December Happenings

         We love Christmas time around here.  I love, love, love having little children at the holidays.  When my littles grow up and move away, I really think we will have to move in with them for the month of December to enjoy it with grand kids (if I ever actually try to do that, somebody please stop me).  Everything is just so much more magical.  This year we tried something new and did one activity a day from December 1 leading up to Christmas.  We had a little Christmas tin on the counter and each day the kids would pull out of a slip of paper with that day's activity on it.  Some of them were big family things and some were as simple as reading a Christmas book after school or watching a holiday special (we discovered Mickey's Once and Twice Upon a Christmas this year and all three kids loved them).
          Below are some of our December highlights (many of the pictures were taken with my phone, so they are a little fuzzy).


Attending a local Cresh
          My parents' stake puts on a Cresh every year that includes a children's room, a room where you can dress up like you lived in Bethlehem in the time Christ was born, and a gym full of over 600 nativities.  This is the second time we've been and we all really enjoyed it.  We spent almost forty minutes in the kids room, because Little Man and Kiwi wanted to create all the crafts.  We met up with my parents and Mike and Paula to get a big group picture, stopped by the cookie room and then went in to see all of the nativities (where we also ran into Mike's parents, which was a fun surprise).  My mom took Little Man, I took Kiwi, and Mike was on Mason duty while we walked around the gym.  Kiwi loved all the nativities especially the tiny ones.  There were some really beautiful ones and I enjoyed having some one on one time with my little girl while we looked at them.  Little Man's favorite was the Lego one.  We eventually ran into Mike and an arched back, squirmy Mason who was being carried because he didn't quite get the "don't touch" rule.  When set down, he would excitedly run right towards a table (with some beautiful glass nativity on it of course). I don't think poor Mike got to enjoy the displays as much as the rest of us...

 Kiwi in the kids craft room 

Gingerbread Houses

 Every year the kindergartners make gingerbread houses.  Each student is required to have an adult helper and it is a much anticipated event.  Mason woke up multiple times the night before crying and woke up miserable that morning so I packed him and Kiwi up and went to the pediatrician.  Poor little guy had a double ear infection.  Even though ear infections aren't contagious, Mason was not a happy camper (I didn't blame him) and I didn't feel right dropping him off at a friend's house (the babysitter I had arranged previously had kids that were throwing up that day also). Luckily, Mike's mom was able to save the day and came and sat at our house while Mason took a monster nap. I was very grateful and so relieved that I didn't have to miss Kiwi's special afternoon.   We had a lot of fun making her house together.

 After school, our Christmas activity consisted of breaking out the gingerbread kit and Little Man and Kiwi made a whole gingerbread village while Mason continued to nap (this from the boy who is in the process of giving up naps :(

They wanted Minnie and Pluto in the picture of their village.

 Later in the month, a much happier and feeling better Mason and I were able to go help Little Man and his class make gingerbread houses.  Little Man's teacher is so sweet and gave Mason a graham cracker, his own frosting, and candy to keep him entertained.

A minute of solitude 

 I captured this moment one morning when Kiwi decided to teach Mason yoga.

The perfect gift

I found this book online and knew that I had to get it for my brother.  This was a childhood favorite and one that I clearly remember sitting on the flowered couch in our living room growing up reading together.  They don't publish it anymore, but I was able to find a used copy and was so excited to give it to him.  I love the wonders of online shopping and I love when you find somebody that perfect something.

Seeing Santa

         Every year our neighborhood has Santa come to the community center where you can meet the Big Guy and eat donuts.  When Kiwi was younger, she was convinced the community center was where Santa lived.  

         The event is quite popular and we had to wait in line for about forty five minutes.  Luckily the kids had donuts, apple juice, some coloring tables, and friends to keep them busy so the wait actually went quickly.  

         Little Man got the idea in his head that he must ask Santa for something that can not be bought in the store, because Santa can make anything.  This year he asked for the pocket pro college helmets independent teams.  He has many of these helmets, which have come in packets with their conferences, displayed in his room.  He found one the same size at the BYU store this summer and wanted the other three independent teams to go along with his.  Mike and I spent quite a bit of time one evening side by side on the couch, each with a different electronic device, searching for these independent team mini pocket pro helmets with no luck.  The best we could come up with were some guy who custom makes them and sells them on ebay for about thirty times what the other teams cost.  It looked like Santa was this seven year old's only hope.  He even brought one of his other helmets of the same size and busted it out of his pocket while on Santa's lap to show him what size he wanted.  Kiwi wanted a doll and a suitcase to transport the doll in and Mason asked for a big Pooh Bear because that's what his siblings told him he wanted.  

I love Mason's face in this picture.  My sweet little boy and his worried face.  

 Still not sure, but warming up a little bit.  

Christmas Activities 

          My sister-in-law and her girls threw a fun mother/daughter Christmas party one night.  Unfortunately, I only got a picture of the treats (but look how cute they are!).  The girls also did a scavenger hunt to find some of Santa's missing items and made reindeer food.  Kari did a great job with it and we were glad to be able to come.
        My mother-in-law had us over for a really fun "Whoville" dinner one night where we ate foods from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, played a couple of games, watched the animated version of the book, and had some Who pudding for dessert.  It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.
     
