Sandwiched between my trip to Georgia and our family's move to Texas was a little holiday known as Christmas. All I can say is that its a good thing we believe in having small low-key Christmas celebrations anyway or else this year might have been a let down.
Still even with the slight attention that we paid to Christmas we still had a fun time celebrating it. We crammed all our favorite Christmas traditions into four days. So here you have our four days of Christmas.
Day One: Saturday the 23rd - Church Museum and Temple Square
Brandon's flight home didn't come in until Saturday evening. We passed the time during the day by going to the Church Museum's interactive children's display. My mom has wanted to take the girls here ever since they were itty bitty babies. They are finally old enough to really enjoy it. Just in time too because the display changes in 2013.
There was a little kitchen and the girls loved "cooking" the food.
And then we all at dinner.
My Mom had a lot of fun going around with the kids. I think it was everything she'd hoped it would be.
After the museum we met up with Billy and Hillary who had just finished up work. We walked around
Temple Square and looked at everything before the lights turned on.
It was a warmer than usual day, but I still had the kids all bundled up.
We looked at all the Nativity Scenes. I think the kids favorite part was when I pushed the stroller really fast back and forth between the water features.
We went to a little secluded place and let the girls run around while we waited for the lights to turn on. Right at 5:00 the lights flicked on the girls' faces lit up. They kept saying, "Kisma Lights" and "Wow!"
We looked at lights while we walked to the car, and then we got out of there before the crowds took over.
A few hours later we got the wonderful call that Brandon was flying home on an earlier standby flight. We were so excited to go see him. We all stayed up until 11:30 enjoying being with him.
Day Two: Sunday December 23 - Church, The Ogden Christmas Village, and Christmas Under the Tree
I talked Brandon into wearing his nice dress uniform to church because I wanted everyone to see what we had been working on these past few months. The uniform was all wrinkly so Brandon spend a long time getting it ironed just right. I teased him and said, "It's hard to believe you are a trained killer.
Church was bitter sweet. On the one hand it was wonderful to show Brandon off. Everyone thought he looked so handsome in his uniform. He was on the program as one of the speakers and gave a great talk. He started out by saying, "for those of you who don't know me, I'm Brandon. And Valerie is not a single mom." That got a good laugh.
This was our last week in our wonderful wonderful branch and so I taught my last lesson of gospel doctrine. Part of the lesson was on how the church is the same everywhere. We also talked about how we can continue to make people feel welcome in our branch. I shared how 2 1/2 years ago Sister Keeler invited me to sit by her in Relief Society and made me feel right at home within seconds. I've loved being a part of such a wonderful group of people.
The girls had a great time in nursery and then came home and crashed on the couch.
We let them sleep for a few hours and then put them in the car and drove up to Ogden. We wanted to take them to see the
Christmas Village. Brandon and I went to the Christmas village when we were dating and we've always loved it. We didn't want to leave Utah without going one last time.
We invited Brandon's mom and dad along so they could spend some time with their grandkids.
The lights were very pretty as always. The kids loved them, of course.
Derrick slept the whole time. Luckily my cousin Melissa showed me a trick of how to put a car seat onto an umbrella stroller.
He didn't even know anything had changed.
I had so much fun showing the different displays to the girls.
It was so great to be there as a family. I've always imagined taking our kids to see the lights.
After seeing the lights we drove up to Eden so we could see the progress that has been made on the house. It doesn't look like much in this picture, but it's basically all framed. Steve and Jacque took us on a walk through the house. I realized just how big the house is when we were standing a room the size of the old house's family room and Jacque said "and this is the play room for the kids."
As if that wasn't enough fun for one night we went home and had our traditional Christmas Under the Tree celebration. This is usually done on the Friday before Christmas, but Brandon wasn't exactly home at that time. We started out with treats.
The kids liked eating. Derrick was still adjusting to having Brandon home, as you can see in this picture.
Then Brandon read the Christmas story while the girls arranged the nativity scene. Somehow boots were important to the story this year.
And then we did the very best part of the whole Christmas season. We laid under the tree and told each other that we are each others best Christmas presents. This year it had special meaning.
