Christmas

David and Lisa had a gender reveal party the evening my parents got here – which ended up being quite a story all by its self.  (Let’s just say plane delayed because of weather, rent a car with others coming this way…surprise they are here instead of in Salt Lake….quick, finishing picking up the guest room and get the sheets washed fast.)  So Rachel made a cake with a colored center and after some guessing games they cut the cake…..it’s a girl.

While at David’s Spencer found some weights to play with and there was another pair too, so Isaac tried to copy everything Spencer was doing.  It was pretty cute…sometimes you just can’t capture that in a picture. It actually worked out really well that my parents ended up here the first part of their vacation instead of the last part.  They got to go have lunch with Rachel and David who both work at the MTC West.

And they got to go see Jessie play the flute with the band, orchestra and school choir for the Christmas program they did during school. Grandma helped Abbie finish up a Christmas present she’s been working on all year for her daddy.

For part of Christmas break we were able to use our  wood stove to heat the house.  Ahhh…. the front room was a lovely 80 degrees.  It was heavenly, especially since pregnancy makes me so cold!  And if it was too warm for you all you had to do was go hang out in the living room that was on the cooler side of things.

Sundays together.  FHE night: Another fun thing we did with Ken’s family was everyone brought a batch or two of cookies that we redistributed onto plates and then his parents, us and Scott’s family each picked two houses to go caroling to together.  What a fun night.  And the silly picture is for Neil because he smiled so nicely for the first one….but then he didn’t even make it in the second one because he’s being silly. :-) On Christmas Eve we had a talent show at Grandma’s and sang Christmas carols accompanied by the kids.  It was really fun to hear all the kids songs they had been practicing.  Neil even got up to “play” a song for us.  And he kept playing and playing because it was “a long song.”  Little kids are so fun.  Mark decided to play his horn for us.  He played Amazing Grace, one of my favorites.

Christmas morning. My parents had spent Sunday, after listening to Jessie play her Christmas song in sacrament meeting, up in SLC until Christmas Eve which they came down and had dinner with David and Lisa and then back to our place, along with Rachel and Becca who spent the night here to enjoy Christmas morning with us too.  Yea!  We had some fun presents… Jessie’s unwrapping her juggling balls from Mark who also wrapped up a 10 pound weight with them as a decoy.  Aunt Heather got the kids little crabs that skitter around and that entertained Isaac for a long time while Ken tried to keep it on top of a organizer Spencer had gotten to keep his marbles in.  Neil loved handing out the presents.  He’d pick up so many at a time he could barely see where to walk.

Mark got some paracord and a book of things to make with it from Neil, Dad got a fun trellising book from us, Ken opened the pillow Abbie had stitched for him so he’d have something soft to lean up against when he is reading bedtime stories to the kids out in the hallway.  And each of the kids got a mystery present that had to have the tag colored on with a marker to show the white crayon identifying who it belonged to, this has been a fun family tradition. Becca got a purse big enough that Neil was able to snuggle down in it!  Isaac’s new book was fun entertainment.  And Abbie loved her new umbrella that’s clear so you can put your head inside it and see though it to walk….now all we need is some rain.

Mark got the umbrella for Abbie and of course had to do another fun wrapping job.  It was all huge and squishy wrapped in blankets.  Poor Abbie just somehow didn’t get hardly any presents until the very end and then everything that was left was for her.  She was trying so hard to just be happy and then when we realized what had happened all the world was better.  Man look at that mess….that’s what Christmas for 12 will do to you. :-)One other funny memory was that Neil had taken a new truck, with stacking blocks on the back, that he and Isaac  received from Grandma into the dining room so he could play with it and Isaac wouldn’t try to take it from him.  So he was in there playing and we had something for him to open and Ken teasingly said something like, “I guess Neil doesn’t want anymore presents because he’s not in here to open this one.”  And Neil, who we weren’t even sure heard Ken’s comment, came running back into the room full speed, “Here I am!”

After presents we enjoyed some fun brunchy foods, along with some fabulous cinnamon swirl bread our sweet elderly neighbor had brought over for us.  Spencer reading Neil’s new coloring book to him all cozy in Neil’s new “fuzzy blanket.”  Grandma and Mark working on a bracelet from his new book and Neil reading Where’s the Green Sheep, AGAIN!

We played some games, ate more food, worked on some stools for the kids with grandpa, ate more food, played more games. In the afternoon my parents enjoyed dinner at David’s with Rachel and Becca and we headed to Ken’s parents.

The bear singing Jingle Bells is Grandma’s most played with decoration.  Neil adored it this year….it’s a running joke how much Ken’s dad despises that bear.  He even instagramed it’s picture in grey because it “didn’t deserve color”….that just makes this bear even more memorable.  I remember when it was Mark’s favorite and we even borrowed it for a week.  I bet next year we’ll have Isaac’s picture here with it. :-)

We had our gift exchange which included this fun new “pi (pie) plate” for our family, given Ken’s love of numbers and mine to cook…it was a great gift!  This year we had Steph and McKay’s family and I made them a scrapbook of all the photos Steph had instagramed that year. Dinner was heavenly!  And Isaac was totally copying Ken trying to use both his knife and fork to eat and not only did he do a pretty amazing job for a one year old, it was so cute to watch.