Christmas Morning

5:45 am

Good Morning Christmas!

We sent Darin up to retrieve stockings and held the kids off till 6:30 am before we woke up Grandma and Grandpa.

Chocolate Santas and gummy candy pre-breakfast.

When Bub opened his dinosaur gift from his cousin he said "YESSSS! I have to tell Claire Thank you!"

But the favorite gifts of the year had to be.....

A much needed new bike!

{notice my cute new apron from the kids}

and the marble run!

{or "marble racer" if you are speaking to Bub}

Grandpa Byron adds his creative touch to everything.

Before we left the marble run had been improved with marble catchers.

Now that the kids are old enough for cool toys Christmas is getting really good for Darin.

{he created the above configuration and of course has already solved Bub's new perplexus}

After prepping the kids to be patient and polite during the gift exchange, we ended up tearing through that part of the morning because of......

this guy.

He is a cutie patootie no doubt, but we had to hand out gifts like a tornado to keep him from opening everything in site. He LOOOVED everything he saw and wanted to try everything he saw immediately. It was a fun year because the kids loved each others gifts as much as their own. We had lots of entertainment for the next two days.

Grandpa B made us delicious waffles for breakfast and then we had veg {I even got a nap} time until 1:00 church.

I wish I had fancy pictures of all of us in our Christmas finery but that didn't pan out. It's actually not such a travesty since we had left Soren's outfit so he didn't match anyway.

It was a wonderful meeting, lots of sweet Christmas reminders and beautiful music. Then a wonderful evening with a delicious dinner and great company. I love my in-laws.

We introduced the kids to the movie Elf before bedtime.

I love when Bub belly laughs like that.

Christmas Eve 2011

In the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning I was awoken by Mimi who had a tummy ache.

I won't go into details but by the time the rest of the family awoke we were wondering if our plans to visit my in-laws for Christmas wouldn't work out.

After making an emergency run to Costco and the grocery store for preparations to make our own Christmas Eve dinner, she made a miraculous recovery.

Another Christmas miracle perhaps?

I am counting it as such because we made the decision (with the okay from my in-laws) to risk it and make the trip up.

No one was sick the entire weekend!

(I am still crossing my fingers about the rest of the week)

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner, complete with my Father-in-law's awesome cheesecake (waay better than the Cheesecake Factory in my opinion) and then let the kids open their Christmas Eve jammies.

Soren really couldn't have cared less (although he loved jumping on the boxes) but both Bub and Miriam were excited about their new jammies.

Bub ran around showing us some pretty impressive ninja/jedi moves.

I knew Miriam would like what I had picked out, but I was shocked when she ran to me with a squeal of delight. She said she felt like Clara from the Nutcraker while she twirled around the room. She whispered in my ear "Do I look as beautiful as I feel?" which is just about the most darling thing I have ever heard.

We did a few Christmas Mad Libs. The kids roar with laughter over those which make them even funnier to the rest of us.

Miriam insisted we open the gift she had made at school which was a book she had colored of The Night Before Christmas and a CD of her reading it.

She recited/read the poem to us. She had the first 4 paragraphs memorized.

We played around for awhile....

until it was time for the Nativity.

Darin was our narrator, Bub sang (with help from all of us) When Joseph Went to Bethlehem, Miriam played Angels We Have Heard on High and Silent Night, we all sang the rest of the hymns. Soren always sings when we do. It's the sweetest thing, he just makes la la lo noises and moves his head back and forth. He picked up the music and followed along with the rest of us. When Miriam went to the piano to play her pieces he went with her and played the low notes while she performed. He won't let himself be left out of anything.

The kids left out a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa.

{he left a thank you note, sweet guy}

Last but not least, we carried on Darin's family tradition of reading "How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas" before tucking the kids into bed.

They were all snoozin' in 5 min.

I am pleased as punch about the whole night.

Christmas in Pictures

Most of these pictures go with my previous post. I thought I had accidentally deleted them from my camera but they were uploaded to the computer today.

Christmas miracle perhaps??

M's School choir performance.

Did you find her?

Look for the kid who looks hypnotized...she's on the right.

