Christmas Week 2022

Well we did it. Another Christmas has come and gone. We had a full week leading up to Christmas Day. It wasn't as full of as many scheduled activities as the week before had been. But there were still many things to do to get ready for Christmas. Here's the run down. 

Sunday was the day after our Saturday day trip to Utah. We'd gone down and back again in one day because it was easier, but it came at a cost. I was so tired all day. I ended up falling asleep during Sacrament meeting because I was so tired. 

I did find some time to sit down and make some things with palmers clay. The kids made things too.

I was trying to recreate some tiny ornaments from a tiny tree shaped advent calendar that my family had when I was a little girl. I'd asked Brandon to recreate the tree out of wood and he was working on that part. (And got to buy a scroll saw in the process.) I was taking care of the ornaments. They turned out cute. 

On Monday Veronica stayed home sick from school. I decided to just stay home from work too. I logged in from home and took care of a few things for about and hour and that was it. So we had a nice day at home. At one point I had Veronica help wrap Brandon's Christmas presents. She liked that. 

That afternoon we had a lot to do. We had a couple errands that all just kind of snowballed into a lot of errands. 

It started with an orthodontist appt for Charlotte and Lydia. They had to get some bands reattached. I'd scheduled the appt to happen at the very end of their school day.  So after Derrick was home from school for a little bit I had him and Veronica get into the car and we went to the Middle School to pick up Charlotte and Lydia. 

Derrick and Veronica came into the office with me. They hadn't been inside the middle school yet so they were really interested in it. Derrick could see a vending machine out in the hall. He was like, "LOOK MOM! SODAS!"  He is now super excited to go to Middle School next year. 

We checked out Charlotte and Lydia and headed to the Orthodontist. When that appt was over we went to Pet Smart to buy a present for Marcia. This is why all the kids had to come along. Derrick was really excited about the fish.  

We looked at lots of animals and lots of different things for Marcia. We ended up buying her a new color and a fun chew toy.

Then we went to Walmart because I'd put in an order for a few things. We were getting Milano Cookies for the kids teachers, dry erase markers for one of Charlotte's teachers (Charlotte said that every day she complained about needing new markers so that's what she wanted to give her for Christmas), and more printer paper for us. 

The kids all had to go to the bathroom. So I stayed outside and waited for the curbside order while they all went into the store to use the bathroom. They all looked so tall as they walked away from the car. 

Norco is right next to Walmart and so it was time to refill Derrick's pull up order so I'd called ahead and made sure they'd have our order ready to pick up there.  So when we were done at Walmart we did curbside pickup at Norco. Derrick still needs pull ups at night and I'm really grateful that Medicaid takes care of providing them for us. 

We started heading home, but Michael's was on the way home and Charlotte and Lydia wanted to get some figurines for their best friends. So we stopped at Michael's and found a little owl figurine for Aurora and a giraffe figurine for Gwen. I also found a gingerbread village kit for $8. That was on my list so I figured we could get it there. 

Our last stop was Britt's house to return our Living Nativity Costumes.  I'd started washing them on Friday night after we came home from the Living Nativity. I'd kept the laundry going on Sunday and had most of the costumes back on their hangars on Sunday night.

We walked into the costume barn and Britt happened to be there. She was surprised to see us. She said, "You are the first people to return costumes, are you that way about everything?" I was like, "Um, yes."  

Then I added, "My house is also too small to hold costumes and winter gear for very long." 

I'd texted about an hour earlier and let him know that we were going to be running errands for a while.  So he took care of making dinner for us. It was ready when we came home. 

I'm trying to remember anything specific from that evening. I think we all just hung around and relaxed. Maybe we watched a movie? That seems right. But I can't think of what movie. Charlie Brown Christmas? 

Oh wait, I remember now. We watched Christmas Vacation.  We'd watched Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday night. 

That evening after the kids were in bed Brandon was out in the garage working on something. He came into the house and casually told me, "I got the part."

He'd just been in the garage so I thought he was talking about a physical part. Like for the jeep or something. But I couldn't remember him waiting for any specific part. I was thought, "He's not working on the jeep right now. And the Honda's are running. Is he talking about an RV part? Or a part for one of the machines at work? Or a bike part?"

I gave up and asked, "A part for what?"

And he said, "A part in the Music Man. I'm the sheriff/constable character. They just called me and told me."

 He was so chill about the whole thing.  Charlotte and Lydia were going to be in the ensemble. Brandon texted Ivan and asked him if he was Harold Hill. Ivan said he was. He'd been looking forward to playing that part so it was a big deal that he got it. I think Brandon was more excited about Ivan's news. 

So yeah, rehearsals start in January. And the play is in March. Get ready for that to dominate the blog for the next few months. 

The kids all had school again on Tuesday.  But Veronica had been sick during the night again and so she was staying home. I was a little sad about that. I knew that Santa would be visiting the elementary school that day. (I'd made sure the check was written and double signed.)  But she wasn't feeling well enough for that. 

So she was home again. That afternoon we went into my work around 1:00. I covered the front desk while she hung out in my office.  Brandon came and picked her up when he got off work at 2:00. 

