Holiday Wrap-up

This post will be edited on a day where I feel more coherent and cheerful.  I just wanted to get the post out there so the date will be in the right year. 
We really had a special and fabulous Christmas.  It will be fun to write about it another time.
Sarajoy has impetigo, scarlet fever, and hand-foot-and-mouth disease. 
I have had another 3 days of nausea, extreme fatigue, restlesness, and lots of contractions. 
I'm just tired, but I'm sure one of these days I'll get the itch to write.

Happy New Year!

Okay, here we go!  Sarajoy is feeling and looking much better, though blisters still cover her mouth and feet.  The kids are back to school so I'll wrap up our Holiday season:

Giving Day
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Once again, our Giving Day was a great success! 
I spent hours and hours at the sewing machine with my kids, but it was great quality time to spend with them. 
I was so happy on Wednesday when they came home early from their half-day of school.  I cherished the fact that I'd have them all to myself for nearly 2 weeks!  Dallin got home early on Wednesday, too, and it was so great to have him home on Thursday.  He was able to take the kids to town for awhile so Daisy and I could work on her gift without anyone guessing what it was this year!
We worked hard all day and through dinner.  We had a late start, but it was still a wonderful evening. 
We drew names from a cup to see whose turn it would be to wear the Santa hat and give their gifts.  As each person opened their gift, they told something they love about the giver.  We record these in a special Christmas binder.  I can't remember what order we drew, so I'll just go by age.

Sarajoy was happy to help me glue snow glitter on the family picture ornaments for this year.  They were circle-shaped fans made from old Christmas cards.  She loved having a chance to "wap-up" the presents and pass them out.  She was particularly fond of the one with her own picture on it!

Simon made reindeer out of candy canes with pipe-cleaner antlers and pom-pom noses and googly eyes.  He helped me choose what kind of paper to wrap each one in, and he was careful to close his eyes when he wrapped his own!  The cute thing was that when he opened his own, he was so excited.   "What could it be? I wonder if it is a robot?"

Daisy was able to pull off the chocolate-dipped pretzels in pure secrecy this year.  She wrote all of the names on the labels and hid them in our stockings.  They were delicious, especially with the candy cane mint flavored sprinkles she used this year. 

Ruby had Dad's help to make her presents for the boys.  They were rocket-launchers that she learned to use at activity days.  They were a big hit!  They boys made up a fun game with them in the racquetball court.  We all went out there for awhile the next day and had fun shooting the rockets she had made out of cardstock and colored electrical tape.  She also gave them each a 2 liter bottle of soda to drink and use when their current launchers wear out.  She made Daisy a cute bracelet and Sarajoy a tiny version of her favorite blanket, "boo-dot" (polka-dot).  I got her first drawing that she made at school.  She made Dallin a neat organizer for his wallet, camera, ipad, etc. that he likes to keep on top of the computer armoire. 

Brandon, as usual, had the biggest ideas!  Our older kids made cloth dolls to send to Africa last month in co-op.  Brandon made a baby boy version for Sarajoy and a little girl for Ruby that looks a lot like the one Ruby made for Africa.  We just changed the skin and hair color.  He and I made them each an extra outfit and diaper.  He is getting really good at using the serger.  Daisy and Simon got coloring books illustrated by Brandon.  Daisy's was about cats and Simon's was about Dogs.  In one of his creative outbursts this year, Brandon designed a whole line of clothing.  He decided to make a "nairows" shirt for Nathan.  We looked through his portfolio to choose the right design.  It was the most complicated, but it turned out really cool.  Nathan didn't want to take it off to go to bed that night.  Brandon drew a nice Christmas picture for me, and he really wanted to make a fleece vest for Dallin.  I had purchased all of the materials for it, but it seemed like such a daunting project.  We worked hard on it all day.  There were a lot of steps too complicated for Brandon, but he did as much as he could.  While they were in town, they picked up a zipper, which was the only thing I had forgotten.  I wasn't sure if we would get it done, so I had him make Dallin a BYU stocking cap just in case.  Thankfully, we were pulling the basting out of that zipper just as Dad was gathering everyone for the event.  We had to do a little touching up on the zipper afterwards, but it is a perfect fit!  Even though it required so much from me, I love helping my kids make their ideas into a reality. 

Nathan had some great ideas this year as well.  He made Dallin a BYU scarf, and my gift was a IOU to help me clean my sewing room. (It is a total disaster after all of these projects!  I had actually wished that one of my kids would think of that for a gift!)  Ironically, he wanted to make Brandon a "nairows" shirt, too.  It was fun to see the surprise when they both got their shirts.  He made a fleece cover for Ruby's cat's chair.  The fleece has cats printed all over it.  There was enough left over for Mikey's own blanket. Daisy and Sarajoy both got girl dolls and outfits so Sarajoy now has twins.  They are so cute!  Simon got a fleece "Cars" outfit. Simon loves to wear pajamas.  This outfit is so soft, but looks less pajama-ish. 