Snow Morning/Kiwi's School Performance

       Two days before Christmas Break, we woke up to snow.  The kids were thrilled, but Little Man was disappointed that there was not only school, but normal start time.  Although I usually always hope for snow days, I was glad that nothing was cancelled this particular day, because it was Kiwi's kindergarten performance that night and she was so excited for it.  We walked Little Man to school in the snow and then Kiwi begged to go play, so I got out all the snow gear, bundled up the kids and let them play.  Much to Kiwi's dismay, Mason lasted about ten minutes before he was cold.  He had been fascinated with is while looking at it from his stroller, but was not a fan of the actual thing.  I went out and played with her for a little while and then she stayed out there by herself and played. She only came in when I insisted it was time.  Unfortunately it was pretty much gone by the time Little Man got home.  He and Kiwi still went out and tried to play, but it was pretty much some icy snow and mud by then, so hopefully it will snow again this winter.


That night, we went and watched Kiwi about 100 other little five and six year olds sing their little hearts out at the kindergarten performance. I love this age and it was so fun to watch her.  She was concentrating so hard the whole time to get all the motions just right that I think she forgot to sing most of the words (not that she didn't know them, she just was working so hard on all the hand motions she didn't open her mouth much).  She was adorable, however, and loved having the whole family there to watch something of hers.

With some cute friends from her class.

 She got her "I'm super excited, but a little embarrassed and trying not to show it" smile when she spotted us in the gym. 

Snowflake Lane
        There is a mall about forty minutes from us that does a little performance and makes it "snow" every day in December.  We had heard about it from friends, but never tried it ourselves.  The Thursday before Christmas we decided to head up there and check it out.  It was insanely busy and took us forever to get there.  By the time we got in the mall, we just had time to get a quick bite to eat before heading out to see the show.  We found a McDonalds and I have never seen one so packed.  We were lucky to find somewhere to sit at all.  I am not a fan of Mickey D's, so I opted to try and find something else (and later located a Jamba Juice).  At this point in the excursion, packed in with tons of people and not feeling so well, I wasn't sure how this evening would turn out.
        The little show turned out to be really fun, however, and I'm glad we went.  The kids danced, ate ginormous suckers being handed out by the elves (a first for Mason and he loved his), enjoyed the characters, and LOVED the snow (which came from some sort of bubble machines).  Both big kids said they would definitely want to to it again.  I think if we try next year, we will head up earlier to hopefully avoid some traffic and maybe try going earlier in the month.  It was a lot of fun though.

Not until uploading this picture did a notice that Mason's sucker as soap bubbles on it.  Ooops, he didn't seem to mind though.

While he was dancing, Little Man had a huge chunk of "snow" the size of his forehead fall onto him.  He and Kiwi thought this was hilarious and spent the rest of the time trying to position themselves right under the machine hoping it would happen again. 

A fairy stopping to dance with Kiwi. 

Christmas Tree

The obligatory before church picture of kids in Christmas clothes with tree in background.
       Mason loved the tree this year.  Every morning when he's wake up he'd come downstairs and say, "Yight up my tismas tree Mommy (Light up my Christmas tree).  The plug our lights went into were linked up with a light switch so it was Mason's job to turn the lights on every morning and off before we went somewhere.  We took down the tree New Year's Eve and Mason was pretty sad to see it go.  We went to my mom's last week and when he saw her tree was still up he pointed and said something about Nana's Christmas tree and then looked indignantly at me as if to say, "You told me Christmas time was all over."

The Christmas Spirit
       I just love the feeling that exists in the month of December.  We repeated what is now becoming tradition in our family and set out a little wooden manager on the counter with a bag of straw below it.  Every time somebody did something nice for somebody else, they were able to place a piece in.  I loved hearing my children tell the story of Christ's birth and some of the neat conversations we had throughout the season about what the true meaning of Christmas is and what we can do to celebrate His birth and life and how to be more like Him.  I hope in the midst of all the activities and fun, my children will remember how it felt when we took some time to serve others or when they made a gift for somebody else.

Cozy at home activities
        There always seems to be something exciting to do around Christmas.  The simple act of reading a book is made more special because it is done by the light of the Christmas tree.  Multiple times I loaded the kids into the van with blankets and a favorite stuffed animal and we drove through the neighborhoods around our house looking at lights.  This was an especially effective tool to combat those long hours in the winter when we are stuck inside and Daddy isn't coming home until late.
         We also enjoyed many kids Christmas specials, had a couple of family Christmas movies, and I enjoyed several cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies on my own and sometimes with Mike (he makes fun of them, yet if he walks into the room he can't help but get sucked into the completely predictable plot).
     We also had fun doing some baking and Mike tried his hand at homemade caramels this year to give out as goodies.  They were delicious.