Second Week of Christmas: Relaxing

The other day I was reflecting on how stress-free this December has been so far.  I realized that this is the first "normal" December we've had since the twins were born.  During the last 4 December's we've dealt with at least one of these things: newborns, unemployment, pregnancy, long distance relationships, and traveling.  This year things are nice and uneventful for our family.  It's very strange, and also very nice. 

For some reason I'm not feeling very craft this year.  Usually I get out my sewing machine and start making gifts.  But I just don't have the desire to do that this year.  (The fact that Derrick doesn't nap consistently and Veronica only naps for about an hour a day might have something to do with that.)

Instead I've been baking.  I've enjoyed making lots of treats.  Don't worry, I'm not eating everything that I make.  On Monday we took goody plates around to all of our neighbors.  We made 15 plates and gave 14 of them out to all the people on our cul-de-sac.  The last plate was for us when we got home.  I forgot to get a picture of the plates, but I did take a picture of the chocolate covered pretzels we made.  

We aren't going to Utah for Christmas this year, but we wanted to continue our Christmas Eve Traditions.  So we're hosting our own Norwegian Christmas Eve Party and inviting our friends.  Brandon and I had fun designing the invitation on one of our dates.  Then the kids and I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out cute paper.  We printed out the invitations on our printer and glued them to the paper.

Charlotte and Lydia love to look in their stockings and find their ornaments each day.  Even Hundley has a stocking and he gets and ornament too.

The weather has been so nice this week.  We've been playing at the park just about every day.  Veronica has learned how to climb up the slide so she joins in on what the girls call, "the crashing game."

 Derrick and I had a break through with his speech last week.  He and I spent about an hour blowing bubbles.  After every bubble I'd ask him to repeat a word before I'd blow another bubble.  That motivated him to mimic the following words.  bubble, big, little, huge, giant, pop, burst, blow, Derrick's turn, one, two, three, and many.  He couldn't say each word perfectly, but the fact that he was repeating what I was saying was HUGE.  We bubbles again when his therapist was here.  She asked him, "Who's turn is it?"  And he said, "Dewek."  That's the first time he's said his own name like that.  Usually he'll say something like, "De De Tur"  For "Derrick's Turn."  But this was the first time he said his name on his own.  It made me so happy.

Charlotte likes to wear her Santa hat around the house and when we go places.  We went to Walmart to buy molasses and she wanted to wear her hat.  She was so excited when the Salvation Army bell ringers complemented her hat.  She wanted to wear it while we made Cinnamon Rolls on Friday.

Last week I heard about a thing called "Main Street Bethlehem" that is put on by several churches in a city called Burnet that is about 40 minutes from us.  I heard it was an amazing experience so Brandon and I took the kids on Friday night.  We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes.  

The line got closer and closer to the area where the town of Bethlehem was set up.  There was a high wall so we couldn't see much, but we could see the star.  The girls were so excited.  

And then we were allowed into the city.  I was surprised at the level of detail.  There were people in period costume every where.  And they were all doing things just as they would if they really lived in Bethlehem.

There were real animals there.  The kids all liked these ducks.

There was a goat a little bit later.

This was inside a tavern. The people inside were telling jokes.

There were so many interesting places to see.  If we didn't have four little people with us it would have been fun to explore every building and really take our time getting to see the city.  But it was Veronica's bedtime and Derrick didn't like the crowds.  So we did the abbreviated version of the city. We did stop and get in line so the kids could see the camels.

We also watched the blacksmiths.  Derrick was fascinated by all the torches and the fire.  There must have been a lot more fire than I though because we all smelled like smoke afterward.

The very end of the city was the stable where Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus were.  When we went up to that area there were signs that told us to be quiet.  After all the business in the city the reverent atmosphere was really nice.  I could tell that my kids really understood how important Jesus is.  Even Derrick liked seeing the baby.  He made his cooing noise that he uses for babies and animals.  

