Christmas Fun

 Christmas Eve

We kept the surprise of our visitors really well, mostly because until we knew how the weather was going to be we didn't know if they were coming. Luckily the weather was clear and they arrived midday on Christmas Eve with great joy from Claire and Shay. They instantly wanted to play games with Grandma and impatiently waited for them to unpack by setting up the game they chose. Buttercup was happy to meet Grandpa and Grandma again too, and I tried to keep her from annoying them too much. We also got to watch a Christmas movie that night and I read a story about the symbols of Christmas that they got to decorate their own trees with. The story is adapted from one my family had read when I was growing up and I actually liked it so much I printed it and handed it out with my treats this year. They both wrote a letter for Santa to thank him for coming and to enjoy the treat we left for him, then we opened one present so we could all wear our matching PJs to sleep.

Christmas

Santa left a mess on my floor with footprints, filled our stockings, left presents for everyone, and ate the girl's muffins and milk. The self-control to not open presents without everyone awake was impressive, and we opened them while breakfast was cooking. I thought it was cute that they wanted to open the presents from Santa first and then the ones they got each other. As much as I tried to slow them down so they can remember who gave them each present, they still forgot by the time it was all over, luckily I have a pretty good memory about most of them. I asked Shay what her favorite was and she said her new kittycorn squishmellow, and Claire said all of them. Classic indecisive Claire...the morning was mostly spent playing together and then we had a wonderful late lunch of turkey, ham, dutch oven potatoes, gravy, and salad. It was super tasty and I'm going to make Chris make those potatoes again! 

The Week

We have had a lot of free play time during the day with their new toys, but they still ask to watch movies so I can tell them they have to finish their homework and reading. We only missed out on Christmas so I don't feel too bad. It got rainy this week so going for our walks has been wet and cold, but I'm working on getting over my own discomfort because all the kids and puppy enjoy it so much. We had a swim class on Friday, enjoyed the water since we didn't have to rush there or home, and the girls like to work out with me...or get in my way while I'm working out, however you want to see it. I love the joy they have this week, but they are also getting into very little fights where they have to hate each other for a minute before figuring it out. It isn't fun to hear them be so mad and yell, but they can work it out really quickly. Shay has already asked if she gets to go back to school tomorrow because she wants to wear her new socks, she wore them with shorts to say she is opening her hair salon thought and it looked adorable.

Caroling, Dressing up, and Santa

 Adrian

He is such a chill happy baby as long as there are things to look at and he isn't hungry. He came along while we went caroling in the neighborhood with our friends and I made sure he was bundled up nice and warm in his stroller. He also met Santa! He was getting bored just waiting in line so when I put him up on the lap facing away from the stranger he was confused and kept wanting to turn around to look at him. So I didn't get a picture with him looking at me because I didn't want to take too much time and the girls already wanted to run off and get cookies. He is very splashing during bath time now so I've put up a curtain to try and protect myself, I think it only started because he now has a fun game that is throwing toys and food over the edge of his seat and if I don't put them back he has to find something else to do.

Claire

We had a lot of fun this week dressing up for Christmas spirit week at school and I was terrible at getting pictures so you just have to imagine that they are fun. Monday was green or red day, Tuesday was Christmas hat day, Wednesday was fancy (or PJs for Shay's class), Thursday was ugly sweater day, and Friday was PJ day. Claire had her first Activity Girls night this Thursday to introduce her because she joins next year and luckily we have our neighbors in too so we can carpool when my life is a little crazy. I helped out this week by making the little angel sugar cookies they were decorating, but they also made an ornament, and a baby Jesus in a manger. Shay was jealous she didn't get to go so instead we watched a movie together and cuddled after she got one of the extra cookies. Friday was the last day of school this year and Claire said they watched Polar Express, ate treats, made an elf ornament, and a 2025 calander.

Shay

Shay was crazy excited to see her best friend when we went to the Santa and cookies night at their school and that made her extra crazy. It was fun to see she has her own friends that are excited to see her too and that they get along and play together. She had two parties in her class at school for some reason, one was a mug exchange party on Wednesday, sadly her mug broke while she was on the bus becasue she takes out her stuff to look at...I was able to glue it together so she can at least still have it, even if we don't drink out of it. She came home from her last day with an ornament with a string with her height, a upside down ice cream cone tree, and did a lot of fun activities. I like that they are making happy memories.

