Christmas Day 09

Sorry for so many pictures. Since our blog becomes our family history book, it's hard to pass up pictures to include (my lazy way of scrapbooking).

Our tree after Santa's visit.

A night shot. Christmas tree lights at night are one of my favorite things. There's something so peaceful about it.

Christmas morning. We move the stockings to our bedroom so we don't miss out on the opening of them. Santa comes upstairs to fill them.

I made everyone line up for a group shot before I would allow anyone to open their stockings. How mean a mom am I? Before you answer, just wait. It gets worse!

My kids are so used to posing for pictures, I don't even have to say any more than their name now. I have them so well trained! They know that when Mom has the camera, a called name means freeze mid-action, pose, and smile convincingly into the camera. See?

I'm still training this one on what it means to "smile". This is his interpretation of it.

Grandma was excited when Santa brought her a lovely new serving spoon. We wrote to him and told him how frusterating it was to serve say, lasagna, with a tiny spoon. Love that Santa guy!

I'll show him for making funny faces at my camera! I'll post it! (Scott flunked my training course on appropriate camera faces.)

The twins were all about the candy. Toothbrushes, schmoothbrushes.

A quick word about the cereal boxes...when I was little, a Christmas tradition in my family was that all seven of us got to choose our own cereal from the grocery store. In a family with seven kids, that was a huge deal! I'd salivate over the Trix every trip to the grocery store, and finally, just before Christmas, I'd get to buy my own box, not to be shared with anyone, involuntarily. We all always got the same kind year after year. My kids still look forward to this tradition, although not with quite as much gusto as I did. When Cheerios and shredded wheat are what you're used to, anything with sugar in it was something to get excited about. I enjoy seeing what cereal strikes each child's fancy, when they are given the choice of anything on the shelves, something that doesn't happen more than once a year in our house either. This year Brighton chose Trix (maybe it runs in the genes?), Savannah and Irelynd chose Reeses (yuck!), and I chose Honeycomb, another childhood favorite.

I like to take pictures of my food. Is that weird? This is what we had for breakfast: little smokies (a family favorite, but oh-so-fattening!), cranberry-orange pull apart rolls (love these!), and fruit salad. Which, by the way, can I just say that pomegranate is my new favorite fruit? I never knew these little guys were so tasty! They just pop in your mouth like little firecrackers of sweetness!

The face of anticipation... Ok, if you didn't think I was mean before, you will now. I made my kids wait til after breakfast to open the tree. It was a good 45 minutes before we got to it. My parents used to drag out the anticipation, too. Don't you think that's the best part of gift opening though? More enjoyable than the actual opening? Wondering if Santa brought you your heart's desires? My kids didn't agree. Neither did their father. Oh well.

"forget opening them, Mom. Can we climb them?"

Brighton got his forklift! Every time someone asked Brighton what he wanted for Christmas, they'd come to me afterwards and say, "Brighton wants a footrest for Christmas?" with a tone that says, "your kid is really odd and he may as well be asking for a stick!" No, he said forklift, but he didn't say it very well. Good thing Santa understands 3-yr-old gibberish! By the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a forklift toy? Not easy!! Good thing also that Santa has a connection with Walmart and found one there!

Savannah got her an LPSO!

Waverly learned to hug today and Keaton was her favorite practice body. She'd say "hud, hud" and come up and gently wrap her arms around him. After about 10 times of this he started to push her away. Twins are so fun!

My favorite boys. I worked to get all their jammies matching colors, so of course I had to document that! Scott's do match in person.

Up too late. Good thing he got a new down pillow from my mom, which he has since asked me every night after Christmas how he ever lived without a down pillow before.

A new set of wheels. Look out Molly! You're about to become a speed bump! Waverly's Christmas bounty is behind.

One for Keaton, as well as his intake.

Brighton's loot. The bouncy ball has since been the most used gift. Don't you just wish they made these for adults? I always loved these things!

Irelynd was most excited about her art supplies. And her snuggie.

Savannah loved most her LPSO and her MP3 player. And her Snuggie.

I can't believe I'm posting a no-makeup photo, but here I am in all my unpainted glory. My favorite gifts were my cupcake book, jewellery, tablecloth that actually fits my table!, and a new pitcher and glasses set from my mom.

I'm not sure what Scott's favorite gift was. Maybe the DIY vasectomy kit? Just kidding!

All set for Christmas dinner with Scott's family.

The adult table...

