Christmas

It has really been a most perfect Christmas Holiday.
On Wednesday, the boys and I went to pick up K's parents from the airport,

Then we drove to K's office downtown to meet him for lunch.

We spent a pleasant evening at home, just watching the boys play and getting a few things ready for the Holiday with, yes, some last minute shopping and wrapping. The guys watched the Utah game and Marta and I watched 'Julie and Julia'.

Christmas Eve I made tree shaped muffins for breakfast and did bits of cooking prep here and there for our fancy dinner. K had to work in the morning and I got to leave the boys home with Grandma and Grandpa to go work out at the gym. After K got back from some more shopping and finished his wrapping, (I really didn't leave everything to last minute...I promise) we played in the snow for awhile.

Then K gathered up the kids and the grandparents and went out to play on the train at the mall so that I could have a bit of free time to finish dinner.

Not to sound braggy or anything, but I think dinner turned out really well.

I cooked my first turkey ever (I put it in a brine the night before), made mashed potatoes and stuffing, green beans, green salad and a cranberry-cream cheese cracker dip that was just divine.

I only had one major miss-hap when I was spicing the nuts for the salad. Apparently my microwave safe bowl was really only safe for five minutes, at six minutes it melted and burned along with my first batch of nuts. Note to self: glass bowls work much better for longer microwave cooking.

After everyone got back from the lights and were awed and impressed by my fancy dinner,

we cleaned up

and were just getting ready to read a story, where there was a knock at the door!

It was a family from our neighborhood delivering the twelfth day of Christmas to us.

We had a fun visit with them reliving the drama that is the getting and giving of the twelve days of Christmas. I tend to startle easily and some of their loud knocks on the door almost gave me heart attacks. K attempted to catch them on the second day so they lived in fear of him the rest of the time. It was great.

After that we read parts of the story of Christ's birth while the kids made major messes eating ice cream (drumstick ice cream cones for 12 drummers drumming).

They made it through most of the story before G just couldn't stand it any more and just HAD to open a present. G & G had lovingly provided the famous Christmas Eve pajamas and G's squeal of delight when opening them was just priceless.

They were superhero dinosaur pj's and ans soon as H saw G putting his on there was nothing for it, but he had to as well.

He does love to copy his brother. Then is was off to bed for the boys and time for me to trounce the grown-ups in a game of Settlers'.

This morning the boys woke up at 6:30 so I brought them into our room to watch cartoons until we were ready to be awake. Finally around 7:40 we rolled out of bed and got started with the high pitched excitement.

G was so fun to watch. He was so excited about every little piece of candy or toothbrush in his stocking. And not just his stocking, he was so excited for everybody else getting presents too, even if he had no idea what they were.

K and I must have been on the same train of thought, because we both got each other a wireless keyboard.

H soon got into the spirit of unwrapping his presents, although he was more likely open one and not want to be distracted from it for some time. He and G did really well sharing and playing with each other and each others toys.

We loved having K's parents here to share this experience with us and they spoiled us rotten.

After all the present unwrapping was done, we ate a yummy breakfast casserole and I tried to not cook the rest of the day. I got to take a nice long bath and a nap while K and his dad went out shooting, so the day was pretty much perfect. The boys stayed in their Jammie's all day and played and played and played.

I am going to bed tonight with such a lovely peaceful happy feeling, I never want Christmas to end.

Oooh Pretty!

I put together a Christmas Tree decoration for one of my friends and H plopped right down and got to enjoying it. He knows just what to do when you see twinkly lights.

Danger

G has a toy that he calls his trophy. As I was getting myself ready to go to the airport to pick up my in-laws he was playing with this trophy, but at some point he must have set it down because a few minutes later I heard him saying, "H has my trophy!" H was NOT willing to give up the trophy so I told G that if he would just be patient and let H play with it, he would probably put it down again in a few minutes.

A short while later I heard G in his bedroom throwing books on the floor.

"What'cha doing buddy?" I asked.

His response, "Putting books here and then I'm going to get H to come here and he will step on the books and he will fall and he will drop the trophy and I will get it!!"




I may want to curb the silly cartoons if he's learning how to set traps for his brother.

Because it's Cheaper

Or as another friend of mine pointed out, not sending cards in the mail is really 'being green'.

So we send our Holiday Cheer via the miracle known as the internet.

Merry Christmas!

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward did a brunch for it's Christmas Party this year and it was really fun. I was a little late coming since K let me go to the gym and work out that morning and by the time I showed up it was in full swing. They had lots of yummy breakfast casseroles, fresh fruit, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate and orange juice. The boys had had breakfast earlier that morning but that didn't stop them from chowing down. I myself had at least three plates full, but I probably shouldn't admit that since it totally makes my going to the gym seem pointless.



They had an ornament craft for the kids to do and then a high school madrigal choir came and sang to us. The boys were pretty good at entertaining themselves while the choir sang.

