Running the Christmas Race

Ha I didn't realize that I published this post after I uploaded the pictures last week.  So Thank You to the 23 of you who already viewed this post.  I'm glad you can find my blog without a facebook link.

I'll fill in the words so you can get the story behind the pictures.

I like to think of the Christmas Season as a long distance race. You have to plan things out so that you can make it to Christmas Day with enough energy and cheer to enjoy the day.  Some years I don't run the race right and I'm just DONE by December 25th.  This year was the opposite.  I ran the race so well that I felt like I coasted to finish line.  It was pretty awesome.

Look at our nice and cozy house. We loved having the tree up all month long. 

One reason actual Christmas was so stress-free was because I took care of finishing up the stressfull stuff the weekend before. We did newsletters, neighbor gifts, and wrapped presents between December 15th and 17th.  Thanks to that I literally had NOTHING to do on Saturday December 23. Do you know that last time I had nothing planned for a Saturday?

And I have to give lots of praise to Brandon.  As usual he took my ideas and helped make them a reality. He helped edit, print, address, and stuff over 60 Christmas Newsletters.  He helped make, organize and deliver 30 Christmas goodie bags for neighbors and friends.  And he carefully helped me wrap presents for the kids.

One reason Brandon was able to be so helpful was because he was done with the school semester on December 15th.  He took his last final on the 14th (and passed).  His class had a breakfast on the morning of the 15th and they were done by 9:00. Brandon came by my office and dropped off a plate of home-made cinnamon rolls.  And consequently charmed all my co-workers.

His visit reminded my boss that I hadn't been sworn in as a Deputy yet.  So she had me invite Brandon back on Monday morning so he could watch me get sworn in.  It's official, I'm a Deputy Treasurer.

Work was CRAZY the week before Christmas.  Property Taxes were due on December 20th so we had lines out the door of people coming to pay their taxes.  I was answering phones all day long and still the phones were ringing off the hook.  My co-workers had warned me about how draining work would be.  And that's one reason I'd been so proactive about Christmas stuff.  Brandon and I had done most of our Christmas shopping in November so it was really nice not to worry about that after work.

I get Tuesdays off of work which was great because that happened to be the day of Charlotte and Lydia's Christmas program at school.  Brandon was out of school so he came too.  And Veronica doesn't go to pre-school on Tuesdays so the three of us hung out together in the morning and then went to the program.

Charlotte and Lydia were so cute in their raindeer hats.

They sang about 5 songs.  Including 'All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  I told Lydia they should have her stand in the front for that song since she is missing FOUR front teeth.

Here's a long shot of the whole 1st grade.

The program was at the end of the day so we checked Chartlotte and Lydia and Derrick out early.

Wednesday was the day taxes were due.  And like I said it was such a busy day.  I thought the craziness would spill over onto Thursday, but Thursday was actually really quite.  The phone hardly rang and there were only a few people that came into the office.  I was finally able to get things done without being interrupted every 30 seconds.  It's amazing how much more productive I could be without the phone ringing.  And I felt like I finally got to talk to my co-workers again for the first time in days.

Charlotte and Lydia were out of school on Thursday, but Derrick and Veronica still had daycare.  Even though Brandon was home we wanted Derrick and Veronica to finish up the week at the learning center.  There were three reasons for this. 1. We'd paid for those days. 2. The kids sometimes fight when they are all at home so it's nice to have a reason to have some of them gone. and 3. They usually do fun things in the days before holidays.  The day before Thanksgiving the kids had all gone to a movie at the ISU movie theater.

When I got home from work Derrick couldn't stop talking about what he'd done at the learning center. His class had gone sledding!  Derrick told me all about going up and down the snowy hills.  He just kept talking and talking and talking.  Usually he doesn't tell me anything about his day so I just sat in amazement as I listened to his story. He kept telling me that he wanted a sled and even had me tell him how to spell SLED so he could write it on a paper. I told him that we would buy a sled after Christmas if Santa didn't bring us one.  (And I was so happy that I'd secretly bought a sled 5 weeks earlier and it was hidden in the garage.)

