Holiday Highlights

We've had a really great Holiday Season this year.  Christmas was magical and New Years was festive.  We've gone on a couple of family adventures. My sister Lindsey and her family came for a short visit. The kids and Brandon enjoyed their time off of school. I'm excited to share the details.  But before I do, I feel like we need a moment of honesty.  

I'm going to show you some really AWESOME moments from the past few weeks.  These do not show you the reality of what most of the kids' time off from school has looked like.  

Most of there free time was spent like this. 

That's right.  They parked their little bodies in front of the TV and enjoyed hours and hours of movies and TV shows on DVD. They loved every minute of it.

So for every picture of us doing something really special as a family, there were probably three hours of TV watching. 

Okay, on to the highlight reel.  

Brandon and the kids went down to Ogden on Sunday December 23.  I hung around Pocatello because I had to work during the day on Christmas Eve.  My parents invited me over for dinner.  I had fun talking to my parents without being interrupted by my kids. 

A little while after I got home that evening I had a visit from some of Santa Claus' elfs.  A few months ago the bishop of our ward asked me if we could use some help with Christmas this year.  Last year we'd gratefully accepted gifts from some Secret Santa's from our stake. He was wondering if we needed to be on the Secret Santa list again this year.  

Brandon and I had already talked about it and decided that we were doing okay enough financially that we didn't need help from a Secret Santa. I was concerned that we would be taking the place of other families who needed more help with Christmas than we did.  I told that to the Bishop and he gently stated, "it's not about there being space on a list."  I could see that I couldn't really say no to this offer for help and so I told him that we'd be happy to accept any gifts that the Secret Santa's wanted to give us.  He had me write down the ages, sizes, favorite colors, etc of the kids so the secret Santa's could know what to shop for.  

A few days before Christmas I got a phone call from someone from the ward that had provided gifts for our family.  He asked about a good time to drop the gifts off and I told him that Sunday night would work perfect since my kids would be out of town. 

I knew he was coming, but I was still unprepared for the wonder I felt as he and his wife unloaded their car and brought stacks and stacks of gifts into my house.  It was humbling to know that strangers had bought and wrapped gifts for my children. I took a picture of the piles of gifts and sent it to Brandon.  I wrote, "Santa is real."

Like I said last year,  one year we will be Secret Santa's and return the selfless kindness that has been shown to our family during these years that Brandon has been in school.

On Monday I went to work in the morning. Taxes had been due on the 20th and we were still digging out from all the mail that had piled up. Our office was open until 3:00, but I was able to leave a little after 12:30.  My parents picked me up at my house and then I drove their car down to my in-laws house in Eden Utah.  During the drive we listened to one of the Christmas Episodes from my one of my favorite podcasts Baconsale.

My in-laws Christmas Eve party is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Brandon's grandfather is from Norway so this party is a way of celebrating that heritage.  There are Norwegian foods, Norwegian clothes, and Norwegian songs.  This was the third Christmas in a row that we've been able to make it to the party. 

When we arrived Brandon was busy in the kitchen helping his mom prepare food. The kids were playing with some of their cousins.  When I walked in Derrick was playing nicely with his cousins but after a little while I could tell that he needed to get out of the house.  So I took him on a walk outside.  It ended up being really short distance wise because he had to kick every.single.snow.bank. But it got all the restlessness out of him which was good. 

Back in the house the girls changed into the Norwegian skirts that Jacque had made.  Veronica surprised me by wearing hers for longer than 5 minutes.  (She's not a fan of skirts.)  Brandon and Derrick had mukluk socks to wear, but Derrick didn't want to wear his. (He's not a fan of wearing socks in the house.)

Here are my holiday girls.

All the girls who had Norwegian dresses posed together.  (There are better versions of this picture somewhere, but I don't have those yet so you get to see my random picture.)

Oh and check out this giant Christmas tree which was a new addition to this years party.  Jacque recently retired.  She was presented with a gift card rather than a something useless like a plaque. She decided to by this tree with the gift card and I think that was an excellent purchase. 

Here are the girls relaxing under the tree together.

As always we had lots of yummy food to eat.  But I didn't get a picture of that.  (I was too busy going back for seconds and thirds.)

