Christmas 2012

December was busy.  School and music events and performances, Mitch's formal work party, two church-related Christmas parties, Conjunctivitis, colds, and coughs, doctors' appointments, a backpacking trip, church callings, a concert, hosting two holilday dinner parties; All of this made for craziness  a busy holiday season.  Sound familiar?

Here are a few pictures from December.

 I made these salt dough ornaments as a Christmas gift for the children in our Primary.

I was so excited to have a chance to use this fun decorating idea for a friend's birthday.

Gingerbread houses with the kids.

My family exchanges home-made ornaments each year.  This was mine for this year.  I used the same technique to make poinsettias to decorate a tree skirt I made for the tree in our family room.

I also made balls like these to use for our outdoor lights display.

 Another fun thing we did was create a 12-days of Christmas for our cousins who are living in China, using their guinea pig, Snowball, who we adopted when they left the country almost two years ago.  We emailed them one photo each day for twelve days leading up to Christmas.  It was one of our favorite Christmas activities!

On top of everything,or rather, in spite of all of that, I really wanted my kids to get a sense of what Christmas is all about.  I wanted them to remember the reason we celebrate, and give them a taste of that great feeling you get when you give selfless service to others.  But sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's too busy.  The kids aren't listening.  There's so much to distract them.

So I planned some service opportunities.  WAY to many service opportunities for us to get all of them done (the goal was one a day, ha!), but we did get some done and it really made a difference in the feeling in our home around Christmas!

 Here are some of our favorites:
Taped quarters to vending machines
Donated new clothes and toys for local kids in need
Baked these cookies for our local fire fighters (who then graciously gave us our very own tour!)
Taped candy canes to ATMs
Gave small toys to random kids at a playground
Donated food through the kids' school to local food banks
Picked up trash all along the way to school
Donated some of our toys and clothes
Made stuffed sock snowmen to donate

I am so glad we did some simple acts of service.  Although the month was crazy (I literally had to fish a jingle bell out of my youngest son's right nostril one night) I think it really made a difference to the kids to spend time serving others and feel the spirit of Christmas.  I know it made a difference for me.

Gingerbread houses

Dallin has been asking me about every day for the past week if we could decorate gingerbread houses.
"But you did a really nice one at school already." I said, and gestured toward his graham cracker/milk carton creation.
Dallin wasn't satisfied, and kept at me.
I finally got into gear and made gingerbread today, and rustled up some things to decorate with.  The boys loved this activity, and got really creative!  (Adam let me help him a little.)  I think their houses came out great.

 

Merry Christmas 2010

This year:

Our nephew Austin lived with us for a few months before tying the knot with his sweetheart.
We took the kids to Disneyland for the first time.
Brandt wore a Doc band for three months.  He also reached lots of milestones like walking, his first word, "bye," and attending his first nursery class.
We attended our first Mountain Man Rendezvous.
Adam learned to swim and started preschool.
Caleb was baptized, started cub scouts, played flag-football, and ran a 5k.
 Dallin played machine-pitch baseball, started Kindergarten, and ran in his first 1-mile fun run.
Mitch built three loft beds, took Caleb on a father/son hike in the Uinta mountains with his family, coached flag football, and ran a 1/2 marathon.
Anna tagged along with most of the above and... er... did lots of fascinating stuff she can't recall right now.

It was a good year, full of blessings.  And above all blessings, thanks be to God for the gift of his Son.

Christmas Fortune Teller

I designed this Christmas fortune teller to go along with the table decorations at our church Christmas party. 

 The kids, and some of the adults, had fun playing around with them.  I've attached it here if anybody wants it.  (If you'd rather have it in pdf, let me know).  Merry Christmas!

Logic Vs. Traditional Christmas Cards

Retrieving the mail is a chore Mitch takes care of.  But when the Christmas cards begin to appear I actually start to look forward to the mail.  I love the family photos, the festive cards and the well wishes.  I tape them on the wall so I can look at them throughout the season. 

But... is the tradition of sending holiday cards dying out?  People keep in touch in so many different ways.  There are tons of funny, touching You Tube videos, ecards, digital picture frames and other options to send and display holiday greetings.  Are the traditional cards necessary anymore?  Why spend the money on cards, photos, and stamps, right?  Besides, it can hardly be considered the "green" thing to do.  Think of all the trees sacrificed!

No, Christmas cards are not necessary.  Yes, they can be expensive.  No, they're not green.  Logic is all against them.  But, dang it, I love them anyway!  I love to open them with my hands, read the messages inside and hang them on my wall.  And I hope they don't go away anytime soon.

That said, logic rules the day around here and we will be sending out an e-greeting this year.  I'm just a little bit sad about that.

Christmas 2009

We had a lovely, quiet Christmas. Brandt had the honor of portraying baby Jesus in the live Nativity at our church Christmas party. Mitch and I got to be Joseph and Mary. It was very sweet - a good reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.


It was Brandt's first and, as predicted, he really had fun...with the wrapping paper.


These are some of the boys' favorite gifts:

Brandt's Jumparoo

Dallin's remote-control stunt car:

Caleb's Legos:

Adam's Superman:

More sweet moments:

Holiday Greetings 2009

Child Our 4^th son, Brandt was born on June 21^st. His warm smile brings us joy.

Handy I can think of other adjectives – happy, or hectic, for example. I chose handy because Mitch and I have been absorbed with trying to discover our inner handyman/woman with all the repairs we need to do in the new house.

Rental We’re making our first foray into landlordhood. We’re on our second renters in as many months. Wish us luck.

Imperceptible You don’t notice it as much when you are with them every day, but when I look back over the year I am amazed at how much the kids have learned and grown!

Soccer/Star Wars Caleb and Dallin both played soccer this fall. Both teams were named after stinging insects (Green Hornets and Yellow Jackets). Almost as exciting, they both discovered Star Wars.

Timer "Beep! Beep! Your time is up." We got a Nintendo Wii this year and, let me tell you, the boys love it! They would play it all day long every day if we let them so we have to intervene with “media minutes” and the kitchen timer.

Moved/Music Mitch carried me over the threshold of our first house nine years ago. We moved to our new house in October. Also music, because Caleb and Dallin have been continuing their music classes and are doing well.

Arm Adam broke his right arm falling off the couch. Shortly afterward we made our first trip as parents to the ER.

Sweet, life is. (I know sound like Yoda right now). But we’ve been truly blessed.

As much as I love the sparkle and magic of this season, really Dallin said it best, “Mom, I know the goodest part of Christmas... Jesus was born.”

Merry Christmas!