Christmas movie late night - Miracle on 34th Street-

High school buddies at Lorie's (far right) bridal shower.

Love these girls.

City park lighting festival....forgot Soren's coat so we didn't stay long.

He had to wear a sweater in the trunk bound for the DI.

12 years people!

12 years!

12 years and we still love to make-out in my parents basement.

Or anyone's basement.

I was in charge of Mimi's 2nd grade class party. Luckily I had 3 great Mom's volunteer to help out so I was only left with the craft (photo above).

That was an intense hour....hats off to elementary school teachers.

Neighbor and friend gifts this year.

Getting the jelly done in October was wonderful. If I can keep begging free fruit off friends and loved ones, this will be a yearly tradition.

Darin made the soap with my Father-in-law last month, it's something that has to be made in advance to let cure.

I really have no excuse as to why I was such a last minute slacker this year. Most of the prep work had been done months ago but we didn't send cards, didn't have M's cookie party, didn't do any events (like Candelight Christmas, Elves at Gardner Village, Zoo-lights or Temple Square).

I didn't make homemade bread to go along with the jelly.

(it's local at least)

The whole month just few by.

I am determined to stop and savor this next week.

So excited that Christmas falls on Sunday this year. I love when that happens!

It's Christmas Eve Eve.

Let the savoring begin.

This is our Christmas card this year.

Don't feel bad if you didn't receive one, only 4 people did. If you are one of the 4 just know you have one of the top 4 slots on our list.

I am not on the top of my game this year, but all the important holiday tradition have been observed. We're reading nightly Christmas stories, we listen to Christmas music ALL THE TIME, Christmas decorations are up and advent calendars are being filled, all Christmas concerts have been attended (school choir, 2nd grade class performance, and piano recital), all sneaky thoughtful gifts have been purchased and wrapped.

Most importantly, Darin and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.

That is an accomplishment because there have been quite a few years we have missed it due to parties, or commitments, or sheer exhaustion.

The kids went to Price where there was a cousin cookie factory day, and Marcus's bowling birthday party that evening. Lucky kids. Lucky us.

(Thank you with all my heart Mom and Dad)

Darin and I started our day early by attended the sealing of a loooong time friend in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was a sentimental and beautiful way to remember our sealing day 12 years ago. Then Darin let me go to a bridal shower for one of my oldest friends....going back to Durrant Elementary old friend.

I stayed too long but Darin was great about it.

We had plans to try one of Provo's great restaurants but I had an errand at the mall that required a 45 min wait, so we decided to have lunch at P.F. Chang's. Not the ethnic adventure we were looking for but you can't go wrong with lettuce wraps, and their kung pao scallops and Mr. Pibb were excellent. The traffic in Provo was horrific and we didn't feel like driving around the city any more than we had to. It's never taken me so long to get out of a mall parking lot.

The best part of the day was all the alone time we had together. Being at the temple, eating, driving, and then, when we got to Price we quickly put the kids to bed and spent the evening talking by the glow of my Mom's Christmas tree. It's nice to know that after 12 years we still love to be in each other's company...we still have a lot to say.

With the help of my brother Mark, I came up with a killer anniversary gift.

Tickets to see Mike Birbiglia next month.

The gift of another date!

Okay....back on to Christmas, only 4 days left!!

We saw the big man!

Sweet Moments with Grandpa

Our Blustery Day (and night and day)

I woke up Thursday and was disheartened to see this in the back yard.

But then I looked beyond my yard and saw this....

then this....

then I saw all the thousands of roof shingles, trash, and siding....

and then realized most of the city was without power...

then I started paying attention to all the sirens going off, and thought of all the policemen, linemen, and firemen out there in the wind trying to keep up with disaster after disaster

All of a sudden I wasn't disheartened, I was very grateful.

Since there was no power to M's school we had a surprise free day.

The winds were still bad in our neck of the woods but Darin reported that Salt Lake was just breezy so we drove down to....

THE FESTIVAL OF THE TREES!

with friends

We ooohed and aaahed and then headed back to our blustery city.

The mother of all Christmas trees.

Happy third day of December!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more."

-Melody Beattie

Thanksgiving is fast becoming my favorite holiday.