In other years we've had a mini talent show as part of the Christmas Eve party.  So Lydia and I put together a little song to show her budding skills on the ukulele.  We ended up being the only people with a talent this year, but that was okay.  Lydia played and I sang Silent Night.  It went really well.  I'm so proud of how much she has learned so far. 

Then Jacque got out the chimes.  Derrick sat with me and happily played his chime when it was his turn.  Brandon took this picture of us and I LOVE how I look in it.  During the whole drive down to Utah my mom had kept telling me how pretty my hair was.  When I saw this picture I knew what she meant.

Then it was time to sing and dance around the tree. We all hold hands and walk in a circle while singing Christmas carols.  I was able to hold hands with Brandon on one side and Charlotte and Lydia on the other.  In other years I've tried to take a lot of pictures of this, but this year I was content to just enjoy the fun.  Veronica got a little sad so I carried her for the last few songs. 

Derrick didn't want to hold hands, but he did run around the tree.  This was a huge improvement over the past two years when he refused to come down stairs during this part of the party.  At one point he jumped onto Uncle Justin's back and got a piggy back ride for a little while.

After we were done dancing around the tree Jacque and Steve gave out presents to all the grandkids.  All the younger kids got Fingerling toys that talked cute gibberish. 

Charlotte and Lydia put theirs into the Christmas tree. 

Here's Charlotte's

The kids changed into pajamas and eventually it was time to head back to Idaho.  My dad rode with Brandon in the Honda to keep him awake.  I drove my mom's car with my mom.  Veronica came with me too.  She fell asleep after about 20 minutes of driving and her fingerling kept cooing at random times until my mom found it and turned it off.

We drove through a few snow flurries on the way home, but it wasn't bad.  The real storm would hit in the early morning and last all of Christmas Day.

When we got home my parents headed back to their apartment.  Brandon and I shepherded the kids into the house and into their beds.  Lydia told me I needed to remember to put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  I told her I would.  Then I went upstairs and completely forgot.  Lydia later wrote an apology note for Santa and told him that I'd been very tired. 

In reality I'd been too busy putting out presents.  In addition to the gifts from the Secret Santa we had the gifts that Brandon and I bought.  We had quite the array of presents under the tree.

I was especially proud of these Paw Patrol stuffed animals we'd found for a great deal at Cal Ranch of all places.  I'd told Brandon that we'd have a "no stuffed animal" rule this Christmas and then thrown that rule out the window when we found these. 

Another gift that was fun to put out was this city-scape floor rug.  Brandon and I had looked for the material, but couldn't find it.  He asked his mom where to find the fabric and she found it and sewed it together for us.  Brandon added wooden traffic signs that he'd made back in Alabama.  He's meant to give the kids this gift for several years, but he'd forgotten about it until he found the signs in a box.

I'm always so happy when all the presents are under the tree.  It takes a lot of work to get everything to this point. 

When Brandon and I went to bed I said, "I really hope the kids sleep in this year."  The year before they'd woken us up at some awful time like 5:30 and I didn't want a repeat of that. 

The kids didn't come upstairs until after 7:30 on Christmas Day.  I could hardly believe it.  They were so excited to see all the presents under the tree.  We spent the next hour and a half taking turns opening presents.  Just like last year the kids were so excited about every single present.  The dollar store gifts they bought each other received just as much praise as the more expensive gifts from Santa.

I won't run through all the presents they got, but I will highlight a few.  Starting with Derrick's fishing pole.  He has been asking for a Lightning McQueen Fishing Pole for months.  He has told EVERYONE  that he wanted one.  Actual Lightning McQueen fishing poles are over priced pieces of plastic so we ended up buying him a red fishing pole and then sticking Lightning McQueen stickers on it.  Brandon even sprayed them with something to make sure they wouldn't flake off.  Derrick LOVED it.  Now he wont stop talking about wanting to go fishing with Daddy.

Veronica loves playing with magnets at pre-school so I made sure she got some for Christmas.  She had them out and was building with them while everyone else was still opening presents.

One of the best presents was also a little bit of a Christmas Miracle.  Charlotte's beloved stuffed animal Antler disappeared a few months ago when she took him to show and tell at school. We were all very sad by the loss of Antler.  One day I Charlotte and I decided that Antler must have traveled back to the north pole to get fixed up and that Santa would bring her back.  Charlotte liked this idea and I started trying to track down another reindeer to buy. 

