Merry Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas. It's been a Christmas of all the usual Christmas traditions: Tradition 1 - Last night the kids all slept slept under the tree -

Joseph got a blow up mattress (that had folded in on him like a burrito by morning) - Owen next him, then Natalie and Sophi -

and on the right side of the tree, we've got Wes up top, D below with his face in his pillow, Lily with her pink blanket over her head, and Abi on the loveseat.

I woke up at 4:20 to set out presents. Tradition 2 - The kids had set out a treat for Santa: cookies, an orange, and water. 

I was grateful for the p.s. reminder to be careful with the tree (it needs a new base). Corey was feeling sick so I did it by myself, which is also becoming a tradition! It was fine though - took me an hour, which was also when Peter woke up, so good timing there. Tradition 3 - Corey did most of the wrapping and did a beautiful job.

Just past 5 am and we're ready to go. I woke up later that I do most years, but the kids were up really late playing the Wii and I begged them to go to sleep but they wanted to play and then clean up. I said fine, but absolutely NO setting alarms for 3 am! Cause I won't be done by then, they agreed.

Corey had bought eggo waffles and nutella for breakfast. I didn't have any, and I don't think the kids did either since they were already full from Tradition 4 - going to town on the chocolate goodies that were in their stockings. Tradition 5 - talking to our missionaries! We've got three this year! We were on the phone for a bit and then hooked them up to the side room big screen. They said it doesn't really feel like Christmas where they are, and that they had a semi normal missionary day of street contacting and proselytizing. 

Joseph laughed as he remembered in 2019 when they wanted to be done talking to him so they could get back to playing Smash Brothers. Some of the little kids were like that today, but the big kids are learning and we barely outnumber the little ones, so it was good and they sat patiently while we visited. Mel only had 30 minutes, so we were glad they could all call at the same time. After Mel had to go, we said goodbye for a bit (we talked to E and H again later) and we went to open family gifts. This was funny, as usual. Owen had taken any random thing and wrapped it for people. With his limited resources, he really has the spirit of Christmas. He gave Joseph a Book of Mormon, which is one of the greatest gifts anyone can receive! He gave Sophi a small turtle that he took off of Abi's desk. He took a black cat of Lily's, that was in her room, and wrapped it and gave that to her. It was pretty funny. Owen used up a lot of wrapping paper this past month. He'd wrap things, then unwrap them cause he couldn't contain his excitement at seeing all those gifts under the tree, and then go get something else to wrap. We had to lock up the wrapping paper and tape to try to conserve resources before they used it all! Wes bought Peter some little dinosaur cars that he looked up on the computer just for fun, and once Peter saw them he couldn't stop talking about them, and when Wes was at this computer, Peter would come up and ask to see the Dinosaur Cars. Peter was very happy. 

He got a lot of dinosaurs and a lot of cars today, but Wes came through with the hybrid of both! 

After the family gifts, we went over to the white tree for gifts from "Santa". Owen was the only one that got legos, so that was new. Lily was kinda in a transition year, against her will, and Corey got her mostly clothes and jewelry. Plus he gave her a early gift of a new saxophone clarinet case a few months ago that was expensive and he told her it was part of her Christmas, so it was ok, but she was a little disappointed.

Daniel opening a remote control car.

Peter was very content with his Dinosaur cars.

Abi was very happy with the Chacos that Corey found her. 

Wes was easy to shop for since he has discovered hockey. He probably go the biggest haul this year. 

We felt justified with him though, since we kinda needed to make up for 2019 when he got a block of wood. Abi was happy, Sophi and Natalie too.  After gifts, they played a little bit of the Wii, and then around 1:30 we headed out to go to Wrides. Hyrum called again while we were on our way there. We had lunch over there and opened presents.

Ethan called tonight after we got home. I called my mom after we got home around 6 for a visit. I was feeling a bit tired and so I went to lay down for a bit, now I'm on duty and it's Corey's turn to take a break, and we'll see if I have any luck trying to get them to go to bed tonight! We have church early tomorrow, so hopefully they'll cooperate. 

Ornaments Mess

So, in my opinion, there is an annoying down side to having the Christmas tree up for a whole month. The reason is that, here at our house, it's hard to keep the ornaments on the tree with the toddlers around. Today, for example, Daniel was hitting the tree with his teddy bear...

And after he's knocked off a sufficient amount of the sparkly decorations, he took a turn whacking Wes.