Another thing happened that made me happy that we've been sending Veronica to the Learning Center this year.  One reason I wanted her in pre-school was so she could make friends.  I'd been a little worried about how shy, and stand offish she could be around other children.  I was worried that she'd picked up a few too many of Derrick's autistic tendencies.  Well that night at dinner Veronica announced out of nowhere, "Indiana May is my best friend."  Yes, school has been very good for our kids this year.

Work on Friday was also light.  We were working on digging out of the piles of mail that had arrived in the last few days.  We were scheduled to close at 3:00 that afternoon and so at 3:05 I was free for the weekend.  My co-workers were all talking about how they still had so much shopping and wrapping to do. I just kept my mouth shut about how mine was all done.

Instead of rushing out to the store I hurried home where we were going to start our Christmas Under the Tree night.  This is a tradition from Brandon's family.  On the Friday night before Christmas we hang out, eat treats, talk about the true meaning of Christmas, and then sleep under the tree.

The night started out with giving the kids their Christmas Jammies.  I ordered these from the Childrens Place.  Lydia had helped me pick out everyone's color.  I'd washed them all ahead of time (because Derrick has had some allergic reactions to Christmas Jammies in the past) and Derrick saw them in the wash.  He'd been asking to wear them every day.  So he was very happy to finally get to wear them

We set out a bunch of treats that our neighbors had given us and that Brandon had bought at the store.

The kids set up a little table for themselves.

Brandon read them "The Night Before Christmas" while they ate.

I don't really know what this was about, but Lydia wanted me to take a picture of Rose.

Later we read the Christmas Story in the bible and the kids set up the nativity scene as we read it.

We had gormet popcorn from one of our neighbors, but my kids' favorite popcorn was the day old popcorn from popcorn Thursday at work.  They loved it!

Every year Brandon's mom hand paints and ornament for each of us. This year we all got a cute little snowman. She'd mailed them up to us earlier so we were able to give them to the kids and hang them on the tree.

I was pretty tired so soon I laid down on the floor and took a nap.  Derrick lay down next to me and was the first asleep.  The girls took a little longer, but finally they all settled down.  Charlotte wanted to sleep by the heater vent.  She told Brandon, "I'm as warm as toast!"

I woke up after a little while and moved onto my bed.  (I'm not sleeping on the floor when I have a pillow top mattress a few feet away.)  Brandon and I weren't sleepy so he drew on his computer while I read the Biography of Jim Hensen by Brian Jay Jones.

I was on a chapter talking about the Dark Crystal in 1982 and I thought I'd just read a little bit, but I ended up staying up until 12:30 and reading about the next decade all the way to his death in 1992.  Those final chapters were surprisingly interesting.  I mean, I knew he died, but I didn't know what he died of.  And he was right in the middle of a deal with Disney at the time of his death.  I was so curious to find out the outcome of that.  I highly recommend that book.

On Saturday the kids slept in.  (Brandon said his Christmas Present was that the kids finally learned how to sleep in and then leave us alone after they woke up.)

After breakfast I walked into the living room and found Veronica putting on her snowsuit all by herself.  She'd also put on her socks and had found her gloves.  She told me she was going outside to play in the snow. It had been snowing all night so there was lots of new snow outside. I was so happy that I hadn't had to help her get dressed that I was perfectly willing to let her go out in the back yard.  She was soon joined by the rest of the kids. I took this picture to archive the fact that we have now reached the stage where the kids can go play in the snow without it being a lot of work for me.

They didn't stay outside for long though. There was a strong, cold breeze blowing and it wasn't really fun outside.

It's okay they came in since we had a babysitter coming any minute. Earlier in the week I'd looked at the calendar and realized that I hadn't planned anything for Saturday.  I told Brandon that I really wanted to see The Last Jedi.  There were two reasons for this. 1. I like Star Wars. and 2. I knew the guys on my two favorite podcasts would talk about the movie soon and I wanted to be in the know before listening.  So I found us a babysitter and Brandon ordered the tickets online for a matinee showing on Saturday.  We figured this was a good way to celebrate Brandon making it through his first semester and me making it through Tax season.

The movie turned out to be . . . . I don't know . . . decent . . .  I guess.  Overall I liked it, but I felt a little disappointed. It reminded me of the first time I saw A New Hope.

