Way back at Halloween, we made things fun by having a Monsters Inc. theme for our family. Sullivan, of course, was the inspiration. I bought him some Sulley jammies online and crocheted him a cute little hat. I was Boo in pigtails and jammies, and Dallin was Mike. Daisy was Boo in her monster costume and Ruby was Celia. Nathan and Brandon made the best Smitty and Neeldleman ever! It was a great creative venture that cost only a few dollars for the jammies and yarn. Sarajoy and Simon were there own theme as a princess and a knight. I don't usually consider Halloween a part of the holidays, but this year it was so festive!
And as soon as it was over, I was searching for those radio stations that play holiday music all through November. I couldn't find them!
But once we got our first snow on November 9th, there was no holding back! The kids started watching the Christmas movies and I got out my music! I uploaded all of my Christmas CD's to itunes so I could listen to all of my favorites, commercial free. The kids helped, and having the music almost constantly playing definitely added to the Spirit of the season. It was wonderful!
I didn't want to take down the Thanksgiving decorations because I LOVE Thanksgiving and the fall colors, but we wanted a Christmas feeling for our holiday guests, too. We decided to leave the Autumn decor in the livingroom and put up our little tree in the family room. We got out the Christmas toys, kid nativities, and books as well. It was lovely.
Sometime in there I was reminded of a friend's idea to do a number of acts of service. I thought this went perfectly with the holiday season. We decided our gift to Jesus would be 1,000 acts of service checked off on a chart in the hallway. It was a wonderful way to bring the true Spirit of Christmas into our home. For several days, Simon would sneak into my room and clean it and even make my big bed!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had my sister Amy and her husband and 6 kids. They came Wednesday night and stayed until Friday night. Kim and her husband and 7 kids came on Thursday in time to eat and they brought the turkey. They know of a catering place that will cook, cut up, and make gravy of your turkey for a few cents a pound. Amy made loads of her marvelous rolls and it all turned out so yummy. I love Thanksgiving leftovers, too! We had cranberry jello salad, Ribbon jello salad, Frog-eye salad, spinach salad with poppyseed dressing, homemade cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and several pies. My parents and other siblings were in Las Vegas with my sister. It was actually nice to break up the crowd even though we missed them. My only regret is that people couldn't stay longer.
I got to do a little shopping on the day after Thanksgiving with Amy. It was great to get super good deals on gifts for the kids to get the cousins and a few stocking stuffers. We had gone on a spending freeze the beginning of November and I was being super careful not to blow it on Christmas. I had been picking up a thing or two with each grocery shopping trip the months leading up to November, so I had a few things for the kids. It was really uneven, though. A few people had jammies, a few others had books. We figured with what we had already purchased we'd have a fine Christmas and just do without what was missing. We had prayed for help with Thanksgiving, and some money came in the mail to help with groceries, and Kim bringing the turkey was a huge blessing.
The following weekend, Dallin's sister, husband, and 6 kids arrived for the Millington family party. It was nice to have it on Dec. 1st to kick off the season. We had great food, lots of cousins, and a great talent show. We were especially excited to see Sullivan's due-date buddy Amaya who we had never met yet. It was so joyful to have the Crandalls here for a couple of nights. The kids and adults were all in heaven!
I continued to pray for help to fill in the gaps at Christmas. I usually get my kids something to read, play with, wear, and something from Santa. They also usually get jammies from Santa on Christmas Eve. I felt strongly that we would be blessed, even if it meant just having less for Christmas. We knew we were still so blessed to have what we did. One day I heard my co-op friend talking about a family they were doing Sub for Santa for. They ended up providing basic things like pants and socks. I was shocked at how little this family had, and felt a little ashamed for feeling like I needed more than what I had.
We usually do some kind of Christmas Jar or Sub for Santa thing. This year we gave our Christmas Jar cash to a summer event for childhood cancer, so we hadn't planned on doing a Christmas charity. I told my kids about this family. They were completely excited to help. Gifts purchased and wrapped for them had tags removed and names of this family placed on them. We found some games we had duplicates of and even found some nice things for the mom and dad. I pulled out the stocking stuffers and asked the kids what they thought about sharing. They were all for it! Daisy got so into it that she emptied her piggy bank and handed over the newly decorated Christmas plate she had just done for Activity Days.
The day of the delivery came, and we were all so excited! It was quite a drive to the home of this family. We parked in front of their townhome and turned off the lights to the car. The kids ALL wanted to be a part of it, so each one carried a gift quietly to the porch and ran back to hide between cars in the parking lot. Someone rang the doorbell and ran. We stifled our laughs as we heard them shout, "Holy shenanigan monkeys, more gifts!" After they had shut the door, we were about to drive away when the dad came around the back of the building and almost caught us! It was very exciting and a wonderful feeling was felt as we drove home.
Then someone started leaving things on our doorstep! We've never had the 12 days of Christmas before! How did they know we didn't have any turkey or special treats for our Christmas Eve dinner? And a package of socks for each family member! What family isn't always in need of socks? The little kids still sleep with the cute homemade sock-snowmen that were left. It was wonderful to have a special holiday meal and to eat snacks and treats on Christmas Day. No cooking for me!