I had a lot of fun with my project this year.  Years ago, when we spent a summer in Las Vegas, I had a very hard time sleeping.  It was so hot, but I have a really hard time sleeping without covers.  I ended up discovering a large receieving blanket of my nephew's that was just the right weight to keep me comfy but not too hot.  Unfortunately, I was only able to borrow it for a few days before he rediscovered it.  I went to the fabric store and made myself and Dallin one.  Flannel on one side, cool woven cotton on the other.  Several of my kids are hot sleepers like me, so these blankets often get borrowed from our bedroom.  I decided to make one for each kid, with fabric that matched their personality.  It took me a long time to browse through all of the fabric and find what was just right.  It was the thing about Christmas that I most anticipated this year!  Nathan's was soccer-themed.  Brandon got a BYU print.  Ruby-dogs, of course, and her print was so colorful and fun.  She's been telling me her new favorite color was orange, so that's what color of flannel I put on the back.  I found a cute kitty print for Daisy with pink flannel on the back.  Simon got a bright blue print with rockets on it.  Sarajoy--hot pink with monkeys.  For some reason that girl is crazy about "oo-oo-ah-ah's". 

Dallin was having a hard time coming up with a great idea.  One day while we were out shopping, he noticed a big bin of Christmas fleece blankets marked way down.  You could never buy fleece that cheap.  I told him that Ruby had one of those on her Christmas list, but that I was done fulfilling her wishes.  We got thinking and decided to get one for each kid and have Dallin monogram them.  I was proud of him for being willing to learn a new skill, but he took right to the blanket stitch.  He carefully picked out just the right color of felt and thread from my fabric collection for each blanket.  The bonus was that he could work while we watched Christmas movies in our bedroom.  I even brought the sewing machine up for a few nights so I could be with him.  The kids were thrilled to have their own special Christmas blankets from Daddy.  That night they snuggled up in spots made from 2 new blankets each under the Christmas tree.  I should have taken a picture.  Sleeping by the tree is one of my very favorite memories as a child.  I  was so full of Christmas Cheer that I had a hard time sleeping that night.





Rocket launchers made by Ruby for
boys.

Monogrammed blankets by Dallin.
(Simon's got left at Grandma's)



Bracelet for Daisy and silky for
Sarajoy made by Ruby.

Nairows shirts.  Black made by
Nathan, Blue made by Brandon



Blankets made by mom.

   

Dallin's vest made by Brandon



Dolls made by Nathan and Brandon. 
Daisy's on left, Sarajoy's twins
in middle, Ruby's on right.



Simon's Lightning McQueen shirt
made by Nathan.



Dallin's organizer made by Ruby.


__________________________________________________________________________________________

Christmas Eve Eve

December 23, 2011

I love to spend Christmas Day at home quietly enjoying my family. 
 I grew up sharing Christmas with cousins, which was wonderful. 
 But a few years ago, it got a little crazy trying to get my whole family
together and the unwrapping was pretty chaotic--not how I
wanted Christmas to be.  So we started our own tradition of staying
home for Christmas Day and doing our visiting either before or after. 

This year, as the big day drew closer, I was having a hard time
picturing it being the slow-paced kind of family day that I prefer. 
There were 2 problems.  Christmas was on Sunday, and we were
planning to leave very early Monday to spend several days in Idaho. 
Between getting people ready for church, getting myself there an hour
early for choir practice, having a nice Christmas dinner, and packing
for a trip, I couldn't even think of a good time to open presents let
alone play with and enjoy them. 

So we decided to do Christmas on Saturday. 

That meant Christmas Eve was Friday. 

We made this decision on Thursday night.

It was a good decision. 

Our plan was to spend the morning working on a few remaining
Christmas projects before starting our Christmas Eve traditions.

We set out a little later than anticipated, but still had a wonderful
afternoon/evening. 

We picked up a nice assortment of fruit to deliver to a widow from
our old ward, Sister Maynard.  We've visited and sung to her for
several Christmas Eves now.  She said she had too much food in
the house, and only took the strawberries.  She also didn't invite us
in, but instead came out on the freezing cold porch to talk to us for
a minute.  This is really unusual for her, we hope she is okay!

We decided to stop at the Harris' house and see if they were home. 
We missed them last year.  They were thrilled to see us and so happy
for fruit instead of junk food.  We sang them some songs and had a
nice long visit.  They are excellent people. 

