Happy Holidays (Part 2)

I loved having Frankie home over Christmas break. It was hard to send him back. I treasure those quiet days at home.

A few December happenings worth mentioning that I have no pictures of:

At the beginning of the month I sang in the Messiah chorus with my parents, Christina and Ryan, and Laurie. We also had practices on Wednesdays in November. It was hard. I did a fair amount of practicing on my own and I was still lost a lot of the time. I didn't understand why others love singing in the Messiah so much  until the first performance night. There was an energy in the auditorium because the concerts were free this year and many came to watch. And the rest is hard to put into words. It is powerful, spiritual music. And I had a powerful experience. I'm so glad I got to be a part of it and I hope I can again in the future. When Jeremy came with his parents on the second night he brought Frankie, who fell asleep during the first Pastoral Symphony. At least he was cultured in his dreams. 

We traded fairly bad colds and stomach bugs between the three of us all month. Jerm got strep at one point and I don't know if Frankie ever stopped coughing at night. Between Frankie's first year at school and Jeremy working at the E.R. during a really bad cold/flu season we didn't stand a chance. Frankie missed 4 days of school at the beginning of December, and it's the first time I've ever taken him to the doctor for cold symptoms. He was lethargic and had a fever that wouldn't quit. (I took him on day 3 and was told he had to be that sick for a few more days before it was time for an antibiotic. We waited it out.) It kind of put a damper on the holiday season. We never baked cookies because I knew I couldn't take food from our house to other people. But we did manage all the fun times in between the sniffling and hacking, and others were kind enough to spend time with us even when we were slightly diseased.

In Frankie's Christmas countdown calendar, I slid little papers with service ideas we could do that day or that week. Usually little anonymous things. We didn't get to all of them but I will have happy memories of the ones that we did. Frankie's favorite was leaving dollars hidden in the toy section at the dollar store, mine was picking up the tab for someone else's Christmas tree then literally running out so they wouldn't catch us. I wanted the holiday season to be less focused on the "I wants" for Frankie. It did help, and it was the best kind of fun. We also volunteered at the shopping for the Kony Koins for kids. I loved that more then Frankie did. You know, shopping.

Also worth mentioning is that I ended up over the committee in charge of the food for our ward Christmas party. This is because I am always in charge of the Relief Society activities, and the Relief Society got put in charge of the food. It ended up being quite the project that caused a bit of stress. One of the reasons was we were told to have enough food for 350 people, which I always thought was way too much. I was right. But we had extra to provide the luncheon for a funeral the following day and sent the rest home with families. So it was fine. I learned a lot from our Bishop's wife who was kind enough to be on the committee and definitely knew what it was to organize meals for large groups of people. It was an experience, but I was so glad when it was over.

That was more wordy then I thought it would be. Back to the photographed festivities.

This is the envelope Frankie made at school that had a present for Jeremy and I inside it. It is a calendar for next year with every month's picture made from his hand print(s). It was fun having it under our tree and he was so excited for us to open it. 

We had our friend's white elephant Christmas party at Sam and Aubree's this year. I love these people and I always end up laughing until my sides hurt when we get together. We started with yummy pasta dinner made mostly by our hosts. Emma is almost 2 and she loves being with the big kids. 

The kids got to do their own little white elephant exchange before we started the grown-ups.

This present ended up leading Will to bacon in the fridge. Courtesy Nick and Alison. He was so excited.

I can't remember who brought this hat. It scared the younger children to death. But it was really funny. That's Nick wearing it, he also became it's owner.

Will and Alex brought this lovely treat that ended up coming home with us.

Jeremy was excited for some new tips, can't you tell?

We barely managed to squeeze in getting the gingerbread house put together before Christmas. We made our Home Depot gingerbread house kits at my Mom's on a Saturday morning with Kaitlyn. I think there are pictures of making them on my Mom's camera, maybe I'll get those someday. Here is Frankie back at home with the finished project.

Christmas Eve started at my parent's house in the afternoon, with a lovely lunch and the pageant of pain. It was once again pretty free of trauma, but good for a laugh. For some reason all the kids wanted to be sheep this year. They didn't decide this together, but somehow it was the general consensus. The privilege ended up going to the three youngest boys, with Tayden herding, or beating them, with his cardboard stick as the shepherd. 

No one was feeling too ambitious about organizing the children, finally Chrissy got brave. I will never forget the kids gasping when she told them we didn't need any donkeys. But she used the biblical term.

