Christmas Sunday

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season, is Christmas Sunday.  The kids dress up and pose in front of the tree for pictures.  Except this year, I had to get all the kids ready by myself for 9:00 church.  With Scott's new calling as Elder's Quorum president, he has meetings every Sunday before church (starting at 7:45), so I have to get the kids ready by myself each week.  I did my best to have everyone ready on time, and then paused for a few minutes to snap some pictures, before rushing out the door.

We got to church, and the fighting between the kids started instantly.  The Christmas Sacrament meeting program is always my favorite - very little narration mixed in with beautiful Christmas musical numbers.  Scott was singing in the choir, so for most of the meeting, I was trying to manage the 7 kids on the bench by myself.  It finally got bad enough, that I had to take half of them out into the foyer.  I sat out there, so frustrated that I was missing the whole program, when I had looked forward to it all year.  Scott came out into the foyer and said, "The primary is singing!"  I rushed Owen back in and up to the stage, to join the singing, but Sara (who had been out in the foyer crying), refused to go up to sing.  The whole Sacrament meeting just was not a happy time.  Fighting kids and a very frustrated mom.  It ended, and we all headed off to primary. 

In primary, the chaos continued.  Our ward has the tradition of acting out the nativity, complete with costumes.  It's a lovely idea, but results in pure chaos in trying to get all the kids into the right costumes. 

We finally got all the kids in their costumes, and began the program (narration and singing).  The primary president handed me a script, and asked if I would read every other page.  I agreed, and the program started.  The primary president read her page, and then the kids sang a song.  It was my turn.  I started to read.  And then, that moment that I had needed all day, happened.  That Christmas calm that I had been craving, hit me.  I read how Mary brought forth her first born son, and laid him in a manger, and I broke into tears.  It had been one of those days when I wondered why I ever had children. And then these kids (three of them mine), enacted the nativity, and everything seemed right again.  It all began with a sweet mother and her newborn son. It was exactly what I needed at that moment.

Of course nothing ever stays perfect for long.  Aaron threw a fit over which gift he had to hold as a wise man, and decided to wear his head piece over his face.  His sweet patient primary teacher fixed it for him. 

Senior primary (Josh and Sara) were equally sweet acting out the nativity.  I was so thankful for the spirit that all these primary kids brought for me that day.

The Week Before Christmas

I did all my Christmas shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend, hoping I could then enjoy a peaceful December.  But, I still found myself trying to cram all my last minute to do's into the last week before Christmas.  Scott had to travel to Dallas for three days, and came home with exactly one week left till Christmas, which kind of stressed me out.  But, we managed to get it all done.

I signed up to help with Nate's school Christmas party.  25 goody bags (each with the exact amount and kind of candy), placed into a box and then wrapped 25 times.  At his party, each child got to unwrap the present once, and then take home a goody bag from inside.  It was A LOT of work!

When I took Owen and Kate with me to the store to buy the candy for the goody bags, Owen fell in love with a pack of hot wheels cars, and I had to buy them for him to get him out of the store.  Sometimes you have to resort to bribery to make your life easier.

Randy dropped by a fun Christmas package, with window clings for the boys, and cute Christmas aprons for the girls.  Kate loved hers, and loved it even more when she discovered it had pockets!

Owen continued to build forts.

We dipped pretzels in chocolate to take to friends and neighbors.  This year with Scott being Elder's Quorum president, he had lots of families that he needed added to the list.  We ended up with 35 families on our list!  That's a lot of pretzels to dip.

The girls dipped pretzels for hours, while the boys quickly lost interest and moved on to watching Christmas movies (clothing optional).

 

We were all happy when school let out for Christmas break (Friday the 19th).  We won't miss getting up at the break of dawn for two whole weeks!

But with school out, and having 7 kids home all day, it makes it difficult to convince Kate that she needs to take a nap in the afternoons.  The first day she skipped her nap, she ended up passed out on the couch at dinner time.

Kate entertained us all with her accessorizing.

I love these two!

We watched Christmas movies every single night before bed.  And even though I thought I had all my Christmas shopping done, I spent a lot of time out doing last minute shopping.  It turned out to be a crazy busy week, but a wonderful one as we all got ready for Christmas!

Anniversary

Scott and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on December 19th.  Scott took the day off work, and we just enjoyed a lazy day.

I put Kate's hair in pink spongy curlers.  She didn't leave them in long enough to get super curly, but it still turned out pretty cute.

Scott let Owen pick where he wanted to go for lunch.  Of course, the choice was McDonalds.

The kids had a great time playing on the play place for over an hour, before we made them come home so Kate could nap.

We left for our anniversary date about half an hour before school got out (Kendi came over and stayed with Owen and Kate till Savannah got home to babysit).  I had received gift certificates to a spa the last two Christmases from Scott's parents, and I'd never used them.  So I volunteered them to use for our date, and we went and got massages together.  It was wonderful and relaxing.

After the massages, Scott took me to a jewelry store to have my wedding ring resized.  I had it sized down after I had Owen and lost a lot of weight.  And then when I got pregnant with Kate, it was too small for me, and hasn't fit right since.  I told Scott a few weeks before, that for my anniversary, I wanted to be able to wear my wedding ring again.  We told the guy at the jewelry store what we needed, and he said it would usually take a couple of days to resize, but since it was our anniversary, he would get right to work on it, and have it ready to pick up in an hour.

So we left my ring, and went to dinner.  Cafe Zupas.  My new favorite.  Not all that fancy (or expensive), but so yummy!

After Zupas, we went back to pick up my ring.  Scott told me that he'd planned to also buy me some new jewelry, and  told me to search the store for my favorite thing.  I'm not much of a necklace or bracelet person, so I decided to look for earrings.  I looked through the entire store, and found these purple amethyst earrings to be my favorite.  Then I asked about the price - $105.  I told Scott I couldn't spend that much money on myself, and he said, "Yes you can!" and he bought them for me. I love that he spoils me!

School Concerts

Savannah had a band concert on the 16th of December.  She did great.  Scott was out of town (a three day trip to Dallas), so he missed the concert, but I recorded every song, so he could watch it when he got home. Josh came with me, because his choir teacher told his class they could earn extra credit if they went.  It was nice to have Josh along with me.

Two days later, I got to sit in the same bleachers, for Josh's choir concert.  This time Scott was back in town, so he got to go with me.  Josh did great.

Josh is in the middle of the back row, to the left of the girl with the red scarf.

Having a best friend in the choir, makes it so much better!

 

Winter Walks

We all are missing our summer sunshine days.  Walks in the winter are just not as much fun.  (This particular day our walk doubled as Owen's nap time.)