It's all just so simple, sweet, and easy.

I shouldn't say that since I have never been in charge of the meal, but the whole celebration is simple and easy. This particular Thanksgiving seemed especially easygoing.

My Mom cooked a killer bird, and all the fixins' were delish (courtesy of my sisters and me).

My Grandpa came, along with Uncle D, and my new Aunt G (who brought the cutest fruit tartlets and cupcakes), then my siblings and all their posterity (except for the oldest who was basking in Hawaiian sun).

The kids loved being together.

They hardly ate a thing and then ran off to continue their games.

I felt so thankful that I am related to these people.

So thankful that the kids are old enough to play with less supervision.

Grateful my parents have a large basement were the kids go to play.

Grateful for the Wii and Just Dance 2.

This is how we all looked afterwards happy, content, and Full.

We did celebrate Black Friday, and we didn't have to hit the stores to do it.

The power went out on my parents block for most of the day.

So when the sun went down we went bowling!

Check out Mark's form, he doesn't even use the finger holes.

(He's single ladies)

This is Soren's preferred seat.

Wyler has to share Papa when Soren comes around, but he was pretty good about it.

Bad photo, but this is a classic shot.

Waiting and waiting and waiting for the ball to finally reach the pins.

The girls celebrating a sweet shot.

We then transported all the food to Julia's house, where there was working electricity.

We repeated our Thanksgiving Feast, it's the only meal where left overs are just as good as the original.

I am grateful for the joy and laughter family brings.

Tonight while putting the kids to bed I was reminded of how much fun it is to have kid commentary. A post about family seems an appropriate place to write them.

So here goes:

Bub jumped on me yelling "Dog Bone Stack!" what he meant to say was "Dog Pile". "Dog Pile" will forever more be referred to as "Dog Bone Stack" in our family.

Miriam asked Darin how to spell "microscopic word 2011" when she typed it into a google search Darin asked her why and she said "that's where we practice typing at school"-Darin realized she had meant Microsoft word 2011.

Miriam has requested that she be able to type a message below:

''Mom don't write down everything I say! - Miriam"

Bub told me he didn't want to grow up to be an adult because we work too hard. I said "Amen Brother" and he said "I'm not your brother!"

Love those kids.

The Nutcracker-I never get tired of it

We had a girls afternoon with Ris and Lindsey to see a local performance of The Nutcracker.

This performance, although not Ballet West was wonderful, and included a full orchestra as well as tons of little ballerinas adding extra touches to the Land of Sweets.

Ris and I are so glad our girls are friends. If it's up to us they always will be!

I now owe Bub an outing while Miriam is at school....he is starting to notice and care about all these "girl outings" he is excluded from. I guess if I HAVE to go do fun things with the boys all week to make up for the fun girl stuff on the weekend then I will suck it up and do it.

{I hope the sarcasm wasn't missed in that last sentence}

Stay Golden Ponyboy

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf's a flower;

but only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down today,

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

Stay golden Ponyboys.

I went through a huge Outsiders phase in middle school.

I read it 6 times in one year and cried every time.

This Fall day reminded me of Robert Frost's poem, and I can't think of the poem without thinking of the line "Stay golden ponyboy" (my big brother use to write that in letters to me).

I watched Sven, Bub, and Ren play happily in the leaves warmed by the afternoon sun until it began to set.

Then it got cold, and the big boys came out which resulted in squabbles and tears...still fun but not the golden moment I had captured before.

It's harder for me to let Bub grow up than Miriam. Maybe because he isn't fighting to grow up like Mimi did, or maybe because I was so excited for M to reach the next stage, to see what it was like. I don't know. Maybe (and this just occurred to me) it's because Miriam is so helpful that I didn't need Bub to grown up so fast? Whatever it is, I am not as excited for the next phase with him, I want to keep him 4 forever.

Soren seems too stubborn to let me keep him young. Sometimes I feel like I am breaking a wild colt. He wants to do it his way on his terms. I don't want to break his little spirit but I do have to change his diaper once and awhile. He pushes me to the limit, but if Darin and I get the least bit stern with him....OH MAN you should see him crumble!

He brings so much laughter and fun the stubbornness is worth it.