Christmas Etc.

Christmas came and went so fast this year. It was so much fun though. I think this was my favorite Christmas since being married. We just had so much fun, the company was great, the gifts were fun, and Emma was cuter than ever. More about Christmas in a bit.

Earlier in the month we went to see the lights at Temple Square with my parents. It was very cold, but beautiful. Emma had a lot of fun, and she loved the big red tree that was always my favorite too. On the way back to the car she was on Eric's shoulders and kept thinking she was going to fall off (I think her gloves caused her to feel less secure because there was less grip), and so she was grabbing onto his face. I found it rather amusing. =)

We went to Gardner Village to see the elves they have all over, but they weren't as good as their Halloween witches. Too bad. But it's the perfect time to visit their Christmas shop. Emma insisted we get a star for our tree. Apparently it has greatly bothered her this year that we didn't have one. So she picked the one she liked best, and now we have a star (it kind of looks more like a snowflake though).

Being on break from preschool for a couple weeks means more time to be with Emma again, which I love. I didn't realize how much I missed having her home all the time, and her preschool is only 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. So I still have tons of time with her. But it's been fun having her home. She decided she wanted to do some painting, and so while in her pajamas still, and with the crown she selected that morning still on her head, she painted a masterpiece. I do have to share her painting of Mickey Mouse though. I am really impressed with it.

We had our annual luncheon at the Lion House with my family, and Eric was able to come this year. He took the afternoon off that day, and it started his Christmas vacation. He'll have 4 1/2 days before needing to go back to work. And then 3 days later get another 4 days off. Yay! In the morning before lunch we visited my step-Grandma like we usually do. We see her fairly often to play cards with (call us evil if you want, but it's so much fun!!), but it's fun to see her just before Christmas and exchange gifts with her. While at the Lion House we took some cute pictures of Emma because it always looks so festive there. And if her dress looks familiar, it's because she wore it to her preschool program, and has wanted to wear it practically everywhere this month. So you'll be seeing it again. She does have other clothes, but this one is especially fitting for this season, so I'm all for her getting more use out of it.

Christmas day itself was amazing. I never tire of the magic in children's eyes this time of year, and Emma didn't let me down. She was excited to get what she wanted from Santa plus a few fun surprises from both him and us. I thought we had scaled back from last year, but apparently we hadn't. Either that or our families hadn't. I always took pictures of my Christmas loot before putting it away (you know, sort of to document what I got each year). And it has been fun over the years to look back at those pictures. Once it even helped me prove that something belonged to me. Ha! That was a good day. Anyway, I take pictures each year of what Emma gets, and this year her stuff (not including most of her stocking stuff) filled up the entire couch! Um, can you say spoiled? She did get some wonderful things, and I'm excited for her to be able to use and enjoy them.

Mid-morning we went to my parents house for a nice breakfast. We had quiche and pancakes this year. Delicious. Then we all dove into the presents there and had fun making each other laugh and cry.

Then it was onto my Grandma's house for some more gift exchanging followed by a wonderful Christmas dinner. While there, the kids, after a long day, started letting their inner beasts out. But Emma was calmed and happy to play some games on Eric's ipod.

We came home, played a few new games with Emma, and finally sent her to bed. We watched a new movie and then crashed too. It was a fun, but long day.

The day after Christmas the festivities weren't over. That evening we got together with my aunt and uncle and my 3 cousins with their kids for dinner, music, games, and catching up. I don't get to see these cousins very often (they live in New York, California, and Hawaii), but they all came here for some skiing, so we got to see them. It was fun hanging out together eating catered CPK and some delicious desserts including a cheesecake we made along with awesome raspberry and blueberry sauces. Yum.

I am so grateful for family and friends, especially this time of year. It's so nice to get together and enjoy the spirit of the season. I am extremely blessed.

Christmas Activities

This month is always such a busy one. There are so many things to do and to buy that time just seems to escape. Here are some of the things we've been up to lately.

We put up our decorations right after Thanksgiving. It always throws me off when Thanksgiving comes so late in November. There's no buffer between holidays. One of Emma's favorite decorations is a little house my mom made years ago. It's supposed to be Santa's house, and it's always filled with candy. I loved this as a child too. Who wouldn't like a never ending supply of chocolate? Ours is filled with an assortment of chocolate kisses.

