Dinner, Party, and Christmas Eve

Hello, it's just 1:30am on Christmas day. 

I came up here to blog around midnight while the kids went to bed, then I did the stockings. 

I had already put out the presents (there weren't a lot)

I'm giving cash to kids in junior high and older (so Sophi through Joseph) and the elementary kids get to open a present from Santa. So only a few gifts under the white tree but there will be plenty cause they'll have presents under the family tree that they got for each other, so it will be good. Ethan is spending Christmas up in Idaho with Bella and her family (things are getting pretty serious between those two!) and here below is what I've been blogging the past hour as I waited for kids to go to sleep... And now I'm going to bed, Merry Christmas!

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Ok, I got a lot of pictures for today. We got to church early for the Christmas program Rehearsal. I smiled when I saw Owen in back of car - 

Just chillin' taking it easy. In for the final rehearsal before the big musical program! 

The violin choir ~ We had a wonderful Christmas program today. A lot of work was put into it. I didn't want the stress of performing to distracting me from feeling peace of Christ, so I was really praying to not focus on the program or me or my kids at all, but to worship Christ and have my heart and mind single to HIM and all He has done for me. And it was a beautiful experience. It started off with the sacrament. There were so many people there ~ college kids visiting home, extended family like my parents and Wayne came to support their grandkids, and also lots of wonderful neighbors that don't often come to join in person, so it was wonderful to see them all, but because of the unusually large congregation, there was not enough sacrament water cups for everyone to partake of the sacrament. The deacons brought their trays back and Wes and the other priests prepared more cups and water and blessed the water again. And I was thinking of how Christ must feel - he wants everyone to come! And when we do come, he makes it possible for us all to receive the blessings he wants to give us. We seriously just need to want to come to Christ. If we do, he will receive us! He's not like Mel's recent college professor who will not count her final paper because it was late. It's not us begging Him to let us in, it's HIM begging us to come. If we come, He receives us. And I just felt that he was so happy for all the people that came today. He was trying to have them feel his love, with hopes that they will continue to come and abide in his love and the fellowship enjoyed by his saints. I love Jesus Christ and his church! I love belonging to a stake of Zion. My goal: be willing to receive all that He desires to give me.  

But you know... all the work that we all the adults and older kids did, and guess who steals the show? It's the children of course. 

Singing Christmas Bells (Natalie and I and Jack and his mom Jess all sang the obligato) I loved to see sweet Peter, Owen and Daniel (behind Peter) up there singing with all the lovely primary children. I just love kids. They are so sweet. They definitely brought in the spirit and it was a wonderful touching feast for the souls of everyone who came. My real favorite part of the program was the primary children singing "Born to Be a King" 

Baby Jesus, sleeps in a manger
His mother holds Him in her gentle arms
Could He really be called the Son of God?
This baby here is born to be a King

"Hallelujah", the angels sing His name
For unto us is born a King this day
Bells are ringing as children sing along
They sing a heavenly song to praise His holy name

Softly, softly, His mother sings to Him
I wish I knew Him all those years ago
I will praise Him
The spirit testifies that He is Jesus Christ, His only Son

"Hallelujah" (hallelujah), the angels sing His name
For unto us is born a King this day
Bells are ringing (dingdong, dingdong, dingdong)
As children sing along
They sing a heavenly song to praise His holy name

 After we got home, Abi got gift bags ready to give to neighbors (eventhough I told her we're not doing it this year! "I told you! We gave money to the neighborhood food drive as our gift!" Just can't keep the kids' holiday spirit down. 

Well, since they did it all, that's fine I guess. At 2 I went upstairs to blog a bit and took a little nap. Corey's family was coming over to our house at 4 for the annual Christmas Eve Wride gathering. I  actually wouldn't mind if some year soon, we only do either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with extended family but not both, cause I just feel stretched a little too thin lately, but it's ok. So they are coming soon. Corey is downstairs helping set up. Our nephew Isaac arrived early at 1 and is getting a feast ready. He's a master chef and put in a lot of work for a nice dinner of Salmon and Ratatouille. I'm impressed. 