We came home to warm baked potatoes, which we quickly ate so we
could get on with our program. 

The nativity play was a little chaotic as Joseph was feeling rather energetic. 
He also made Mary get off the donkey so he could ride.  It was cute,
though, and Sarajoy was thrilled to be Mary.  We sang lots of songs and
told a couple of stories before informing the kids that Santa wanted to
pay a visit.  We told them that he was bringing something different than
pajamas this year, so they all needed to get ready for bed.  I quickly
helped Santa get his suit on and out the garage door. 

The initial reaction was genuine excitement from Daisy and Simon. 
I thought Dallin was doing a great job of disguising his voice, but somewhere
along the way they figured it out.  Sarajoy was afraid of him, of course. 
The kids didn't really say anything until they were getting settled for bed. 
"Dad, I know that was you in  your suit."  Simon kept saying.  We never
validated him for sure, so he kept bringing it up.  It was cute.  The pillow
pets were a fun addition to the snuggly blankets they had gotten.  They all
curled up together in the girls' room to dream of sugarplums.  Sarajoy quickly
got moved out and into her crib, though, as she was keeping everyone up. 
I reminded everyone that we would have a much better Christmas Day if
everyone was allowed to sleep and wake up naturally.  I didn't want any
alarms set, etc.  They agreed it would be better if we weren't all tired and
grouchy. 

Even with all of my wrapping mostly done previously and the kids' stocking
stuff already separated out into bags, we stayed up pretty late getting
Christmas ready.  I helped Dallin finish up a project for Simon, and I
had a tiny bit of work on something for Sarajoy.  We wrapped the last
 few gifts and curled up for our own visions of sugarplums.

                                                           The Nativity Play Cast.

Santa Pays a Visit to Daisy

He only thinks he's too big.  I think he got a shoulder punch from Santa.

 Too big for a pillow-pet, but not too big for a BYU travel pillow.

Happy to have her last-minute Christmas wish fulfilled!

Simon wasn't fooled, but he didn't let on until later.

The final product!

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Christmas Eve Day (Our Christmas Morning)

December 24, 2011

How wonderful yet strange it was to wake up Christmas morning at 7:50

to Sarajoy needing comfort.  She fell back asleep and the house was

quiet.  Back in bed, Dallin and I talked about how hungry we were, so

I decided to get up and put the breakfast casserole in the oven.  I made

sure to make some noise while doing so.  I even rang some bells. 

Before long, the kids (minus Sarajoy) were lined up in the hall. 

"Dig in, and find all of your gifts!"

We each sat with our pile and slowly opened gifts one person at a time,

one gift at a time starting youngest to oldest. 

We like this slow, easy-going way where we can all delight in each

other's joy of receiving. 

I reminded Daisy that one of her wishes was to find a present under the

tiny tree they had set up in their bedroom.  They all rushed up there,

surprised that they hadn't seen the gifts. 

The casserole was done in enough time to cool while we finished up.

We have to eat a good breakfast before opening stockings that might

contain goodies.

This was hardest for Simon, who had seen some soccerball gloves

peeking from his stocking. 

We enjoyed our stocking stuff for awhile before the kids just couldn't

stand it any longer.  I asked them to help tidy up the living room before

we went down to the family room Christmas tree to see what Santa left. 

An MP3 player for Nathan, a nice set of professional quality colored

pencils for Brandon, all of the girls got 2 Woodzeez families

(little fuzzy animal figurines), and Simon finally got his robot.  He was so

excited and had so much fun with that.  For all of the kids Santa left a nice

big set of quality wooden blocks.  They quickly became homes for

Woodzees and towers for Simon's little Angry Birds bean bags he

got in his stocking. 

Daddy got a new bag of marbles in his stocking so he and Sarajoy spent

some time building a marble run for them to go down. 

Mommy got a nice long afternoon nap as a Christmas bonus.

I'm really really glad we used Saturday even though it wasn't "really"

Christmas.  It was a magical day.

The Christmas Morning Lineup:

Dig in!

The dollhouse family welcomes their new baby boy!

Dad builds a magnificent castle using all of the blocks!

Dallin's great idea for Simon: A "Toad" Jacket.
Now Simon can act out one of his favorite stories, A Lost Button, 
 from the Frog and Toad books. 
We went to an antique store and dug thorough
a bathtub of assorted buttons together.  Several of the buttons
can come off with velcro to act out the story. 
It was a lot of fun to make together,
and so much fun to play with!  We bought a cheap
sweatshirt and adapted it to button open
and added a pocket for toad to
put all of the buttons he collects in it. 