Check out the picture in the middle, the way they were standing and interacting was so funny. They're not quite ready for their commercial gigs.

Adults watching, recording, and reading.

Final posed picture after singing some Christmas carols.

Before we headed out Frankie opened his Christmas Eve jammies with Jarek and Tayden.

At Jeremy's parents, we ate dinner, while Frankie waited with much excitement for when we could start opening presents. Before we officially started we had a photo op with the two kids. It is so much fun to see how much they adore each other. And Sophie's outfit is great. Go Alison. Nick also read us the Christmas story from the Bible (from his phone) before we delved into the gifts.

Frankie playing Santa and distributing presents:

More distributing with Jeremy's help. The package Jeremy is wielding as a weapon is his gift. We drew names this year, Nick got Jeremy a new fishing rod to replace the one that got broken at the family reunion last summer.

Sophie swimming in paper and grocery bags.

And clapping "yay."  She is very cute and entertaining, that baby.

Sophie was generally more interested in Frankie's new stuff then in her own. I didn't know it started so early.

Frankie was VERY excited to receive the Skylanders game he asked for from Grandma and Grandpa. Others gave him extra Skylanders figures. And lots of other fun stuff. What a lucky kid. DeVere had my name, and got me sheets. I must have done too much whining about my failure to procure any on black Friday, heh. They are wonderful sheets, with 4 pillowcases! I drew Alison's name (score!) and got her a pajama/bathrobe set that she was admiring in the ads one Sunday. Jeremy had a hard time knowing what to get his Mom, but ended up settling on some fuzzy slippers and an Amazon gift card. (He may have had a little guidance from DeVere.) I was also excited to give Sophie a set of adorable Little People princesses, and some fun clothes. 

Back at home, Frankie played Skylanders with Jeremy, then got some Oreos ready for Santa. 

(Like I said, we never baked. Sorry Santa.)

At this point I realized there was nigh a picture of me for all of Christmas Eve, so Jeremy took one. I should also mention that Jeremy got me a beautiful necklace for Christmas that I opened at his parents. It's the real deal with a ruby and a little diamond on the pendant. I love it, even if he did go way over budget. (:

Santa Came!

More Sklanders! Plus Jake's ship, and some new Legos. 

Frankie had been excited about this giant present and wondering what it contained from the moment I put it under the tree. It was a Cars2 Geotrax set to add to his collection. It will probably be the last time he gets a larger gift that is Cars themed, kind of makes me sad that he's so grown up.

Present fun and mess.

A picture from my new little camera that I got for myself on an amazing deal and had the boys wrap for me. It's so tiny I can keep it in my purse for anytime use, I'm excited. The picture is proof that Jeremy was around for a while on Christmas day. We were so sad to kiss him goodbye at 8:30, because he had to work a 9 to 9.  People get hurt and sick every day, even Christmas. I'm glad there are people like Jeremy willing to make the sacrifice to be there and take care of them. But we missed him terribly.

Later that day Frankie and I stopped by Karen and DeVere's for stockings and a visit. Then we went to hang out with my family for a while.

My Mom is always telling everyone they get "a gold star on their forehead." Now she has one!

Frankie had helped pick out gifts for Tayden, Jarek, Hunter and Mayzie. (His pseudo siblings.) When we were looking for something for Mayzie, Frankie wanted to look at the purses at Target. He had been with Mayzie before when she was looking at them and he remembered the exact one she wanted. I knew Laurie had already gotten it for her so we didn't, but I was amazed. He's going to make someone an amazing husband someday. Jarek and Tayden got a game to share and some little Star Wars stuffed animals. (He also picked out a Chewbacca one for Jeremy, "Daddy will love this because he makes the sound!") Mayzie ended up with texting gloves and Hunter got a motorcycle shirt.

Hunter and Christina harassing each other. 

Frankie opening a few last gifts from cousins, including another Skylander and the Headbandz game. In playing Skylanders with him I have found more of the figures means more "lives" in the game. Clever marketing. We had a low key rest of our Christmas, it was a good day.

Happy Holidays (Part 1)

Frankie and Sophie looking wintery in November.

Also in November: The Jubilee of trees. Jeremy was off work and came with us which fun. The man helping Santa said we should all get in the picture. Our first family picture with Santa. Frankie asked him for Jake's Pirate ship. Meaning the toy pirate ship based on Jake and the Neverland Pirates. That pretty much always made his list, as well as a Skylanders game and this crazy (and pricey) remote control car thing he spotted in one of the toy ads.