I blogged a bit and took a nap, and during my well deserved break, Isaac cooked and everyone set up the party. I woke up and came down just after 4 and every one was here. Mark had shown up and had long banquet tables and chairs that he had just used for a wedding in Vernal over the weekend and that was all set up amazing. And Isaac wanted nice dishes for the meal, so he got all of JeNeal's Christmas china all set up. Wow! The little boys were the waiters, so they dressed up real fancy.

Looking toward the fireplace above, toward the kitchen below ~

A round of applause for Chef Isaac and our dapper waiters!

Let's see if we can get a pic of everyone on Christmas Eve - Corey with his side kick Katharine - 

Owen and Peter - 

Natalie and Daniel - 

Sophi, Jordyn, Natalie with their desserts - snowman cupcakes and Santa hat cake pops (and reindeer droppings?)

We had Christmas music playing and the next activity set up - building candy houses but with a little extra something to make it interesting...

The kids were put into groups of 3, and of those three, one person was blind (bandana over eyes) one was mute (duct tape over mouth) and one was deaf (ear plugs). Here is the MJO team - 

Grandpa Daniel and Mark - 

It was pretty funny to watch.

Natalie just gave up and ate candy - 

Some of them gave up on the blind mute deaf rules. 

Rhyan, Lily, and Chalane - 

Natalie took a nap after that, haha, keeping her blindfold on. 

And next activity - saying "Fluffy Bunny" one time clearly as you shove large marshmallows in your mouth. 

It was a valiant effort by all. Mark won.

Then we did Christmas Carols with Chimes that JeNeal and Wayne made for all of us years ago. 

Katharine enjoying the spoils of the party aftermath - a bowl full of MnMs

Then we all washed up and got ready for a few Christ centered activities - one was writing a letter to themselves to read next Christmas (and idea I got from a LDS Friend Magazine) 

I will try to make sure I bring them out next Christmas. Just put it on my calendar for Dec 15, 2024 to find those... Goal tomorrow is to put them all in the Christmas Box downstairs, I think that will be the best place for them.

And then we read some Christmas scriptures by candle light. 

This was my favorite part of the day. At 10pm, I got out candles and a list of different scriptures I had collected and we each drew a slip of paper and read our scripture one at a time, and after we did, we got to light our candle.

I need to find where joseph wrote out the scriptures we did and the order it ended up being in. It was really nice, a nice calm moment together after a busy day. 

At 11:20 I started to put out the presents. 

Mel, Wes, Abi, Lily and Sophi all saw me and protested "Hey! That's not allowed! We can't see you putting the presents under tree." I said there is no need for me to wait until 3am and wake myself up and sneak out to do it after they've all gone to bed WHEN THEY ALL KNOW that it's me...

"Fair point, mom..." while they also admitted "Christmas has lost it's magic..." Well, you can all still go sleep under the tree. The little kids had already put themselves to bed - Can you spot four kids in this photo?

These 7 are still awake. You better go to bed! Santa's not coming until you're all asleep! 

Oh, haha, that's right... you already saw me. Well, NOTHING in the stockings until you're all asleep!

(That's a lot of stockings...) Some of the kids told me the other day that they were amazed that this house just happened to have enough hooks for everyone in our family to be able to hang a stocking! Then I let them know that I put those hooks there... "oh..." Well, it was amazing when the thought it just came like that - 15 hooks! WOW! So I brushed my teeth and read for a few and then the older kids  were finally laying down. And here we have PROOF that Joseph DID indeed sleep under the tree with y'all!

They always give Joseph a hard time saying that he never sleeps under the tree cause he missed one year, so it's kinda funny. 

Last Christmas with Wes for a few years... leaving for his mission in less than a month!

Resist Holiday Stress

Hello. I guess I'm feeling all the build up of the holiday stress come to the surface today a bit. I want to surrender to God like Jonathan Roumie did - great article in the Deseret News here. He was broke, prayed, and literally surrender to God. 

"Roumie also described an instance where he was transformed by prayer. When Roumie was broke, he prayed and his life changed. “I was literally on my knees and I said, ‘Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.’ ... And then three months later, I got called to do ‘The Chosen.’ It was a point that I think my life was building to when that happened — and I realized that trying to micromanage God was not something that was working in my favor..." 