The highlight of the morning, for G at least, was seeing Santa. This was the only time this year that he got to sit on his lap, and he was looking forward to it.

Waiting excitedly, but very patiently with some of his buddies.

When it was finally his turn he asked Santa for a robot. This was the first I had ever heard of that so I'm hoping this is one thing that doesn't stick in that steel trap memory of his and he can be distracted by other shiny things come Christmas morning.

H wasn't to sure about the whole, sitting on a stranger's lap, but he put up with it. Especially when he noticed that he got candy for doing it.

He wasted no time getting the wrapper off that thing and getting to work enjoying the treat.

Well...

We have discovered that we need to start safety pinning the top of H's pj's.

Happy Birthday!

This year was K's big 30th birthday as well, and I'm sorry to say I didn't do nearly as good as he did. His birthday was on a Sunday (again) so we had a pie open house. We invited just about everyone we could think of. If you didn't get invited it's not because you weren't, it's just that I forgot to let you know. Sorry.

I spent the week before making pies. We had pumpkin, apple, coconut cream, french silk, peach, and marion-berry/raspberry. We had quite a few people come and it was fun to sit and visit as they cycled through, but I was still sending pies home with people as they left cause I didn't want them hanging around my house. I'm supposed to be on a diet.


I am so blessed to have married this man. He is a wonderful father and my Best Friend. I try to show him every day how much I love him, but especially on this day we want him to know how glad we are that he was born.

Happy Birthday, Lover!

Snow Fun

The Best December Halloween Birthday Party Ever!

G turned 4 on the 4th this year.
In honor of this marvelous occasion, his primary teacher 'Sister D' came by and gave him his very own fancy cupcake.

Which he proceeded to eat only the frosting of.

We were lucky enough to have my mom come up and spend the weekend with us. She came up on his birthday and gave him his very own Curious George bath towel which she made herself. I am often in awe of the fabulous things she can sew. G loves it!

His parents took the easy road and bought him a movie. Guaranteed hit present. The fact that the movie was 'Micky's House of Villains' was no coincidence cause have I mentioned that my son is absolutely obsessed with Halloween?


It should be no surprise then that G had a Halloween themed birthday party. I know some people put up Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, but we just put Halloween up again (um, yes, I had already taken them down.) I don't have a picture of just the decorations themselves, but G was positively bouncing off the walls. We had pumpkin garlands, spooky houses, ghosts and bats hanging off the ceiling.


When the guests arrived, I pulled out my bin of costumes and we played dress up. I know some people collect stamps or other such nonsense, but I love buying Halloween costumes when they go on clearance. Maybe G comes by his obsession genetically...

After picking costumes (G chose Iron Man) we played a game of 'Monster Mash'. Sort of like musical chairs but we danced around (to the song Monster Mash, of course) and when the music stopped we jumped on some pictures of monsters on the floor and mashed them!

When we were tired of Monster Mash, we played a game of 'Pin the Face on the Jack 'O Lantern.


Then we moved outside for the pinata that the boys and I made together. By this time it had started snowing, so most of the kids had coats on and we let them each have one turn to hit the pinata, then K broke it open so we didn't all freeze to death. Apparently I make a pretty tough pinata. When the kids had grabbed all the loot (Yay for 90% off Halloween stuff...I'm all for having holidays out of order) we came back inside and started decorating balloons with monster faces.

I also had a pumpkin magnet craft that didn't go as well as I'd hoped because you had to use glue to put really small face pieces on sort of small pumpkins. Not the most well thought out plan, since we are talking about eleven 3-4 year olds and one 18 month old who thinks he can do whatever the big kids are doing.
I also need to mention, that besides my mom actually being there, we had K's parents there via web-cam. Every once in awhile the kids would run up to the computer and say 'Hi Grandma and Grandpa!" Not just G and H, but all of the kids. It was pretty cute.

What would a party be without food? Not much of a party. To go along with our Halloween theme, we had Green 'Slime' punch...

Bone bread sticks with 'blood' (marinara) dipping sauce...

Jack 'O Lantern and Mummy cupcakes...

and Monster grins.

The kids liked the apples, but not so much the almond teeth.

Here's a bunch of little ghoulies eating snacks.

And of course we can't forget...Present time! G's friends were very kind to him and he was gifted some very fun things.

He really did love it all, but I think I caught him mid-smile in this picture.

After the party was over, G's cousin Tane stayed to play awhile while my mom and sister went to try out the new WinCo that just opened down the street. They would recommend NOT going on a Saturday if you can help it.

All in all I think the party was a success. G was so excited to give out the goody bags that he and I put together. He really wanted to make sure all of his friends got something. I know he loved the presents, but I think he loved the party a little bit more. He is a kid who just adores anticipation and it was so fun for me to see how much he enjoyed every bit of this party, from the planning and giving out invitations to the games and food. I had never planned on throwing a party for my kids until they got older, but I'm glad we did. I think it's something we will all remember for a long time. Except maybe H.