I bet it kinda felt like a soft back massage. Thanks Daniel!

So, there have been ornaments all over the floor. During past Christmases, I have been vigilant at quickly restoring them to their place on the tree. This year I'm taking a new approach - I'm putting them back in a box and putting it back downstairs with the holiday storage. I might bring them back out, but I might not. Maybe on Christmas Eve to restore the decorations one last time before the big day. But to do it now, what's the point!? They'll just knock them off again. Owen's taken it to a new level, and all the blue plastic icicles that have been within his reach are now in the garbage, cause he's taken them and put them on the floor and then stomped on them to snap them in half. Then he's proudly come to get me and show me his work - "Look mom! I break it!" I glued back together two of them earlier yesterday when I thought it might have been a one time thing and telling him "No, don't do that" might cease the destruction, but not so. So all the ones on the bottom half of the tree are gone and in the garbage. There are still like 3 on top. But ugh, all this Christmas mess and clutter! Well, it shouldn't be clutter, but it is when the festive things are not kept in their proper place - then it's just becomes a mess all over the floor of things for me to sort again and organize. Mostly ornaments, then the regular clutter of garbage and socks, and the Little People Christmas people are on the floor too -

Right now Owen's moved them into the kitchen, but the camels and shepherds have already had their fair share of time on the floor, and we're just four days into this! So into the box they are going too. I just don't want to pick it up 100 times this year, so we'll see if I put the ornaments back up and on and set up the toy nativity again, or if I just pretend that Daniel and Owen helped me pack things up early this year.

O Christmas Tree

Abi wanted to put up the Christmas tree last week after Thanksgiving. I told her we couldn't do it yet... it's got to either snow or atleast be December before the tree goes up. There hasn't been any snow, but since it is now December, I had to give in. So the kids brought up the tree and put it up. We also have a white tree that we usually put in the side room, but I told the kids we have to wait on that until we fix the overload of furniture in that room which has been there since Corey moved out of this office two months ago. Wow, time goes by quickly. Anyway, the little kiddos are super excited! Natalie has already been sleeping under the tree in her room.

We put some mini trees in their room earlier this week. Natalie slept under that and in the morning there was a present - a toothpaste box, unwrapped, with a note that said "To Natalie From Santa (aka Lily) Ho ho ho!" Inside were some plastic gems that the kids have been playing with. Natalie was excited. Today she was asking if it was Christmas yet.

Santa is not coming yet sweetie. But atleast we're "ready" now! So you little kids can put your minds at ease!

We'll see how long the ornaments last - they have to make it through a whole month of being down within toddler grabbing reach. The kids pull them off and play catch with them (little kids) or break them for no reason at all other than seeing if their powerful hands are strong enough to crush the glittery plastic ball (Ethan). Corey is working late tonight, I went to the temple and struggled to stay awake the whole time. I just can't sit still or the battle with weariness begins. I'm find during the day cause I stay up and moving. But sometimes I have to slap myself or call a friend to talk if I'm driving cause I get drowsy. And definitely no sitting still in a room with the lights off like in the temple. Ugh. 

Business wise - probably shouldn't share this here, I don't know, but it's the truth of our life - Corey took out a loan yesterday with horrible interest to pay for some business bills. I said successful/rich business people are successful cause they know when to say when, when their efforts have been enough and they need to stop giving more. But Corey said he's not doing this for the money, he's doing this cause he's tired of making excuses - giving excuses as to why he's not paying bills and employees. So the answer again is more debt for us. I really do feel like we're stuck in the ocean, waiting to die a slow and possibly painful death with no rescue ship in sight. Yeah, I'm sure we'll still be alive as this holiday month ends and another calendar year begins, cause that's what's happened every other end of the year. And I think that someday this business won't be the source of stress and worry. But still, ugh. Maybe that's why I'm feeling like such a scrooge. Hard to focus on giving when I'm all stuck in my head with worry and wondering how we'll get by. I know I need to get outside of myself and help lead our children in giving of ourselves (but that's kinda all you do as a parent for your kids all day every day anyway...) and I want to do the Light the World thing, but it's probably going to be just simple things cause we're just getting by - with $, time management, and previous commitments. Happy December, we'll see if we can make it one to remember and not just one of surviving the holiday. :/

