early, which meant that we then waited almost half an hour for food to be served (pretty typical, and one of the reasons Dan *loves* ward parties). But the company was good and we felt it was important to go and show support.

Also, there was a live nativity after the dinner, and our kids were featured prominently in it.

(This nearly didn't happen. Andrew was so frustrated by the itchy beard during rehearsal that he nearly refused to come back for it. But I'm glad he did.)

Some outtakes of our Christmas card pictures. (Sadly, the real card pictures aren't much better--see if you can spot which picture we *did* go with).

Remembering

We don't have a lot to report from this week--the college semester is ending and we're (well, Dan is) heading into finals. The kids have been busy with school and preschool, and we had lots of fun playing with Sarah and family this weekend (so much fun, in fact, that we neglected to take pictures).

So I thought I'd share instead some pictures Laurie gave me a few weeks ago (which I just rediscovered in my email inbox) from our trip to Dallas five years ago next May. It makes me a little sad that these kids will never be this small again, but mostly I'm happy about the people they're growing into instead.