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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Christmas!

I know, it's almost February, but here's our Christmas happenings.

We had a busy month as usual but fun none-the-less. Amelia had lots of fun with all the festivities and she asks everyday now if Christmas is over.  She can't wait for it to come again!

We started of December decorating the tree.  Millie really liked it but I think she liked the popcorm best of all.



My sister Sarah gave us an "Elf on the Shelf."  Amelia named her Shabadoo.  Here's Shabadoo with a special treat from St. Nick on St. Nickolaus Day.


Then St.Nick struck again outside with treats for all of us!  Gotta love St. Nickolaus Day.  Ever since I can remember we got a small special something on Dec. 6.  My mom has these cool little St. Nicks and when you open them up there was something inside.  I don't have those but wrapping paper does the trick.


We went sledding and had pizza with Marse, Lance, Olivia, Tyson and Honey on one of our big snowstorms in December.  It's a good thing we did it then because it hasn't snowed much since.  Honey has a perfect? sledding hill for kids.  Well, perfect slope, unfortunately, there are two sad endings possible - the sled could fall off a little drop into the garden or you can hit a tree but......perfect anyway!



My mom's birthday is in December.  I usually make her dinner at her house but this year, they came to our house.  Her one request was for this brownie sundae thing that I made for her years ago.  It was so long ago that I had no idea what it was!  I racked my brain (which hasn't been functionig at full capacity since Daphne came along) and started to remember it.  I emailed lots of people and asked them if they know what I was talking about as far as a brownie sundae and no one claimed it (too bad because it was tasty!).  Bit's and pieces slowly started coming back to me and this is what we ended up with - Warm brownie with an ice cream ball rolled in cinnamon and sugar on top, then drizzled with warm caramel syrup.  Whoever you are that came up with the idea - good job.  She liked it....again!

I wish I could do more for her.  She is so generous with her time.  Not only does she take care of her 94 year old mother, she is always willing to watch my little girls unless she is fulfilling her calling as a guest service missionary at Temple Square.  Honestly, I am so lucky to have my parents live so close.  If anything goes wrong in the house, my dad will be over in a jiffy and my mom will be right there with him to help me with Millie and Daphne.  

We took the time while everyone was over to take a four generation picture.  Amelia loves her Bestamor (my Mormor, AKA Grandmother to me, great grandmother to her).  Bestamor adores Amelia.  Whenever I go over to visit.  Millie takes off her shoes and announces that she is going to go check on Bestamor, one because she loves her, two because there's always a treat in her room! 

 We took a night to go downtown to see the lights.  I'm surprised I like doing this because when I was a kid...teenager, I didn't love it.    But now that Pat works downtown, I'm a little more used to driving to Salt Lake, plus he has a parking pass so we don't spend forever looking for places to park.  Actually, now that City Creek has been built, I don't think anyone has to look for parking....ever.  

Last year when we started going, Amelia was so dang cute running from site to site that I wanted to do it again.  Plus, Amelia always asks to go downtown to see the Temple, the fishies, and the train.  

Here's the giant tree in City Creek.  City Creek is so much fun to walk around.  It's decorated beautifully and it's warm.  It's a win-win.  They nice people of Macy's even brought back the candy windows that ZCMI used to do. 


 Deseret Book had a big display with the book the Berlin Candy Bomber.  It was an airplane and it had a little thing you could load with little packs of "candy" to go flying through the store.  Amazingly, no one got hit!  They were also handing out peppermint candy sticks.  Millie was in heaven.  Daphne was too because it was warm.

 


Here's beautiful Temple Square.  



And here's Pat drinking the hot chocolate we brought from home.  That's right, we sat right down on the couches at City Creek and drank our homemade hot chocolate and ate our homemade Christmas cookies surrounded by everyone and their bags from the Cheesecake Factory.  Did we feel embarrassed about it?  Nope, not a bit!



Honey and her siblings host a Breakfast with Santa for all the grandkids.  Millie was pretty excited and I was really looking forward to taking Daphne because next year we all know what kind of picture we'll get.  Daphne and her dad ended up being quite sick that day so they stayed home.  

Thanks Honey, Aunt Marg and Aunt Janette for a fun morning.  


If you can't tell, Amelia was enamored with Santa!


 Honey has a little gingerbread house party which is a lot of fun.  So far both years I've had to cut out early, maybe next year will be the year I'm not in a rush and can help Millie make a beautiful gingerbread house.  Millie doesn't mind though, she most likely ate more candy than she put on her house!  I straightened her hair this day.  She always looks so different and much more grown up with her hair straight.  Not sure how I feel about it!  Of course, the candy and frosting face make her look like her 2.5 year old self again!


