This will be the first in a series of blogs posts I should have done a while back. Eh. oh well.
December 2nd was my mother-in-law's birthday. She is 25 (right, Marlies?) Anyway, we went up to her house in Midway and the kids decorated the little tree, we had a great dinner, and we had a lighting ceremony of their house. I only have photos of the kids decorating the tree, but it was a really fun night. The only thing we could have done without was the rain. Especially the terrifying pouring rain on the way home... in the dark... through the canyon. It was really hard to see. But of course we made it and we are all fine.
On the 3rd we made our Christmas Advent Chain with scriptures on each link to read as a family leading up to Christmas. The kids decided they needed their own special chains also. Their chains got really long. Thus the Christmas snakes were born.
In addition to the normal Christmas goodies I make every year (white chocolate popcorn, almond roca toffee, and braided bread wreathes), I decided to really put my sanity to the test and we also made gingerbread cookies (I need to alter the recipe a little bit and then I think these will be much better) and chocolate mint bark (not a winner) and chocolate covered pretzels (also not a winner.) Oh well. I also made Krumkaker but I didn't take a picture because I have, I think, an entire blog post on these cookies sometime back in September or something.
We went to Grandma Carolyn's concert in American Fork. It was excellent! Derek stayed home with Lukas so he could go to bed on time, so it was just Joshua, Abigail, Kaleb and I. Derek's parents and his brother and sister and other brother. Derek's parents were so helpful. I don't know if they read this blog, but if they do "Thank you Thank you Thank you again!" The choir always has displays of things they will be singing about and they had a statue/mannequin of Mary. But right before the concert Joshua asked me why they had the witch on display. It was too hilarious I couldn't help laughing out loud for a long time. Carolyn is on the bottom row near the right hand side.
We also went to Festival of Lights and ate our gingerbread cookies while we drove through the park. We've been doing Festival of Lights since Abigail was a baby - so I guess that makes 4 years? Yes. 4 years. But it's just been this year and the last I think that we've added the gingerbread cookie tradition. We were a little crowded in the car - since technically it only seats 5 and we had 6 people in it. Abigail and Lukas sit in the back in their booster seats. Kaleb is in his rear facing infant car seat in the middle. Joshua was sitting at Abigail's feet - usually he sits in his backless booster in the front seat - but Derek was there this time. (We may be getting closer to buying a minivan. Derek keeps threatening to not come on family outings since we have to take two cars or put someone's life at risk.) Anyway it was crowded. But it was fun. Lukas LOVED the lights. After driving through the park we drove up the hill through the neighborhoods to look at the house lights and I got a photo of the park from up above and at a distance. It's not a good photo. Sorry. Then we went to a specific house at the recommendation of a friend. The house is HUGE and they have a gazillion lights in sync with a radio station. It is a crazy awesome light show. We liked the house better than Festival of Lights! If anyone in the area is interested, tell me and I'll give you the approximate address of the house.
And last but not least - Our Christmas Tree and a few decorations. I know this living room scene looks like your grandma's house. Depending on who you are, this actually is your grandma's house. This is my grandma's tree and my grandma's chairs. I just also happen to have a kind of grandma-ish taste in drapes so put it all together and you get a very grandma Christmas. I have more Christmas decorations but I suppose I'll take those pictures later.
I forgot to mention Joshua's Christmas list. I helped him with one of them (you know, prompting him to write down the things that I knew I had already bought him so he could say he got just what he wanted.) And the other one he made at school. It is quite apparent that his friends influenced him a bit as I am pretty sure he doesn't know what transformers and star wars are. At least he is still getting legos.
December 2nd was my mother-in-law's birthday. She is 25 (right, Marlies?) Anyway, we went up to her house in Midway and the kids decorated the little tree, we had a great dinner, and we had a lighting ceremony of their house. I only have photos of the kids decorating the tree, but it was a really fun night. The only thing we could have done without was the rain. Especially the terrifying pouring rain on the way home... in the dark... through the canyon. It was really hard to see. But of course we made it and we are all fine.
On the 3rd we made our Christmas Advent Chain with scriptures on each link to read as a family leading up to Christmas. The kids decided they needed their own special chains also. Their chains got really long. Thus the Christmas snakes were born.
In addition to the normal Christmas goodies I make every year (white chocolate popcorn, almond roca toffee, and braided bread wreathes), I decided to really put my sanity to the test and we also made gingerbread cookies (I need to alter the recipe a little bit and then I think these will be much better) and chocolate mint bark (not a winner) and chocolate covered pretzels (also not a winner.) Oh well. I also made Krumkaker but I didn't take a picture because I have, I think, an entire blog post on these cookies sometime back in September or something.
We went to Grandma Carolyn's concert in American Fork. It was excellent! Derek stayed home with Lukas so he could go to bed on time, so it was just Joshua, Abigail, Kaleb and I. Derek's parents and his brother and sister and other brother. Derek's parents were so helpful. I don't know if they read this blog, but if they do "Thank you Thank you Thank you again!" The choir always has displays of things they will be singing about and they had a statue/mannequin of Mary. But right before the concert Joshua asked me why they had the witch on display. It was too hilarious I couldn't help laughing out loud for a long time. Carolyn is on the bottom row near the right hand side.
We also went to Festival of Lights and ate our gingerbread cookies while we drove through the park. We've been doing Festival of Lights since Abigail was a baby - so I guess that makes 4 years? Yes. 4 years. But it's just been this year and the last I think that we've added the gingerbread cookie tradition. We were a little crowded in the car - since technically it only seats 5 and we had 6 people in it. Abigail and Lukas sit in the back in their booster seats. Kaleb is in his rear facing infant car seat in the middle. Joshua was sitting at Abigail's feet - usually he sits in his backless booster in the front seat - but Derek was there this time. (We may be getting closer to buying a minivan. Derek keeps threatening to not come on family outings since we have to take two cars or put someone's life at risk.) Anyway it was crowded. But it was fun. Lukas LOVED the lights. After driving through the park we drove up the hill through the neighborhoods to look at the house lights and I got a photo of the park from up above and at a distance. It's not a good photo. Sorry. Then we went to a specific house at the recommendation of a friend. The house is HUGE and they have a gazillion lights in sync with a radio station. It is a crazy awesome light show. We liked the house better than Festival of Lights! If anyone in the area is interested, tell me and I'll give you the approximate address of the house.
And last but not least - Our Christmas Tree and a few decorations. I know this living room scene looks like your grandma's house. Depending on who you are, this actually is your grandma's house. This is my grandma's tree and my grandma's chairs. I just also happen to have a kind of grandma-ish taste in drapes so put it all together and you get a very grandma Christmas. I have more Christmas decorations but I suppose I'll take those pictures later.
That story of Joshua and the witch is so funny. Also, Grandma's house was a great place to be at Christmastime. I'm glad it is living on!
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