One night after the 12 days of Christmas had already been dropped off, we got another knock. Someone had Secret-Santa'd us! A big gift for mom and dad and stockings for all of the kids. Plus some gift cards that allowed me to fill in the gaps. What a blessing! It was extra special for the kids because they'd been on the giving end.
Another project was writing an arrangement of O Holy Night using our keyboard and some software I downloaded onto my laptop. Our
family has been singing our favorite arrangement of this song for years, but we
have no record of who arranged it. It appears to be copied from a
hymnal. It has been written on, copied, re-copied until it is mostly a
messy blur that nobody outside the family will even touch. This becomes a problem when I'm asked to sing it every year in my own ward. Nathan told me he would like to learn to play it for me while I sing. That inspired me to make a readable copy. It took me a whole week of spare moments and a full day of letting everything else go, but I did it! It was so exciting to learn something new and have something wonderful to give to my family. A bonus was that it was so much easier to read that even I could play it! Hopefully Nathan will have it down by next Christmas.
Our Giving Day is always a highlight for me. I think it will get its own post, as will getting our van.
Next on the list was the trip to Idaho for the Porter Party. We got there early to help Grandma get ready. It was a thrill to show off the new van. The party started with a Christmas Brunch, just like the kind Grandma Brown used to host for us every Christmas morning. Egg souffle and whole wheat waffles with lots of choices of fruit and juice and syrup. The dads took the kids to the church gym to play games while the moms finished up preparations for the party. We had a nice dinner at Amy's and a talent show. The kids and adults exchanged gifts. I was excited to show off the arrangement of O Holy Night I wrote.
Sunday we attended my sister's ward so we could hear her sing. I always love the Christmas program Sacrament meeting. When we got back to my mom's we had a nice dinner and loaded up to beat the snow storm home. Late that night, Dallin and I made preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner before crashing into bed.
Christmas Eve Day was full of excitement so I put the energy to work! We wanted a clean and shiny space to have our special celebration. Normally we go out caroling on Christmas Eve, but the snow was falling thick and fast. The roads were not safe and I was not sorry. I was happy to stay snowed in! The kids worked hard to get the house nice and clean while I worked on the dinner. We sat down to a lovely turkey dinner. After the dishes were done, Santa-Daddy showed up with gifts for everyone. A few who needed them got robes or slippers with their jammies. Then it was time for our Nativity play. It was wonderful to sing the Christmas carols together and have little Simon and Sarajoy be Mary and Joseph. They were excited to all get locked in the girls' bedroom to watch movies and play quietly while Dallin and I prepared the gifts. We finished wrapping and stuffing stockings in record time! We didn't even make it through a whole movie!
I woke up excitedly at 7am and prepared Christmas breakfast. I tried to make a quiche with some old frozen spinach we had in the freezer. We also didn't have apples, but we had apricots so I tried an apricot crisp. Finally the kids got up at 8:00 and we did the lineup. We like to take it nice and slow and take turns opening gifts. It was lovely. All the gifts were just right. Then it was breakfast, which was a total fail. It was pretty much disgusting. Thank goodness for cold cereal! Sarajoy was feeling sick and feverish, and so was Daisy. After they had naps we opened stockings. Later that afternoon we went downstairs to see what the big gifts were! We were really sad that people were beginning to get so sick, but it was still a wonderful day.
The next 2 days were sick days. I don't know much of what went on except a bunch of us had fevers and slept a lot. The 28th Dallin and I were due to go to my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary in Arizona. Things were not looking good. Many of us had croup, and my case seemed to be the worst. Thursday night, I asked Nathan what he thought and he said he still wanted us to go. He was interested in having a crack at being Man of the house.
Oh, the misery. But I don't think I would have been any more comfortable at home. The car seemed soothing to Sullivan who slept for much of the 12 hour ride. Dallin and my dad took turns driving the big van with my mom, sister and 2 of her kids as passengers. We had all picked up the same sickness at the Porter party. I guess some sickness was already going on down in Arizona so it all worked out. Dallin and I stayed at my cousin's house while the rest of our party stayed at my aunt's. It was awesome to be with Debbie and Russ and see their fun house and cute kids. My sickness ebbed enough to let me stay up and visit for awhile when we got there. The anniversary party was for most of Saturday. We got together with the cousins and shared Christmas memories before guests began to arrive for the dinner and open house. There was a wonderful slide show that sparked lots of fun discussion. I was so glad to be there despite how horrible I felt. We stayed a night in Vegas at my sister's on the way home and got home at 7pm on Monday. I was greeted by 6 happy faces and a clean house! I love my kids! They were protected and happy and safe and well cared for by big brothers. What a blessing! Even with some of the kids not feeling really well they managed to have a great time together. Sullivan was so glad to be home around familiar faces! I forced on a smile and had some fun playing games before I crashed at 10:30. Dallin had to get back up and pick up Nathan from the stake dance. So glad he was willing to brave the cold and snow and let me stay in bed!
As you can see, I have much to be thankful this year. It has been a great one! We've learned and loved and lived so much! I am so thankful for seasons. I am so thankful that there is a time of year that is special in such a good way. It is the perfect way to end the year!
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