Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Eve started off with the traditional Reuben sandwiches.

 

The kids are getting closer to loving them. It takes some time because of the strong flavors, but once you turn the corner, you'll love them for life! 

Kristen K. the Reuben "sandwich artist" at work.

 

The baked beans and appetizers were all super yummy.  I ate too much. . .

 

After dinner I tried to take a few pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree.

 

Jameson was a little wired, and when I say "a little" I really mean he would have greatly benefited from a padded room.  It took about 20 minutes before I could get him in the picture at all and then another 20 before I could capture something resembling a smile.

 

Mostly there was a lot of this going on:

 

 

I think you get the idea.

 

Time for the Christmas Eve presents! 

 

I always give the kids pajamas on Christmas Eve., but this year while doing laundry I came to the conclusion that they have way too many pajamas, so I decided to get them something a little different.  Of course, I started to second guess my decision when the girls started talking about how excited they were for their new pajamas before I passed out the gifts.  Oh dear, what did I do?

 

Ta-da! Heat bags for everyone!

 

I was genuinely relieved when the heat bags were a big hit.  You pop these bags in the microwave for 2 minutes and you have instant warmth.  It's heaven when you live in the arctic north. Jameson was the only one who was not impressed.  Fortunately I had gotten him pajamas, too, because he actually needed them.  This kid isn't even 3 yet and he is already in 4T pajamas.  I didn't see it coming when I stocked up on 3T pajamas a few months ago to get him through the winter. 

 

Jameson was a no show for the above picture.  We couldn't get him to sit still long enough.

 

 

We didn't act out the Nativity this year so Britton was more than happy to assume the "listening position" as Adam read Luke 2.

 

Afterwards Adam hooked his laptop up to a large computer monitor so we could watch the Nativity videos from LDS.org. When that was done we got a little sidetracked and ended up showing Grandma and Grandpa all of our favorite Christmas song videos on YouTube.  We watched songs from Pentatonix, Cloverton, and Piano Guys.  The kids also showed Grandma and Grandpa their favorite Studio C sketches.

Finally Christmas morning arrived. And the kids were more than excited.  We ended up going down to the family room around 6:50 when Grandma and Grandpa arrived at the house.

 

Santa has been here!

Lining up to go downstairs.

Britton, Jenna and Korinne went for the presents, but Jameson unloaded his stocking first.  I love how excited he was about getting an orange in the above picture.

 

Jenna is Studio C's biggest fan and loved her Scott Sterling T-shirt.  If you don't know who Scott Sterling is you can look it up on YouTube. Scott Sterling. The Man. The Myth. The Legend.  Jenna's big Christmas gift was a new full sized violin.   She was also excited to get some earrings now that she can wear them.

 

Jameson loving his Thomas the Train book and train track.

 

Britton's big gift was a trip to China at the end of March.  I've always wanted my kids to have the China experience while Uncle Taylor and Aunt Jen are still living there, but it's not an easy thing to pull off.  When there was a big sale on International flights on Cyber Monday and Grandma and Grandpa decided to go to China exactly over our spring break we decided the time was right to send the first child over. Britton will be traveling with his grandparents and will be gone for 9 days all while only missing 2 days of school.  The flight was a great deal and we're really excited for him to have this experience.  He already knew about the China trip and wasn't expecting anything else for Christmas so he was pleasantly surprised to get some clothes and a couple of ties, too.

 

 

 

Korinne was thrilled to get some new headphones, an LCD writing board, and a FurReal dog.  The only kind of dogs we allow around here require batteries so she was plenty excited for it to be hers.

 

I'm pretty sure Grandma and Grandpa thought Santa had lost his mind when Jameson opened up a box with sand in it. . .

 

 

. . .but then they found out it was kinetic sand that won't spread all over and get messy and is super fun to play with and keeps kids entertained for hours. Oh, Ok, that makes a little more sense. Santa's not crazy, Santa is a genius! Jameson loves it, and so does Britton, Jenna and Korinne.  I've even caught myself playing with it quite a bit.  Kinetic sand has a really cool texture because it's 95% sand and 5% silly putty. It's easier to clean up than play dough and will never dry out. Awesome.

 

 

The kids opening up their gifts from Mom and Dad.  Surprise!  A season pass to Lagoon! Considering we have been to Lagoon exactly one time in that last 10 years this is a big deal.