This was kind of significant because this was December 20th. AKA the day Property Taxes are due in Idaho. AKA the busiest work day when I worked for the Bannock County Treasurer's Office. Generally I'm thankful the whole month of December that I don't work for the Treasurer's Office. It was a great place to work and I had AMAZING co-workers, but I'm super happy that I'm not buried under tax payments all December. On this day I was really thankful that I wasn't working at the Treasurer's Office. I have no idea what I would have done with Veronica. I would have had to go to work, and I couldn't have brought her. And she's afraid of being home alone right now. So it's not like I could have just left her at home and checked on her during my lunch break.  

I stayed at work a little longer to take care of stuff, but I was still home before Charlotte and Lydia were home.

We wanted to go look at some Christmas Lights so we had a quick dinner and then got in the car around 5:30. We were trying to be some of the first people to park in front of the Candy Cane House so we could have a spot in the front row. 

We drove to the Candy Cane House and could tell that something was wrong. It wasn't lit up very bright. There were no "singing trees" on the roof. And most telling of all, there were no other cars parked in the parking lot across from the house. We parked and just kind of stared at the house. What had happened?

I googled "What happened to the Candy Cane House?"  And found a news article from May. It said that there would be no display at the Candy Cane House because the owner had accepted a new job in another city. He'd moved. 

That was disappointing. 

Fortunately we had other lights on our list. We've gone to see a big light display on a street near Curry Crossing for about 2 years. But even that light display was going to be different this year. I'd read online that the person who did those lights had died earlier this year. Somehow First Federal Bank was now in charge of the lights. They would be displayed at the First Federal Park (AKA the Red Park.)  So we drove over there and looked at the lights. 

They were cool, but honestly none of us were really wowed. This whole thing felt more like something we were doing to check a box rather than something we were doing to have a fun time together as a family. 

There were some other options for lights. We could have driven over to Jerome for their city lights. But we would have had to get out and walk around. But after 3 nights in the cold the week before, none of us were interested in getting out of the car. We could have gone to the Orton Botanical Garden and looked at the lights there. But again, we would have had to get out of the car. So we just went home.  

That was probably for the best anyway. Veronica not feeling well at all. We came home at 6:15 and she went right to bed. I went with her and played relaxing music on my laptop while I was writing. The music helped her stay asleep even though Charlotte was practicing her violin in the living room. 

I worked on my blog about the last week. I'd been working on it on and off since Sunday. I'd uploaded pictures and created the rough outline on Sunday. I'd started writing when I was home from work on Monday. I'd also done a lot on Tuesday morning. But it was such a long post I didn't get done with it until I was in Veronica's room on Tuesday night. 

Veronica woke up around 8:00 PM. She said, "That was an amazing nap. I feel all better."  She got up and ate some cereal. (She hadn't felt well enough for dinner.) Then she went back to bed. 

Brandon had put the other kids to bed and then went grocery shopping. He had a lot of fun buying all the fun Christmas food. I stayed up reading for a while. But I was asleep by the time he came home. 

Wednesday was the last day the kids had school before Winter Break. Veronica was happy that she was feeling better. That way she wouldn't miss her class party. She was able to wear her pajamas to school and brought a pillow. (Actually she brought a pillow, blanket, and a stuffed animal because I'd miss-read the directions that her teacher set out. I didn't realize it was a pillow, or a blanket, or a stuffed animal. She just put the extras into her backpack.)

School would be out by 12:45 so I only had a few kid free hours.  I went to work for about 2 hours. Btu I didn't want my last few hours of freedom to be spent at work.  So I made sure to leave work by 10:30 and went for a walk on the canyon rim.

I picked the section of trail by Sportmans Warehouse.  The day was perfect for a walk. It was something like 40 degrees outside. I wanted to make sure to enjoy the warmth and the sun because a cold wave was supposed to come through that night. 

Here I am.

Here's the bridge. From this angle I was thinking, "Brandon jumped off that? What were we thinking?"

I could see down to Pillar Falls. 

Here's a better view of the falls from another view point farther down the trail. 

I walked for an hour and then came home and started making gingerbread. We had plans to make gingerbread houses and men that night. I usually forget that the dough has to chill. I was not going to make the same mistake this time. 

I'd just finished with the wet ingredients when it was time to pick up Derrick and Veronica from school. So I walked over there and met them. They were both so happy to see me. They were happy to be DONE with school for a while. We'd all been counting down the days. It was harder and harder to get up each morning. 

We went home and I finished the gingerbread dough while they told me about their days. I rarely make cookies so it felt special to be doing that.  

A little while later Charlotte and Lydia came home.  They were pretty happy to be done too. 

At some point the UPS truck rolled up. We were still waiting for one package so the kids all crowded around the window to see if he'd come to our door. It was like they were waiting for Santa. Sadly the package was for our across the street neighbors. Everyone was disappointed. I was beginning to think that the last package would never show up. 

At 3:30 Derrick's new behavioral therapist, Mr Mark showed up. This was Derrick's first behavioral therapy since August. We are starting up again with 2 hours a week.  Though I'm not sure we needed it right now.  

At 3:45 Brandon took Charlotte to the church. All the youth were meeting up and then going to do baptisms for the dead at the temple. Then they were going out to eat at Golden Coral. Charlotte was excited about going, but Lydia was like, "I don't want to be with more people on my first afternoon of freedom." 

