Christmas 2014

This Christmas went like most Christmases of the past. I plan. We save. (Well, actually that was a first...what a novel idea, saving money for Christmas!) We shop. We spend. We say "Enough!" We spend more. 

I plan projects. I start about 17 projects. Two days before Christmas I have an epic meltdown when I realize there is absolutely no way I will finish all of my projects. I lower my expectations drastically until I don't feel so overwhelmed. I finish one of the 17 projects. 

We visit friends, go to concerts and plays and broadcasts. I bake...cookies, pumpkin roll, pie, more cookies, bread. We eat ramen for dinner one night...ham and cheese sandwiches the next, because the sink is too full of dishes from the baking to plan anything more extravagant. 

We make teacher gifts, organize class parties, send in wrapped books for gift exchanges, money for pizza parties, and feel completely exasperated when we have to make last minute cookies for "that class party I told you about two weeks ago."

 There is much talk of presents. Every day I hear, "do you know what else I want for Christmas?" We lecture about "the real meaning of Christmas," have family home evening about the true meaning of Christmas, and remind, remind, remind of what it's all about. And still, on Christmas Eve night, there is a little boy who is unhappy that he has to be a shepherd in our reenactment of the nativity, and fighting over who gets to be a sheep, and a very bossy Mary.

We count the minutes and days until Christmas, forget to hide Timber (our elf) almost every night and wake up at three a.m. in a cold sweat every three days yelling "MOVE TIMBER!" 

We eat the candy every day from our advent calendar, and everyone is sad when they realize that Marianne has eaten everyone's candy from the last two days.

The excitement of the year is contagious, though, and Christmas Eve this year was no exception. I got a text from my dad the day before saying, "How early can you come on Christmas Eve? I will make breakfast and help keep the kids entertained. Rus could come down when he escapes from work." It was an offer I couldn't refuse. We were there by 8;15. My mom and I spent hours in the kitchen. We don't know why it took us so long. But dinner that night was delicious, and the first pecan pie I've ever made was gone fast and is begging to be remade. 

We came back to my house to open our Christmas jammies and do our nativity play and set out goodies for Santa. 

Rus got me zip up jammies "so I could do zip up jammie nights with the kids." Really I think he just wanted to embarrass me. Marianne was delighted with my jammies and proclaimed that we could snuggle!

One funny thing about the nativity...at one point, our sheep, (Beau), somehow bucked and face planted on the wood floor. He got a bloody nose that took 30 minutes to tame.

And after only an our of "I can't sleep," the kids were finally settled so we could make our last minute Christmas preparations, like playing scrabble and eating Santa's crackers and cheese.

Highlights of Christmas morning:

Kids were up at five, then 5:45, and then 5:55 we relented.

Bekah got a mountain bike and a charm necklace, and tea cups and pots from me and my mom and Nana. We had a tea party later that morning.

Jacob and Beau got tablets. This is THE BEST picture of Christmas...I love Beau's pure expression of half-crazed exuberation. (Not a word? It should be...)

Jacob really, really wanted biking shoes to go with the pedals that he received for his birthday. Rus said it was going to be really hard for him to get the hang of it, but Jacob proved him wrong and was happily biking with his clip in pedals later that day.

Marianne got a mouse "doll" house, but she was equally delighted by finding gum in her stocking.

She LOVED her Elsa nightgown/dress and her big bead necklace. She has worn it everyday since.

Rus got a trigger for his gun, and supplies to brew his own root beer, and a hand stitched leather wallet from me (that was the one out of seventeen projects that I finished).

My mom got one of my temple prints and my dad got a dust collector for his shop that Rus and I had found at the habitat restore. Rus and I gave my dad the dust collector by putting just one of the hoses by his stocking...My parents gave us a grill by wrapping just one of the parts in a box. We all laughed at our cleverness.

I got a bunch of printmaking supplies from Rus and some beautiful little pottery items from my mom.

After all of the presents were opened and everyone was reveling in their loot and my mom had headed back to bed, my dad and I started making pancakes. Not just any pancakes...AWESOME pancakes as made by SAIPancakes. The batter is made and loaded into squeeze bottles. One bottle is darkened with cocoa powder, and this is the one used to do the outlines. Then the insides are piped in with the batter in the other bottle. It was incredibly fun to do, and we wound up making probably a dozen more than was necessary because we enjoyed it so much.

My dad and his spitting image...

A reindeer and an elephant

Marianne helped fill in my pancake.

The temple...

It was a wonderful day, and once again I feel so blessed for all that we have and for my Savior who was born, lived, and died for me. And I love my crazy family and all of the exhausting and wonderful work that goes into loving them.