________________________________________________________

Christmas Day and other Holiday Highlights

December 25, 2011

Having our present day on Saturday left us with a very special and reverent

Christmas Day.  There were no distractions from the Spirit of the Day.  We

got up and ready in our best Christmas clothes.  Ruby and I went early to

practice with the choir.  Dallin got there a little early with the kids, and it

warmed my heart to see them walk in together looking so lovely.  Dallin

even did Sarajoy's hair and put bows in!  The Christmas program was

wonderful.  There were 3 songs between a talk by each member of our

bishopric.  There were solos, choir numbers, congregation numbers, small

ensembles, and instrumentals.  I think there were 11 or 12 songs in all. 

Very nice! 

I had a rare and special experience while singing my solo, "O Holy Night." 

I sing this number every year, sometimes at multiple events.  This time I got

to feel the precious feeling of truly being an instrument in the hands of God. 

I felt His power and love moving through me and emanating to the

congregation.  I can only think of a couple of other times in my life where

I felt such power when I sing.  I felt so overcome with gratitude and joy

for that experience that I sat down and wept through the congregational

hymn that followed. 

After the meeting, our bishop invited us to take copies of some of his

masterful artwork to share with family and friends.  What a generous gift! 

I especially love his pencil drawing of all of the Latter-Day Prophets. 

I picked several up to hand out at the family Christmas party. 

We came home to the smell of wonderful turkey dinner cooking. 

We enjoyed a lovely dinner and cleanup, and then we decided to go

ahead and pack up and surprise Grandma again.  We thought it would

be nicer than having to wake up so early Monday morning to make it in

time for the family party and brunch.  We said a prayer that Sarajoy

would be calmed on the trip.  She has had a hard time staying in her

carseat for even short trips to town, so we were nervous.  We were even

more nervous when we couldn't get the DVD player in our car to work. 

 Nathan was so good and patient to sit and entertain her for the whole trip. 

 Sometime during the last hour of our trip, everyone had woken up from

naps and our CD player broke.  The last 30 minutes of any trip seems to

be when everybody loses it.  Simon called from the back, "Everyone! 

I have to tell you something!"  We gave him our attention.

"This is taking too long!"  I replied, "What are you going to do?"  His

answer surprised me, " We should sing songs!"  So we sang songs and

made it to Grandma's house for the big surprise.  Everyone was there

enjoying Christmas evening together. 

We stayed in Idaho until Thursday and had a great time.  My pregnancy

made the big crowds, especially during meals, hard to tolerate, but it

wasn't too bad.  With my parents' addition, there is room for the kids

to spread out.  It was fun to watch my sister's family open their presents

on Monday morning at Grandma's.  We had a nice brunch, party, talent

show, and gift exchange all day Monday. 

We spent the other days playing games and enjoying being together. 

I remember  times with cousins being so special when I was growing

up.  I'm so glad my kids can have those experiences, especially in such a

loving environment. 

For New Year's, our neighbors invited us over.  I was able to go over with

the kids.  Dallin stayed home with Sarajoy and ate popcorn and watched

a movie.  It wasn't  long before Simon was overwhelmed with the crowd

and joined them. Not long after that, I was overwhelmed with the crowd

and brought the girls home. 

Other Holiday Highlights:

The Charlie Brown Christmas tree my sister sent.  My sisters love
 getting Peanuts stuff for Dallin cause they know he likes it!
She also sent us a really cute Advent Village. 
You open windows and doors.
 She put a fun family activity idea and treat in each spot.

Daisy and Sarajoy in their Gingerbread Dresses.
 I love Christmas clothes!

 Handsome kid!

Sarajoy's dress is an old, old hand-me-down.
 My neice Kenzie wore it and she is 15! 
Even then I think it was 2nd hand.
It is so pretty and festive yet!

 We were so happy that Dallin's sister and
 family came to spend the weekend
before Christmas with us.  Sarajoy and Daphne had
lots of fun together.

Ruby and Daisy on Christmas morning.
 Ruby's not so keen on matching
anymore, but she was willing to do
it as a Christmas present for me.

 Daisy with her cousins at the family party.

 Ruby checks out what's on Uncle Steve's phone.

 Sarajoy stays content during the talent show
 by taking care of one of Grandma's dollies.

 Waiting for the talent show to start.

 I included this picture last minute. 

 I think it is fun to see how

 blonde Sarajoy's hair looks. 

 I also love her red squeaky shoes

 from Grandma.

These two are a lot of fun!

Well, I've spent an entire day on this post! 

I just heard the school bus pull up outside. 

I am a blessed woman, and

I love this blessed season of the year!