Christmas Eve Report

Hi. I'm going back in time to give the full report of Christmas Eve. If I actually wrote this all on Christmas Eve, it would have been written after 3:30 am on Christmas Day, cause that's when the day officially ended with this final photo -

So, this is how our Christmas Eve went. Corey told me the night before that he wanted to take the kids out to lunch and then to a movie. He told the children of his plans also, because it would require just a bit of planning/effort on their part. aka- they would need to get up earlier than usual for a "winter break" morning because of my one pre-condition to their outing - that the house be clean. So they started to wake up at 9 and most were alive and moving by 9:30 and they went to work tidying things up. They were done shortly after 11:30. The movie tickets were for 12:30, so they hurried out the door. They didn't have a lot of time at Chuck a Rama, but they still went and hurried and stuffed their faces for 30 minutes.

Then over to the theater where they were a little late to the movie "Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet". They said it was weird. They didn't get back until like 2:30, and we were supposed to be up in Layton at 3, so I thought they'd want to hurry out the door for that, but Hyrum had to do his shopping for his sibling secret Santa, so he and Corey left and were gone for another hour. So we were late to the Wride family Christmas Eve party, but got there around 5:20. Everyone was waiting for us and was ready to eat.

Taco bar.

Natalie went straight for the hot cocoa.

She stirred it with the peppermint candy cane and was delighted to see it get skinnier and pokey-er

After dinner we had the annual Talent Show.

I took videos of their performances but won't put them all here except for the link - First Abi played her piano numbers - same from her piano recital a week ago.

Lily played the sax.

Our kids weren't all in order, the cousins did numbers in between our kids. Melodie on flute.

Wes sang some bad karaoke

Natalie sang Jingle Bells

Oh, and of course Daniel wanted a turn with the microphone!! His back up singers were going crazy with energy, egging him on, and he finally caught the vibe 4 minutes into his performance and gave them the dancing moves they were hoping for.

Sophia on violin

Corey put a saxophone neck strap on Owen and everyone was pressuring him to go sing, at which time his body went limp and he layed on Corey's lap unable to function. Going limp was something Mel used to do when she was a toddler. Looks like Owen won't be performing after all. He stayed limp until Corey took off the neck strap, funny kid.

The kids signed up Corey, so he did a number, and Ethan joined him for a few measures.

Then Ethan did his own number

And then next in the program was a nativity narration of Luke 2. Lily started off dressed to be a shepherd, but jumped in to the Mary role when the opportunity presented itself. Cousin Isaac is Joseph. A stuffed bear was Baby Jesus

Abi as a wise man.

After the nativity, the kids were quiet so Corey's parents shared a few words as well as him and his siblings, then a family prayer, and then the kids were ready to get crazy with the Saran Wrap game.

Uncle Mark had prepared two balls and we divided the kids into two groups.

Group 1 finished unwrapping their ball first, and Wesley won the coveted center of the ball  - a $5 bill

Lily won the $5 of the second group

Pretty exciting! Money!! They all scored some pretty sweet holiday gear and treats. 

Hyrum modeling his new scarf.

Ethan had Owen hold all the things he unwrapped, and then Owen wouldn't share with him. So sad, but Eth took the injustice like a champ.

Group pic!

We had a good time and were headed home around 8:30. Got home around 9:30. Corey went to pick up presents from the North Pole, the kids stayed up late watching Home Alone, Corey and I put Owen and Daniel to bed and then we went to bed around 12:30. Everyone else was still up. I set my alarm to wake up at 2:25 to get the gifts out of the car.

I peeked out down the stairs. Lights were out except for the tree, no one was stirring. Kids were all asleep around the tree, their tradition.

My first action was to take phones away and unplug Hyrum's alarm clock. I didn't know what time his alarm was set for, I only knew that it was set. And I didn't want it to go off at 3 or anything while I was at work, so yeah, that had to go. Then I got rid of the carrots, cookies and ricemilk (didn't eat them, just put stuff back in the fridge). 2:45 am and I started to bring in the presents. I had them all in the house by 3, all under the tree at 3:10, and then I did the stockings. Those were done at 3:30. Then took pictures. That means I'm able to to to back to bed at 3:40. Yay. I let Corey sleep, cause he had done almost all the shopping this year and did all the wrapping too. So I was glad to do a little bit to pull my share.

The lights at the top of the tree burned out this year. Time for a new tree? I is pre-strung, so I might try to fix it on top, but will do that next year.