True to Hibbert tradition, we've got our tree up before the month of December starts. If I were die hard like my dad was in the 90's, one of them would have been up before Halloween. I say "one of them" because sometimes there were like 13 trees of various sized in my childhood home. My dad was a major Christmas man. The years have tempered him a little bit, which is a factor of age and also that he doesn't have all the kids around to help him put everything up. We usually put up two trees. Our kid/family tree in the front room holds any ornaments that the kids make at school or crafty things (just in case something like this happens!!) And our tree in the side room is our Jesus Tree - white, red and gold with a few nativity ornaments and a little nail from Corey's mom from a few years ago, to remind us of Christ and his sacrifice.
Mel and I put them up last week after Thanksgiving while the kids were up at Park City. Then we all decorated them over the weekend. Although now that we're a few days into it, I'm taking a mental note to wait a week or two next year, cause it's just too long of a time for kids to ruin any efforts we adults or big kids made to have it actually look nice...
Owen and Natalie pulled the lights off so they were totally loose, so I had to re-string them up which was a pain...
And they like to take off the ornaments. I don't mind as long as they put them back on. I don't even care if they're all concentrated around the base of the tree. But I hate having them scattered around the house. We have enough junk to clean up without adding a hundred plastic ornaments to the mess.
Owen is the main culprit for the ones loose on the floor. I blame Ethan for the broken ones since I caught him crushing one in his hand then saying "I didn't know it'd break!!" Natalie thinks they are shiny balls and throws them as high as she can on the bookshelf. Natalie and Sophi also use them as food (apples) when they play. Owen took note and puts the little ones in his mouth
Yummy!
So I was excited to put up the tree, but I'm also already looking forward to taking it down.
We had a good day today. We started off the day doing my favorite thing and had the kids work hard for 3 hours cleaning the house (you know, so Santa will believe that they've been good) and then we were off for fun and games. We first went to Lehi to play games with my side of the family- some great minute to win-it games and running around an open gym. Then we went for more food and fun with Corey's family.
Of course, after we got home, with it being Christmas Eve and all, the kids were much too excited to go to bed. Even Owen had the giggles, and he always gives us the giggles when he's got the giggles. Our cheeks were hurting! Owen's got cheeks of steel, or a good poker face, I don't know how he smiles so big without cracking!
(He is the cutest!)
So, back home, it's late now, but we weren't quite ready for bed. We were ready for the kids to go to bed, but they were still up with demands. First was feeding Owen and getting him to bed. I was upstairs rocking him and watching tv when A Dickens' Chrsitmas by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came on. I went downstairs and turned off the Mission Impossible flick that was on and told the kids to gather for family scriptures after this Christmas message. Good program, it made me think of the spirit of Christmas and how I can have it. Too late for this year, but I'm taking notes for 2016. It made me realize I have a lot to work on, cause I still am of the opinion that money really could fix a lot/most of my problems and help me with my wants (am I deceiving myself?) Like, I really could donate a lot to Sub for Santa and the refugees if I had more loot.Wondering if my thinking is off. Anyway, after it was done, I turned off all the lights (to stupefy the toddlers to sleep) and turned on a candle. We read scriptures by the candle light. It worked to calm them down. Soon, they were off "to bed." Corey and I waited a bit, and then we went out to play Santa.
The stockings were hung by the fireplace mantle, white tree aglow, presents under the white tree. The kids were under the green tree. It's a tradition that they started themselves in 2007 or so - they asked if they could sleep under the tree, we said sure, and now they have to every year. "It's tradition!" I'm glad it's a simple one, and one they own, one that has magic in it all created by the kids, I was never involved. So, Corey and I went to bed around 2 a.m. Joseph slept in his room, Owen and Natalie were up in our room. Christmas jammies everywhere!
Good night little boy
The rest of them in the front room: Soph crashed during scriptures and was on the couch in her Christmas jammies.
Abi on the left on the couch, Wes huddled close to the heat vent.
Lily and Mel
Ethan on the other couch, Hyrum under the desk~
Looks like we're all ready. One last pic of the tree from the top of the stairs where we said good night to ourselves.
One last thing, Abi wanted to leave Santa milk and cookies. Ethan helped her and they came up with the best they had, Ritz crackers and orange juice.
Corey drank the oj, and then put the crackers back in the box, except for one that he smashed up and made crumbs out of.
(The next morning when Hyrum saw the plate, he joked "Woah, Santa is a messy eater..." That made me laugh to imagine a Santa eating Ritz crackers like he's cookie monster or something~ funny!)