For most people A New Hope was their first Star Wars movie.  But I actually saw Return of the Jedi first.  This was back when I was four years old.  We lived in a duplex and my Aunt Lisa lived next door.  I was over at her house and she put on the movie for me to see. It was the COOLEST movie I'd ever seen.

Later I watched Return of the Jedi with my dad and he explained to me some of the back story.  (Like how Han got into that carbonite in the first place.) And eventually we watched/recorded Empire Strikes Back off of TV. My dad even had a copy of the novelization of Empire and read that to me.

For some reason we had a hard time getting a copy of A New Hope. I was always so curious what happened in that first movie.  I literally had dreams about that movie.

Finally when I was 8 years old we tracked down a copy of the movie.  I was so excited to see the movie.  And overall I like it.  But after all my wondering, imagining, and dreaming the actual movie seemed a little flat.  I remember thinking, "That's it?"

And that's how The Last Jedi felt.  I'm not a rabid fan by any means, but I have spent a fair amount of time wondering what would happen in this movie. I've read theories about who Ray's parents are and who Snoke really is. I've read fan theories and watched frame by frame breakdowns of the trailers.
And then I watched the actual movie and thought "That's it?" I was hoping for another emotional powerhouse like Rogue One.  And instead we got . . . whatever that was.

I do have to say that I liked how many women roles there were in the movie.

Anyway, enough about The Last Jedi.  Even if the movie was a little flat I was happy to be on a date with Brandon.  And the movie did transport us to another time and place.  We walked out of the theatre and were like, "It's Christmas time? When did that happen?"

We went home, took the baby sitter home, and then realized that we had literally nothing planned for the rest of the day. Brandon had to make rice crem for the Christmas Party the next night, but I had nothing.  I didn't even have a book to read since I'd finished that the night before.

What I really wanted to do was watch the Muppet Christmas Carol since I'd been reading the Jim Hensen book and it was Christmas time.  But we didn't have a copy and neither did the library.  There were rumors it was for sale at Walmart, but I did NOT want to brave the crowds on the Saturday before Christmas.  So that was off the table.

For some reason Derrick wanted to watch "Ships" which is what he calls Star Wars.  He picked out Empire Strike Back. The kids have always been a little Luke-warm to StarWars.  But I made Derrick watch it with me back in October and he liked it.  Veronica and Charlotte watched the movie too.  (Lydia sort of watched it while playing Temple Run on Brandon's phone.) When the movie ended everyone wanted to watch another one so we put in Return of the Jedi.  I can't believe I had time to watch 3 Star Wars movies in one day.

The kids ran around in their jammies all day and I told Brandon that the biggest thing I had to do that day was make sure we got the kids out of the jammies so they (the kids and the jammies) could be washed before Christmas Eve.

I'm glad we hadn't planned much for the day.  Brandon and I had kicked around the idea of going down to his parents house on Saturday night so we wouldn't have to do much driving on Christmas Eve, but we'd decided we'd rather just stay at our house that night so we wouldn't have to pack as much for Christmas Eve.  That turned out to be a good idea since it snowed and snowed and snowed Saturday afternoon and evening.  We woke up to something like 6 inches of snow on Sunday morning.  I'm so glad that we planned ahead and we weren't trying to finish up shopping in that snow.

One reason we wanted to stay in Pocatello on Saturday night was so we could go to church in our ward on Sunday.  We'd had our Christmas Program the Sunday before, but this week the kids were singing one song.  So we hung around for that

We tried taking a picture before church, but this is the best we got. The light in the window was brighter than we thought.

Church was great.  The kids sang their song really well. They sang Lulluby and Veronica was one of the loudest singers.

Church was only an hour so soon we were back home.  We changed our clothes, had a quick lunch, and the packed up the car and started driving to Ogden.  This is only the 3rd time we've left Idaho in the four months we've lived here. Isn't that crazy.  And check this out.  A few months ago we moved all the kids into booster seats.  Buckling seat-belts is so much easier now. (and yes I know Veronica's seat belt isn't on her right.  I made her fix it after I took this picture.)

Brandon was sporting a hip-Santa look

We got down to Odgen around 3:00.  It was so fun to walk into the house and see the party preperations.  Every year Brandon and his siblings go in on a present for their parents.  It counts as the sibling gift and the parent gift.  (And I love it because it's so easy.)  This year Melanie really wanted to give her parents new couches for the family room.  She scored a great deal.  I was really excited to see the couches.  They looked so good.