While they were gone I went to work cutting out the gingerbread into lots of fun shapes. We'd bought several Christmas shaped cookie cutters last year so it was fun to get those out again. Lydia and Veronica helped a little bit. 

When I was done with the cookies I went to take a nap so I could enjoy what we had planned for our evening. We were going to do our "Christmas Under the Tree" tradition. Usually we do this the Friday before Christmas, but we'd be traveling that night so we moved it to Wednesday. 

Brandon took over in the kitchen and made pizza dough. He made little pizzas and everyone was able to decorate their own. 

He also started getting the living room ready. 

We ate the pizzas and then just had to wait for Charlotte to come home. Derrick and Veronica waited. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

Veronica was really impatient because she had a surprise set up for us. She'd given me this note earlier. On the back it said, "Don't open until Christmas under the tree."

I went and sat on the couch for the last few minutes of waiting. Everything looked so nice. 

Charlotte came home about 7:15. She'd had a great time. We all gathered in the living room. I opened Veronica note.  This is what it said. I am Veronica. I challenge you to a snowball fight. Meet me in the living room and be prepared because I might start to throw. So be prepared."

I'd just barely finished reading when she threw a paper snowball at my head. Then she threw more paper snowballs at everyone else. The next 5 minutes were full of snowball throwing chaos. It was hilarious and so fun. I was laughing the whole time. All the kids were throwing paper snowballs at each other. 

I'd been feeling a little blah about Christmas Under the Tree.  Like I knew it would be a nice time together as a family, but it also felt a little like another thing we were doing just to check a box. This spontaneous snowball fight changed all that. I don't know how Veronica knew we needed to shake things up a bit, but I'm so glad she acted on that instinct. 

After the snowball fight died down we got out the new ornaments that Jacque had painted. Here's this year's ornament. We each got one. The backs were painted in our favorite colors and had Merry Christmas written on the in a very pretty script.  Jacque had taken a hand lettering class this year and so she was very confident writing on the ornaments. 

Brandon had his scriptures out so we could read the nativity story. The kids always act it out with our wooden nativity set. Brandon handed the scriptures to me. I started in Luke 2. But the kids were like, wait, what happened before Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem. 

So we did a flashback to Luke 1 and read about the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. Then we did Joseph's reaction. 

We were all still in exuberant moods from the snowball fight so everything was a little embellished and maybe a little silly. When it came time for Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem the kids had them ride on the train under the Christmas tree. 

By the time the the heavenly host of angels were singing to the shepherds the girls had involved the Christmas tree ornaments in the story.  They each were holding a different angel ornament. 

We were having so much fun that when we went to Matthew for the Wisemen part of the story I decided to do throw in all the intrigue involving Herod. Herod was played by one of our nutcracker ornaments. (It got the part because it had a crown.)  

At one point Brandon asked where I was reading because we were so off the "typical" nativity story script. I was like, this has always been in Matthew. We finished the story with Mary and Joseph going to Egypt to keep Jesus safe. They fled in the cattle car of the train. 

Then we made ginger bread houses. The kit I'd bought had 5 houses. The kids all picked one and then Brandon took the last one.  I just helped. 

Here's Veronica's early in the process. (By the time it was done she said it looked like the Christmas Vacation house because it had so much stuff on it.)

Here are the girls working on their houses. 

This is Lydia's.  She'd made the little gingerbread guy and then put him by her house.  She said he was a blow up.

Derrick did the bare minimum on his house and then played with water in the sink.

This is Veronica's. 

Brandon's. 

Derrick's. 

I was decorating some of the gingerbread cookies. 

Charlotte took the most time on her house. 

She even smashed skittles to be stained glass windows. 

It was quite elaborate. 

Here are all of them together. 

When we were done with gingerbread we went downstairs and watched the Christmas movie that Brandon's brother made in high school.  It's about a little turtle that writes to Santa. It's called Pokie's Christmas and it's adorable. 

Charlotte and Lydia's science teacher had shown them a compilation of Studio C Christmas sketches. So they wanted to watch that. We put it on and Derrick was immediately hooked.  He especially LOVED  this skit about Elf on the shelf. 

He watched it several more times over the next few days and would act it out with Veronica. 

When we were done with Studio C everyone went back upstairs.  The kids each found somewhere to sleep in the living room. 

Charlotte was the only one "under the tree."  She was next to it on the left. Derrick was on the air mattress. Veronica was on the couch to the left of the tree.  And Lydia was on the other couch in the foreground.  

They all looked very comfy.  

Brandon and I slept in our own beds. Well at least I think Brandon slept. He stayed up late doing things in the garage and I think I was asleep both when he came to bed and later when he left for work. 

Thursday was the first day of winter break for me and the kids. And we were so happy to sleep in. I had three main goals for the day. 

1. Clean all the bathrooms

2. Deliver neighbor gifts

3. Get all the laundry washed and dried. 

So around 9:30 I had everyone get up and start working on the bathrooms. We have a really handy chart that says which kid cleans what on each Saturday of the month. Since this was Thursday I said that we'd do the 3rd Saturday jobs for the upstairs bathroom and the 4th Saturday jobs for the downstairs bathroom. I took care of my bathroom. 