Yet another Christmas has come and gone. True to form, I was ready to continue my "the day after Christmas" tradition of taking down the tree. And I did. Just the one in the front room. Honsetly, I was so excited to get the ornaments put away and out of reach of the kids and to vacuum the front room. Yay! And it's not because I'm a Humbug Scrooge. It's cause I celebrate Christmas all year long and I don't need a tree in my house to have the spirit of Christmas in my heart, hah! So there. I'm not a Scrooge. Although I was accused. The kids woke up and were surprised at my efficiency. Kids, I'm really excited for us to get back to achieving goals and "making-something-of-my-life" mode and out of "it's Christmas-break-and-I-can-be-lazy" mode. Before Christmas, Ethan had said that the only thing he wanted for Christmas was to be able to sleep whenever he wanted for as long as he wanted. No waking him up early, like at 10 or anything, no waking him up from afternoon naps. Children, I realize that you guys won't be producctive until you are forced to go back to school, and I will accept that, but that doesn't mean that I can't start to try and kick things back in gear. So, even if you all don't want to say goodbye to December yet, I am okay to take down the tree. (I counted it as my workout today.)
A little more about Christmas Eve - on Sunday, after church, we headed up to Corey's brothers' house for a Wride family party. It was great. We enjoyed a yummy taco bar and other appetizers and desserts. I gave in to the cheese ball which was really tasty with the sweet potato crackers. I'll be getting back on the plant based wagon as soon as the holidays are over. Highlight for the kids was the saran wrap ball game. We played this last year and it was the highlight then too. When Uncle Mark announced it was time, they all cheered.
Daniel was a little curious/confused as to what could be the cause of such noise and excitement.
I took a video, but it was so loud and there was so much screaming (mostly Ethan being obnoxiously loud on purpose) so I'm not uploading that one.
I will, however, share a video of the highlight of my evening - Sophi and Owen dancing their little interpretation Tchaikovsky's nutcracker music.
It was so cute. I love these little people.
The kids played their musical instruments like last year, and they all gave a go at Karaoke too.
Ethan and Hyrum did an interprative dance to George Michael's "Last Christmas"
You boys are funny. The kids enjoyed time with their cousins and with their cousins' pet lizard.
It was starting to snow when we headed home. Thankfully it wasn't too bad but we did see a few accidents on the way. That would not be fun to be in an accident on Christmas Eve. But the kids were glad to have a little bit more snow before Christmas day, it's been a very mild winter. They are hoping to sled before the break is over. Not much yet though and nothing in the forecast. Unfortunately it's a pretty short break from school this year, they might be out of luck, we'll see.
The kids put up the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. They asked me if we could put it up, I said not yet and then went to take a nap. When I was awake it was up and lights were on it.
I didn't mind that they didn't obey me. I just didn't want to have to do it, so I was rather pleased that it was up and I didn't have to do anything. I like the kids owning stuff - like over the summer they wanted to put up the tent, I said go for it, but you guys have to take it down too. They're getting pretty good. Mel is the good leader of the pack when it comes to traditions and decorating. I need to try not to slow her down. The kids like decorating for Halloween and Christmas and that is totally fine by me, go for it, and then I usually get in the mood as I see them working. (Same goes for cleaning the house, I have to make lists for then and once they start it helps me kick it in gear.) So I did get into the Christmas spirit a little bit once they got the ball rolling and I helped put on more lights on the tree in in their bedroom windows and I took down the Fall decor and put up Christmas pinecones and such. Plus I put on the Mannheim Steamroller and they all paused and sighed and with nostalgia said "Oohh! This reminds me of Chile...." Great memories.
On Sunday night, Daniel poured a whole bottle of Olive garden dressing onto his small salad. And I confess that I pulled out the leafs of lettuce and I poured it back into the bottle, cause we are not going to just waste a whole bottle of that stuff. Then somehow it was left out again, and he did it again, and so I did it again. Shhh don't tell the kids. And the hairspray mess that they made on Saturday was still on the walls and dresser still needs to be cleaned up. So, I'm doing my best to cope with the mess that toddler and Christmas decorations bring. I'm also a little frazzled cause apparently we are having a guest from Guatemala join us next week. Joseph threw it out to him that he could come here, he called Corey, and now he's coming. I'm not thrilled, he's going to be here for 10 days and it will be over Christmas. I that got me a little stressed out and in effort to not lose my cool, I turned to the scriptures. Cue Mosiah 24:15.
And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.
I shall now liken it unto me:
And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Tiffanie were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen her that she could bear up her burdens with ease, and she did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. I think I do okay at submitting with patience, but I know I need to work on the "cheerfully" part. (I tend to murmur and vent...) So I come out after my scriptural coping session Sunday night, and I come downstairs to find Natalie and Owen took off all the ornaments off of the white Christmas tree and put them all in a white garbage sack for whatever game they were playing and then I felt like I needed to go back up and hide with my scriptures. I get it doctrinally, but putting this into practice is hard.