Brandon's grandpa is from Norwegian so we always do a Norwegian Christmas. Hi sMom sewed these outfits for her daughters and their daughters.  I'm told me and my girls will have our own outfits next year.

As always there was lots of yummy food.

We had a little program that included Lydia singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  She did a really great job.  But she didn't get two front teeth.  Instead Charlotte LOST a tooth on Christmas Day.  (And then the tooth fairy didn't come for two nights and I told Charlotte that the tooth fairy was probably partying with Santa.)

We got out the chimes and all my kids were excited about those.

They Charlotte and Lydia especially did well with the chimes.  Lydia even had the all important "10" chime that has to get played a lot.  She didn't miss it any time.

Then it was time to hold hands and dance around the tree while singing Christmas Carols.

This is always so fun to do.  This year Steve (who retired this month) had time to install a plug in the middle of the floor.  So we didn't have to worry about stepping over an extension cord.

After dancing around the tree Steve and Jacque handed out gifts to each of their grand kids.

Veronica got a heart of Tafiti necklace just like the one Moana wears.  It rock even glowed.  She was so excited!

 Derrick got a dinosaur and Lydia got an art kit. Charlotte got horses.  Jacque does such a good job with these gifts.

We were a little worried about the weather so sooner than we would have preferred it was time to get the kids into jammies and head back on the road.

We drove through snow on our 2 1/2 hour drive back, but it was never a white out.  We got home and put the sleeping kids to bed.  Then Brandon and I (and Santa) set out the presents.

I'll tell you all about Christmas Day in my next post.

Thanks for reading!

Pre-Christmas Catch up

December has been a bit of a blur.  My office collects property tax payments which are due December 20.  Tax statements were mailed on the day before Thanksgiving so ever since I got back to work after Thanksgiving we have been BUSY.  

But that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the Christmas Season.  For some reason Christmas is a bit of an every-other year holiday for me.  I just can't quite full on celebrate it every year.  But this year happens to be one of my "on" years.  And it's been really fun.  

It started off a bit rough though.  December 1st was a Friday after a long week.  We'd never really unpacked from our Thanksgiving vacation and the house had become messier each day.  We were all really ready for the weekend, but we still had to get through that Friday.  To make it all worse we woke up to a Surprise inch of snow on the ground. It was not fun to try to find boots and gloves at the last minute while the kids were getting ready.  At one point I was yelling at the kids to hurry and kicking their stuffed animals around the living room.  Not a good moment. 

After the girls were on the bus I thought about how bad that morning had gone. I wanted to make it up to them.  I also thought about the "Light the World" campaign the LDS church was doing during the month of December.  I'd been trying to think of some amazing act of service that we could do as a family in order to participate.  But I realized that I really needed to start lighting the word within my own home.  So I started cleaning the living room.  I had to stop when it was time to head to work, but I came home on my lunch break and finished cleaning. 

It may not have been amazing, but I was glad to get the room clean. The girls later told me that they'd talked about coming home and cleaning the living room after school to surprise me.  But I beat them to it.  

Instead they tried cleaning up their craft area, but soon they got really tired.  The babysitter later found them asleep on the floor of my closet.  That pretty much sums up our week.

 We'd talked about putting up the tree on Friday night, but we were all too exhausted.  Instead we just watched one of Brandon's birthday movies which was Ghostbusters (do we know how to kick off the Christmas season or what?) and went to bed. 

On Saturday we played the cleaning game and then set up the tree.  This was a new tree then prior years.

We got rid of our 10 year old Christmas tree last year when we were preparing to leave Alabama in September.  Then, we found out we might be in Alabama for another 6 months so in October I bought a Christmas tree at a yard sale for $6.  Then we found out we were moving  in November.  So that tree went into the moving van, and then into storage at Brandon's parent's house.  This year we pulled it out for the first time.  I had no idea what to expect -the box could have been full of clothes for all I knew.  But miraculously, the tree was all there and the pre-lit lights all worked.  It was a Christmas miracle and the best 6 bucks I ever spent. 

