Gingerbread

On of my kids favorite things to do during Christmastime is decorate gingerbread houses.  We are pretty lazy and just buy the pre-made house from Costco, but it works great.  This kids had a wonderful time!

This year, I thought the house turned out fantastic.  It actually looked good, rather than is looking like it was hit by a candy tornado.

 

After I took the photo of the finished house, the kids started eating it.  Yuck!  That house is probably a few years old.  I couldn't stand seeing them eat that old, stale gingerbread, so we made fresh cookies.  They had fun decorating those as well.

 Christmas can't go by without gingerbread!

A Brigham Young Christmas

Last year we started a tradition of learning about how a past prophet spent Christmas.  We learned about Joseph Smith suffering at Liberty Jail on Christmas and being without blankets.  We stitched a quilt and donated it.  This year we read about Brigham Young.
The stories of President Young focused on two things - dancing and the temple.  Since I was convinced I wouldn't be getting my boys dancing, we went with the temple.

"Early Christmas morning 1845 found Brigham and his brethren in the (Nauvoo) temple in intense effort.  They were there the whole day, from morning until night.  There was no Christmas celebration with gifts, a dinner, or a social.  Brigham received word early i the day that U.S. marshals were in Nauvoo stirring up trouble and trying to make arrests.  But, the brethren carried on.
By 6:00 pm all the Twelve met in the temple.  The talked and prayed about their desperate situation and the move from Nauvoo they would soon be forced to make.  After the meeting was over they all went back to work, performing ordinances for the people until finally, at 10:20 pm, nearing exhaustion, they stopped.
By then Christmas Day was over.  Brigham had helped on hundred and seven people receive their ordinances.  It was the best Christmas present he could have given to any of them.  Most of the people went home after that to get some rest and start again early the next morning.  But Brigham and another Apostle, Heber C. Kimball, remained in the temple all that night to continue working.  Brigham knew that the best way to remember and honor the Savior any time--especially on Christmas--was to do His work before all else."--Laura F. Willes (Chrismtas with the Prophets)

Greg and I have been thinking for some time about how to make the Temple real and important to our kids - especially the younger ones since they can't attend like Gavin can (Gavin and Greg go once a month to do baptisms).  We found a perfect opportunity.
We were up early today, the kids dressed in their Sunday clothes (without whining!) and we drove to the Temple at 7am.  When we got there, we told the kids we were going inside.  Enoch couldn't believe it.  He kept telling us he couldn't go inside.  But, you can, we said.  We walked through the front doors and sat in the lobby.  The kids sat quietly, looked around, read the scriptures.  The were so reverent - I know they were feeling the Spirit of the Temple.  We decided not to press our luck and overstay, so we quietly gathered our family and went outside.

It was a very special morning and I am so happy we made the effort to go.  I hope the kids will always remember this.
After we left the Temple, we went out to breakfast.  Kate said, "This was the best morning ever!"

Christmas Elves

Every morning Kate asks if she can pick out Guard's clothes.  Of course (and I try not to make too many suggestions!).  We found some cute, little elf shoes in our Christmas box and Kate has been dying to put them on Guard.  She said, "Let's put these shoes on Guard so he can be a leprechaun."  Not an elf, a leprechaun.

 As I was dressing Guard, I had flashbacks to 14 years ago - same shirt, same overalls, same shoes, different baby.  Although I think it's a different baby; they really do look alike!

(Gavin on the top, Guard on the bottom)

(Gavin on top, Guard on bottom)

A few cute pictures of my current Christmas elf (who couldn't wait to get that Santa hat off):

 

I love both of my elves!