Corbin made a pretty cool A-frame house.  I missed what he said he was modeling it after but I'm gonna pretend it was the cabin at Bear Lake - way to go!

Jaden let his mom help him and she said it herself.....she's not so sure that was a good idea!
 And here's cute Olivia.  Amelia adores Olivia.  She wished she could play with her everyday.  Olivia....mmmm, her mom, made a beautiful gingerbread house.  But, she did help, a lot!


Each year, Pat's mom also hosts an adult night.  It's a night we all go out, or stay in without kids.  We open the presents from siblings on this night.  I got this awesome stacking tupperware from Tiffany.  It has four layers on it and it's PERFECT for toting sugar cookies to wherever I might want to tote them too.  I'm so excited!  Back to the evening - this year we went to a restaurant called Thymes and Seasons in Bountiful.  It was......interesting.  For me at least.  There is no menu and the chef (an Irish Vietnamese guy) kind of just picks stuff for you.  So he asked us what we liked and everyone laughed, pointed at me and said, you better start with her.  So, I told him - I like hamburgers.  To which he replied - "go to Carl's Junior then."  And here's the thing - he was only half-way joking.  Then he told me I had to have vegetables and asked what kind I liked - carrots, broccoli, cawliflower.  He told me he wouldn't bring those out because they weren't the best veggies he had!  Anyway, it was fun to sit and talk to everyone and I think everyone enjoyed their food!  He was just an interesting chef.

For some reason, I don't have everyone, but here are some pics from the evening:


 Joanne relaxing and not holding any grandkids

 Ben and Whitney

Coby and Tiffany


 And finally, Christmas!  It starts with Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve).  We spend the evening with the Riches, eat dinner and have a nativity (that's a little crazy).  Then the kids get to open presents from Honey and a little gift from a cousins gift exchange.  Millie got a cute Mr. Potato Head.

Ben was our angel, Amelia got to be an angel too but she just kept dancing in circles announcing she was Tinkerbell.


Here are the wise men (can you tell from the scene how crazy it is!)

Honey gave everyone Christmas Jams and these darling stuffed animals.  I mean it, they are cute animals called Stuffies.  They were "stuffed" with candy in secret pouches.

 Amelia loves her cousins Lu and Olivia.  They are a bit older than she and she can't quite keep up with them but she loves playing with them.

This pic of Chance pretty much describes the excitement of the evening!


The next day, Christmas Eve we headed to my mom's house - so excited to have Christmas Eve at her house!  It's been a few years!  Still lot's of people but MANY less kids!  It's a lot of fun for Amelia because there are two other girls her age and one that is just one year older.


Here's my awesome cousin Erik.  He was a trooper wrestling with Claire, Emma and Millie.


And here's the quiet end of the room.


We tried to do something that would be fun for the kids but also be Christ centered.  I got an idea off the internet to to a nativity scavenger hunt.  The girls LOVED it (can you tell from their faces?).  I would do a few things differently next year - maybe not use the Fisher Price Nativity so that the girls don't constantly push the button to hear Away in a Manger!  But they sure had fun.  

And finally, a moment in our own home!  Amelia helped us put out some cookies and milk for Santa and headed off to bed.


Pat and I put out the presents.
 And we awoke to this gorgeous day!  It was so clear you could see the tram on the top of Snowbird from our window!  CRAZY.


Millie was very excited when she got upstairs.  She didn't quite know what to do!  We showed her how Santa had eaten up the cookies and then we got to open presents.


 

Her main gift was this kitchen that Pat and I made.  Well, mainly Pat but I came up with the idea and found the little TV console and bowl for the sink!  I also made the curtain!  She loves her kitchen and having picnics with the food she makes.

 When we finished, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for breakfast (quite possibly the best meal of the year!) and then to my parents to relax a little.


Mormor and Morfar gave Amelia a cool tricycle.  It's all set up and we take it out every once in a while.  Can't wait for the Spring!



Then, it was off to Honey's once again (does this ever end?!)  Honey gave the girls a fairy princess dress up.  I think this pic describes best how Millie loves her cousins but just can't quite keep up with them!  Maybe next year Millie Mu!


We each found a few things to fill in Joanne's stocking since that was usually done by Jim.  She definitely got some lovely things for a lovely mom!!



If you haven't noticed, December was a crazy busy month.  Amelia loved it, I actually didn't stress out about it at all (which was awesome) and we just had a nice time.  Hope everyone had a lovely season and year.  





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