Christmas Catch Up

 

Because of everything going on I never have time to blog over Christmas –

But there’s so much I want to write about.

So I’m going write one big Christmas catch up post of the happenings at our house this season.

 

Activities with the Kids –

The thing I was most excited about was Christmas break – two whole weeks with my kids home to play all day! Glory!! I don’t think Calvin and Olivia caught the awesomeness of the situation, but we’ve tried to have fun.

We went to the aquarium twice. Thanks to our friends Nicole & Emmett, we now have year long passes to the aquarium. I will admit, I went several years ago when it first opened and wasn’t too impressed, and haven’t been back. I’ve told my kids that “the aquarium” is the free fish tank displays at Cabela’s. But the real aquarium is now officially fantastic – with sting rays to pet and star fish to hold and penguins to feed, and a giant sea turtle and sharks and an octopus . . . it was great. And the kids loved it!

We also were invited by our friends the Engh’s to go see the window displays at the Grand America hotel downtown. They have a bunch of “window displays” throughout the hotel (inside, so you don’t have to freeze your hiney off!) and then they have a little game where you look for hidden things in each window. Then when you’re done you take your card back to this amazing toy store they have inside the hotel, and they give you a sticker. Then you take the sticker to the bakery in the hotel and they give you a giant star cookie. Oh, so much fun!

We also invited friends over to play, and spent the week making cookies and treats.

Christmas Traditions –

Part of the reason I was too busy to blog is I spent my evenings wrapping presents (have I ever mentioned how particular I am about gift presentation?) and finishing up my one home made gift this year: a scripture cover for Olivia’s Book of Mormon that she got for Christmas. We gave her a big BOM, just like I had when I was a kid so as she learns to read she can see the print and follow along/read from her own scriptures. I think the cover turned out cute so I was pretty proud of myself.

 

We also had our annual Christmas Eve Dinner. We invited Jared and his kids, but they didn’t make it, so it was just us this year. Our menu included:

1. Spiral honey ham
2. Butter sauted green beans with candied almonds
3. Butternut squash with a honey cinnamon glaze
4. Garlic mashed potatoes & gravy
5. Fruit salad a’la Melinda
6. Rolls
7. Martinelli’s apple sparkler
8. Cheesecake for desert

As usual I had a hard time cooking for just us, so we will have leftovers for a week!

 

We also opened one gift on Christmas Eve (Wyatt wanted to open them all, but I was a scrooge and said no). Usually we get the kids jammies for Christmas Eve, but we just replenished our jammie stash in October, so it seemed superfluous. So instead we got the kids slippers. I was afraid it would be an exceptionally boring gift for the loves, but they seemed very pleased. eJo just couldn’t show them off enough, and Olivia kept saying “I’ve always wanted some of these!”

 

Wyatt and I took an over/under on the wake up time for Christmas morning. Wyatt said before 7 am, I said after.

At 5:50 when I was sending Everett back downstairs because “it wasn’t morning yet,” I knew I lost. We finally relented and got up at 6:53 to start the festivities.

It was a very successful Christmas. I think the kids were pleased with their loot, and it wasn’t too stressful or too much.