 In other years we've had to assemble our old tree and string the lights.  But this one was set up and lit in a snap.  In no time we were hanging ornaments.  The kids are all old enough now that we trust them to leave the ornaments alone.  Derrick is even leaving the train ornament on the tree. Christmas Miracle #2.

 Veronica wanted to wear the Santa Outfit and basically didn't take it off for a week.

 Charlotte set up this cute little manger scene.

 Derrick took a bunch of pictures with the camera.

 Here's a picture taken with a new filter called, "Derrick touched the lens a bunch of times."

 Somehow I always get a great candid photo of Charlotte with the Christmas Tree.  This year was no exception. 

We also did some redecorating in the bedroom. My aunt Julie gave me her old living room rug.  We put it in my bedroom and I love it!

 For Family Home Evening one week we made ornaments.  I've wanted to do this forever.  We filled plastic ornaments with sand and shells that I'd saved our on last trip to the beach at St Joseph's State Park in Florida. 

 I love how they turned out.

My sister Emily flew out from North Carolina to help my sister Hillary with her new baby Walter.  Walter ended up being a great baby so Hillary didn't need a lot of "help."  So they decided to take Walter on his first road trip and came up to visit me one Friday night.  We had a great time talking.  We took a picture, but it's on someone elses phone so I'll have to add it later.  

We did take a picture of Derrick loving on Walter as usual. 

Our kiwi crate arrived for the month.  It was all about the solar system and came with everything to make this mobile. 

 Lydia got extra creative and decided to make a boat out of a pop bottle.

 Charlotte wanted to make a manger scene from popcycle sticks.

 Here's Lydia testing out her boats seaworthiness.

 It floats!  (She used left-over Florida sand as ballast.)

 And her's Charlotte's nativity scene.  She got the idea from this months issue of the Friend Magazine.

 We all really like the tree.  Here are the kids and Brandon reading a book under it.

 Charlotte made a snow man with playdough.

 Oh and I have to show you the wreaths.  I bought these for a $1 a the same yard sale where I bought the tree.  Brandon had always thought they were ugly, but when he got them out he realized that they just needed to be fluffed up.

 Now they look great.  We have one on each door.  I love them.  Our living room is so cheerful and festive.  I seriously love our tree and I feel a little like I'm betraying a friend everytime I unplug it for the night.

We had our ward Christmas Party on a Tuesday night.  Charlotte and Lydia wore special holiday dresses that my Aunt Lori gave us.  Her daughter is only a few years older than my girls and so every so often we get a load of amazing clothes from her.  

 The party was really good, but Derrick had a hard time with the crowd so I spent a lot of time with him.

 Here's a story that will go down in Illguth family lore.  Derrick wore his Hulk shirt to the learning center last Friday.  During lunch is teachers asked him, "What does the Hulk do?"  Derrick reached down and TORE his shirt right down the middle.  I laughed so hard when I heard about that.  It's a fitting end for this shirt.

 I really like making treats for our neighbors and friends so we spent a lot of time doing that.  On my day off we made Muddy Buddies. And on Friday evening we made Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

 The kids had fun helping.  Derrick and Veronica were in charge of putting an M&M on each pretzel.  They did a good job.

 Derrick was especially focused.

 On Saturday we made mint cookies with Junior Mints on top. Derrick helped me divide them up into baggies.

On Sunday the girls decided to make a train.

 It got more and more elaborate.

Before it turned into a thrown.

 We put all the treats into bags and then delivered them after church.  I wish I could give everyone I ever met a treat, but I had to limit myself to "only" 30 bags. 

 Charlotte and Lydia have their 1st grade program today.  (I'm trying to finish this post before it's time to leave for the program.)  Here are their outfits.

 Lydia wanted to look like a candy cane.

 Charlotte's shirt is from my cousin.  It has a christmas wish list that includes "no homework for a year."

 And Veronica who hates to be left out.

 All three girls together.

 Today we finished up another project that's been taking up my time.  We got 60 Christmas Cards in the mail. Whew, I'm glad I only do those every other year.

Okay, well that get's me caught up to today and Brandon and Veronica are waiting for me so we can go to the Christmas Program.

Thanks for reading, and have a Merry Christmas.