Sunday Music

I am so mad at myself for not getting a family picture in front of our Christmas tree before we went to church! I spent so long curling all the girls hair in my 'salon' doing make up, bought them pretty matching dresses and we all looked so good. Of course I also had a lot going on because my calling is music coordinator and I was in charge of the Sacrament Christmas music program. I am very happy with how it went and got many people saying how wonderful it was. Luckily I also have my husband I can ask about the negative parts and trust him to be honest! Now I have critics to help next time and I made it a good program for the members of our ward as well. We have many talented people help out so we could have instrumental music (including cello, violin, piano, oboe, and flute) playing while the narrations were being read with songs people know well from the hymn book. We had the choir do a hard song of my favorite song O Come O Come Emmanuel, the primary do a beautiful version of Away in A Manger, a talented duet of O Holy Night, and then another choir song with a small group of children close us out with Picture a Christmas. I was too busy to know if there were any tears out there in the crowd though.

Christmastime Fun

 Adrian

I worked on keeping everyone in the house from getting sick because Shay was coughing and started showing signs early this past week. Unfortunately, I think it was inevitable because Claire got sick then Adrian and Chris started getting a little and now I'm just waiting and dreading my turn. Luckily, he is still mostly a happy boy and just seems to be tired more often and needs a little more sleep, but doesn't sleep very long because he gets uncomfortable. He was happy hanging out with Daddy when I was throwing a Christmas Puzzle party on Friday, and he still sleeps well at night for the most part. Hopefully, it doesn't get too much worse before it gets better! I'm starting to think he is just going to skip crawling because he still hasn't gotten it yet and will push himself backward instead of getting up on his knees to go forward. He also practiced standing at the baby table playing music for a while and had good balance all by himself!

Claire

Despite the spreading virus in our house, we had some fun holiday traditions and decorated cookies Sunday morning for when we go caroling around the neighborhood tomorrow. I'm the one decorating the cookies that will be handed out, but I gave the girls their own cookies to decorate, and then all the leftover frosting went towards our gingerbread houses we did after dinner. I keep seeing fun Christmas things at the store when I'm shopping and then buy them...oops! But these window stickers that can be rearranged will work for more than just this year and should give us a few years of fun. 

Shay

Her cookies were very heavy laidened with frosting and I smoothed out the tree so she could add color, but still ended up piled on. She was on a dress-up kick for the weekend and ended up wearing a scrambled princess costume for our movie date. I took them out to see Moana 2 for a girl's date and now Shay asks to see it again even though I've explained it's not available at home yet. No amount of logical explanation will convince her to stop asking...I think she loves skirts and just wishes it was summer again so she could have all the ones back that I've put away for the winter. Anytime she has seen one she puts it on. It does seem like time is moving fast and it is already almost Christmas! I hope I'm ready...

Thanksgiving and Decorating

 Adrian

We were traveling last week so I didn't get a chance to write, but we had a fun Thanksgiving with family over the weekend. Adrian did a lot of playing with cousins and enjoyed the attention but he was a little overwhelmed with so many new faces and was concerned when I would leave the room and not bring him with. It wasn't a big fit unless he was already cranky, but he definitely had some concerned sounds if he watched me walk away. I didn't get to feel very helpful with cooking because I brought food that was already cooked, good planning since Adrian didn't like the idea of me leaving him behind and he couldn't follow like his similar-aged cousin. I was hoping seeing another baby crawl would get him going, but he still resists it and would rather complain until he gets what he wants. Maybe before Christmas! And most likely because he will see all the pretty presents under the tree and want to play with them.

Claire

She is infectiously excited for Christmas wanting to eat her advent calendar chocolates before breakfast and touch every Christmas decoration before we decide where it goes. I wish I wasn't as controlling so I would let her have what she wants...but luckily she gets distracted easily for now. I do remember all my memories helping my mom so I can work on letting them help out in the future! We did get to do some fun crafts because Shay had a homework project decorating a tree with anything and Claire wanted one too, I even made it so they could stand up. They also liked visiting the park when Daddy had his day off for Thanksgiving and wanted to help Shay practice her bike riding. And then yesterday we got our tree and decorated it! First year of having a real tree and getting the beautiful smell in our house. Claire made sure to pick all the ornaments she wanted to put on before we went and had them separated so no one could do them but her.

Shay

We watched a puppet show she put on at the library when we went and had Adrian sit in a chair was cute. She also always asks me what I'm cooking when I'm in the kitchen now that I've been making some treats like pies, chocolate-covered cherries, and the chocolate strawberries with the leftover chocolate I had. It is mostly just getting to lick the spoons, but it is nice they want to help. My biggest ask is to play with Adrian so I can cook without him getting sad and impatient with me. She is good at that job though and does a good job making him laugh because she is a goofy sweet girl. She is doing so much better at school and doesn't need a star page sent home every day to tell me if she has been good. I hope she never has to go back to that and is the sweet girl 100% of the time from now on!