Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas

A Very Merry December 2010



Chrissy and Ryan had raked the leaves in my parent's yard, and kindly invited us over to have Frankie play in the leaves with Jarek and Tayden.

Frankie is loving having lots of stuffed animal buddies in his bed with him right now.

We made gingerbread houses at Kennadi's house. We had bought a kit on clearance last year, and we added our own touches.

Frankie's Halloween addition to the Christmas decorations.

His favorite Christmas movie this year was The Muppet Christmas Carol. I think it's my favorite, too. I had a ray of inspiration one day when I was needing to get some work done and Frankie was sad I couldn't play. I said, "Do you want to watch a Christmas movie that has spooky GHOSTS in it?"

You should have seen the look on his face.

As we were in transit in the car on Christmas Eve, Frankie sighed and said "I wish we could go Trick or Treating on Christmas, too."

We made not one, but TWO batches of Christmas sugar cookies this year. I had another stroke of genius (must have been a good month for me) and thinned the frosting out enough that the cookies can simply be dipped, and then decorated with sprinkles. (As opposed to trying to spread the icing on with a knife or use decorating bags.) It makes the final step about 1,000 times easier.

Now I will confess that the first time I put Frankie in his new little suit outfit, he stepped back from me and I started crying. Only a little. He looks so grown up and so tall. But also so handsome. On this day before we went to church, Frankie and I watched some Nativity movies. (Jeremy was at meetings.) Frankie was all about making sure our Nativities were set up how he thought they should be this year.

A few days before Christmas a big package came in the mail for Frankie. It was a huge Hot Wheels track/garage set from his cousin Angie and her parents. I couldn't believe how well this toy held his attention. He sat and played with it for hours. We are so grateful for all the gifts we receive - it really does mean a lot.

We had Christmas party at my Mom's on the 23rd. The kids acted out the Nativity for the first time in a few years, I was excited that Frankie got to be a part of it. He was a very knightly Wise Man. I guess the Nativity pageant is one time it's good that my family has more boys then girls.

After the pageant the kids opened their presents, Frankie got 2 Cars he doesn't have yet, he was stoked. Then we decorated cookies, and the kids dispersed while the adults played some Cranium. My poor Daddy had shoulder surgery in December, and still wasn't feeling to spry at Christmastime. We also got our cool present from Christina and Ryan's family: it's a picture board thing which I just realized is hard to describe. Basically you can change the pictures in and out of it very easily. I will redo my walls someday and show it to all of you.

Christmas Eve at Jeremy's parent's house. The tradition at their house is that the youngest has to distribute all the presents. Jerm is so excited that Frankie is old enough to do this now. And Frankie enjoys it too. He also followed around the room and was right next to, and often helping, whoever was opening a present. Nick and Ali gave Frankie a fish tank lamp. That is my kind of fish tank. Frankie will tell people "we don't have to feed them or clean it and the kitties can't kill them!"

Nick got Alison a new wedding ring to replace the one that was lost with her purse in November. I was taking pictures and didn't realize until later that Frankie was the one that nabbed it out of the box. Sorry, Ali. And the new ring is very pretty, if you were wondering.

We had a bit of a Toy Story Christmas this year. Santa brought Frankie movie-size versions of the main Toy Story Characters, (although Buzz is the only one that talks,) and a Lego set: Pizza Planet Rescue Mission. The Lego set is what he asked Santa for when he sat on Santa's lap. He loved the character dolls more then I would have expected. He wanted to take them everywhere for a few weeks, and he still plays with them quite often.

The Lego house was from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson the night before. Frankie was so sad when we got back to our house on Christmas Eve that we didn't have time to set it up and play with it that night. So he left Santa a note with the cookies asking Santa to set it up. Santa's a pretty nice guy.

It was a happy Christmas morning. The other present highlight for Frankie was a Penguin Pillow Pet, from Great Grandma Schulz. I was very excited that Santa brought me new slippers. Can you see my old ones? They are masking taped together so that my toes wouldn't flop out.

As luck would have it, Mayzie, Tayden, and Jarek all got penguin Pillow Pets too.

Jeremy got me the "Just Dance" game for the Wii. I had been requesting a game of this sort so that I could exercise to it. We had a great time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day giving it a go. I also bought myself Just Dance II on my birthday, and I have been exercising to them. It's so much fun.

I had one of my best birthdays - real or half - ever this year. Jeremy took the day off and watched Frankie while I got to go shopping and to lunch with my Mom and sisters. We hit the Target Christmas clearance, it was good fun. After I got home I had time to take a nap, and then Jeremy and I went to the temple, out to dinner, and shopping to get my new game. Later that night Frankie was very distraught that I didn't have a birthday cake. So we made some little ice cream treats in our fancy cups, and each blew out some candles after he sang happy birthday to me. It was adorable. It was a happy day with family, I felt really remembered and loved. I reflected a lot on how blessed I've been this past year.

As is tradition, Frankie and Kennadi opened their presents from each other together. This year it ended up being after Christmas, and I ended up having some serious Camera user error with our point and shoot. I'm not really sure what I was thinking.



We finished the year with a dusting of snow on all the hills. This day the light was perfect, but by the time I got out there it wasn't as great. Nonetheless, beautiful. We don't see this contrast very often.

Home for the holidays