 For all of the people who were hoping for a white Christmas, their dreams came true.  It started snowing during the night on Christmas Eve and continued to snow all day on Christmas.  When all was said and done we got about 12 inches of snow.

We decided to go and see the movie "Annie" for our Christmas Day fun.

Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to drive to my sister Heather's house, but when the snow kept them home they offered to let Jameson nap while we went to the movie.  It was such a fun movie and even Britton liked it!  I thought Jamie Foxx was great and he certainly kept us laughing. Warning: It gets a little cheesy at the end but I'll definitely be putting it on our "movies to get from China" list.

After the movie we had a Christmas dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Adam made his rolls and his traditional "Christmas jello" to go with our rotisserie chicken (picked up the day before), cheesy potatoes and salad.  It was all delish.

Another Christmas is in the books and it was a great one.  I, for one, am absolutely ready to take the Christmas decorations down, but Adam it lobbying for a few more days. We'll see how long they'll last. . .

"Why?"

We had to have 4 kids before we finally got a "why"er in the family.  You know, the child that asks "why?" approx. 65 times a day about everything under the sun.  Jameson is that child in our family.  He asks questions all. day. long.  He asks a lot questions that don't really have an answer so I find myself saying, "Because that's just how it is" more often than not.  Deep thoughts, Hilary, deep thoughts.  We knew once he started talking we weren't going to be able to get him to stop and we were right.  Jameson truly has the gift of gab.

Britton had both a piano recital and an orchestra concert on the same night this last week.  Fortunately his piano teacher scheduled the recital for 5 p.m. so students could make 7 p.m. concerts if need be.  Britton's piano teacher, Annette, is very experienced and has about 60 students so I was very grateful that all of the students played duets for the recital.  Genius idea. We got done twice as fast and the Christmas music sounded all fancy and stuff because there were 4 hands playing instead of just two.  Britton did a great job, but I wasn't able to get a still picture because I filmed it instead. 

Next up was Britton and Jenna's orchestra concert at school.  I tried to take a picture of them after it was over, but J-mo couldn't let an opportunity to photo bomb pass him by.

Britton still laughing at Jameson's antics.

I needed to use up a gift certificate Adam gave me last Christmas to have my hair done so I went in this month to get some highlights.  Since I went to the same person who has done highlights for me 3 times already, I thought she would just do the same thing she has done in the past. Well, she didn't.  She made the highlights super light and I really hate it.  Not just a little, but a lot. It's been a few weeks and I just can't get used to them. On Saturday night Adam and I went to a formal Christmas party and snapped a quick picture before we left.

I have to remind myself that nobody cares about my botched highlights, but I still feel like such a fake.  They're just not me and growing them out is going to be a pain.  Can you say chia pet?

We got home around 11 p.m. on Saturday night and found the girls and Jameson asleep in the family room by the Christmas tree.

 

I have no problem with them sleeping by the Christmas tree on a Friday night in December, but did they really have to use every blanket and pillow in the house piled on top of each other?? I think they kind of had the "go big or go home" thing going on.

 

December 21st and it rained all day long. Awesome.  I could really get used to this weather! 

MoTab

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert this year.  The Muppets and Santino Fontana were the featured guests and we were excited to see how they would put it all together.

 

It was so fun and I must say it was the most I have ever laughed at a MoTab concert.  Definitely worth watching it next year when they play it again on KBYU!

Burt, Ernie and Santino singing "Sing a Song"

 I think my favorite part of the concert was the organ solo with Count Dracula.  They did the 12 days of Christmas and the organist was A-MA-ZING!!

 

I left the concert having such an appreciation for talented people.  The Sesame Street Puppeteers are clearly the cream of the crop and no one even knows who they are! Because of this I really liked it when they all walked out on stage at the very end to take their bow. It's cool to catch a rare glimpse of the people behind the most famous puppets in the world.

 

Adam, Jenna, Korinne and I were able to go on Saturday night.  Grandma, Grandpa and Britton went to the Sunday morning concert and still made it back for 1:00 p.m. church.

 It was super crowded on Temple Square Saturday night, but we managed to see some of the lights and take a few pictures.

Our ward Christmas Party had a Grinch/Whoville theme and we dubbed the 2 main women in charge the "party planning dream team".  They are the kind of people who think it is fun to plan a big party and boy, they really went all out!  It was definitely the most festive ward Christmas party I've ever been to.