Christmas Card 2012

Scattered Thoughts

1.  Guard thinks his dad is the funniest thing ever!  Whenever I ask Greg to put Guard down (you know, for a nap) Greg holds up Guard eye level and says, "You're short, you're fat and you're a terrible burden on your mother."  And then he kisses him.  Guard laughs and laughs every time Greg says that to him.
2.  Enoch has two watches that he loves.  His first watch he never takes off.  It's his spy watch.  It is waterproof, so he wears it always, even in the shower.  It has a lot of buttons, timers, a map with time zones and it is 'way cool'.  His second watch is a Star Wars Lego watch.  The face of the watch has Lego knotches on it, so Enoch can attach Legos to it.  Every morning he comes upstairs with both watches on wanting to wear them to school.  I calmly explain every morning that he can only wear one and it can't have anything attached to it because then he can't wear his coat.  Every morning.  Why he thinks he can wear that to school is beyond me.  This is his R2-D2 launcher.  It's one of his favorites, although I usually see a different one each day.

3.  Last Sunday, Gavin gave me a hug and told me (in these exact words) that he would love to watch the kids on Friday so Dad and I could go on a date.  I about started to cry.  What an amazing teenager I have.  Greg and I went out on Friday and had a wonderful time.  Gavin fed the kids, watched The Polar Express with them, made homemade hot chocolate (with milk, cocoa and sugar on the stove) and put the kids to bed, all while taking care of Guard.  He is so great.  Thank you, Gavin!
4.  Look at my handsome guy.  I love this little tie I sewed onto a oneise. 

 Even better are his shoes.  After struggling making his orange penguin shoes, I was determined to figure out those fabric slipper shoes.  I tweaked the pattern until I have figured it out.  I have made him a few pairs - these ones turned out pretty great.

Trimming the Tree

I was excited to get our tree this year.  I picked up some cute, new ornaments at Ikea to spruce things up a bit, along with a new tree skirt (really just a fluffly white blanket draped around the bottom of the tree to look like snow).  Greg and the kids picked out a great tree at Smith's and also did a good job putting on the lights.
Our tree is a bit lacking around the top fourth (Enoch and Kate can't reach that high) and around the bottom fourth (we discovered Coal likes to drag the ornaments into the back yard and hold them hostage).  Other than that, the tree looks great.

We turned on the Christmas music and had a lovely time trimming the tree.
I mentioned earlier that we got a new tree skirt this year.  Gavin replaced the tree skirt with the new one.

He then picked up the old skirt and declared it was his man skirt and wore it for the rest of the night.

(Kate said, "Twirl, Gavin, twirl.  Your skirt is so twirly!"  What a good sport he is.)

And, not to be outdone, we have Christmas Batboy.

 

PS - This tree skirt is available if anyone wants it.

2nd graders at Festival of Trees

 It's been a tradition for a few years for the 2nd graders at Eaglecrest Elementary to donate a tree to Festival of Trees.  The parents make donations, the students make decorations and the teachers decorate the trees.  I think it's a great plan.

This year the tree was based on the book, Duck for President.  It was a farmyard theme with a patriotic twist.  It was a very cute tree and the kids did great on it.  It was featured in articles in both the Daily Herald and the Deseret News.

(I didn't get a picture at the Festival because the tree was always surrounded by kids.)
This year, the students were asked to sing at the Festival as well.  The kids did such a wonderful job.  They sang five songs that were cute and full of energy.  Enoch was on the front row and we had a great view of him.  Greg and I laughed through the entire program because Enoch's attention was everywhere but on the songs - on the row behind him, the girl next to him, the ceiling.  He did sing some, but performing isn't his forte.

 

After the performance, the kids were able to walk around and look at the trees.  Greg already headed to work, but Kate, Guard and I tagged along with Enoch to see some trees.  We didn't last too long.  Kate decided to go with Taylor and her Mom (Taylor's brother, Chase is in 2nd grade too) but Guard was fading quickly.  I tried to feed him, but you know Guard, he will only eat on the same couch, in the same spot at home.  It is soooo annoying.  Guard was upset, when I found Kate, she was bored so we headed home.  Enoch said after that it was a long time looking at the trees before they rode back to the school on the buses.

It was a fun experience for the 2nd graders and I'm glad that we went and supported Enoch and the Festival of Trees.  It brought back memories of when my mom did trees when I was young.  It was a fun morning.