It's Finally Christmas!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve morning we went and cleaned the church then played in the gym.

The kids were so so excited. Every second of the day they were dying. 

It snowed all day! Then it snowed in the night and all Christmas day. It was the whitest Christmas ever. 

We had soup and bread for dinner. It was a simple and delicious meal. 

Jessica brought us some appetizers, and I sent her home with some dessert. 

Finally they got into their cozy pajamas Grandma Larsen sent. 

How to spend the last hours of Christmas Eve? 

We played Christmas card bogle: for every person they could name they got 10 cents. Avery knew the most and ended up with 6.00$

We sang our Nativity Song. The kids are getting too old for that apparently. 

Then we went and watched The Christ Child 

and A Boy Named Christmas.

Then the kids did their best to go to sleep, and Santa came!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Wait for it...

get Koda out, make sure Santa came...

wait....

ok go!

There was a lot of screaming this Christmas. haha

It was such a fun morning. 

Homemade gifts are the best. 

CHRISTMAS DAY

When all the gifts are opened, we enter the weirdest zone of the year when time comes and goes, but nobody knows what day it is, what meal it is, what time it is. 

There's just so much to play with. 

To make it extra confusing, we put up that new clock on the wall without a battery, so it was 7:40 all day long. 

Then you add in snow play, and it's mayhem.

Snow all over the house, wet boots, wet clothes, toys, garbage, packaging. 

It's the most fun, most chaotic. 

I don't know if you know this, but moms clean up little by little all day long, and it's still a giant blast zone. 

Later we took the dogs to BP and it was Alberta out there. 

DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Well, church was cancelled. 

It's so fun to play in, but we only last about an hour before our fingers fall off. 

We are having the coldest winter snap of the world. Jim is supposed to go fly to Mesa for his last bit of training, but all flights are cancelled. 

It's all adding to the Christmas week bizarro zone.

What day is this?

Nobody knows. Have some hot chocolate for dinner. 

Solstice and Christmas Prep

It was a cold Solstice. I sent the boys out to get the fire roaring.

I can do winter as long as every single day gets lighter and lighter from here. 

All the fire and lights and music and food to herald in the sun. 

Some other fun Christmas traditions and activities:

Emily sent us this wreath. It's so perfect!

Peppermints, then Charlie Brown Christmas.

On the last day of school before winer break, it snowed! 

We went out at 11:00 to play in it. 

Andrew went and knocked on the Dickson's door before I realized how late it was, but they put on their boots and joined us!

Grinch drink, then we watch The Grinch. 

I love Christmas movies. I realized so much of my favorite things during this time of year are the movies. 

Every Sunday before Christmas they get to open new church clothes. 

Evan is ready to pass the sacrament on the 2nd! 

He is so PUMPED. They had a priesthood preview and practiced passing, and he cannot wait. 

They are so cute I can't handle how giant massive old they are getting. 

 

G is for Gonna Be Christmas Soon

This is going to surprise you, but this month is flying by.

All the Christmas things and the basketball things and just all of it is a giant blur.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that basketball doesn't get shut down. eye roll. 

If the children aren't going to be able to play sports, they will just go home and play on tik tok. 

So pick your poison.

Ugg. I'm so covid fatigued. 

Andrew told Ward Party Santa that he wants a b b gun for Christmas just to hear the santa chuckle and say "You'll shoot your eye out kid".

We always find fun things on our night hikes. The rock snowman was our main treasure this time.

Say hi to the ugliest tree in the world. It put me in the worst mood. It's so scraggly and half the lights are burnt out.

After it was up and decorated, I marched into Costco and bought a new one. 

We transferred the ornaments and I love my new tree. 

Here are this years' ornaments.

When we did baptisms in November, the grounds keeper jumped off his lawn mower and handed us all these hand made ornaments. 

Then Koda ate it. wahhhh. 

The last day of school before winter break was ugly sweater day.

We don't have any ugly sweaters, but I do have this awesome sweater I used to wear all the time when I was Avery's size. It's one of my favorite finds from my thrift store days.

It served as an adorable "ugly sweater" for my middle schooler. 

Her English teacher sent this pic in an email. It snowed for ten minutes so they all went out to enjoy it.

For the record, this was the day that many kids stayed home because nation wide there were threats of school violence stemming from stupid tik tok. 

What a world. 

Ok, there is always a Sunday in December that Avery teaches the best family home evening. 

It's always random, never assigned, and the topic is a surprise.

This week we were sitting in Stake Conference when she asked if she could do FHE tonight. 

The focus was service. She talked all about what and why we serve. Then she had these chain papers ready for the boys. They wrote a small act of kindness that they would do every day leading up to Christmas. They picked their own things they would do. They could go big or small. 

One of Andrew's was "make a chilli dog for someone"

One of Evan's was "take a break today. don't serve anyone" (but then that day he cleaned the whole house for me, so I'm thinking reverse psychology?).

Andrew's first chain on Monday said "massage someone's feet". 

cha ching. 

This year we made gingerbread houses because I had tons of leftover stuff from doing it with the young women. PS I was just released from YW Pres. I have mixed feelings about it.

Evan was SO excited to build his gingerbread house. He said he day dreamed about it all day at school. While Mr. Minkler read a book at the end of the day, he sat there and planned it all in his head. It would have two eves like this and a flat part so that he could sit his Santa and reindeer up there:

Those gum drops are the reindeer. 

I think it's fabulous. 

Andrew put a lot less effort into his house...

....and finished. 

Avery is back there folding laundry because she told me she needs a job, and I told her I need an employee, so we shook hands and she gives me an hour a day where she does whatever I tell her to do (beyond all her regular chores).

This was one day in December when school was cancelled because the power went out.

I was so annoyed. I swear school feels negotiable these days. The kids aren't one bit surprised when they are told school is cancelled. 

I took them to the trampoline zone, and they played for hours. We met a million friends there.