That's where we're at and what I need to do. Not just during times of holiday stress, but always. Deep breath. So we're having our Wride Christmas Eve Party tomorrow. Everyone is in charge of different stuff, as I said, and tonight Jordyn took Sophi and Natalie out to buy supplies for the treats that they've planned for dessert. They came home and started to make a cake, then they mashed it up with frosting...

then they mashed it up with frosting...

and turned it into Santa cake ball pops, I think? And some snowman cake pops. Kinda messy, but they didn't mind that part! (Licking off their fingers...)

So they are down doing that right now. I venmo'd Jordyn to help pay for the supplies (that is way too much for desserts... but THAT'S OK! We're giving them experiences and they're creating memories together). Today we had a rehearsal at church for our ward Christmas concert/program on Sunday. We did it at the stake center because our ward building is getting new carpet. Abi and Lily were very unready for their piece, it was quite embarrassing a the rehearsal. They smiled through it there but they are finally feeling the panic and getting serious, ugh. So many people in the ward have put so much into this, I'd had for the Wride Family Number to be so bad. I'm sure they'll pull through. They did good practicing tonight and I'm sure will do a little more in the morning. Sophi Natalie and I are playing "Joy to the World" with the ward violin choir. We need to be at church at 8am, so hopefully they'll all be wrapping up baking and practicing soon so we can go to bed early. We're all meeting at 8 to do another one through of program before church starts.

After the rehearsal this morning, I went out shopping cause I still needed a present for Owen. Corey went off to Scheels. I went to the Lego store at fashion place. I ended up getting him the Lego Rebel Base, which was over the budgeted price per child we had set, but hopefully he'll share it with his brothers. Done with that at 2 PM, then I went bouldering for a few. I did 9 V2 sends and a few attempts, I did a purple V2 that I hadn't done before, the one in the OG sector on the northeast corner of the boulder, I did it! I also did a blue V2 in the OG sector that I hadn't been able to do before, yay. I like just getting further on a climb than I've gotten the time before. On a green V2 I got to the almost last hold, yay. I only have a few V2s to do, but some of them seem a bit impossible

What else... Joseph had Zeb over for lunch today. Having them in the kitchen sent Corey into a slight panic about not having enough food for people, making him become worried about food tomorrow, and I ended up taking it the wrong way when he said he was going to go out and pick up a few groceries.  I was able to express myself, and learned once again that it's well intentioned and he just wants to be helpful. He's not trying to give me stress. I did tell him that it made me want to give up. He asked about buying ski helmets cause they are on sale, but I said no, we have enough. We are prepared, I have prepared for Christmas (mostly on my own), and we have food to feed them, no need for him to panic, but when I do think that he's scrambling for last minute food or gifts, I get a feeling that any prep I've done is not enough, so I guess that makes me feel pressure/anxiety/restlessness. We were able to talk it through over the phone as we were at our different stores (me at Fashion Place, him at Scheels). We'll get through this, Christmas is almost here and almost over. I want to not get burnt out by the holidays. Deep breath. Tomorrow we'll be having a fancy feast, but tonight I just microwaved potatoes for dinner. Before they ate though, I want kids to clean and get out of their "just standing around wondering what to do" mode. We don't need to always shovel food at them when they are standing around bored. There is stuff to do! Get to work (the house is currently a total wreck). Those are my thoughts. Corey told me he is always feeling swelling pressure, that kids wear him out and talk his ear off. Corey's day went like this: wake up, went to the bank, o crap, talking to kids, wants to help Lily practice but she was asleep. Katharine hanging on him constantly, Mel's got drama with school (a teacher claim she cheated on a final) and he just feels pecked at all day long. Corey apologized for not thinking about or recognizing all the work I've done. We both are trying our best. He would like us to beat the kids to it (hunger/food). It was also nice that Corey recognized that he's abandoned me this whole Christmas prep season. But all the stuff he does is for me, (except for when he's trying to get kids to leave him alone) haha. We're almost there, we're gonna make it. 

Siblings' Screens

Abi, Lily, and Sophi had their last day of school today before the winter break. Yay, we're done for the rest of the year. The little kids like have been out of school for a few days and have been enjoying their older siblings home, because they love them and love spending time with them obviously! ...and because it means a little bit more opportunity for screen time! 

