Christmas DAY

Christmas was on a Sunday this year, but we didn't have church until 1:00pm, so we were able to do our Christmas presents and breakfast before heading out to church. We had a beautiful church service. The choir sang several numbers interspersed with some nice readings. It was a great way to spend part of the day. We also enjoyed relaxing together and enjoying our leftover food and new Christmas things!

Connor got a BYU football helmet and jersey, Anna got the babydoll highchair she'd been wanting, and Eli got a couple lego sets. The kids know Santa is pretend but still get very excited for "him" to come!

 And the big surprise was my present to Jeremy - a banjo! He's expressed interest in learning the banjo for years, so I thought it would be fun. He doesn't practice a ton, but I can tell he really enjoys it when he does!

 Grace's first Christmas! In typical baby fashion, she preferred to wrapping and boxes to any of her presents.

 Grace in my new saucepan.

 Lego mania! Anna got her first little set. Exciting stuff.

My favorite is always the puzzles and games we all get! The kids were excited to put this harder one together this year.

 He didn't take this off for a few days.

Yummy Christmas breakfast - my first attempt at GF cinnamon rolls (quite delicious, actually) and our traditional breakfast casserole. Yum!

 I love these cute kids!! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Eve Part II

I finally got this video off of Jeremy's phone, and it pretty well sums up part of our Christmas Eve...life with four kids ages 7 and under! It's a party!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning was well spent. I invited some friends to go with us to an Assisted Living place and share some music with the residents. A few days before I was wishing we weren't doing it, just because we'd been so busy, but I'm SO glad I had planned it ahead of time and that we did it. It was really special. I asked friends whose kids played the piano, so all the kids played a piano song and then I played for us all to sing a few songs all together. It was so fun! We spent awhile after visiting with the residents and bringing Grace around for them to ooh and ahh at (they love babies!). It was really sweet and again got us thinking about someone other than ourselves. Several of my friends said they loved it and we should make it a Christmas Eve tradition. I agree!

I'm so sad I didn't take a single picture, but oh well. That's not the important thing. After that we came home and enjoyed a rather unusual Christmas Eve. It was just us and we weren't even having any people over. I tried! But everyone we invited or asked already had plans, and nobody invited us (cue the violins, I know). Since this was the case, we decided to ditch tradition and have lasagna for dinner! We asked the kids what they wanted and this was the meal that won out. It was great! After lunch, Jeremy and the boys played legos in the basement, Grace took a nap, and I turned on White Christmas to watch while I made the lasagna. Anna flitted in and out and danced along to the music and it was very relaxed. We tried to make it special with doing a nice table, but it felt a little like any other night at dinner with four kids - a little crazy. Luckily everyone loved the food so there were no complaints there. :)
 

After dinner we cleaned up and got ready for our traditional nativity acting out. I ended up putting Grace to bed before we did it, so she missed out, but that's probably for the best. Thanks to the idea from President Eyring in the Christmas Devotional, we decided to add Samuel the Lamanite this year and it was great! The kids especially loved the "throwing stones and arrows at him" part.

 Connor played a very convincing Samuel and Anna and Eli did their best to miss him with their aluminum foil stones.

  I played the angel appearing to Mary and later to the shepherds, and Anna played her usual Mary.

 Eli was Joseph and later a wiseman and Connor was also a shepherd and later a wiseman too (he was busy). Jeremy played a donkey, shepherd and wiseman as well.

 And of course we can't forget Orangey (Connor's bear) who played the part of the sheep. Very well done, if I might add.

We finished up the night with delicious dessert (Double Chocolate Torte - yes please!, along with an array of Christmas cookies and candies) and then got the kids to bed so we could prep for the morning!

We let them all sleep in the same room so they were pretty excited. I don't think I heard a peep though, they were pretty worn out and convinced they wouldn't get presents if they didn't go to sleep!

Christmas Festivities Part Two

After we got back from Utah, it was just one short week until Christmas. We packed a lot in, but apparently didn't take any photos (we were too busy I guess). Monday was spent unpacking, doing mounds of laundry and putting the house back together. Tuesday I went to Costco and Walmart to stock up on food and we had Jeremy's cousin's kids over for dinner (they just moved to Florida, sad!). Wednesday was the kids' last day of school! I spent most of the day making and delivering treats and notes to my visiting teaching people and our neighbors. And I know we had something that night but I can't remember....Thursday my parents came for the night on their way down to Florida! We opened presents with them and had a fun quick visit. Ooh, I did get a picture of yoga with Grandma!

Friday we were supposed to go to a wedding reception but we bailed and stayed home for a much needed night in. We finished up Christmas treat making, including our Christmas Eve dessert, and house cleaning-up so we could enjoy Christmas Eve the next day.

And since I have no other pictures I'll insert a few random ones from our month of December, mostly of Grace...

(This was after I put her down when she bit me)

Watching Rudolph!

