Merry Christmas...

And a happy leap year to all!

Why do I keep doing this to myself?  I have had more than ample time and plenty of opportunities to sit down and post over the past several weeks.  I spent a good week and a half or so being sick and pretty much doing nothing during that time and I could have written then.  I also fell prey to addiction to Scramble with Friends and Words with Friends on my iPad (okay - and on my iPhone).  Oh - and we can't leave Sudoku on said devices off the list.  Really...I could have left the couch.

Anyway, here we go, back in time yet again...

Just like our Christmas Eve, our Christmas Day was quite laid back and downright wonderful.  Rather than getting into more than all the lengthy nitty-gritty of the whole day like I usually do, I'll just give a quick list of our day and the schedule as it happened to pan out:

• Up and at 'em by a little after 7:00 to get ready for church to start at 9:00.  No presents or anything before church (even thought both kids peeked).
• Arrived at church at 8:30 to find the entire chapel and overflow already filled.  We "lucked out" and ended up in the 1st row of folding chairs in the cultural hall.
• Enjoyed a wonderful church meeting which included a solo of Away In A Manger by my hubby, Max, and a talk from President Eyring (in our ward...special treat!).
• Max rushed home and got "a few things" done while I delayed at the church with the kids.
• Got home, changed out of our church clothes and settled into the living room for gift opening.
• Opened stocking stuffers.
• Opened gifts from under the tree.
• Even gave old Miles a couple of toys, including a red and green gorilla with velcro hands that we secured around his neck.  It drove him crazy.
• Spent the afternoon lounging around and having fun with our presents while eating Danish Almond Puff, goodies from stockings, fruit, etc.
• I set up a semi-formal table in the dining room for our dinner.
• Had a tasty dinner of slow-cooked beef short ribs with mashed potatoes and gravy and one of our favorite drink combos: grape juice with ginger ale (mixed together).  We did eat more than meat and potatoes but those were the stars and after two months, the rest of the meal has escaped my mind.  Maybe a green salad?  Some sort of fruit?  I don't know.
• Most likely had dessert (again - my thighs may recall what I made but I don't) and then called it a night.

Visual proof that we celebrated Christmas:

I'm grateful to have my own little family to celebrate each holiday with and just as I am every year, I'm grateful for the Christmas season when I get to spend extra special time with them.  More than anything, though, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to reflect upon and teach my children about the Savior Jesus Christ and His birth.  We are truly blessed!

Rewind: Christmas Eve 2011

We decided to keep Christmas Eve low-key and easy around here this year.  It was lovely.  We didn't really go anywhere, see anyone, etc.  I wish I had done this post right after Christmas because, well, much of that day has escaped my space cadet memory.

I did make sugar cookies and frosting that day and the kids and I had fun decorating them.  I have a tendency to be a wee meticulous when it comes to decorating my cookies and while I know that they're far from perfect, I can't stand to just slop the frosting on, throw a few sprinkles at it and call it good.  My kids, on the other hand, have not yet learned the whole concept of keeping things neat as you work and trying to keep some sort of balance in decorating.  Frosting and sprinkles were EVERYWHERE.  I must have cleaned sprinkles off the island 4 or 5 times during the decorating process and I know I had to re-vacuum the floor under their work area a couple of times that day after we were done.  It really was a fun (and really super tasty) activity, though, and when we were done, each child had a plate filled with his/her own cookies and there were 2 or 3 large plates with the ones that I decorated.

As is tradition around here, the we each got to open a gift on Christmas Eve.  The kids got Christmas pajamas and Max and I both got new slippers.

After reading the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, it was off to bed for the kiddies and the real work began for us adults.  We wrapped the last couple of presents, got everything moved from hiding places to under the Christmas tree, set up stockings, made Danish Almond Puff for the next day's breakfast and then collapsed into bed.  I commented to Max that night that as much fun as Christmas is for the kids and for me, it's absolutely exhausting as a parent!

Rewind: PRE-CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 2011

Wow...I am on a roll!  Since I blogged precisely ZERO times in January, I now have to write 4.5454545454545454545 (and so on) times per month for the rest of the year to reach my goal of 50 posts for 2012.  Aside from a haircut for my boy late this afternoon I have nothing planned for the day...perfect time to get back on the blogging bandwagon and start chipping away at my 50 posts.

First up is post-wind storm but still pre-Christmas in the month of December...