Watching stuff on Hyrum's phone. I took four pictures of them, and Peter was picking his nose in all of them. Oh well. I am still trying out to figure out a few gifts. I went to Costco... Ethan said he wants a razor, but I don't know which kind... I don't shave my face, I don't have knowledge or an opinion on that. Corey wants more ski helmets. I think we have enough. Oh - guess what! We've been missing our spare van key since like March/April... I thought it must have been left in the ski pants or a ski coat, cause I knew we had them both last ski season - cause I remember having Abi run back to the car with one key and another person had the other. But it's been missing, so when I thought it must have been left in the ski clothes last winter, I decided to go check all the pockets and NOTHING. Didn't find it. Then what do you know - today, lo and behold - both keys are there! I asked Hyrum and Abi if they put a key up, they said they didn't, so I have no idea where it came from, but we have both keys again after months of one key.

Usually something goes missing and no one will fess up to it. This time something appears and no one knows how or where it came from! I guess it shall remain a mystery, but I'll happily take the "things appearing without explanation" over things disappearing! I'm grateful, yay, it's a Christmas miracle.

Joseph and Mel arrived today, coming up for the holiday, he brought up my bike, thanks Joseph. Corey's is still getting a tune up, Josh bringing it by tomorrow morning. I took Lily and Sophi to go hang out with her BFF Liesel and her little sister. They are out there until 9pm. Abi and Mel are making a dessert. I tried to resist so that I would be hungry for date night. Corey and I went to Aubergine and then Costco for another attempt at getting enough food and gifts for Christmas break. 

Corey is going to try and recruit some BYU students to help him with his project - he made this video to explain it to them so that they could know if they want to help. I don't totally understand everything Corey says here, even though I know it's all in English, but I thought I'd share this incase anyone wants to watch it so they know a little bit more about what his project is about. BYU Capstone project - password is narx

Party Plans

We've been working at planning the Wride Christmas party with extended family. We are hosting it here, but I have not been in charge of anything. Corey's been texting his brother and sister and he suggested they do something different so it's not too much for us adults, and thus they have assigned all the details out to the grandkids! So we've got: 

• Icaac, Melodie & Abigail are in charge of the dinner main course
• Jordyn, Sophi & Natalie are in charge of desserts and drinks
• Alix & Wes in charge of Activity 1
• Joseph & Hyrum over activity 2
• Rhyan & Lily doing Activity 3

So this will be good and a new experience. Not that we haven't enjoyed the traditions of years past (like the saran wrap game or music performances) but yeah, we'll try something new this year. It's been good having the kids home. Hyrum has done a good job helping Peter with Legos. 

That has been good because it eases Wesley's "play with my little brother" guilt and is giving Wes needed time to try and crank out the rest of his BYU high school classes before he leaves for his mission in one month and one day! He starts Jan 22, yikes! Go go go Wes. Get those classes done. He's been working hard. He's been borrowing Mark's jeep, and yesterday he got up and left to work (at Wayne's house) all on his own since he has that freedom (didn't have to wait for Corey and Corey didn't need to wait for him).

My little butterfly Lucky is still alive. I think he's gonna make it through Christmas! Way to go Lucky. I bet he's the only monarch butterfly spending Christmas with a family in Utah this year. He likes getting a little time in the sunshine, and here's how I've been feeding him - honey water that pools up in the grooves of my fingernails.

Corey and the college kids have been talking a lot about the temple and insights that they've been getting. I have been reading a book by President Oaks "Life's Lessons Learned" that I got from Savers by Momentum after climbing on Monday (yay, I love thrifting for books) and I was glad to have something to share in the temple discussions: from page 16: "Everything that occurs in the temple fits into one of three categories: 1) teachings 2) covenants or 3) promised blessings." I liked that. 

Today Corey went to gym, and when I saw he was there, then I went there too. Walked for 22 min on treadmill while I watched a few Dr. Berg videos while he did his treadmill run then cycling on the bike. I did a 3 min plank (30 sec on hands, then slid/lowered to elbows for 30, them was able to bring myself back up to hands (without having to do one arm at a time!) and did that two more times, total 3 min, then 100 second superman. Then a few climbs - 4 attempts (a cute little boy, prob 8 years old, was with me and we both tried that purple V3 twice, we're both too short though! He is so good though, I saw him do an orange V6 on the north boulder, I was so impressed) 5 sends (black V2 3 times and two purple V2s).