It took us about 90 minutes to get all the bathrooms cleaned, but that was mostly because the rooms are so small it's hard to do the jobs simultaneously. Between their bathroom jobs the kids were supposed to be cleaning their rooms. This had mixed results. 

But we ended up with 3 very clean bathrooms and 3 somewhat clean bedrooms. I counted it as a success. 

At some point Charlotte and Lydia took this picture of Marcia. 

We had a quick lunch and then we took neighbor gifts around. We should have done this on Wednesday when it was warmer, but it just wasn't possible on Wednesday. So instead we were doing this on Thursday when the cold front had rolled in.  We weren't as cold as other parts of the country that were registering negative temps. But the high was only 16 degrees and it was COLD.   

Still, it was fun to take the gifts around. We had 24 boxes of brownie mix. This was a gift we started giving out due to COVID and it's so much easier than making cookies (and keeping them germ free) that we do it every year now. We took them around to nieghbors on our street and then to ministering families and also all the kids teachers. The kids love running up to the door to deliver the gifts. 

When we got home I dropped the kids off and they watched a movie while I went to work for a little bit. 

I ran some quick errands after work. I picked up medicine at Smiths, bought a few last minute food items, and got gas. It really took some psyching up to get that gas. Part of me was thinking I could just wait until Friday. But I told myself, "If the machinery freezes over night you are going to wish you got gas today." I parked beside the pump and then made sure I had my card handy so I wouldn't have to be out in the cold fumbling with my wallet. I usually never get back into my car while pumping gas, but I did this time. It was just too cold to hang around waiting for the tank to fill up.

When I got home from work I watched Pacific Rim Uprising with Derrick. He'd got this from the interlibrary loan a few weeks earlier and I was certain it was overdue.  So I wanted to watch it and get it returned before Christmas. 

Derrick liked the movie. I was mildly interested in it. We'd watched this movie when it first came out, and had HATED most of the major plot points. But this time I could just kind of sit there and be like, "Well that was a choice."  And then I fell asleep for the third act. 

The girls decorated cookies while we were watching the movie.  

Someone figured out how to make the Santa shaped cookie into a turtle. 

I found the interlibrary loan paper for the movie and discovered the movie wasn't actually due until the 27th. But I was glad to have it off my mental to do list. 

After dinner I took the movie and some other things back to the library.  Then I went to choir practice. We were running through all seven of our songs so we could have them in our heads better when we preformed in Sacrament Meeting on Christmas Day. 

After the kids were in bed I went out to the garage to wrap the last of the kids' presents.  Brandon was like, "We can get to those on Christmas Eve." I told him, "No, I'd rather do them now. Then they won't live in my head all weekend."

The kids went to bed and Brandon, who had been up super late the last several nights, also went to bed. But I stayed up reading. I was reading the sequel to Senlin Ascends. It's call the Arm of the Sphinx. Brandon asked me what the books were about and I told him, "I don't think I can explain them." He said, "that's okay, I probably don't care anyway."  

In case you care, they are about a character exploring a steampunk Tower of Babel. Yeah, weird I know. I started the series because my brother Billy and my sister Hillary recommended it. I never would have read this on my own. But I'm sucked in and hooked at this point. 

So I stayed up reading in the living room for several hours. I made sure to keep the laundry moving while I was reading. By the time I was ready to go to bed I'd put the last load into the dryer.  That felt good. 

Friday was the day we were planning to go down to Utah. It was only December 23rd, but we wouldn't be back home until late on Christmas Eve.  That meant I had to have EVERYTHING done by this point. That's why I'd been trying to get so much done on Thursday.

The goals for Friday were this:

1. Get all the laundry put away. 

2. Pack

3. Be ready to leave by the time Brandon was home from work at 2:00.    

I was up before the kids so I took care of wrapping the presents for Brandon's family. I'd brought in wrapping paper from the garage the night before so I could just do it at the kitchen table. Veronica helped me with that.  Then she helped me wrap Marcia's presents which had somehow not been done yet. And then I realized that Brandon hadn't wrapped any of my presents yet. I assumed he was planning to do them Christmas eve. I'd bought half of the presents for myself anyway so I grabbed those and wrapped them.  That way he'd just have to worry about the ones that I didn't know about.

By the time I was done wrapping all the kids were up and we could start on the goals for the day. We started with the laundry. The kids were kind of like why do we have to do this.  I was trying to tell them that if we got all the laundry put away we wouldn't have to worry about it again for at least a week. Maybe even 10 days. 

Charlotte and Lydia can put away their laundry on their own. But we've found that it works better if I help them turn everything right side out and stay with them while they do it.  So I was doing that with them while Derrick was putting away his own laundry. When I went to check on him he'd already put away all the laundry and had laid out his clothes that needed to be packed.  He was so proud when he showed me his two shirts, two pants, two pajamas, his underwear, and his pull ups. We'd gone over the packing list in detail at bedtime the night before and I had it written on the whiteboard so it's not like he came up with this all on his own. But it was still super impressive. 