 

My parents have all of the pictures I want to post so I'll just post the 2 that I have and add the rest in later.

 

 

It was a morning Christmas Party so everyone was welcome to come in pajamas or dressed up like someone from the Grinch story.  The girls wanted me to do their hair like the Who's from Whoville.  I wasn't sure quite what to do, but fortunately they were happy with my attempt.

 

 

Since both events were on the same day it really helped to get us all into the Christmas spirit.  The weather has been quite mild, but I'm A-Okay with not having a white Christmas!  Jenna, however, is not.  She can't wait for it to really start snowing.

As per tradition we had our Jerusalem supper on a Monday night in December.  We are still a few years away from being to eat on the floor again (Jameson) so we ate at the kitchen table.  When I got out the camera to take a picture of the food before the lights went out Jameson yelled "Photo bomb!" and pulled this face:

When I tried to take another picture he repeated the process.

"Photo Bomb!"

He's into "photo bombing" now and never misses an opportunity.  We were only able to eat in the dark by candlelight for a total of 45 seconds before Jameson turned the lights back on.  He said he was too scared to eat without the lights.  I guess that's another thing we'll have to add back in later on.  We were able to talk about the Savior and his birth so it was still a successful evening even if we did eat with the lights on while sitting at the table instead of by candlelight on the floor.

A Redneck Thanksgiving

It was a busy and eventful week.  Jenna learned about cake decorating at Activity Days on Monday afternoon.  Here she is with her creation.

 

Jameson helped himself to the leftover frosting. 

Frosting? What frosting? It wasn't me, Mom.

Adam's last day working for Academy Mortgage was on Tuesday.  He has been with Academy for over 11 years.  That's a long time.  Jenna was 6 months old when he started back in 2003.  We decided it was time to move on and the timing was right.  Adam will be working for Veritas Funding and is planning to activate his Real Estate license and do a few real estate deals on the side. 

Now we just need to figure out what to do with all of his logo wear. Academy polo shirts take up about half of his current wardrobe.

For scouts this week the boys were asked to come prepared to dress and pluck a chickens for the animal science merit badge. I bet your local scout troup didn't slaughter chickens this week, am I right?

One of the assistant scout leaders had several chickens that weren't laying enough eggs to warrant feeding them through the winter and another assistant just happened to have experience in large scale commercial operations in this area.  Who knew?

 Britton with the chickens he dressed and plucked (and killed).  He was only slightly traumatized.

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to Blackfoot, Idaho for my niece Abigail's baptism.  Abigail lives in Texas but my sister opted to have the baptism the day before Thanksgiving in Blackfoot so Abigail would have a lot of family present instead of only a few. Abigail asked Jenna to give a talk about the Holy Ghost during the program and Jenna did a terrific job.

Wednesday night we stayed at my Aunt Kathy's house and my parents and sisters and families went back up to  Rexburg to stay at Heather's house.  They returned in the morning but since Adam is in charge of the rolls we find he needs to start them before the crowd arrives so they are done in time for dinner.

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Brent and my cousins Dustin and Jake and their wives Larah and Marci and families were all there there.  Usually when a family starts to have their own grandchildren they stop getting together with extended family and just get together with their own family instead.  For my Dad and his sister, this transition never took place even after both of their parents passed. Why?  No one wanted it to change.  We genuinely enjoy getting together and have so many traditions we just can't give it up.   Every year my Dad's kids and grandkids and my Aunt's kids and grandkids all get together in Blackfoot for what can only be called, "A Redneck Thanksgiving."

My siblings who live out of state or out of the country will tell you that Thanksgiving is the only day they ever feel homesick.

Dustin, Marci, Jake and Larah on their cell phones.  Parents these days. . .

Adam making the rolls.

 

Every year my family jokes that my attendance is optional, but Adam's attendance is required and non-negotiable. 

The weather was amazing this year.  Britton and Jantzen out playing soccer in the back yard.

Is it really 50 something degrees out here?  Yep. Gotta love it. More often than not it is bitter cold with a lot of snow and ice at this time of year.

 

That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen.  It must mean that dinner is almost ready!

 

My Aunt always clears out her garage, rolls out carpet on the floor and heats it so we can use it as a Thanksgiving gathering place.  Here are the girls working on their Thanksgiving crafts.