I asked my Facebook friends to keep an eye out for reindeer that looked like Antler while they did their Christmas shopping.  Leslie, one of my friends from Fort Rucker, did a google search and found reindeer like antler being sold by an online Christian Store.  I was over joyed and ordered one right away.  A few days before Christmas I set about to make this new reindeer into Antler.  I had took her nose off and replaced it with a heart bead.  I removed the wreath on her mouth.  Brandon took off the star on her forehead and got rid of the glue it left behind with Goof Off stuff.  On of the ironic things about Antler is that she doesn't actually have antlers so I had to take those off as well.  The final thing I did was stick her under my mattress for a few days so she would look a little more squished.

All that worked because on Christmas morning, when Charlotte unwrapped the box with Antler in it she squeeled for joy and then started crying.  She calls Antler her "Life Companion" and she's so happy to have her back to continue having adventures with. Antler looks pretty happy to be back.   

Lydia got lots of great presents, but the one she wanted to pose with was this barbie car.  She and Charlotte got lots of Barbie accessories and clothes this year.  They also got more legos than they know what to do with.

I got smart with my own Christmas gifts this year and started making a list on google docs months ago.  Whenever I thought of something I wanted I added a link to it onto the list.  So this time when Brandon asked me what I wanted for Christmas I just shared the list with him rather than say, "I don't know."  Brandon bought me this "i am the listener" shirt from the Baconsale store and I put it on immediately.  I love this shirt and I love that podcast. 

Brandon bought a lot of his own gifts this year because he is really hard to shop for and I didn't have time to do it.  He says he'll make a google document list next year.  I'm glad he bought his own gifts because every time he unwrapped one I was like, "I don't even know what that is."

After all the gifts were opened we had a yummy breakfast.  The kids all played with their toys and started watching the movies we'd bought them.  (Charlotte got Frozen, Lydia got Paw Patrol Meet Everest, Derrick got Big Hero Six, and Veronica got Wreak it Ralph, we also bought them Free Will and Jumangi.)

I found my way over to the couch and started reading a book Brandon bought me. It was One Beautiful Dream by Jennifer Fulwiler.  Jennifer Fulwiler is an amazing women whose blog I started following in 2013 when I was pregnant with Veronica.  Her writing has influenced who I am as a mother and a writer.  I've wanted to read her books for a long time, but they've never been at libraries near me.  So I was very happy to get this book for Christmas. 

Jen is hilarious so I knew I'd laugh as I read the book - and I did.  But I also found myself crying.  She shares so many beautiful truths about motherhood and pursuing dreams. This is her second book.  It's the story of how she wrote her first book - while raising 6 kids.  But it's more than just a simple "this is what I did story." It's about how she realized that she couldn't put her talents on hold while her kids were small.  She realized that writing gave her energy that helped fuel her as a parent.  I relate to it on many levels.  And actually as I read the book I realized that I have Jen to thank for www.51centadventures.com.  I started that blog in part because she'd written on her blog about how moms need to pursue things that give them energy, and writing definitely gives me energy.

This book is a joy and an inspiration.  I'm so glad that I got to spend my Christmas reading such a great book.

Yep that's right.  I read the book in a day.  And then I took a nap. Later I talked to my brother Billy.

Christmas felt like it went super fast this year.  Brandon and I could hardly believe it when the day was over and evening came.

I had to go back to work on Wednesday for more digging out from under the mail avalanche.  I worked my normal hours on Wednesday and Thursday.  But on Friday I got off at 2:00 that's because my sister Lindsey and her family were coming into town. 

Lindsey is one of my favorite people on the planet so I'm always so happy when we get to see each other. 

Lindsey and co arrived at my house soon after I got off of work.  My mom and dad came over too.  Earlier my mom had predicted that as soon as Lindsey and I got together we'd get out a list and plan our weekend.  And that's what we did.  We wrote a little schedule on the back of an envelope.  Lindsey told me, "honestly I'm fine if all we do is hang out and let the kids watch movies all weekend."  So the schedule was more like a guideline than a rule. 