Everyone had their clothes packed in suitcases and then I went to work. I was there for a grand total of 35 minutes. That might be a record. 

I came home and packed everything in the car. Charlotte and Lydia were making a doll house for their cousin Hazel and we had to pack that. But even with that in the car we had so much room. Mini-vans are kind of awesome that way. 

I laid down for a little nap and realized that I'd done it. I'd got all the gifts, wrapped all the gifts, cleaned the house, did all the laundry, and packed us up. We were ready to enjoy Christmas. 

I woke up around 1:30 and had the kids help me with the last bit of cleaning. We vacuumed the living room, took out garages, and washed the last of the dishes. 

Brandon came home a little after 2:00. He changed his clothes and then we were on our way. I drove because I'd had that nap earlier. I'm glad I did that because Brandon nodded off almost as son as we started driving. 

It was so nice to drive during the day. When he's worked other places we've had to leave for Utah after dark. But this year we were all the way to Ogden before dark. 

We stopped for dinner at McDonalds. Here are the kids enjoying their food. 

Me and Brandon.

Lydia took our picture. Charlotte photobombed from the soft drinks station.

Then we drove up the canyon to Brandon's parents house. I'm not sure what everyone else did, but I spent most of evening laying on one of  the guest beds and reading. It was so nice to not have to worry about gifts or cleaning. I could just read and read. I ended up finishing the book at 11:30. 

Saturday was Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited! On Friday my sister Emily had sent a Marco Polo where she mentioned that she still had a lot of gifts to wrap. I texted her and offered to stay and help her with those when I came to drop of the doll house/pick up Veronica's coat.  She said that would be wonderful.  So at 9:00 on Saturday Charlotte, Lydia, and I drove down to Layton. 

Here's Derrick playing in the snow when we left. It had snowed several inches during the night and Steve had been outside shoveling for a while. Derrick wanted to join him. 

I had a few errands to run before we went to Emily's.  First I stopped at the Smiths at the mouth of Ogden canyon for gas. (It was $3.23 a gallon which was about .25 cheaper than Idaho. I never thought I'd be excited to pay $3.23 for gas.) Then I bought rolls inside the store. 

Then I drove to AutoZone and bought fuel stabilizer.  The jeep is still at Steve and Jacque's house and there are no plans to do anything with it til spring. So Brandon wanted to put fuel stabilizer in it. He texted me a picture of what he needed.  When I walked into AutoZone I showed the clerk the picture and he took me right to the product. It was super easy. 

Then we went to Emily's.  It was so nice to be her elf. She and I talked while wrapping the last of the presents. She said this would be the first Christmas ever that she and David  didn't have to stay up late wrapping gifts.

Then I helped her get her kitchen cleaned up. 

We also dropped off the doll house that Charlotte and Lydia had made and picked up Veronica coat that she'd left there last week. (She'd been wearing Lydia's old coat all week.)

We drove back up to Steve and Jacque's. I was so sleepy on the way up the canyon.  As soon as we got to the house I went inside and took a long nap.   

When I woke up it was basically party time. Normally the party starts around 4:30 and lasts into the night. Brandon and I are pretty used to driving back from the Christmas Eve party and getting home around 11:00.  But Jacque didn't want anyone driving late at night this year. I think the snow storm we almost got stuck in last year had something to with that.  So we started gathering at 3:00 and ate at 4:00. 

Here I am with Veronica and Brandon photo bombed us. 

And later I took a picture with Derrick. 

We had a lovely dinner and then had talent show.  Everyone crowded into living room.  Shannon played some songs on the piano and then Charlotte played Silent Night on her violin.  She'd figured out how to play it from a simple piano song book that we have. Then Lydia played Jingle Bells on the piano. She'd also figured that out from our song book. Veronica sang Jingle Bell Rock for everyone. 

Well almost everyone. Derrick took advantage of the empty living room to chill out. 

He liked looking at the tree.

When the talent show portion was over we went into the family room for a new tradition. Brandon's brother Bryan lives in Florida and wasn't joining us for Christmas. Last year we'd had a last minute idea to send him a Marco Polo of everyone singing "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas." This year we were continuing the tradition. Melanie decided we should all do "I'll have a Blue Christmas Without You."  She, Shannon, Brandon, and Justin took turns "singing" the Elvis parts while the rest of us were back up singers and did the oohs and aahhs. 

We did a practice run through and then the real thing. It worked so well. Just like last year I do have a copy, but I'm not going to embarrass anyone by putting it up. 

Then we moved onto the chimes. Derrick was so excited for this part. He went around and gave everyone a chime. 

Here's Lydia with hers. 

Here's Derrick.  He had the #12 chime which get's played a lot. He did really well and always made sure to play it on time. 

Then it was time to dance around the tree. This is always really special. I held hands with Derrick and Veronica as we sang songs and walked around the tree. 

Then it was what Derrick had been waiting for for WEEKS.  Time to open presents.  Usually its a big mad house of all the kids opening presents at the same time. But this time Jacque had everyone wait to open the presents one by one.  So the kids had to sit in anticipation a little bit longer.  

Here's Veronica waiting with her present.  

And Derrick. 

And Charlotte and Lydia. 

