Merry Christmas

The kids have been out of school all week and I've spent the week mustering up the energy to finish the Christmas Shopping.  Poor Eileen spent a large chunk of the week babysitting so that I could get stuff done.  Aside from my Christmas Shopping on Monday, we also tried to get laundry done and got the grocery shopping done.  

Tuesday I did a bit more shopping - the problem is that the places that I needed to go were across town and so while there wasn't much to buy, I had to do a decent amount of driving to get there.  By Tuesday I was mostly done.  Which was good - because I was almost out of time.   Wednesday morning, Eileen and I took off and headed up to Laramie to visit with Steve and Claire's family and to teach them crochet.  I had a really great time hanging out and teaching them and playing with them.  We spent the day having fun together and crocheting and then we stayed the night so we could have more fun on the next day.  

Thursday we spent the morning crocheting and teaching and learning, then after lunch and a little bit more instruction on reading patterns, Eileen and I headed back home in time for dinner and bedtime.  

Friday was mostly spent cleaning house and getting ready for the weekend.  I had to get the spare bedroom ready and then my parents arrived in the evening.  

Saturday my parents were kind enough to watch the kids for a bit while Dan and I got the last of the Christmas shopping done and got the food shopping for Christmas dinner done.  We also spent the afternoon getting food ready for that night and Christmas night.  Then in the evening, we headed to Frank and Tina's for the Christmas Eve party and Bagna Caulda.  We had a great night hanging out with family and friends and eating yummy (but not very healthy) food.  We got home from the party, read scriptures, said prayers, hung the last advent calendar ornament and let the kids open their Christmas Eve present.  Then we sent them to bed to finish getting stuff ready.  Amazingly, we were done and ready to head to bed by 10:30 - we think it was probably a record time for getting things done on Christmas Eve.  

This morning, the kids woke up bright and thankfully-not-too early.  We were up and going by about 8:00 and the kids opened their stockings, then paused for breakfast.  Then we did the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Jones, from each other, from mom and dad and from Grandma and Grandpa Cox.  Then we paused to get ready for church.  Then we headed to church for a wonderful Christmas Program and chatting with friends before heading back home.  After, we ate a quick lunch of muffins (using my Christmas present of silicone muffin pans, then opened the presents from Grandma Penny.  Then the kids got down to the serious business of playing with their toys and the adults got down to the serious business of getting things ready for the party.  Then in the evening, family came over to eat and celebrate and exchange presents.  We had a wonderful evening, which was not too late since there was apparently a Bronco's game tonight which my uncles HAD to watch.  :)  

This is James in his Bumble bathrobe and his Bumble sucker and his favorite new stuffed animal.  

This is Eileen decked out in her full nerd gear Christmas gifts.  Star Trek uniform and earrings.

And finally a cute Anna opening her stocking.

All in all - it was a wonderful Christmas, full of love and giving and throughtfulness and most importantly - Christ.  It's so wonderful having Christmas on the Sabbath!

And More Music

Well the week started off mostly normal - Laundry and grocery shopping.  Kids at school and homework, piano practice and such at home.  Becca came over in the morning to crochet with me and we had a fun time together!  Then we invited her and Jeremiah to come back for dinner.  We had another fun dinner of French Toast and fruit and had a great time together.  

Tuesday, Evie woke up early having thrown up, so she stayed home from school.  The other kids went to school, and Evie rested.  We cancelled preschool so the other kids wouldn't get sick and Evie and James and I just took it easy.  She was feeling better by the next day though.  

Wednesday was late start and then after dropping the kids off, James and I had a mostly easy day until they got back.  In the evening, Dan and Eileen had mutual, I had a quick interview to finish getting my reccomend renewed and Aaron had cub scouts.  Choir is out until the end of January.  

Thursday we had a Preschool Christmas party, we did lots of fun Christmas crafts and ate fun yummy snacks and had a good time.  After picking the kids up from their last day of school until after the holidays, we had a fun afternoon playing together.  Dan came home early from work while preschool was going on and went and slept most of the afternoon - he wasn't feeling so good, but was feeling better after.  In the evening, some of Dan's friends from work came over to play games with us.  We played a couple new games that they brought and let Eileen play too - one was very space/nerd themed and she loved it - and it was a fun game to play too :)  Then we sent her to bed and played a game of Dominion.  