Lindsey, my mom, and I went to the store to run errands.  When we came back Lindsey gave me a Christmas Present.  I was so excited when I opened it and found the game Green Thumb.  This was a random game that somehow my family got back in 1996. The object of the game is to plant flower cards while wielding off attacks from bugs, animals, and natural disasters. We loved playing it.  So much in fact that I think the cards all eventually disintegrated. Lindsey said she found this set on E-Bay.  The sellers had no idea what treasure they had. Lindsey and I sat down and played a game to reacquaint ourselves with how to play. We were so into the game that when it was time to pick up some pizzas that Lindsey had ordered we had Brandon go pick them up so we could finish the game.

When the pizza arrived the kids ate it with gusto. It was so good to see all the kids together.  Lindsey and I remarked that things were so much easier now that the kids are older.  Back when they were all babies and toddlers we hardly got to talk to each other when we were with eachother. 

Lindsey and her family stayed in a hotel.  On Saturday they came over a little before lunch time.  We had something for lunch and then went over to the ISU bowling alley and played a game there.

Eliza was so cute with her ball.

Derrick got really excited every time his ball knocked down pins.

I thought it was funny that Veronica's ball matched her outfit.

We had fun bowling, but I think we could have stopped the game after only about 5 rounds. The kids were definitely less exuberant by the later rounds.  When we came back to the house Veronica fell asleep in my bed.  Eliza fell asleep on the living room floor and Lindsey was able to move her into my bed.  I thought it was cute that the babies of the families were taking a nap together.

My dad brought his laptop and watched Studio C clips with the kids.

Lindsey and I taught the kids how to play Green Thumb.  It was really fun to hear our kids doing some of the same things we'd done as kids.  (Like singing, "the enemy attacks in the night" as they tried to attack a plant with a bug card.)

On Sunday my parents and Lindsey's family came to Sacrament meeting at my church.  Brandon taught Sunday school so he and my dad stayed around for that, but the rest of us went home early.  Lindsey and John still had to check out of their hotel so they did that while all the kids were at my house. I put together a bunch and we had that when everyone was back at the house.

Then, sadly, it was time to start saying goodbye. Another storm was on it's way to Idaho and Lindsey and John were hoping to stay ahead of it as they traveled down to Cedar City.  We took this picture of all the adults. (Note Brandon's bowtie. I bought him a set of 9 bowties for Christmas - it was the only gift he didn't pick out himself.)

And here are my parents with their two oldest daughters (and various photobombing grandchildren)

Here are all seven of our kids.  They'd all enjoyed playing and watching movie together all weekend.  I wish we still lived only 3 hours away from each other so these kids could spend more time together.

After Lindsey left I felt a little bit like the light had gone out of my life.  She's such a positive and down to earth person and is so much fun to spend time with.  It's always hard to say good bye to her.  

Brandon and the kids got out the city floor mat and added extra toys to it to make it pretty epic.  

Monday was New Years Eve and I had to work.  But we got off at 3:00 so it wasn't too bad.  And this time I didn't have to drive anywhere. 

We celebrated New Years with our traditional smorgasbord. 

We like to stay up and watch a trilogy on New Years Eve.  This year we picked Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, and Honey We Shrunk Ourselves.  Those movies aren't very long so we interspersed them with games between each movie.  We started off with a game of Green Thumb.  It was Brandon's first time playing and he won.

My parents arrived halfway through the game and they watched the first movie with us.  Then we played Candyland followed by the next movie.  My kids have seen Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but they haven't seen the other two.  They were so engrossed in Honey I Blew up the Kid.  And honestly it was a better movie than I remember. My parents didn't plan to stay long, but they made it through the second movie and decided to stay for the third. 

We played a game of shoots and ladders between movies.  We had a piece on the board for my dad as kind of a joke since he wasn't even playing.  Well his piece ended up winning the game. 

Honey We Shrunk Ourselves is definitely the weakest movie in the series.  They changed the actress who plays the mom and also completely rewrote her character into a whiny nag.  But it was still a fun movie for the kids to watch.  It kept them all awake.  It ended 15 minutes before midnight and they were all still awake.

We  went upstairs where Brandon had sparkling cider ready along with our plastic goblets.  At midnight we toasted to the new year.  

We most of us did.  Veronica hadn't been able to make it the last 15 minutes.  She said downstairs on the futon we'd folded down.  She was fast asleep at midnight.  

My parents went back to their apartment and we all went to bed. 

