December Part 2

Christmas Sunday is truly my favorite part of all the Christmas celebrations.  This year was no different.  We also experienced a Christmas miracle when the matching neck ties I had ordered a few weeks before arrive on Saturday night.  Cutting it close delivery guy!  Practical Mel bought matching ties that weren't Christmasy so the boys can wear them all year long.

I squeezed in a wedding that was almost 2 hours away.  Love these ladies who know how to make stuff happen and drop everything during a busy Christmas season to support a friend.

Randy bought another ladder.  The boys didn't die trying to screw in light bulbs that Randy removed for a seminary production.  I was eating my friend's homemade salsa she gifted to us while supervising my boys.  No one died.

That's Marcus and Landon playing lacrosse together in the annual Skyling lacrosse alumni game.  Both boys were in their element.

I spent Sunday afternoon whipping up many batches of delicious veggie dip and chopping vegetables for our neighbor/friend gifts.  I thought veggie trays would be well received because who needs more sugar at the end of December?  Not me!  My boys were horrified that I made them deliver vegetables to people.  I wish you could have heard them say, "Merry Christmas.  Enjoy your vegetables."  They are convinced we will be blacklisted from receiving future plates of cookies.  I think they're wrong.  I got so many texts from my friends thanking me for the veggies.  

You can find the ranch dip recipe on Mel's Kitchen Cafe site.  It truly is delicious!

Christmas lights in the car are always a hit and there was only minimal arguing over who had to go to each door.

My little elves

The last of the deliveries on Christmas Eve.  The Christmas Spirit was in the air!

Brothers Gifts

Steak Dinner was so yummy!  Let us not forget the kind butcher who threw in a bag of smoked candied bacon.  I don't love bacon but I sure loved this stuff!  If I had the money, I'd give it out next year instead of vegetables.

Christams Eve caroling to Sheryl.  Nothing better.

Some of the talents from the non-talent show

So fun having Marcus home for all the Christmas things!  It's been two years since we were all together for Christmas Eve.

After all the festivities I began wrapping all the presents and making sure everything was ready for Santa's big appearance.  This exhausted mom collapsed into bed at 2:30am.  Or was it 3:30?  It was too late, that's for sure. I didn't even bother taking a picture of the tree and gifts.  

Christmas {Traditions}

It's a new year, a new decade, and I'm already feeling way behind.  But I'm okay with that.  I've got all year to get my act together!
We've got a lot of Christmas traditions, or so I thought.  I asked the older boys what their favorite traditions were, thinking to bag all the extra stuff I do that goes unnoticed and doesn't really matter to them all for the sake of simplifying, and was surprised when they said we don't really have any traditions.  What??!!  We have a bunch and I'll touch on a few.

I make the most amazing peppermint frosted sugar cookies and we deliver them to friends and families who we love.  This year Marcus got to drive and blasted his Christmas music in a van decked out in Christmas lights.  We took cookies to Marcus's seminary teachers and one of them even came out in the rain, dressed in his pajamas to thank us and tell us how great Marcus is. 

Brother's Night!   Dinner and shopping for a secret brother is always one of the highlights of the Christmas season.  

This year will always be remembered with fondness as we remember the fried pickles I insisted on making everyone try at dinner.  I never knew there was such a thing until a few months ago and when I tried them I knew I had to share with my boys.  They are delicious!  My boys thought they were pretty good too.  We always draw names so the boys know who to shop for but now they seem to enjoy purchasing gifts for all their brothers.  It's pretty awesome that they care so much.  It makes my mom heart sing.

 Christmas Eve dinner is the one meal that I use all my nice tableware for.  

We had the missionaries over and we lucked out with elders who liked my cooking and were happy to be with us.  We pulled open our English Crackers and wore the crowns the rest of the night.  Also per tradition, we had to scarf down our food so we could race across town to sing carols to a sweet widow in the ward.  Our whole ward goes every year on Christmas Eve and every year we are the last ones to arrive.  I always forget how much longer it takes to eat a nice meal and pop our English crackers.