Friday the kids were off school and we mostly just spent the day playing around the house and having fun together.  We were supposed to have a game night, but the DM was sick, so it got cancelled, so I spent the evening getting the necessary groceries for the cookie making weekend.  Then shortly after I got back home, the snow hit.  We got 4-5 inches and most of what we had going on for Saturday got cancelled.  

Saturday mostly ended up being a chill day.  Dan heard that Murdoch's had live Reindeer that you could go see, and we needed more chicken feed, so we headed down to let the kids see live reindeer.  They all thought it was pretty cool - though Aaron didn't wan't his picture taken.  

We also took the kids to the dollar store to do their shopping for each other.  They all had a great time this year picking out gifts for each other.  Even James got into it this year!  Then in the evening, we decorated cookies.  The kids had a blast as usual, we missed having Newell and Becky and their family, but we still had fun together.  

Sunday was great - Dan didn't have meetings so he got to stay and hang out with us before church.  Eileen gave her first Sacrament meeting talk today - she was REALLY nervous and didn't enjoy the experience at all - but she did a really good job anyway!  After some awesome lessons, we had ward choir practice - which was all of 4 people, including me and Eileen.  Then we headed home for a late lunch before Dan and Eileen headed out to go caroling with the youth.  They got back just in time for us all to pack up and head out.  Dan had to go to his company Christmas Party and the kids and I headed to Grandpa's for the Carol Sing and Scripture Reading.  It went well - Frankie also did a solo this year and his voice is really maturing and he is really becoming a great singer.  I got to sing "O Holy Night" again - I love singing that song!  Then after, the family gathered for a late dinner and fun and chatter before finally heading home for bed time!  Only one week until Christmas!

Christmas Music

So Monday was a survival day where I tried to get laundry done and tried to get some grocery shopping done and tried to do a little family home evening with the kids.  Dan being out of town is always a bit rough.  Anna had a doctors appointment after school, Eileen watched the other kids while I took her.  Then we had a fun time for Family Home Evening, the light the world idea for the day was to help the sick, so we made get well cards...  well what that really means with my kids is that they stamped a lot of random things on paper and punched decorative holes in that same paper and maybe wrote "get well" somewhere on it.  But it was cute and sweet and they had fun.  

Tuesday James had preschool in the morning, then in the afternoon, Anna had her all-state choir practice.  In the evening was the Relief Society Cookie Exchange.  Eileen wanted to make and bring her very own cookies - and she had a blast making them Monday night and bringing them on Tuesday.  The activity was a lot of fun and we had a good time together.  After, I dropped her and the other kids off at home and had her babysit so I could go to Institute.  Class was wonderful!  

Wednesday, the kids were so excited knowing that Dan would get home that day.  After school, Anna had a dentist appointment and then we got home in time to get dinner ready and eaten before Sister Cotrell came to babysit the little kids while everyone else was at all the events.  Me at choir, Dan got home just in time for Young Men, Eileen at Young Women, Anna at activity days, Aaron at cub scouts.  Choir practice ran late even on top of the extra half hour of time added for a tech rehearsal.  But it was wonderful!  

Thursday James had his preschool trip in the morning.  One of his little friends wasn't going to be able to make it because of a not happy baby sister, so I offered to pick her up and take her with us.  We all went to Hammond's Candy Factory and were lucky enough to get there on a day when they had some extra crafts and stuff for the kids to do because of the holidays.  The kids had a great time!  After school, Eileen had her teens for oceans meeting.  Plus Dan was home all day so we got to hang out with daddy.  Dan spent some of his day off building a back drop for a sister in our ward - he is such a good man!!!  I love how willing he is to help and serve others!  

Thursday night was our first concert of the season.  It went pretty well and it was a lot of fun.  Eileen came along with me - it's fun to have her want to come with me to these things!