As we walked out of the area there were signs with scriptures about Jesus's adult life.  I especially liked this one.

We were given hot chocolate and a cookie at the end.  This whole thing had been free.  I was in awe of the coordination that it must take to pull this off every year. One of the missionaries for one of the churches that was involved told me, "We have a lot of people that just feel called to do this."  I loved that idea.

Main Street Bethlehem is near the county courthouse for Burnet.  The courthouse was covered in lights so we just had to go see that.

The kids were excited to see a Christmas tree.

Charlotte told me to take this picture so "we can remember when I grow up."

The next day we went to our ward Christmas Party.  It was a brunch and we brought cinnamon rolls. The primary kids sang The Nativity Song.  It was so cute.  Just about every child had a part.  A lot of the parts were really simple.  Like a child walked on to the stage and held up scriptures when they kids sang, "tell the true story of Jesus' birth" and then another child brought in a globe when they sang, "when as a baby he came to the earth."

Charlotte and Lydia were sheep.  They came in with the shepard and stood by the manger.  The primary leaders gave them headbands with little ears.  Charlotte and Lydia had been really nervous about their parts, but they did great.

Back at home we all just kind of relaxed.  Charlotte and Lydia played house with "Pink Baby" and "Blue Baby."  (The girls aren't very imaginative with naming their babies.)

Ashley and Seth came over in the afternoon and we made gingerbread houses with graham crackers.

This is the first time we've done this since having kids.  Brandon helped Charlotte, so she ended up with the best house.

I kind of helped Lydia, but she did a lot of it herself.

I helped Derrick.  By the end I just put frosting and candy on graham crackers and he was happy.

Seth made a trailer, and Ashley made a cute house.  This was the first time they ever did ginger bread houses, and they did great.

We also made gingerbread men.  Charlotte has wanted to do this forever.  She calls them "Jimmer-bread men."  We decorated them today, but we didn't get a picture.

The day was super nice outside so the kids migrated out there.  I love this picture of Veronica glaring at Oakley to keep her away from the car. 

I raked all the leafs into a pile and Charlotte and Lydia pretended to be birds in a nest. 

Derrick discovered the leaf pile and started doing some sort of strange ritual with the leafs.  He'd pick up an arm full and then slowly let the leafs fall.  He would rub his hands together.  What was really funny was the odd face he made.  I was laughing so hard at him.  

Then he figured out how to throw the leafs.  Everyone joined in on that.

Everyone enjoyed playing with the leafs.

Then one of the kids had the idea to move the slide over to the leaf pile.  I'd rake the leafs into a big pile and the kids would slide into it.  They had a lot of fun with that.

Here is a little video that shows the various ways the kids had fun with the leafs.  It starts with Derrick's little ritual and you can hear me trying to stifle my laughter.

We made it to church on time today and were were able to witness a Christmas Miracle.  Okay not really, but they announced that our church time will change from 8:30 to 12:00.  After THREE years of going to church at 8:30 this ward is ready for a change.

I teach Gospel Principles and it just so happens that our lessons this month are about Jesus Christ.  Today we talked about things that happened in his life.  Next week we'll talk about why he was such an important person.  (Hint: He's the Son of God.) and then the next week we'll go into depth on the Atonement and Resurrection.  I'm really happy with how things lined up perfectly to talk about these things in December.  

In Primary the girls got crowns that said, "I'm a Child of God."  They loved them.

Well that's about it for what's been going on here lately.  I'm so glad that we can just focus on enjoying this season and not have to worry about newborns, or pregnancy, or unemployment, or trying to get Brandon home in time for Christmas, or travelling.  Seriously, these last few years have been kind of nuts.  The other night I was telling the girls the story of our Christmas from two years ago.  That's the year Brandon almost got stuck in Fort Hood for Christmas - and then we turned around and had our drama filled move to Texas (remember how our car broke down).  It was starting to resemble a lifetime movie by the time the story ended. Yeah, I'm glad things are nice and relaxing this year.