I don't really have any New Years Resolutions for 2019.  I prefer to do Resolutions in the spring when the weather is nice and I feel like following through with any goals I set. 

I do like doing words of the year though. 

In 2018 my word of the year was Stability.  And what a stable year this was.  For the first time since 2011 we spent the whole year together as a family in the same house. I had the same job all year.  The kids were at the same schools.  Brandon was at the same school.  The biggest change was back in March when the older kid after school babysitter got a real job and I put them all into daycare.  Oh and I got hit by a car.  That wasn't really planned, but stability did take on a whole new meaning as I learned to walk again.

My word of the year for 2019 is Confidence.  This word came to me in  November.  I guess I needed it early since that's when I started planning the Relief Society Activities for 2019 and realized I needed to plan out the whole year.  We'll need a lot of confidence this year as we start making decisions about where to live and work. 

The kids all slept in on January 1st, but not nearly as late as I expected.  I didn't have to go to work and we were all sick of hanging around indoors. Plus it was actually kind of sunny outside.  So this was a good day to go sledding. We bundled up in our snow gear.  Then we crammed the sleds into the back seat and the kids into the middle seat and drove to a hill on ISU's campus.

I liked my winter look so I took a selfie.

As soon as we got to the hill the kids jumped on each of our four sleds and slid down the hill.

They let me and Brandon go down with them every once in a while.

It was so nice to be outside and doing something as a family.  There was a small snow storm rolling in and there were little perfect snow flakes drifting through the air.  It was magical.

Here are Brandon and I together on the hill.  I love him so much.

After about an hour the kids were running up the hill less and less eagerly each time so we decided it was time to go home and have hot chocolate.  After we warmed back up the kid went downstairs and had a second Honey I shrunk the kids marathon.  This time they watched them in reverse order.

I sat on the couch (seriously how did I live without that thing) and finished reading Becoming which is the life story of Michelle Obama.  I got this book from the library and was absolutist blown away by how good it was.  It's beautifully written and Michelle is an incredible women.  I wasn't a huge Obama supporter, but I always admired the first lady.  This book makes me wish I'd paid more attention to her.  This book definitely lives up to all the hype.

In the evening we accomplished something we've been working on for a while.  Several months ago Brandon and I decided that we needed to be better about family scripture study.  But in our family sitting around and reading a lot of scriptures isn't something we can do yet.  So we decided to read one scripture mastery scripture a night.  When we'd read them all we'd go skating at Deleta.  We did really well at this until the time change.  For some reason this was much harder to do when it started getting darker earlier.  But we pushed on and finally finished.  We're going to Deleta this weekend.

Normally I would have had to go back to work on January 2nd.  But I needed a day off that wasn't a holiday.  So I took that day off too.  Last year we'd gone to Lava Hot Springs on January 2 and I thought we should turn that into a tradition.   Before we left the girls got dressed in some of the clothes they'd received from the Secret Santa.  

Then we drove down to Lava Hot Springs.  It was something like 20 degrees outside.  It's always funny to change into swimming suits in the locker rooms and then walk out into below freezing temperatures. 

But the 103 degree water quickly makes you forget about how cold the air is.  We had a lot of fun in the water.  We played and soaked for over 2.5 hours.  I made sure we got out of the water to cool off and get drinks periodically, but I still got close to overheating. 

We drove back home and then the kids all climbed into my bed to take a nap.  Lydia got up after a little while and went to the store with Brandon, but Charlotte and Veronica slept for 2 hours.

Derrick was supposed to go with his behavioral therapist, but when she showed up he was laying on the couch and refused to get up.  We decided to just have her take him for longer on Thursday.  Derrick fell asleep and also slept for 2 hours.  I grabbed a blanket and laid down on the other side of the couch for my own nap.

Lava Hot Springs felt like the capstone to the kids Christmas Vacation, but they aren't back in school yet.  They don't go back to school until Monday.  That's the first day for Brandon's school too.  I'm a little sad that this vacation is coming to an end. I'm not looking forward to getting the kids up at 6:30 to get ready for school, but I think I'm ready for a return to routine again.

Well there you have it, Christmas Vacation 2018.  It was a good way to end a good year. 

One night Brandon and I sat on the couch and wondered where we will celebrate Christmas 2019.  It's kind of crazy to realize that we literally have no idea where this year will take us. 

I hope you read along as we find out.