Tutu's Funeral

Jeremy's grandmother passed away in early December. She had been sick for awhile, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but still sad and we miss her! We felt so lucky to be able to go out for the funeral. We thought for sure the flight prices would be astronomical right before Christmas and just Jeremy would go, but I guess because it was last minute we were able to find some good deals. We flew out of Columbus and were able to find better deals than we did last summer when we searched for months and months (and ended up flying out of Chicago to get a better deal).

Our flight was delayed and we were on the second leg for a looong time, so we were happy to get there! We also tried to remember our Light the World service. Jeremy was great at this. Every time we travel my heart beams with pride.  I'm always worried about myself and the kids, and he always notices people that need help and is right there to lift a bag or whatever. He is a good man!

Anyway it was such a wonderful trip and we were so glad we went! My aunt and uncle heard we were coming and right away offered their Suburban to us and a ride from the airport. That was so nice! They picked us up and brought us to my Grandma's house so we could visit with her along with a bunch of my other family! (Aunt Judy, Aunt Cassie, Uncle Dave, Aunt Laura, Uncle Alan, and cousins Katie, Michelle, Kylie, and second cousins to my kids Dexter, Lexi, and Lola). Laura had pizza and salads ready for us and it was so nice after a very long day of traveling! We were the first of Jeremy's family to arrive in Utah, so it worked out nicely to see my family for a bit.

After we visited for an hour or so we went back up to Salt Lake and checked in our hotel and Jeremy's mom arrived about 5 minutes later! We got the kids to bed and visited with her for a minute before collapsing in bed ourselves. The next day we went to the funeral home with her to finalize the arrangements and then went to a delicious lunch at Red Iguana. Jeremy and I really wanted good Mexican since it doesn't really exist in the Midwest and it certainly delivered! Man it was good.

Then we went back to the hotel to give the kids a nap since they were exhausted and messed up from the time change and then we went back out and checked out a gluten-free bakery for some treats and then went to Temple Square! It was so so fun to be there at Christmas time!

First we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and checked out their awesome Family History Discovery Center. It was really cool! It had maps of where your family came from and lots of cool things for the kids to look at.

 Mine above, Jeremy's below.

Once we were done we came out and all the beautiful lights were on!

We were dressed for cold weather but it was actually almost 60 degrees that day, very bizarre. After we saw the lights, we had dinner in the City Creek Mall food court and headed back to the hotel.

Friday was spent playing with the Alatorres! Jeremy's sister Becky and her family, along with Jeremy's dad arrived late Thursday night/Friday morning so we spent the day with them. We played games, went to lunch, swam in the hotel pool, and relaxed.

 Then that night we headed to Draper where Jeremy's aunts and all their families were there. We rehearsed the music for the funeral and ate dinner together. It was so fun to see everyone!

Then Saturday morning was the funeral. It was a beautiful service and full of wonderful memories of Charlene. She had a hard life, but still managed to find so much joy. She was always ready for a good time and loved to be surrounded by her family. It was sweet to hear so many tender memories of her.

Tim and I played the organ/piano and Jeremy's great Uncle Bob spoke along with his brother Jonathan and his cousin Robert. The great-grandkids all sang "I Am a Child of God" and "Families Can Be Together Forever" and the grand-daughters and grand-daughters-in-law sang "Because I Have Been Given Much" (Charlene's favorite hymn). Then Becky and Ellen and I sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I felt honored to participate and contribute to the program.

 After the funeral we went to the cemetery for a few minutes (it was very cold) and then back to the church for a wonderful luncheon.

 Debbie with her sister Denise.

We spent a couple hours there visiting with everyone. All but two of Charlene's grandkids were there and all but three of her nieces and nephews were there, which I thought was pretty amazing. It was definitely a family reunion!

 Charlene had two younger brothers and they were all very close. These are all the kids of Charlene and her brothers (minus four I believe, one left before the photo. Charlene had three daughters, Jim has four kids, and Bob has 10 kids)

 And here are the kids of the people in the above photo:

 And here are all of Charlene's grandkids (minus two who couldn't make it).

 And Charlene's great-grandkids (also minus two who couldn't make it, and plus two helping mommies. :)

We had about an hour to spend with Jeremy's brother Jon after we got back to the hotel and then they took off to go see Shannon's sister. 

 Above - Kami and Anna, only 12 days apart I think, maybe 13.

 Boston, Eli, and Connor. Boston is about 8 months younger than Connor.

 And Grace and Lexi! This was our first time meeting Lexi! She looks just like Kami (and therefore Shannon!) She is 7 months older than Grace and Shannon and Jon are expecting another Girl in March! Below - sweet good-bye hugs for Grace.

We then got packed up that night and spent our last night visiting with Jeremy's parents and then headed out very early Sunday morning to go home. We got home and realized Christmas was just a week away! Ohhh boy!