Tea Party

Darby came in the house one day and asked if she could bring some crackers over to the Thompsons. She was also carrying her dolls. Later I got this picture from Erica Thompson. Its a tea party with neighborhood girls on the front porch. Aren't they cute? Apparently it was the only time her girls wanted to eat celery. Go figure.

Christmas Day 2015

As I think most parents do, we gave our kids instructions that they were not to wake us up on Christmas morning before a certain time (in our case it was 7am). They were allowed to get their stocking goodies out but not touch any presents until we were up. So, at 5am I wake up to hear noises downstairs. No problem. I can't believe they are up at 5:00 but as long as they are quiet I don't care. Then, I hear the front door open. I peek out of my window to see the oldest three walking outside and down the street. WHAT?! So I race downstairs, fling open the door and tell them to come back inside. I was pretty annoyed due to the fact that it was so early (did I mention it was 5:00am? Right.) They said they wanted to go see if the Thompsons were up yet. Sigh. I should hope not.

Then I go back to bed. I hear screaming and crying from downstairs. I go back downstairs to referee. Apparently Brendan had been putting "kick me" signs on his sisters' back and they had been using my umbrella to whack him on the head, breaking it. Grrrr. NOT how Christmas is supposed to go, right?

I tried not to go all crazy mommy on them, threatened more waiting before presents if I heard another peep and went back to bed. Unfortunately I was wide awake but there was NO WAY I was going back downstairs. And so, at 7:00am Jason and I went down for the present opening. I'm glad that he was in a good mood because I was cranky.

Eva was our "elf" this year and she delivered the presents.

Here is how things shaped up the rest of the morning.

Jason:

Charger from the Telfords

New polyester tie

Bug-A-Salt Gun (yes, its spelled right, it shoots salt)

A vintage Nibley book older than he is

And As You Wish, a Princess Bride behind the scenes book


Christine:

Something you want - new knives (in the box I'm holding below)
Something you need - new socks (in my stocking)
Something you wear - new perfume (also in the picture below)

And something you read - The Magic of Tidying Up

A coloring book from the Telfords

And a family gift from the Telfords as well - a nativity that, lets face it, I am the most excited about. Its so pretty!!

*Note that I gave a Jason a gun and he gave me knives. We are secure in our relationship. :)


Brendan:

A chemistry book from Paige (with help from Mom)

A science kit from the Telfords

Chemistry flashcards

Mouse Trap game (he's been wanting this for months)

K'Nex set about simple machines

And a brain teaser from the Telfords. The two oldest each got one plus one for Jason and I (funny story about this to follow)

Eva:

 

Tinkerbell doll from Darby and big hug thank you

A book from the Telfords

A journal for the budding writer

More chapter books for the bookworm

Darby made everyone a pretty Christmas card. Here's Eva's.

And lastly, a tracing pad for her fashion artwork.

Darby:

 Coloring book from the Telfords ( I wanted to color this!)

A Barbie van with Ken too

Fancy Nancy early reader books

Bracelet craft set

A Barbie puzzle from the  Telfords

And a fashion sketch set

Paige:

 Princess lacing cards and dress up shoes from Eva

Princess dress ups

 Octonauts play set

Sticker set

 A sticker book from the Telfords

A puzzle from them too

 A new My Little Pony doll (can you sense the love here?)

And lastly, more dress ups in the way of wands and a superhero mask. She was in heaven.

Each kid got money from grandparents as well and a set of Family History coloring books from Jason's parents. 

The rest of the day was spent lounging around until it was time to begin dinner. Eva read her books. I did some coloring. Darby made faces with Paigey's sticker set and Paige, in turn, played with Barbie and Ken. Brendan set up and played Mouse Trap a few times. It did not turn out as well as Thanksgiving did (sweet potato casserole was a dud but the rolls were good) and I only got a picture of the dessert, which was actually one of the best parts. Peppermint snow pie. Mmmmmmm.

Now for the funny story. Brendan figured out his brain teaser in less than five minutes. Then he did Eva's. And then Jason's (a bit more challenging but he still got it pretty quick). I was working on mine at the same time and finally figured it out (in the time it took him to do three I had done one). I handed it over to him. Eight minutes later, it was done. : / Turkey.

Christmas Eve

I bought a craft set called The 25 Days of Christ to be used this Christmas and every Christmas after. It has been a wonderful addition to our season. There are a series of ornaments, one for each day leading up to Christmas, that represent a part of the life of Christ. There are stories and scriptures that go with each night. We have been doing this for 24 days and tonight we put up the final one. It was about the resurrection. We talked about that and put up our ornament.

Then we read Luke 2 and acted out the Nativity with a Little People set that I bought a few years ago. As we were finishing, we saw lights in the window. Santa Claus was coming through the neighborhood on a fire engine. The kids went outside to wave at him. It was fun.

Then we each wrote a note to Jesus with what we were going to give him this coming year of 2016. We put them in our special box and placed it under the tree. Then it was bedtime. They went down surprisingly well when I reminded them that the faster they fell asleep, the quicker Christmas would come. Ah, motivation. :)

Festival of Lights

I have never seen any light display so beautifully inspiring as those at the Washington DC Temple. Just amazing!

The temple, in and of itself, is breathtaking. It was the first time I had been to this temple when we went to see the lights.

We walked around the grounds for a bit. Darby kept saying, "I just want to live here!"

 

Of course we went inside the Visitor's Center.  The Christus was beautiful.

Beautiful artwork and Christmas trees decorated from different countries were all around.

And the small scale model of the temple was very interesting. I wish I could've looked at it more but Paige was making a break for it.

 We will definitely go back next year, possibly more than once. :)

Side note: We had the missionaries over for dinner the week before and they gave our family some pass-along cards for the temple lights to give to friends. Darby wanted to give one to her friend, Maggie, down the street. I found out the day after that they went to the lights the same night we did and we just missed them. Darby felt very special that her friend went to see the temple because she invited her.