Christmas Eve

This is the first year we've celebrated Christmas by ourselves. There are several things we've really enjoyed about it, but we have also really missed being with our family. However, thanks to technology, we've been able to participate with our families - my mom read her favorite Christmas story to us over web cams, and we got to watch Nate's family perform the traditional Nativity story via a live broadcast over the Internet. In between those events, we've had our own family things too . . .

Kiersten decided that for an "activity" we were going to act out the Nativity (she used to confuse "activity" and "nativity", but I think by now she usually gets it right!).

Here she is pulling out all the things she's collected over the last couple of days to use for the "activity" or Nativity or whatever it was we were doing!

Tanner was far more interested in giving Daddy (and everyone else!) kisses than getting for his role as the lone Wiseman!

Our Nativity telling started with the Angel Gabriel appearing to a very pregnant Mary and telling her that she was going to have a baby and that she should call his name Jesus.
" And she brought forth her first-born son . . . " (I didn't mean to time the picture just so, it just happened, and it's the only one Tanner was in, so I had to use it!)

Here's Mary and Joseph admiring their baby Jesus who is laying the the manger (which is really the stable to a Nativity my mom bought for the kids in the Phillipeans!). (Keep in mind Kiersten chose everyone - including Joseph's - costume!)

Our telling of the birth of Christ ended with the visit of the shepherds (my shepherd costume consisted of a Christmas hair bow and the white sheep on my lap) because our wiseman had moved on to bigger and better things!

After our re-enactment of the Nativity ended, we had my Grandma's bread pudding - I didn't expect Kiersten or Tanner to like it (I remember not liking it as a kid, but now I love it!). I was right on one count - Kiersten was interested in it only long enough to determine that she didn't have the nut and win the prize. Tanner on the other hand couldn't get enough of it; I think he ate as much of it as I did!

Kiersten and I ended our Christmas eve festivities by putting together a plate of cookies for Santa. (We even had fun decorating the plate together, although it did get a little stressful when she and I had VERY different ideas about which font we should use to say "Cookies for Santa." Thankfully, in the end, she saw the light, and I prevailed!
We've had a wonderful Christmas Eve, and look forward to more family time tomorrow, and I'm off to bed so Santa can come visit our house!

Christmas Lights

There have been a lot of things that I would have liked to do with Kiersten and Tanner this Christmas, but decided that they were still a little too young. One of these years we're going to ride the Polar Express, and I think next year I'm going to let them decorate cookies (I'm sure they would have loved that this year, but I just wasn't ready for the mess! Next year, though . . . !) But, one thing they have both really enjoyed are the Christmas lights. Every time either one sees lights anywhere they squeal, and then usually the other joins in as well!

So we started the Christmas season by going to see the lights at the Mesa Temple with Nate's family who was here for Thanksgiving. Everyone loved it. It's not Temple Square in Salt Lake, but it is quite impressive, and it's a whole lot warmer!
(Tanner didn't care who held him that evening, as long as they cuddled him and kept him warm, so Grandma Larsen and Aunt Kathryn fought over him!)

A Tucson holiday tradition we hear about every year, but hadn't actually tried yet, is going to see the lights at Winterhaven, a community in Tucson. Their light displays are amazing - it's as though each house is trying to be bigger and better than the next. I'm really glad we don't live there, because the pressure to compete must be pretty strong!) We figured that this was something the kids would appreciate and enjoy, so we bundled up (ok, so it wasn't snowing and frigid cold like we're used to braving in Utah, but it still was cold, especially for our Tucsonian children . . . and their mom!).


(Kiersten dressed herself that night. We suggested they wear their warm "snuggle" footed pj's, and we told her she needed a hat to keep her head warm. This wasn't quite what we had in mind, but she was adament that this is what she was wearing. )

One house not only had their lights timed to music, but also had water jets synchronized. Here's a short video - but they seemed to be encountering technical difficulties as we got there, because everything went black and quiet, and stayed that way!




The kids loved it, as did Nate and I, and even though we only made it through a fraction of the houses, we felt it well worth the drive. (Tanner could have stayed longer, it was Kiersten who was done first, and very vocal about it!) We've decided to make it one of our family traditions every year - to go check out another part of the lights at Winterhaven.

Relief Society Christmas Dinner

Since I made reference to my "decorating monster" and blamed it on my Relief Society calling, I thought I would share a few pictures from our Christmas dinner. Our president is amazing when it comes to decorating, and Kiersten has learned quite a lot from her! :) The cultural hall was beautiful that night.(Yes, that is a Christmas Tree hanging upside down from the center of the ceiling.)

(The serving table.)

(One of many tables the sisters ate at. This was the first time we didn't have enough seats and had to hastily set up another table after the dinner started.)

Mommy's Little Terror

I am constantly amazed at the differences between Tanner and Kiersten. I know some people will say it's the difference between boys and girls, and while that may be some of it, I am firmly convinced that a big chunk of it is the personality they come with! Tanner is a much more creative problem solver, takes a lot more initiative to gets what he wants, and is much more independent than Kiersten ever was.

Two days ago I left him alone for two minutes while I went to the bathroom and when I came out I discovered that he'd brought a small play chair in to the kitchen from one of the other rooms, pushed it up to the counter, pulled the phone charger off the counter (in case you don't know, he LOVES plugs) and let himself into the garage and found an extension cord Nate has in the garage (it is usually up where Tanner can't reach it, but since we had the ping pong table out over Thanksgiving, it was sitting on the ground) and plugged the phone charger into the extension cord. And I was only gone 2 minutes!

Later that afternoon when I had gone into the other room for less than a minute to put laundry away I come out and find that Tanner has pushed a kitchen chair over to the counter and has climbed up on to the counter and is standing on the counter playing in the box of pens, scissors and keys that I keep out of the reach of little hands. When I come out he proudly shows me a set of keys he's found in the box, and gets mad at me for picking him up off the counter!

And then yesterday morning I had a pan of cornbread sitting on the stove waiting for me to make the main dish for our Relief Society dinner which is tonight. Here is the sight that greeted me:

Tanner pulled a chair over to the stove and was helping himself to cornbread.

Maybe I ought to start by getting rid of all the chairs in my house. You don't think anyone would mind always having to sit on the floor, do you? It may not solve all my problems, but it might slow Tanner down some!

Oh well, it's a good thing we think he's pretty cute, especially when he smiles at us or who knows what would happen!

Safe From Little Hands

On Sunday Kiersten was "helping" me set up my Nativity set, which just makes me cringe. Last year when she "helped" me she broke Joseph's staff off because she thought it should come off like the shepherd's does. But, I get in trouble if I try to do any sort of decorating without her help because she loves to decorate everything and anything! (I'm raising a decorating monster, in case you didn't know, and I blame it all on my Relief Society calling!) Anyway, she asked where we were going to put it, and I told her on top of the entertainment center so "it would be safe from little hands." She jumped right on that, and immediately wanted me to help her find a place to put her special nativities so that they would be "safe from little hands." When I suggested putting them on the piano, she told me no, because Tanner can climb up and reach on the piano. If she put it on the piano, she explained to me, it wouldn't be safe from little hands. And ever since then, she'll find something she thinks Tanner shouldn't touch, and she'll tell me that we need to keep it safe from little hands."

While Tanner's are 2 of the 4 little hands I want to keep my Nativity set safe from, it makes me laugh that she never even considered that hers might also be little hands I need to watch out for!