Each year we have a big game night hosted by John and Heather. We all brought appetizers and noshed all evening. Every winner of any game gets to pick a wrapped prize from under the tree. We also celebrated Brad's birthday (Happy Birthday Brad!). And, if that weren't enough for one evening, we also had a white elephant gift exchange. I love it!

Emma had her Christmas program at preschool on Wednesday, and did an awesome job with the songs and her speaking part. All the kids had memorized a part, and they were so proud of themselves for remembering them. The songs were really cute too. Santa even came to visit at the end.

Her speaking part:

Christmas comes in many ways,

in many homes apart.

But always it's a child's face,

shining in your heart.

After her program was finished we went to the mall to see Santa. We hadn't done that yet this year. I also had a gift certificate to Build a Bear so we went there for Emma to pick something out. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then came home to get ready for the evening. We were going to my sister's home for a musical evening with my family. We got together to sings songs and share talents with each other. My favorite parts were seeing the kids sing their songs and seeing my Dad play a couple horn duets with Eric.

We have many more things we still need to do, and we are all looking forward to all of them. And my shopping is almost done!! Bonus!

Preschool Thanksgiving

I know I'm a little behind, but here are a couple of pictures from Emma's preschool Thanksgiving performance. They were being Indians while they danced and drummed. She had so much fun learning about the Indians and the Pilgrims. I was very happy that her school taught them without worrying about being politically correct.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This past weekend was a great one. For the first time in our marriage Eric took the day after Thanksgiving off, so we had that to look forward to along with lots of fun family time!

We started off on Wednesday when Emma's cousin Timothy came over for a sleepover. Emma was so excited about it that for several days before hand she would tell everyone she came into contact with. We had an early dinner of pizza and root beer (the kids were in heaven) so that we could get started on all our other activities.

We had a couple of pumpkins that we wanted to carve for Thanksgiving, just because we thought it would be fun. One of the pumpkins was VERY ripe, and didn't work very well. The other one seemed fine, although by the next day it was quite shriveled.After the pumpkin was carved, we made some cookies. I didn't feel like really making cookies with the kids (I do with Emma all the time, but I didn't want to take up too much time on just one activity) so I had bought some of those sugar cookies with a picture on them that you only need to transfer to a cookie sheet. The kids did that and then started a movie while the cookies baked.They wanted to watch Finding Nemo, and so needed to run get all their Nemo friends to watch with them. Timothy had brought Squirt, so they ran into Emma's room and got Nemo, Dory, and Bruce.
I asked them if they wanted popcorn or cookies while they watched, and they said, "How about both?" Well, normally that wouldn't work, but for a special occasion like a sleepover I caved. They each ended up having 8 cookies and shared the batch of popcorn while drinking more root beer of course!Being a member of this family means lots of game nights, and these kids fit right in. They wanted to play some games, so we introduced Timothy to Emma's snowman game. He seemed to like it.
After the games we made some Pilgrim Hat treats. I made them last year with Emma and they are really cute and easy. I didn't take a picture of them (I just forgot) but here's a picture of what they look like when they're done.
After some more games and a bath for Emma it was time for bed. The kids had so much fun! I think they wore themselves out because they fell asleep fairly quickly.

In the morning they wanted eggs and bacon for breakfast. They finished the bacon before I could take a picture!
Around noon we headed over to my mom's house, where the games were already beginning. We ate around 3:00, and the food was all delicious! The rest of the day was more fun and games. The kids played some games and watched a couple movies. It was a nice and relaxing day.
We are not early risers on Black Friday. Nothing is worth getting up and fighting the ravenous crowds to me. Instead, we had a relaxing morning and went to a couple stores in the afternoon. That evening some family came over to play the Wii with us.

Saturday was great too. A little more shopping after which we watched the Utah/BYU game with my family. It was disappointing that the U lost, but it was more disappointing that the Refs were terrible, and that Max Hall decided to forget that he represents the Church to the world and give that horrible hate filled speech. My brother has had food and drinks thrown on him by BYU fans, but he doesn't hate the school or the students. He still doesn't want them to beat the U, but that's because it's supposed to be a friendly rivalry. Oh well, hopefully future BYU players will try harder to show good sportsmanship and Christlike attitudes so as to make their fans proud of them, and to represent the Church to the world better.

Sunday is always a great day, and today is the first Advent Sunday. It was fun to light the candle on our wreath with Emma. She loves looking at our tree and singing the Christmas songs. I'm looking forward to a fun season with her.