This year the boy's favorite tree was the Lego tree.

Making sand creations in the kid craft area:

Frankie did this once, and the fish pond twice. He scored a cat Beanie Baby at the fish pond. He was quite pleased with that, and I hoped we'd be able to keep him from the temptation of the toy booth because of it.

But alas, as you can see a brand new "Telly" toy came home. It plays Christmas music in an octave that shouldn't have to be heard by human ears. But it's little winter hood is cute.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving Karen and DeVere were kind enough to transport us to the Home Depot to pick out a Christmas tree. Here are the boys working on set up. Frankie loves pulling out all the Christmas decorations - he made the box tower. It was really hard to talk him into leaving the ornaments off the tree until I was done putting up the lights. To be fair, I'm a little ocd about the lights and it takes me a long time.

Jeremy used our only big knife and a hammer to chop off a few branches that were too low and making the tree too wide for our stand. (My Dad would be proud.) The knife did not survive. He got some new knives in his stocking at his parents house. The big one was labeled "for big branches," the smaller "for small branches."

In the first week of December my Mom had her Grandma Christmas party and talent show. Jessica had the idea for the youngest boys to do a dance to a cute remix version of "Once there was a Snowman." It was very entertaining to watch them.

Being snowmen:

And doing some break dancing:

Here are a few of the other talents:

(Watercolors my Mom did while in Hawaii.)

After the talents my Mom gave all of the kids a wooden flute. Doesn't she look a little mischievous in this picture? She knew what was about to happen.

Bleeding ears. But we love her anyway. 

It was a cute party, they got to have pizza for dinner, which they ate outside, do the talent show and open their presents. Frankie and the other boys his age scored new Lego sets.

Frankie has been taking an after school dance/tumbling class once a week, and they had a little recital for all the after school classes in December. He's had fun getting to go with Kennadi and even ride home with her that day. They told us to put him in "fun and colorful dance clothes." So we went for a Mario shirt. 

Waiting for things to get going with his fan club:

It was hard to get a decent picture while they were dancing. Mostly I got the backs of people's heads. But it was cute, and rather humorous.

The other little boy in the class is also in Frankie's Kindergarten class and is one of his good buddies.

On the ride home I mentioned I was sad that I missed a picture of Frankie's final pose with his arms folded. After a dinner at Pizza Factory, when we got home Frankie offered to do his pose for me so we could remember it. 

Some obligatory Sunday clothes pictures in front of the tree. He was a stinker about these and was standing so awkwardly. We didn't get one that was amazing.

But there are some good out takes.

We had a full-out progressive dinner this year with a visit to all my family's homes in the St. George area. We started at Jeff's for appetizers. His new house is perfect for he and his kiddos.

Little boys playing video games. Whenever possible. But I always love these pictures because you can tell how much they love each other.

Next we visited our house for soup. I managed to make Zuppa Toscana, like what they have at Olive Garden, and it was actually very good. Go me! 

Our tree picture. A pretty good one I thought.

This year we ran a Geo Trax train around our tree. I loved the Josh and Logan were the two that played with it.

Next stop was Greg and Jessica's, where Jessica volunteered to give us some "food for thought."

She gave each of the kids their own mini Christmas tree that lights up. Then she gave them one tiny hand-crafted ornament at a time, first telling the symbolism behind the ornaments. It was so sweet. 

And the kids were so excited about their trees.  Frankie's got to be in his bedroom, he loved having his very own tree, which became his night light for the season. 

Soren is one of the best smile on demand kids I know. 

Next we went to Christina and Ryans, but I can't put their picture up because they were being a Foster Family to a cute little baby at the time, who is in their family picture. It was so much fun to get to snuggle a baby for a few weeks, even if it was sad to see the baby go.

We had the main course at my parent's house. The table setting was lovely.

Mom and Dad's Christmas tree picture.

In the excitement of the mini Christmas Trees, we forgot to take a picture of Greg and Jessica and family in front of their full size tree. So we got one at Mom and Dad's.

Last stop was Laurie's for dessert. Ashley joined us for the dinner even though her hubby was working. It was fun to have her.

Laurie's kids always want a silly picture too. And they always make me laugh.

Some of the kids playing at Laurie's. Check out the Netflix fire on the TV. Frankie thought this was the greatest thing and we had to watch the "fire show" at our house several times after this.