They've continued their un-decorating of the Christmas trees the past few days. Owen found these pretty gold bags (that Lily got after a fun Christmas brunch at Grand America with her friend Isa) and he filled them up like he was shopping for ornaments.
Got his purse... got all the ornaments he wants to purchase...
Ready to take his goods to the check out line -
I had to breath and try to not get too upset about this undoing of the decorations. I might be letting lots of thing bother me. I might just need to calm down? I'll try to breath. One thing that I hope will help is something we started today: Beat the Parent. I've heard about "Beat the Teacher" through many years of 2nd graders. And if teachers still use it and have been using it for years there, this might work for us. I learned about this when I took Peter there for show and tell in October. When I went there for that, school was almost out, so the kids were understandably restless, and they weren't as quiet/respectful as the teacher would have liked so she gave herself some points. Today I asked Sophi how that worked. We started today with just two things that are the same as what her class does - a "Wow List" for kids that save the day (like Abi when she wakes up early on Saturday mornings and cleans the main floor while we're all still sleeping) and a cleaning Beat the Parent tally mark paper. We're just using paper for now. And tonight I added three more Beat the Parent contests: Scripture Study, Clean Bedroom, and Music Practice (I'm gonna win that one easy! ...even if it is just me against 6 kids - E sax, Wes on trumpet, Abi on flute (she's my only real competition) Lily on Sax, Sophi and Natalie on violin) For our rough draft trial this week, it's just pieces of paper taped to the wall by the stairs
We'll see if having the different categories makes it more fun or more complicated. I'm trying to earn lots of points. Or I'm avoiding it all and just playing with Peter to hide from all my other responsibilities. He's getting big. He's showing me how big he is by trying to stand up while he is precariously holding on the post of our bed.
Near the corner... don't fall Peter!
One of his other favorite things is chewing on tooth brushes.
I had some spares in my purse that I picked up from the orthodontist. I think it helps his teething. His top teeth are almost in. Maybe chewing tooth brushes is good for coping with stress or something, maybe I'll pick some up for myself to chew.
Hello, it's just past 4:30 am, I'm about to head to bed and will update this more tomorrow hopefully. Notes I took for myself:
3:17 am, I was finally able to get away from Katharine. I didn't set an alarm to wake up and set out the gifts, I just knew that, since she just sucks the lifeblood out of me all night, I would be woken up before morning
3:18 - going to officially label the presents with code like Corey does
3:35 - on 8B, Katharine is fussing
3:41 - K awake, playing on the floor
4:05- box 1 done, I'm not doing codes anymore, I'm tired and it's stupid
4:20 - stockings done
4:30 - box 2 of stuff out, I'm heading back to bed. Joseph sleeping by the side room tree. He probably heard me but that's ok.
Kids having their annual sleepover under the Christmas tree.
Hello. Merry Christmas. Kids have had a good time but I'll finish writing about yesterday. At 11 o'clock I went to my parents house where we did a zoom call and gave my parents a gift -
My older sis in Indiana put it all together, shipped it to Beka, and Beka and I were there for the unwrapping.
It was a blanket with photos of all of us.
My siblings all sending love to each other before we sign off - Giving hearts to each other. It took us a second to have it arranged so that the hearts were all correct on someone's phone - they took a screen shot for the group. For most of us the hearts were messed up, cause the videos were in different orders on each phone. Funny.
During my growing up years, my parents would put us to work at Christmas decorating the trees. There were like 20 trees of different sizes and all sorts of themes. Now things are more simple at the Hibbert household -
We enjoyed time with Corey's family at the annual Wride get together. Grandma had fun new glasses this year!
Then the saran wrap ball game. Some people had all the luck, and others had no luck at all.
Peter was one of the no luck rollers.
Most of the prizes were little toys that only little boys would like anyway, so Peter made out with a lot of loot anyway.
So it was good. Then we all headed home early to try and get kids to bed early and finish the last touch ups for Christmas morning. I still had work, but didn't finish it before bed. Hence my early early morning. My room was clean a few days ago until I started to get Christmas stuff ready and wrapped. Now it's a mess. Katharine was by one of the bins of presents pulling herself up, it looked like she was bouldering!
She pulled herself all the way up!!!
Katharine, you are a natural climber! You sent it! Woo-hoo! She was so pleased with herself, but then she lost her grip and rolled over onto the floor. Gotta work on her ankle strength. It's so fun seeing them learn new things.
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