Veronica was youngest so she went first.  She said, "I'm glad Navy isn't here." Because her cousin Navy is really the youngest in the family. 

She'd asked for a sleep mask, travel pillow, and a sleeping cap. She got all three and was super happy about them. 

Here's Derrick opening his present. 

He'd asked for a flashlight and he got that. He also got skittles (his favorite candy), and $10.  He was thrilled!  He kept saying, "I can't believe I got my flashlight."  

Veronica already had her stuff out and was already using it. She was so excited to use this on the long car ride home.  

Analynn had a really fancy bow on her present. Some how Brandon ended up wearing it. 

He's so funny.

Charlotte and Lydia got art books that you can take the pages in and out of and some cool art supplies. 

We went up thought the older cousins and saw them open their gifts. It was nice to actually see what everyone got for Christmas. 

Then it was dessert time. 

The party over around 6:30. If there had been bad weather coming it would have been nice to get on the road right away. But everything seemed like it would be fine.  So we stayed and talked for a while. At 7:00 Derrick started getting antsy so I had him help me gather everything up and get it ready for the car. We were on our way around 7:30. 

I drove again because I'd had a nap and Brandon hadn't.  He stayed more awake this time, but he did sleep a little bit.  He also discovered I have NO patience for cars that hang out in the left lane.  

Kids were all awake until we got home at 10:30. Then they went straight to bed. 

Brandon and I brought things in from the car and then started bringing in presents from the garage. 

Our big gift for this year was bikes for everyone. I'd ordered these right before Thanksgiving and had them shipped to our next door neighbors address. All our packages seem to get delivered in the afternoon and I didn't want the bike boxes showing up when the kids were home from school.  

Well it's a good thing I did that because three of the bikes showed up when the kids were still home from Thanksgiving break. I'd get notifications on my phone that the packages had been delivered. I'd find a time when the kids were distracted and then get the dolly out of the garage. I'd pick upt he package and wheel it home. I put it in the garage and covered it with a tarp. 

Brandon was in charge of putting the bikes together. Putting bikes together was actually his job when we started dating so he's an expert at this. He did such a great job.  Every time he finished a bike he'd stick it in the mass of bikes we already had.  They blended in well, but WOW it was a lot of bikes. 

So on this night we pulled the new bikes out from the old bikes and put them in a row. I put gift tags on them so the kids could know which bike was theirs. Charlotte and Lydia each had a white bike with blue tires. Derrick had a black bike. And Veronica got a tandem red bike to share with me. I'd decided to get a tandem bike for us when we'd ridden one over the summer. Veronica can ride a bike, but she's not as confident as the three older kids.  So when we try to do family bike rides she can't keep up. When I rode the tandem bike with her I realized this was the answer to the problem. She wouldn't have to worry about falling behind if she was literally stuck to my bike. 

Brandon still had things to take care of in the garage so I went inside and worked on a way to let the kids know they had a present in the garage.  I ended up printing out a little sign that said, "Look int he garage for one last surprise. Then I cut it into 4 puzzle pieces. Individually they said, "Look gar" "in the age for" "last sur" and "one prise". I put each piece into the tow of each child's stocking. 

Brandon was still doing stuff in the garage so I put the presents under the tree. The pile was a little smaller than other years. But that was by choice. I stuck pretty well to the four gifts rule this year. (Something they want, need, wear, read.) Between record inflation and a war in Ukraine it just didn't seem like a year to have a lot of gifts. And I kind of felt like the kids needed to learn some contentment. They were getting good gifts and they needed to be grateful for them. 

Plus look how pretty that tree looks regardless of the size of the pile. 

I also got the stockings ready. Derrick had brought his stocking home from his SPED class and hung it up too. So there were 7 stockings hanging around the fireplace.  

At 11:45 Brandon and I drove over to the Catholic Church so we could go to Midnight Mass. This is something I first did in December of 2019 and I've wanted to go back every since. Well I couldn't go in 

2020 because of the pandemic, and in 2021 we had to crawl through a snow storm and didn't get home until 1:00. But this year I could make it again. And Brandon had agreed to come with me. 

Sunday Christmas Day

I couldn't do mass on a weekly basis, but I love it for holy days. I love everything about it.  From the opening song where everyone sings "Oh Come All You Faithful" while the Priests walk it. To the closing song where we all sing Joy to the World as they walk out. 

I like elements like reciting the Nicene Creed where everyone kneels and mediates for a moment at the part where it says "[Jesus Christ] was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man"

And I love the long process of getting the bread and wine ready for communion. It's such a good reminder of what Christmas is actually all about. 

I said it in 2019 and I'll say it again. If you want to put Christ in Christmas go to Midnight Mass. 

It would be very disrespectful for me to take communion so we didn't go up when it was time for that. But I liked kneeling during that time. I felt my whole body just relax. I call it getting the tangles of my heart combed out. It's the same feeling I get from shavasana in yoga. I sometimes feel it in the temple. (But that's rare because the temple stresses me out on so many levels.) 

I left the church feeling so calm, and good, and happy. And surprisingly awake for 1:30 in the morning. 

