Family Fun in December

For my birthday, Andrew threw a party with some of my family.

The reality is that I invited them.

But once he got wind of it, he took over and wouldn't let me lift a finger.

He got the house cleaned and ready, made the cake, and took care of hosting duties.

I was grateful to be surrounded by love and laughter.

On the 15th we woke up to some amazing snow.

Andrew actually took a yard stick to measure the snow pile on our picnic table.

He measured 1/4 inch shy of 7 inches!

The boys bundled up and went out to help him shovel the driveway.

(It may have turned into a small snowball fight instigated by Dad...)

Ammon was way overdue for a new suit.

The last one he had never really fit him correctly.

It was short and wide compared to his long and lean frame.

Additionally, it had developed a rip in the crotch.

(Which I had known about and forgotten - for about 6 months.  Ooops!)

With the new suit came something Ammon had been wanting for a while - a REAL tie.

(As opposed to a clip on tie.)

I don't know if Andrew or Ammon was more excited about putting it on for the first time.

Peter came home from kindergarten with a new gingerbread cookie recipe.

He was determined to give it a try and Sunday afternoon finally gave us a chance.

He was a good little baker, and Ammon also loved helping.

This past week I spent some time at the school.

I was invited to help Ammon's class make adorable candy trains.

It was a fun little project and I enjoyed watching my little builder at work.

He whipped through the project fast compared to some of his peers.

I could see that this is the kind of thing that comes naturally to him.

He loves to put things together!

Later that same day I was back at the school for Peter.

He was being recognized for a Leadership in Me award.

This is a great program that is being adopted by schools throughout the country.

The focus is teaching the children Stephen Covey's 7 Habits For Highly Successful People.

Peter earned his award for putting "First Things First".

We were happy that Grandma Peggy was able to attend the assembly as well.

The next two nights see us at family Christmas parties.

After that is Christmas and then Ammon's birthday.

December has been a fun month so far and I don't expect that to change.

Kicking off the Season

This is our first Christmas in our new house.

It was fun to figure out how to arrange the furniture to make room for the tree.

And now that we have a house and place to store things,

I am hoping to start collecting more and more decorations.

(Starting with a bigger tree - hopefully to be found on clearance after Christmas is over this year.)

As excited as I was to pull out our ornaments and the few decorations we have,

Ammon and Peter were even more thrilled.

It was fun to hear them exclaim, "I remember this!" time and time again.

I want to have more traditional things for them to remember, before these years are over.

Once again, Christmas season is the middle of finals for me.

While I went to LifeStone for my internship, Andrew took the boys to Home Depot.

They had fun making projects.

(Shhhh.  Don't tell them I've already seen these pictures - I'm getting their projects as gifts!)

I'm glad they had fun visiting with Santa while they were there.

Since Tucano's gives a free meal to anyone with a birthday, lunch there has become an annual tradition.

For Andrew's birthday he and I go as a date.

For Ammon and my birthday, we make it a family affair.

Ammon still loves the chicken hearts.

He just couldn't get enough.

Peter loved the bacon wrapped sirloin.

It took us a while to convince him to try anything else.

Finally he decided that the brown-sugar ham was pretty good too.

And of course they both LOVE the grilled pineapple.

This year the briscut was my favorite.

Andrew enjoyed the buffalo chicken and bacon wrapped turkey.

After lunch we went to the Andrew's parents house to make cookies.

This has turned in to such a fun tradition - we do it every Christmas season.

The recipe is one that has been in the Shadel for generations and I have come to love these cookies!

And as much as I love the cookies, the memories of making them together are even better.

Of course, we can't kick off Christmas in this house without watching this video a dozen times or so.

I grew up loving this song - mostly because my dad loved it.

We were so excited when the Tabernacle Choir, which my mother-in-law was a member of, themed their concert around this a few years ago.

Even with our enthusiasm, neither Andrew nor I anticipated loving this story as much as we do.

This year seemed to have a lot of really hard situations highlighted in the news.

I was grateful to listen to this yet again and be reminded that even when things seem dark, there is still light.

I've also enjoyed a few nights out for Christmas festivities.

The ladies in my neighborhood did a tour of four homes where we learned about different traditions.

It was a really fun night.

I also had the chance to attend an ornament exchange party.

I'm still wrapping up school and getting ready to apply for graduate school.

But somehow, I've been able to also breathe a little and enjoy the season.

And in just a few more days, hopefully I'll be able to immerse myself in holiday cheer even more.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a multi-day event for us.

The day before is when we cook.

Ammon makes pumpkin pie, and Peter makes a peanut butter cheese-ball.

I make sweet potato casserole and Andrew makes sausage stuffing.

I love that each of us contributes and enjoys cooking.

This year was supposed to be Thanksgiving with my family.

But somehow, Andrew's family has gotten onto the same schedule as us.

So this year we went to both.

It was a fun day, but I doubt we'll do that again.

I don't know how to resolve the fact that Andrew's family is now on the same schedule as my family.

I'm frustrated and stressed about it already.

We spent the morning at my parents house.

We got there first and David and Nikki were close behind.

We played California Speed and Zilch, and of course, Hearts.

Andrew enjoyed football and mom's infamous "spread".

In our house, our Thanksgiving is much less about the big meal, and more about the food we snack on all day.

Dan was there, Rebecca showed up, and so did Joe and his family.

When it was time for Andrew's family to gather, we went to his parents house.

Tables were set with china.

Peggy had gone all out and even made a bacon covered turkey.

After the meal we played Zilch, Uno and RummiKube.

It was lots of fun!

When everything wrapped up, we headed home and stopped by my parents house again.

This time we were able to see Katy and her family.

We were too late to have the kids all do the craft together, but Peter still worked on his.

We had a fun group game of Apples to Apples.

Jeremiah made me a fresh batch of his stuffed mushrooms.

The night ended way too quickly.

I had a great day, but I was sad to have missed out on so much of the time I should have had with my family.

It was a real bummer to have to see them in shifts.

Still, we are lucky to be surrounded by so many family members.
It really was a wonderful way to spend the holiday!

Number 3

This little doll is my third niece born in 2012.

As such, she was the third one to be blessed.

She is also the third daughter - out of three children.

She was born to the number three child in my family - (although he was the first son).

Of all of the grandchildren, she is the third redhead.

(Her sisters are the other two).

She lives in the third house on her street.

Her parents were the third ones in our family to get married.

And I'm betting if I tried, I could come up with a few other number three things about her.

All in all, she has convinced me that 3 is a pretty awesome number.