Anna, Jenna and Abigail

Jameson found a true friend in Oakley, his second cousin.  They were 2 peas in a pod and before long I was calling her the "Jameson Whisperer". She was so good with him and they stuck together the entire time. In fact when Oakley had to leave she cried and cried saying that she wanted to stay and be with Jameson.

Jameson, Oakley, Quinn

Wherever Oakley was, there was Jameson also. 

Just when everything is about ready to go the kids miraculously start showing up. Oh the anticipation!

The food is amazing.  When you are able to divide the feast between 14 competent adults everyone brings their "A" game and the food is to die for.  Since every family is responsible for something different it comes together nicely and isn't too much for one person to handle.

It's go time!

Elsie, Brinley, Abigail and Korinne

Jantzen, Anna, Jenna, Parker, and Riley

Tanner, Britton, Cole, Oakley, Jameson and Quinn

 Official homemade Thanksgiving root beer? Check!

Marci

 Adam's plate.

Adam didn't really understand why I wanted to take a picture of his plate, but he was plenty happy to sit down and start eating it.

All of the adults around the table.  

After dinner and cleanup it was off to the bowling alley.  Uncle Brent had an assortment of trophies for highest scoring man/women, girl/boy and even a trophy for the lowest score of the day.  Our bowling tournament plans hit a snag when we arrived at the bowling alley right as it opened at 4 p.m. only to be aced out by 2 other large families who have the same tradition.  Instead of 5 or 6 lanes we needed we only had 3 lanes to work with.  We quickly decided to just let the 16 kids in attendance bowl and the rest of us could help and watch the action.

What a difference a year makes.  Last year Jameson hated bowling, this year he would jump up and down and cheer every time he hit a pin.

Jenna and Brinley

Heather and Tiffany

Larah and Heather

 

 Unfortunately the scoring computers stopped working so everyone's scores were messed up.  Not even the highest boy and girl trophies could be given out since none of the scores were accurate. Oh well, there is always next year.

Jantzen and Britton

Jameson hadn't had a nap all day and was so tired he fell asleep in Adam's lap.

12 of the 16 kids in attendance

 After bowling it was back to the house for the fireworks. . .

Watching the fireworks

 

This part of the tradition is only slightly illegal.  My Uncle Brent seems to "up the program" every year so apparently he isn't too worried about getting in trouble.

No one will ever forget the year we saw a police car flying down a road toward the house with his lights flashing and siren blaring at the conclusion of the fireworks.  We all ran in the house and someone yelled, "Everyone hide and turn off the lights!"  Well, the cop never arrived  and we had a good laugh about it.  My Aunt and Uncle found out later the cop was one his way to a domestic dispute call from one of the neighbors and didn't care at all about the out of season fireworks.

After the fireworks it was time for the Thanksgiving pinatas. The kids were split into 2 groups, the older kids and the younger kids.  Then the kids went from youngest to oldest when hitting the piñata.  Jameson was the first one to get a crack at the Angry Bird.

Everyone got 3 or 4 turns before the piñata was finally broken.

A mad dash for the candy and prizes.

Next up were the older kids.

Uncle Brent made it a little more challenging to actually hit it.

More candy and prizes.

 

After the pinatas it was back to the kitchen for leftovers and pie.  The only thing better than one Thanksgiving meal is 2 Thanksgiving meals!

 

This is also when my Aunt pulls out a sampling of all of her chocolates and homemade candy.

 

Kathy is a very gifted chocolate and candy maker.  If you've ever tried them you know exactly what I'm talking about. Sooooo good.  Unfortunately I can never get enough which is why I simply plan on gaining 5 lbs and just hope I can lose it during the rest of the winter. :-)

Siblings Kathy and Steve

After the festivities were over we headed to my sister Heather's house for one more day of family togetherness.  Tif and Shawn were in town from Texas and flew home on Saturday.

 

Some day we will learn to take family pictures at a time other than first thing in the morning when everyone is packing up getting ready to leave.



Heather, Brinley, Aaron, Elsie, Quinn, Anna, Jantzen and Tanner

The cousins.

Tiffany, Shawn and Abigail

We arrived home in time to put up Christmas decorations and get ready for the Christmas season. We had a great week with family and missed everyone who wasn't able to be a part of it.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!