And while we are still talking about the religious aspect of Christmas, let me tell you. I've never been so excited for what Jesus's birth has meant. We've been studying the Old Testament this year. My family always watches videos on Youtube as part of our study. I really like the "overview" videos put out from a group called Bible Project.  They do a quick 7-10 minute overview of each book of scripture.  So many of the books have elements that point to a future Davidic King that will lead in love and righteousness.  After hearing book after book look forward to this King I've been thinking, "Is that King ever going to get here?"  Like obviously I know it's Jesus, but we've made it through the whole Old Testament and he still didn't show up. So now that it's Christmas and we are celebrating his birth I'm thinking, "FINALLY!  He's finally here!"

I got ready for bed and climbed on in.  But, as is tradition, Brandon stayed up just a bit longer. I knew he'd been working on some sort of shelf, but I had no idea where it was going. I figured he just set it by the tree and would put it up somewhere later. He came to bed about 10 minutes after me and we fell asleep pretty quickly. 

Next thing I knew it was about 7:50 and I could hear the kids walking around and whispering. I'd told them repeatedly that we weren't doing Christmas until 8:00, but I figured this was close enough. I got out of bed and went to join them in the living room.  I was so surprised when I saw the stockings hanging from a shelf above the fire place! All I could think was "How did he mount that so fast and so quietly?"

The kids gathered around the tree and I took pictures while we waited for Brandon. 

I love how this one turned out. 

And this one. 

You can see that Veronica was still wearing her sleep mask on her head. 

We started opening gifts. Lydia had successfully campaigned for us to start with "the second oldest" this year.  So she went first. The first gift she opened had a bike helmet in it.  Each of the kids and myself got a bike helmet. But no one suspected that these tied into a bigger gift. 

I was super excited when Charlotte picked a certain box. She unwrapped it and saw that it had air holes and it said, "Danger! Live Animal. She was afraid to open it and put her hand into it. When she did open it she found an egg. And inside the egg was a dragon!  She was so excited! She'd asked for a dragon for Christmas last year and I been like, "Um that's never happening." But I found one for her this year. 

I got new glasses. I took this selfie so I could see them without having to get up. They are rose gold.  

Lydia unwrapped a gift and found a box that had burns on it. 

She was pretty certain what was in this one. 

It was also a dragon. These dragons were 3D printed in segments. You could move them around and they looked just like real dragons. 

Derrick unwrapped his own tools kit. He was pretty excited. He's been keeping a little screw driver in his top dresser drawer and is always happy when there's a reason to go grab it. So I figured it was time for time for real tools. 

One of the presents I gave Brandon was a display case with all his pins from Skills USA. I'd made it out of a frame that was supposed to display T-shirts.  So I'd been concerned about it supporting the weight of all the pins.  Turns out it looks great on the new mantel. 

Other notable gifts were magnets for Veronica. These came with tubes and slides to make a marble run. She loved it!  Derrick also got a "Zippy Car" It was a small, but super fast remote control car.  The twins got a jewelry box to share, and alcohol based markers to also share. 

The mystery presents in the Santa bag that was left on our porch last week were fleece blankets. Still have no clue who they are from. But I love that they are fleece blankets.  When I was a teenager I got my black fleece blanket from a secret Santa who left a bag of blankets on the porch for me and my siblings.  That black blanket has gone everywhere with me. 

Some years we forget all about stockings as the kids play with their gifts. But I think they all knew there must be more gifts somewhere.  So they got down the stockings.  Everyone had candy and an electric tooth brush.  

I noticed Derrick pull out his puzzle piece and I started filming the kids.  I'd been taking pictures all morning so they just thought I was taking another picture. 

Here's the video of them putting the pieces together. 

We went back into the house and the kids started playing with their gifts. Most years we are so full of candy and food from the party the night before that no one is very hungry.  But this year we were all starving.  I was going around the house looking for things we could have for breakfast.  

I ended up making a breakfast casserole of sorts with hash browns, left over ham that Jacque had sent home with us after the party, and eggs. Brandon cut up a pineapple and I opened one of our jars of canned peaches from our tree. 

It was a good breakfast. 

Then we just had a lazy morning. Veronica played with magnets and made a fun marbel run. 

Here's Derrick with the zippy car. 

Veronica one of Veronica's gifts was a noise machine. Someone plugged it in and had it play calm music. We all just vegged out on the couches and let the music sooth us. We'd all reached out Christmas music limit the night before during the car ride home. So we were content with that music. You can see that Veronica is using her travel pillow, sleep mask, and night cap again. 

Eventually it was time to get ready for church. I was singing in the choir so I took the time to take a shower and put on a nice outfit. The kids were in various states of nice clothes. Derrick was in a dress shirt and dress pants. Charlotte and Lydia had dresses over their pajamas. Veronica wore a dress and convinced me to let her bring her travel pillow and sleep mask. 

Brandon went all out with his 3 piece suit and a new bow tie that he had to tie. I wanted a picture with him. One of the kids took this. 

And then we took a selfie. 

Earlier in the month I'd been debating whether or not we'd go to church on Christmas Day. I was very tempted to just stay home and watch it on zoom. But then I found out that the Choir was doing our Christmas Program on Christmas Day. So that settled it. We'd all go to church.  

