Pre-Christmas December highlights

It has been a busy and wonderful month.  I really can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  There's a lot of excitement building up around here.  The first thing the kids do every morning is come down and take a ring off their Christmas countdown chain, then count up the rings left and talk about how close Christmas is.  John and Dan have been busy drawing pictures and writing letters to our family and putting them under the tree to be looked at Christmas morning.  Joe has been singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" constantly.  John sneaks over to the piano multiple times a day to play the few Christmas songs he knows.  And Will has enjoyed creeping around the Christmas tree, testing out the taste of the pine needles, ringing the bells that are hanging on a lower limb, and trying his hardest to tear open the few presents that are sitting underneath (unsuccessfully).  We had the kids exchange names for  Christmas, so the last few days have been busy finishing up the homemade gifts they've been making for their secret person.  And to add to the excitement, it finally snowed a couple days ago.  I normally wouldn't be too excited about a half inch of snow, but it might as well have been a whole foot to the kids.  As soon as John left for school and Will went down for a nap, Dan and Joe and I bundled up and went out to play and sled down the small hill down the street.  John, the snow lover that he is, came in from school then immediately walked right back out to play outside in the snow with friends for the rest of the day.  He even scraped up the snow from our whole front yard so he could build a small snowman.  His friends lost interest (or lacked faith that it could be done), but John kept with it and called me out to help him stack the 3 balls he had managed to roll.  A little bit of snow is in the forecast tomorrow, so we might just have a white Christmas.  Now all we need is a wood-burning fireplace.

Pete lucked out with his schedule and got the weekend off and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I couldn't feel more fortunate to have him home the few days leading up to Christmas.  We've stayed up late the last few nights wrapping presents, putting things together, and finishing a few little projects for Christmas.  This is our first Christmas without family around, but with the kids getting older and our own little family getting bigger, I think it will be a joyful one.

After having my sister McKenzie here for 6 weeks, she headed back to Seattle and we headed to Salt Lake to visit the Jackson fam and a few friends for a week.  It was a somewhat spontaneous trip.  Pete had already been given the first week in December off, and a great deal on flights came up a few weeks before that we couldn't pass up.  It was a great, low-stress, fun-filled week.  Mostly just fun to be with family.  We stayed with Pete's parents, enjoyed amazing food, helped decorate the Christmas tree, the kids played in the family room by the fire, the elves visited often (thanks to Liz and Pete's mom), we were able to see the lights at Temple Square, and even made it up skiing at Solitude with John and Dan (thanks Sarah!)  We also met up with my friends Liz, Tiffany and Jessica and all our growing kiddos for a little Christmas party.  It was so much fun to see everyone and be around at the beginning of the holiday.  We might just be visiting family at this time every year!  The airports were empty, flights were cheap, and we still got to come back to our own little home with Christmas to look forward to.

Homemade cinnamon rolls made on the day we got our tree.

Sweet little Will.  Still loves to stick out that tongue of his.

Pics from the friend party... beautiful pics taken with the iPhone (booh).  The kids played SO well together all night long, I felt like we had never left Utah.  Love these kids!

We had the kids exchange names.  John and Dan both came home with a new Lego set, Joe with a set of the official "Cars" cars, and Will a set of large Legos... the kids couldn't have been happier.

Love these girls!  

Cafe Rio with Eliza and Tiffany and our babes.  Will looks a little concerned... he's not used to being alone in a group of girls I guess :)

Skiing!  Oh, this day made me yearn to have the mountains closer.  John and Dan loved skiing.  Dan didn't want to leave, and as soon as we were in the car was asking if we could come again.  Maybe next year, Dan :(  We were able to go skiing thanks to Sarah who works up at Solitude as a nurse practitioner.  She and James both met up with us and took turns helping the kids ski.  I wasn't much help with my snowboard.

We went to Temple Square with the kids and Grandma and Grandpa the last night we were there, rode the Trax at the request of the kids, walked through City Creek Mall and got a bite to eat at the cafeteria.

Then it was back home for us.  Back to the hustle and bustle of the holidays, getting Christmas cards out, ordering the kids presents (how grateful I am for online shopping), wrapping up presents for family and shipping off packages.  We had the kids write letters to Santa this year.  We've seen him previous years and had the kids sit on his lap, tell him what they want, blah, blah, blah... do kids really even like that?  I guess some probably do, my kids definitely don't.  So letters were a great option.  They asked Santa for one present each (John: Ninjago Legos, Dan: Ninja Legos, Joe: a surprise toy), addressed them to the North Pole, then dropped them in "Santa's Mailbox" in our little downtown area.

Will looking studly in Grandma Annie's hand-knit sweater.  Once upon a time this was John's... the beauty of having 4 boys, we get to use all these cute clothes so much!

My first try at a true blue gingerbread house.  Took literally all day, but was so much fun.  The kids were thrilled to be a part of the process.  From making the dough, cutting out the pattern, baking all the parts, gluing it together (yes, I used glue, not frosting... I guess I did cheat a little bit), and decorating it, there was at least one kid beside me the entire time.  I actually love the look of just the plain gingerbread house.  But of course the kids couldn't wait to smear it with frosting and stick candy all over it.

 I don't know if Joe even put anything on the gingerbread house... he may have just sat and ate frosting and candy the entire time, I wasn't really paying attention.

The ice skating rink.  Joe wanted me to make his gingerbread man with pink frosting, and John wanted his man to be skating and for Joe to be watching him.

Me, Pete and Dan looking out from the front door.

Will's latest trick!  I can't believe how fast this kid is developing.  He easily stands up holding onto things now and is just beginning to move his feet around.

"Let it SNOW!"  John put up this sign on our front window a couple weeks ago.  I guess he was hoping it would help the weather along.  And we finally did get our first snow!  A whole half inch.  I don't know how even just a tiny bit of snow makes kids ecstatic, but it does.