1. Christmas Parties

Early on in the month we had our local ward (congregation) Christmas party at the church.  In the past Claire hadn't been a fan of Santa Claus so I geared her up for meeting him again and threw a few bribes and empty threats her way.  She was totally clingy as we waited in line to see the man in red, hiding behind me and sucking her thumb while warily watching the other kids take their turns.  I quietly talked to one of the helpers and asked them to have Santa tone down his normally super jovial act for Claire sake.  When it came time for Hudson and Claire to go up, Santa happily obliged and kept it mellow and Hudson (who figured the whole thing out earlier this year but is a good sport and continues to encourage his sister) was quick to hop on his lap and tried to coax Claire to come closer.  She eventually did but wouldn't really smile for the camera at first and when Santa first put his hand on her shoulder, she looked at it as if it were poisonous and/or alien then looked at me as if to say, "This thing is touching me."  She did eventually smile for the camera but only after Santa gave her a rainbow striped candy cane.  Aside from the whole Santa Claus ordeal, the party had a very nice dinner and then a nativity program put on by the children.  Claire played a shy girl and stayed with me in the audience while Hudson dressed up as a shepherd.  It really was so cute.

The next day, I was talking with my sister on the phone and I told her how scared Claire had been about meeting Santa.  Claire wanted to talk to her and when she got on the phone, I could hear Anne ask, "Why were you afraid of Santa?"  Claire's deadpan response is one for the books: "I thought he was going to eat me."  Anne and I started to giggle, Hudson joined in, and finally Claire realized how ridiculous it was and we all had a good laugh together.

The week before Christmas we went to a smaller neighborhood Christmas party and progressive dinner.  Santa Claus came to the house where appetizers were served and the second he sat down, my previously timid daughter made a beeline for him and wanted to be the first one on his lap.  She was absolutely ecstatic to see him again and was proud to show that she was no longer on the big man's menu.  I had to run home to check on something after that and later learned that when Santa left, Claire ran to him and gave him a huge hug.  I heard it was positively darling and I was sad to miss it but glad that she overcame her St. Nickaphobia.

You'll never guess which party was which...I think she even had her candy cane in hand in the upper picture.  Sheesh!

2.  Christmas Card Pictures

In an effort to make sure I was ready to get our Christmas cards out earlier than past years (there have been years that I've mailed them only a couple of days before Christmas), I made the kids get all dressed up in their Christmas Sunday outfits early in the month and had a quick photo session with them by the Christmas tree.  Nothing much to say here other than I think my children are a couple of good lookers and I was happy with the way a number of the pictures turned out.

3.  Goodbye, Aspen Trees

When our huge pine tree came down in the wind storm last month, it did some damage to a number of the aspen trees as it fell.  Rather than hum and haw over what to do about it for the next several months and/or years, we decided to take them all down while the weather was unusually decent.  Not all of the trees were damaged but a few were, a couple had grown weird due to another pine tree (that we took out years ago) being in the way, and all of them had at least a couple of dead branches that were far too high up for us to trim.  So one Saturday morning Max went out with his trusty chain saw and fell all of the aspens with my brother and a good friend/neighbor helping out with pulling the trees in the right direction(s).  The job of getting them to the ground wasn't too time consuming but cutting the trees into firewood, hauling branches, and stacking logs took hours.  I think they all had at least some fun doing the job, though, and while our front yard looks somewhat barren, it's definitely much cleaner looking!

Thanks to the boys for letting me get a normal picture of them...at first all I could get was Max and Steve tying a noose around Jeff's neck and pretending to take a chain saw to his mid-section.  Is this the type of treatment a bromance consists of?

4.  Downtown SLC & Temple Square 

I took the kiddies downtown SLC to see the lights at Temple Square one evening.  I decided to go early and after parking the car at The Gateway and taking the commuter train into downtown, we got there just as the sun set.  It was the perfect time to go.  There weren't many people out (yet) and we were able to see everything we wanted to and finish up just as it started to get crowded.  I always love seeing the temple at night and the surrounding lighted trees and nativity displays always make it that much more beautiful.

After seeing the lights we walked over to and went inside the Deseret Book flagship store to warm up and see the window display.  It was a really fun gingerbread man/cookie making "machine" and the kids were enthralled with watching how it worked.  i think that at first, both of them were pretty well convinced that it was really pumping out cookies.  Inside the store there was a worker handing out little gingerbread man cookies to all the patrons.  We headed out front with our cookies to see the machine from the window outside and as we did so, Claire managed to drop a piece of her cookie on the sidewalk.  Just as I told her to leave it or throw it away, she swiped that tidbit up as fast as she could, popped it in her mouth and proceeded to chew it down as quickly as possible.  Yum.

Sorry for the super long post...not that you read the whole thing anyway.  In finishing up, I'd just like to point out how good I'm being.  I could have very easily split this into 4 separate posts, thereby almost meeting my quota for the month of February.  But I didn't.

More posts to follow...