I sent the zoom link to my dad so my parents could watch the program if they wanted. I wasn't sure what the sound quality would be like and I was pretty certain the choir director would be between me and the camera. But I wanted them to have a chance to watch it if they wanted. 

Well, when it came time to got up to the stand I realized that we actually had ALL the sopranos together for the first time. And so I let them just keep filling in the other seats and I took the spot at the end of the row. So I ended up in view of the camera.   

I was a little worried about being abducted by the alto section by being the end soprano. I sing well, but mostly I'm either following the piano or the people around me. When we were first learning these songs I'd keep accidently following the alto's if there were too many of them and not enough sopranos. But I'd learned the songs well enough that being on the end was never a problem during the program. 

My dad took a screenshot and sent it to me. 

He also wrote this:

"You sure did a good job! I had a clear shot of you. The other day you commented on your blog that you loved how Veronica sang her heart out. Well. I can say the same thing! I could tell you were not only singing your heart out, but you were feeling it internally. "

I really did love these songs. I was in this choir in 2019 and planned to do it every year. But well, Covid cancelled things in 2020. And I was too busy in 2021. But I made sure I could do it this year. We sang 7 songs and only one of them was based off a hymn.  We had to sing a lot. It's challenging, but in a good way. (Its a little extra challenging for me because I can read music, but I don't now the notes in treble clef. I only know bass clef. So people will be like, "it's hard to hit that F right?" And I'm like, "what?")

The first song was called "Little Bethlehem" It was like a jazzed up version of O Little Town of Bethlehem. I called it the "Gingerbread Song" because I always wanted to make a gingerbread house after signing it because it felt so Christmasy.

The next song was "A Baby is Born."  It was quieter, but still had some powerful moments. It was actually always deceptively short. We'd be singing and then I'd be like, "Oh that's the ending coming up."

Then we sang back up to two Primary girls who sang, "I'd Sing you a song baby Jesus." 

There was narration between each song, but I didn't pay much attention to that.  Out next song was "Christmas Morning (A son is born.)"  This one never really stood out to me. But this time while we were singing it I could hear the tenor parts for the first time. I was like, "Oh, that's really nice sounding."

The next song was my favorite.  It was called "Is This The One?" by Penelope Moody Allen. When we learned this song I kept having trouble learning it because it made me cry. I actually took the music out of my book before I gave my binder back because I liked this song so much. (It was just a photocopy so it's not like it was the real sheet music.) Here are the lyrics:

Is this the Christ, Creator, King, 

This baby wrapped in swathing bands?

Is the the One who was the Word, 

Source of all light with tiny hands?

Is this the One?

Is this the Christ, Creator, King, 

Infant in stable's manger hay, 

Greeted by shepherds sent to see, 

Blinking at starlight bright as day?

Is this the One?

How could the Christ, Creator, King, 

So condescend, so meekly come, 

Suffering poverty and pain, 

When he is God the mighty One?

Is this the One?

This is the Christ, Creator, King, 

Virgin born hub of prophecies!

This is Jehovah come to earth, 

Servant of all, the Prince of Piece!

This is the One! 

This is the One! 

I loved this song because it really taps into my skepticism. I was like, "Yeah, this is exactly what I would have through if I saw Jesus when he was alive."

But the song also tapped into my hope. I was always so curious what happened between the third and fourth verse to suddenly convince us all that this was the one. There was a little violin interluded in there and I always pretended it was the spirit testifying of Christ and convincing us of his divinity. 

The next song was "The Moment of His Birth" which had a gospel choir feel. I felt it needed a tambourine. It was always fun to sing. (After we figured out the rhythm.) 

The final song was called the "Star Still Leads to the Manger."  This one was really pretty and fairly simple, but it ended with the sopranos on what a learned was the high F. And that is out of my range. So I just mouthed it. 

I was both happy and sad when the program was over. Happy because it had gone so well and that I hadn't permanently killed my singing range with all those trips to Lagoon. But sad because we were done with these songs. We'd worked so hard to learn then and now it was over. 

Charlotte and Lydia were pretty adamant that we leave RIGHT WHEN IT WAS OVER so I made my way off the stand pretty quick and the six of us slipped out of chapel. Back at home we all changed back into pajamas. 

Brandon took a present over to his friend Corky and I called my sister Lindsey and talked for over an hour. (We are already planning adventures for 2023.) 

We had left overs from the party for "dinner."  Really it was just eat what you want when you want it.  Here's Derrick showing his tools to Brandon while Brandon was eating 

Then we went downstairs and watched Top Gun Maverick. The kids were not very interested in it at first, but within a few minutes they were hooked.  By the end they were all on the edges of their seats. 

Then we watched Honey I Shrunk The Kids. (I fell asleep for most of it.) 

Then we just hung out in living room for a long time. Part of the conversation was me and Brandon  explaining the purpose and need for long phone cords because the kids had been very confused when they saw one in the Honey I shrunk the kids movie. 

Charlotte constructed an elaborate home for her dragon using Veronica's magnet blocks. 

We finally went to bed at 11:15. I think that's a record for the kids on a night other than New Years Eve. 

That's the end of the week leading up to Christmas.  It was a lot, but it was worth it. 

Thanks for reading.