...and the kids.
It was such a wonderful Christmas. It was such a peaceful day in our home...the first in a long long time. No one complained, fought, argued, threw a tantrum, yelled, or whined. That was the best gift I got that day. It made me realize that I do want to have my children with me for eternity. I'm grateful for the miracle that occured in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago that makes that possible.

Christmas wonder

Our twins were so mesmerized by the Christmas tree. Because they are our first babies NOT born in the fall, we've never experienced babies at this age during the Christmas season. Especially 2 + a Brighton. Needless to say, I had my ornaments rearranged several times before they came down in January. At least none were broken this year. Whew!

Both babies liked to go behind the tree and unplug the lights. I had the darndest time trying to keep the tree lit.

Christmas Eve 09

We had Scott's family over for Christmas Eve this year. We ate, played games, and ended with a spiritual Christmas program. It was a wonderful, fun evening with family!

Shawna and Jo Anne forced us all to act like fools while lip-syncing to a random song. Everyone raided our costume bins, and the following photos are the crazy result. Our family had to do the monster mash. I got to see my mom in a long black wig.

I love the sheep ears on Richard below!

All the pre-holiday excitement was too much for Brighton--he curled up in his chair and zonkered out.

Stuart and Sallie's song was, appropriately, Girls just wanna have fun. What else would a family of 5 girls do? Love Stuart's blond pigtails with his goatee--I think I had a math teacher once that looked just like him...

We do sibling and cousin gift exchanges. Here's Savannah and Chloe showing off their BFF necklaces.

That's all the photos I got of the night. It was a wonderful evening. I'm so thankful to have so much family close by to share the holidays with, and thankful for the relationships my children have been blessed to establish with their cousins. I didn't get any photos of it, but I'm so grateful I got to have my mom this year for Christmas! It was so awesom to have her here.

Christmas Eve morning traditions

Like most families, we do new jammies every Christmas Eve. However, thanks to my sister-in-law's great idea, we moved our Christmas Eve traditions to the morning. It worked so much better! Most years, we come home late from family parties that night, throw the wrapped jammies at the kids, take a few pictures, then we hustle them up to bed. Meanwhile the poor kids are all crying, because they fell asleep in the car on the way home from Grandma's, and just want to go to bed, and Mom and Dad are both yelling, "hurry up!" Not conducive to great memories. And I feel robbed of family time. I loved this year; we started with a fancy breakfast on our fine china, opened jammies, reviewed our Last Straw tradition, and was even able to throw in a gospel-centered discussion about Christ, and how He is the Light of the World. Well, I did have a much rosier view of how things would go in my head, but Irelynd wasn't medicated (so she'd go to sleep that night), and we were interrupted by a business transaction (sold a TV on Craigslist). Oh well, maybe the kids will remember that at least we tried.

Savannah loved her lime green jammies

Irelynd's were supposed to be fleecy blue and pink snowman jammies, but, ahem, Scott mixed up the boxes. She was excited anyway.

Brighton was ecstatic about new tool jammies, without feet. Maybe we won't have to redress the kid every time he goes potty now.

Keaton's reindeer jammies matched Brighton's (in color at least) and Waverly's.

I loved these polka dot jammies!

Peace signs are da bomb in our house right now.

Date with Grandma--The Nutcracker

Going to The Nutcracker was the culmination of our Dates with Grandma 09. We started this particular tradition when Savannah was about 5, I think, and have gone every year except for last year, when things got too crazy with new twins. We all look forward to it, and I love that my girls are going to have some wonderful memories of my mother when they're older, and maybe Grandma won't be around anymore. It's a great opportunity to dress up and just have some girl time.

We ate at "the outer space restaurant", as Irelynd calls this new-age type restaurant. She loves it. They have the best quesadillas I've ever had; cilantro lime--yum! Here we are enjoying our sweet potato fries--my new guilty favorite. Hey, sweet potatoes are great for you, right?

Waiting for the show to start. I love the Covey Center in Provo! What a great asset to the city!

After the show. Don't my girls look awesom? Their dad got them dressed while I was at a class that morning.

After the performance, we just had to try out the new cupcakery in town, Sweet Tooth Fairy. I loved the vinyl quote they have above the door: If you are what you eat, then eat something cute! I feel good about living by that mantra! We bought 3 cupcakes to try and took them back to my mom's house: egg nog, candy cane, and peanut butter cup. Don't they look so good? Yum, they were! I have to learn how to make such yummy, non-shortening-tasting frosting. Delish!