Derrick wasn't feeling too well, but he's still liked seeing the tree.
And here are me and Lydia on the ceiling, I mean under the tree.
Then we got out the brand new ornaments that Brandon's mom painted. She makes an ornament for every family member every year.
The girls had fun putting them on the tree. And then it was time for bed. It was 11:00 pm.
Day 3: Monday December 24 - Christmas Eve
Brandon has really missed cooking so on Monday morning he made not one, not two, but THREE pies. Can you believe he's a trained killer?
Monday evening we went to Brandon's sister Shannon's house for the traditional Norwegian Christmas Eve party with the family. Here are all the cousins enjoying the meal.
Every year we play Christmas Carols with homemade chimes. The original set is somewhere in Steve and Jacque's storage unit so Shannon made a new set for the party this year. Charlotte played hers like a flute.
No Illguth Christmas Eve party would be complete without Rice Creme. I shared mine with Lydia and she kind of took over the bowl.
Brandon was so happy he made it home in time for the party.
The party ended with us all holding hands (or babies) and singing carols while walking around the Christmas Tree.
Then all the kids got into their pajamas. Charlotte and Lydia had matching Christmas pajamas that they got from my aunt. Sorry Lori, I tried my hardest to get a picture of them both sitting together, but this was the best I could do. They were too hopped up on sugar to sit still.
The kids fell asleep on the car ride home. We put them straight to bed and then went to work washing and wrapping Christmas presents. We did a very small Christmas this year because I didn't want to have to move a bunch of junk halfway across the country. We actually only spent $15 dollars on the kids, but they still got some fun stuff. This is what the tree looked like when Brandon and I went to bed around midnight.
Day 4: December 25 - Christmas Day
The kids woke up one by one in the morning. I brought them each into our room and we waited in there until everyone was awake. Then Brandon went into the living room to turn on the tree. I told the girls, "Daddy is going to check to see if Santa came." The girls are still pretty scared of Santa, or as they say it, Santan (it sounds just like Satan). So they got concerned looks on their faces and said, "No."
When Brandon came back in he said, "Santa's been here!" And the girls started bawling like crazy. They continued to cry as I carried them into the living room. But as soon as they saw the presents they stopped crying and went to play with them.
I think the presents are really going to help Santa's reputation for next year.
We'd moved the stockings down from the window and Lydia kept saying, "Stockings, Fall." She kept saying that even when she discovered the candy in the stockings.
We unwrapped the rest of the presents. The kids got some more toys, Brandon got a wedding ring to replace the one he lost in 2008 (read the post about that
here), and I got a webcam so I can show the kids off to my parents. The webcam and a book were my only presents actually under the tree, but I think I ended up with the best presents. I got my husband back, and a 4 bedroom house on the way.
Brandon started making our big Christmas morning breakfast. This year it was french toast and breakfast burretos with green and red bell peppers in the burretos.
The girls liked the french toast. They called it "pancakes."
And I loved the food of course. I've missed having Brandon around to cook for me.
Then the girls wanted to watch The Polar Express for the billionth time this week. They call it "Choo." I call it the Bi-Polar Express because the Conductor's personality is so unpredictable.
Eventually we went to my parent's house. Normally we spend Christmas day by ourselves. But this year we made an exception because we are going to be spending many many days by ourselves in Texas.
It was really good to see my mom and dad and Billy and Hillary. Billy made a little snowman for Lydia. She is totally in love with snowmen. She was enchanted with the one Billy made. He made it dance around on the plate for her. Later she ate it.
The girls fell asleep around 4:00 and slept until 7:30ish.
We brought them home and started packing up the tree and other Christmas stuff. It seemed pretty heartless to box up the decorations on Christmas day, but hey, we were in a time crunch.
I found this box and started putting all the throw pillows and blankets into it. I turned around and found two little girls who were getting ready to move.
We all stayed up until 1:00 in the morning packing up different things. The girls had fun taking their stuffed animals in and out of boxes. It was an odd way to end Christmas, but rather fitting for this year.