The Elders even stayed for our traditional Christmas Eve family night.  Elder Jones played a beautiful rendition of a hymn for their talent.  Most of the boys played the piano for their talent, Ethan did a sock puppet show about how he doesn't have a talent, and I showed off my recent power point presentation I created for a church assignment that I only managed to pull off by getting up at 3am for uninterrupted computer time.

 Opening Brothers Gifts is always highly anticipated.  Landon couldn't wait for Henry to open his baby shark toy.  

Ethan gave Marcus a massage thing and Marcus was more than willing to put Ethan to work with it.  

Eventually the Elders went home, the kids went to sleep, and I started wrapping gifts.  I hadn't wrapped a single present all month.  It's easier to just leave the Amazon packages untouched so curious boys can't peek.  However, staying up until 1:40am wrapping presents was terrible.  Next year will be different!

December Happenings

Christmas traditions are in full swing around here.  The boys are anxiously waiting for Brother's Night and for the first time, paying for gifts with their own hard-earned money.  Landon is so excited about giving gifts that he's already bought gifts for Parker and Ethan, just because he wanted to.  He was also excited that those gifts were the first presents to be placed under the tree.

There are so many good things to do at this time of year that it overwhelms me personally and as a mother, as I try to make sure we are doing things as a family to invite the spirit of Christ into our Christmas.  For now, we are sticking with our morning tradition of hanging an ornament on the tree each day that represents something to do with the Savior's life.  {It's called 25 Days of Christ and I'm sure I've mentioned it on here before but can't find the post so go to this site for more info.  It would make a great gift!}  Landon and Parker also get to take turns opening a window on their Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.  Yes, that sounds terrible to have a Star Wars Advent but each day one of the boys gets to build a little Lego set/figure as they count down until Christmas.  Marcus and Ethan are happy to sit this one out now that they're so old and mature.  They also get to skip reading Christmas books by the light of the Christmas tree each night when it's time for bed.  I'm OK with this too as it makes it easier for me to snuggle Landon and Parker while we read.  Occasionally Ethan and Marcus will read with us so they aren't complete scrooges. In fact, one night all the boys were home and there wasn't anything going on.  That never happens!  Marcus and Landon were playing chess together and we were all sitting around the Christmas tree just relaxing so we read a Christmas story together and put a Christ ornament on the tree as well {we are supposed to do an ornament every day but we always get behind on the weekends}.  I almost ran to grab my phone to snap a picture of all this tender togetherness that makes my heart melt but I didn't want to ruin the moment.  But now that's it's documented the moment will still be cherished.

Putting up our tree this year will always be memorable because this was the first time my boys got to experience the magic of a skirt ---- A Christmas tree skirt!  I pulled the skirt out of the box and got the crazy idea to wrap it around my waist and give it a spin.  This skirt was made for twirling!  As soon as by boys saw me twirling and prancing around the room in it, they each wanted to give it a try {except for Marcus who was too busy doing homework}.  Randy couldn't believe his eyes and made a concentrated effort to avoid smiling so as not to encourage skirt wearing in our home.  I loved watching my boys grin and giggle as they tried out a twirl for the first time in their lives. 

We listened to Christmas music as we hung ornaments on the tree and somehow Landon and Ethan started to dance together.  I quickly intervened so I could teach Landon how to properly dance with a girl since Ethan was no expert. It was the cutest thing and he couldn't stop smiling so I made Randy take a picture to document the moment.

 I'd hate for you to get the impression that it's all Christmas magic and smiley kids around here.  Henry is sick/teething {or both}, I wrecked Randy's Audi backing out of the garage,  and Randy got "let go" from his other job, the one that pays the for our livlihood.  {The company fired their 3 part time endodontists and replaced them with one full-time doctor.  Thankfully they are allowing Randy to continue working for 3 more months}.  Oh, and Marcus is a teenager so there's always that!