Friday was a typical school day.  James and I had to run some errands in the morning, then after school, Anna had robotics and the rest of the kids had their piano and homework and such.  Then Dan picked Anna up a little early from Robotics to come home and have a quick dinner before I took her and Eileen to my concert.  They both enjoyed it, and Grandpa came too - so after we went with him back to his place to have hot cocoa and chat for a bit.  Then on the way home we made a little stop at Chili's for a dessert.  Yes it kept them out late - but it was a very fun night.

Saturday started out with the usual Flute lessons, then piano lessons followed by getting some cleaning done around the house.  We played a bit of maple story together, then in the evening, Dan took the kids to the ward Christmas party which was wonderful.  Eileen ditched her family early on to spend most of her time with a new girl in the ward.  I left about the same time to head to my final concert of the season.  The concert went well and was probably the best sung performance of the season.  It's always a little sad and a bit of a relief when the last concert is over.

Sunday was church.  I wore my cloak, so the kids spent most of Sacrament meeting snuggling up to me and stealing my cloak to use as a blanket.  But the meeting was wonderful!  The speakers were wonderful and there was a gorgeous musical number by a newer member of our ward on the violin.  After was class and relief society - another wonderful lesson!  After church, we had ward choir practice and then we headed home for our usual early dinner and family time.  Then in the evening, Eileen and I picked her friend up and headed to the Stake Christmas music fireside.  The fireside was wonderful with lots of good music and lots of good friends.

Here Comes Christmas!

I can't believe it's already December.  The kids went back to school on Monday and had a great time.  James and I took it easy together, reading books and cuddling.  We had the missionaries and Evie's primary teacher Sister Cotrell over for dinner.  We did yummy home-made pizzas - which Eileen of course didn't like, but I think everyone else liked it.  :)  

Tuesday was school for the big kids, preschool for James and I went home and napped until pick up time.  After school, there was no all state choir for Anna, so we all headed home and did the usual after school routine.  

Wednesday was late start school day, then James and I had fun at the house.  After school there was piano and homework and such, then in the evening, YM/YW, and Choir.  

Thursday was rather insane.  After taking James to preschool, I did some Christmas shopping for the kids, Then we got the kids from school and we kicked off the "Light The World" event with some service - we went and raked up our sweet neighbors yard.  The kids had fun working and playing and serving!  Then Dan came home early so we could go get a Christmas tree together before he left town.  

We headed to Home Depot as usual for our tree - picked out by Eileen - and grabbed it and took it home.  Dan got it set up while I got dinner ready, then after dinner, we decorated 

Bright and early on Friday, Dan headed to the airport to head to Florida while we stayed here to prepare for a cold front and snow coming in next week....  We mostly took Friday afternoon pretty easy and had a quick dinner out of the freezer.  Eileen and Anna and I had fun playing Maple Story together after the younger kids went to bed.  The Light the World suggestion for today was reading a story about an ancestor, so I went onto a blog my Grandpa created to record some of his and Aunt Joan's memories and I read some to them.  

Saturday started busy as usual - flute lessons for Eileen (and all the other kids were mad that they had to come too) Then piano lessons - Eileen is talking about maybe switching out piano for organ lessons.  Thankfully after that, stuff slowed down some.  We had lunch and the kids had fun running around outside and got some cleaning done around the house, and had a quick leftover dinner followed by bedtime for the younger kids and lesson prep for me.  For Light the World, the suggestion was to point out a virtue in someone else that they might now see, so we spent a few minutes before bedtime pointing out each others virtues.  I got a call in the evening from Uncle Frank saying that Tina had a heart attack but was doing better and would be coming home soon - it was scary - but it has been so sweet watching the kids pray for her ever morning and night during family prayers.  

Today was wonderful - mostly - Anna isn't feeling well :(  Church was wonderful though - my friend was able to make it for Sacrament Meeting.  The testimonies shared were wonderful.  The Relief Society lesson was wonderful and after church, we had a wonderful dinner together and had fun together.  We all got to sit down and watch the Christmas Devotional together - it was incredible!!  After we chatted with Dan for a little bit.  Today's Light the World suggestion was to resolve to pray every day in December - the kids pointed out to me that we already say prayers every day - so I challenged them to be a little better at remembering to say our personal prayers.  

Well now I just need to survive a couple more days before Dan gets home....