Christmas Day!

Finally! 

After a terrible night of not being able to sleep,

Christmas is here!

We went wild with the Legos. So many FUN sets!

Jim got me Diagon Alley and it is THE BEST. 

I can't wait to finish blogging so that I can go down and work on it. 

Christmas mess is my favorite (for a few days...then it becomes impossible to clean up. But I will give it a few more days of chaos before I let it bother me.)

Christmas Church!

Jim had to conduct, so he asked people read Christmas Stories. 

I read my favorite one my mom used to read to us. 

Andrew made this "airplane out of a pop can" for Jim.

He talked about it all month. He squirreled away pop cans and discussed his plan to make an airplane out of pop cans, and I just smiled and nodded because that seems impossible. 

This is what he came up with. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. 

He told Jim, "you love airplanes and pop, so I combined them."

haha. 

I just LOVE a homemade gift, but especially one that combines two of your favorite things. 

That night we went and celebrated Bailey's birthday. 

We finished this "dogs with jobs" puzzle and you now I love a puzzle sesh that ends with "we have to finish before we can go". 

This exact scenario is what I dreamed of all of December: all of us doing Legos together, music in the background, mess all around, tree lights on, kids chatting about the difference between middle school and high school. 

Waiting for Christmas!

Sunday we made peppermint patties and watched Charlie Brown.

At our ward party, me and the kids put on a little "skit" from the story "Merry Christmas Dragon".

We have the best church Santa. He's been a mall Santa before. And a pro wrestler. haha. 

We took to calling Christmas Eve Eve "Christmas Adam" this year. 

Avery always sleeps in the living room on Christmas Adam. 

Grandma and Grandpa Larsen were going to come, but they got the Covid and had to stay home, boo. 

This week between school getting out and Christmas day was so hard. They just could NOT WAIT. Andrew was almost sick about it. He kept saying, we just need to make it through the 23rd. 

One day he sat cross legged and breathed deeply and said "I am a mountain, I am a mountain."

I started to feel sorry for them, they were in such agony. 

We played a lot of games to pass the time (between romps out in the snow/ice).

Christmas Eve we cleaned the church and played games in the gym. 

For dinner we had tri-tip while it rained and rained outside. 

Christmas jammie time!

This year, the kids had made "DIY gifts" for each other. 

We decided to open them on Christmas Eve so that they could be properly appreciated.

Evan made Andrew and Avery minifigures that looked like them:

Andrew wrote Avery a comic.

Andrew made Evan a gun out of garbage scraps. 

It is "Evan's favorite gun from fortnite".

Avery made us all ornaments in her engineering class, but she wouldn't let us open them until Christmas morning. They are sooo cool!

I loved this so much. It was so thoughtful and got them so excited about gift "giving". 

Next we watched Best Christmas Pageant Ever, then the kids settled in upstairs while me and Jim worked downstairs on getting things ready. 

What a fun time of year! And also what a stressful time!

For some reason this year I got so nervous that the kids wouldn't be happy with their gifts. 

It was such a silly, irrational fear. (And if they WEREN'T happy then they are brats and that is their problem...haha), so I don't know why I got so weird. 

But I didn't need to be worried for one second. They were so thankful and excited for every single last little thing they received. 

But it's so hard balancing the desire to spoil them, but not spoil them too much, right? 

Get gifts they will need, but also gifts that create a fun "Christmas Morning Affect". 

How is anyone supposed to get it just right?

Luckily they are just so sweet about it all. Phew. 

and luckily Christmas day is the funnest day ever. 

Snowpocalipse Turned Icepocalipse

December 19 the snow started, nice and easy. 

The forest was so pretty with a light dusting of powdered sugar. 

We went to bed and woke up to about 15 inches of snow! 

That is the most we have ever got in one dump.

It was sooo pretty. Also it was soooo cold. 

Yes, the trampoline would eventually break. 

Jim shoveled the driveway and dumped it all into a heaping mound that Evan would eventually convert to an awesome fort. 

We rallied the gang and headed to the forest. 

Koda and Dobby made first tracks for us. It was a slog to walk through!

The way the snow builds on all the branches is incredible! It's just a fantastic wonderland. 

They would gather under a branch, then shake the branch, then get covered in snow. 

Then repeat. 

It was so fun to play in...until the ice rain came along. 

It rained ice all night, and the next morning everything was covered in a crusty, frozen layer.

It was so neat to look at, but not fun to play in or drive in or walk in. 

Then out of nowhere the temperatures went sky high (to 50 degrees from "-5") and became so balmy out there! 

15 feet of snow has been completely wiped off the land and is now making for floods in some places. It's crazy and also perfect timing. We loved our White Christmas.