A Quick Trip and the Time I Officially Went Crazy

I flew to Utah for a day with Landon, Parker, and Henry.  I figured since Randy took the older boys to Whistler why not use our many credit card points to fly the littles to Utah for my Dad's annual Christmas Bus Extravaganza.  Long story short, I flew out Friday night arriving at 11pm, spent the next day with family, and then flew back home Sunday morning.  It was over before we knew it. 
As I was packing up to leave,  I had to get my friend Jen to drive me to the airport at the last minute because Randy had too many patients at our practice.  What a good problem to have!  She dropped me off at the curb and said, "Are you sure you're ok?  Can I help you get to the gate?"  I rolled my eyes.  As if flying with three kids on a short flight to Utah is hard?!  Clearly she had no idea of my traveling expertise. 
Oh, how pride cometh before the fall!

We got to security with minimal effort.  I had Henry in the stroller and pulled along my carry-on suitcase while Landon carried the duffel bag.  Easy peasy.  After security, we took a couple elevators and a train to get to our terminal and arrived a few minutes before boarding.  I bought some snacks and then we were the first to board the plane.  After putting the duffle bag in the overhead bin I reached down to put my suitcase away and it wasn't there.  I thought it was right there and clearly it wasn't.  I panicked and asked the flights attendants for permission to leave the plane.  I left Henry in the arms of a stranger and the other boys in their seats and got off the plane as fast as I could, which was a struggle as the aisle was clogged with passengers.  Luckily they got out of my way because I wouldn't have thought twice about throwing my body over the seats to get out of there.  I thought I'd see my suitcase just sitting there by the gate but it wasn't.  I asked the gate person to call security to see if they'd found it there.  She was a total jerk so I started retracing my steps, making it all the way back to the train when I realized my boys were sitting on a plane with strangers, and I had no idea when the last time was that I actually had my suitcase and even if I knew, it had probably been moved, or was surrounded by dogs and security in case there was bomb inside.  So I got back on the plane all frazzled because I couldn't for the life of me remember walking away from my bag.  Luckily my sisters had clothes and toiletries I could borrow along with baby clothes for Henry but I couldn't sleep for several hours that night as I tried to force my brain to recall where I had left my bag.  It was very upsetting to not remember and I started googling info on early onset of Alzheimer's.  It was a rough night.  

Ok, enough about that.  Saturday morning we had a pancake breakfast so we could eat my dad's giant pancakes (made from scratch) with Kathy's homemade syrup.   All my siblings dropped everything to come for breakfast and spend the entire day together.  It was so great to hang out with everyone and the sacrifice of their time during this busy Christmas season was not lost on me.  We took lots of pictures, talked, snuggled babies, and enjoyed family togetherness and loud chaos.

 Siblings!

My Grandma, Aunt Lisa, and Uncle Dave also drove down from Boise to be with us so it was fun to be with them as well. 

 

Baby Claire, Baby Henry, and Baby Savannah

 Everyone loves Henry

 These four boys were inseparable

 Landon's dreams came true as he played football in the snow with Uncle Dan and cousins

  Then I went out to lunch with just my siblings before the Christmas festivities began.  

 The whole family met at a rest home where we put on a little Christmas program that ended with the cutest nativity I've ever seen.  Afterwards we went back to my dad's house to play some fun games, eat pizza, and get on the Christmas bus.  It even started to snow!  So perfect.  We sang Christmas carols and made lots of noise as we drove to Temple Square to look at the lights.  After and hour of that we got back on the warm bus, we drank hot chocolate and ate cookies as we listened to the audio version of The Polar Express.

 Spjute is really hard to spell

 The cutest shepherd boy complete with dinosaur gloves

 Aren't they cute?  I made these costumes years ago

 Back at the house for games.  We play Kahoot and it was great fun.

 Pizza!

 Tired Henry

It was such a fun night.  The next morning we woke up, packed our meager belongings, and flew back to Washington in time for church where Parker fell asleep on the bench for two hours.  It was a whirlwind of fun!

Henry slept the entire time on both flights

 Landon actually slept on the flight

Luckily my suitcase got returned to Lost and Found and I was able to pick it up yesterday.  Hallelujah!