Yesterday I spent time reading the Oaks book in my room. Trying a little bit to do something and get out of my slight zombie/indifferent state of mind. I'm a bit tired. I should probably stop nursing Katharine. She wakes me up a lot during the night. I'm already looking forward to a good night sleep next Tuesday when Corey and I take a little post-Christmas recovery trip to St. George. Corey took my bike in to get the fork fixed, whatever that is. I was going to go get it, but since Joseph has a bike rack we're going to have him pick it up later. I ran a few more Christmas errands today. Mel came up and she had received some anonymous gift from someone who dropped stuff off at her apartment - food for her and a white ceramic nativity thing for us with a gift card. I'm not telling Corey this (and I'm blogging this is May 2024 so he probably won't see this post to find this out, haha) but the RS president came by also and gave us a gift of cash and a Smith's gift card. We are in need I guess, mostly cause of the large number of children we have, but also cause $ has been tight all this year with Corey's project, which cut their budget in half, so it was ok before then, but it's been really bad this year. Trying to make due, but mostly digging a pit for ourselves with debt. (Shh, Corey you didn't see this, or if you did just know that me saying this does not mean you are not a good provider. You are!) Corey and I went climbing yesterday at 2pm - did a few new V1s and V2s. Total 18 sends - just working up our strength again. Then stretched my legs for 20 minutes. Exercise and stretch, then work and rest. That's the formula for life. 

Santa Visit

We got a surprise visit by Santa tonight! Peter telling Santa what he wants for Christmas ~

Peter seemed to take this very seriously. This is his big chance!! Natalie was a bit more silly. 

With knitting in hand, gets a turn and got a candy cane. Owen - playing it cool - 

And Daniel ~

This Santa has visited our house before, sometimes as Santa and sometimes as our ministering brother (Dave K). I actually didn't hear what any of them wanted. Oh well, that's ok cause we're having a simple Christmas again with no apologies by me. I'm almost done with it all, but still have a little bit more to do that I think I'll be able to finish up tomorrow. I told the kids I thought it would be good if they all went down in the basement and made each other lego sets from ALL THE LEGOS we already have down there, rather than us buying more. But, I predict that we most likely will buy more legos. 

Ethan and his girlfriend are talking marriage, apparent by a text he sent me letting me know that they've scheduled a sealing appointment for Friday, March 1 at 3pm at the Payson Temple. So things are apparently getting serious. I also forwarded him the phone numbers for some friends in our neighborhood who likely have the phone number for our neighbor, who Ethan wanted to see if he'd be available to perform their sealing ordinance. So we'll see how this goes. I guess we're gonna have a wedding on our hands soon!

Katharine's feet photography is getting more diverse - She still have some of her usual work - 

and some pieces that are more complicated - 

 

Wow, Katharine's got 11 toes! I heard this quote today on the Lili Anderson Choosing Glory podcast - made me laugh and also want to cry a little - Found it online - 

"Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no mood for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house."

I am feeling like that a little bit, as I said last week. Still trying to keep moving though. I'm glad we're going climbing again. I went yesterday afternoon by myself and had a goal to get to 30. Today it was a fairly warm afternoon (50 degrees!) so I took a quick ride along the fish tail. Silver bike, I was working hard and thought I was going pretty fast, but received no achievements. :( sad. Abi had a Christmas concert last night (I think GMS... I can't keep track). We're anticipating have the kids all home over Christmas, trying to find a place for the college kids to all sleep. Looking at the classifieds for mattresses. I thought it might be more fun to do the Wride Christmas eve dinner at the church, where there is room to play games in the gym, rather than here, but I don't know if that's gonna fly, so anticipating that party here at our house is also weighing on me a little bit, but I'll try to handle it more like the our neighbors did on Saturday than like I usual do. Usually I'm all stressed before hand and grumpy but do ok when the moment is here, and then just need to withdraw and have quiet time after. Ahh we'll see. One week until Christmas.