Matt and I talked about what we want Christmas to mean to our family. We decided that it should be focused on family. It is, after all, celebrating the birth of the Savior into is mortal family. So we started off December with a family home evening discussing just that. Family. We then scheduled out what activities we would do as a family. We came up with caroling, Christmas lights, making ginger bread houses, and homemade gifts. I didn't get pictures of them all (drat that!) but I did get a few.
Our first family activity was to see the lights at Thanksgiving point. Most of us had never been there. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't make it up to Temple Square, but ended up enjoying the lights more than I expected. We bought one pair of snowflake glasses which, when worn, make every light look like a little snowflake. It was pretty awesome. I think some of the kids tried not to give into the awesomeness, but we ended up passing the glasses around and around.
So at Thanksgiving point you drive through the displays. They had trees all lit up and lots of displays with moving parts like reindeer jumping over the road. I was a surprised but really appreciated that the end of the drive took us past several large paintings depicting the birth of the Savior with scriptures quoted. It was really nicely done and a great way for us to talk with the kids again about what Christmas should celebrate. We went out for ice cream afterwards.
Perhaps my most favorite activity was caroling. We had practiced a few times before the night we went out and had settled on "Angels We Have Heard On High." Emily has a beautiful alto voice (and soprano, for that matter), Matt sang bass, Tyler worked on the tenor, and Amy and I sang the soprano. We dipped pretzels in chocolate and Christmas sprinkles and Matt had mastered the peanut brittle. We decided on about twelve families and made a container for each. Then we were off. It was so fun. Really, fun. We sounded great and I loved seeing the faces of the people we sang to. I don't remember the last time I've had carolers at my door... sometime when we lived in American Fork, I think. Anyway, there was just a happy spirit that came as we rang, sang, offered a merry Christmas with some treats and were off to the next family.
Maybe next year we'll wear costumes. Or maybe not...
Another activity we did was to make gingerbread houses. I stole this idea from Caroline and John Benson. I wanted to try and make the sugar glue (basically melted sugar) to hold the grahm crackers together. But after several posts listed safety equipment to protect against burns I opted for the glue gun approach. I have three little ones and that ended up working out great. I looked up different types of frosting that would work best and whipped some of that up. It worked beautifully! Matt picked up Tyler, Amy and her friend. Emily ended up having a friends party that night, so she got to Ooooh and Awwww at the final products.
Everyone's turned out darling. Here are a few close-ups of each and then the final unveilings...
Amy Elizabeth
Icicles and Christmas lights
Working on the pathway to the door (how cute is that face!)
Mr. and Mrs. Cinnamon Bear hanging out by the tree in their front yard, complete with a star on top.
The Cinnamon kids building a snow fort.
Amy was the first to figure out a chimney as well. Here's her finished gingerbread house.
Tyler Jared
Tyler decided to build up instead of out. He ended up with three floors to his house.
This was his take on the Christmas lights and some added garland. Cute! (How do you say "cute" in 13-year-old-boy language?) I also thought the shingles were a great touch.
Tyler decided his house looked like the Weasley's house from Harry Potter. So he added some broom sticks on the side of the house. Loved it!
When asked about the pile of Gummy bears at the back corner of the house he said (with a smirk) that it was casualties from some battle (read: "A pile of candy I can eat without ripping it off my house.")
Ta da!! Looks great, Ty.
Emily Rebecca
I can only imagine what Emily's would have looked like had she been home. As it stands, that is exactly what we did...we imagined. It looks awesome, Em. More awesome than words could describe.
Victoria Jane
Here's brother and sister Gummy working on a snowman (I think it must have been a sunny day... hence the droopiness of Mr. Snowman).
Here are the rest of the Gummy kids having a snowball fight around the fluffy pine tree.
Here's the happy little cottage complete with icicles (that broke off if you looked at them cross-eyed!)
Matthew Jared
Matt went for the north pole castle look, complete with cinnamon bear guards on the look out for Santa's sleigh. He totally pulled it off!
Here's the pond next to the castle where the Gummy elves were ice skating.
Santa's sleigh filled with gifts.
Here's the final product with a happy Matt.
This year, as with last, we drew names in our little family for homemade gifts. I loved that the kids started working on these gifts several weeks before Christmas. It was so fun to see the thought that went into each gift and how much everyone appreciated what they'd been given.
Amy had Matt and she worked with Emily to make him a cozy pillow. One side was fuzzy green and the other side was black cotton. Don't they look cozy as they try it out?
Tyler had Emily. As a family we had gone to "Color Me Mine" to make a pancake platter for the Kotters (Matt's sister's family). While we were there Tyler pulled me aside and said he had an idea for Emily's gift. He wanted to get a tile and paint it, break it into pieces, then glue it back together. On the tile he wanted to write "Nothing can break us apart!" I thought it was an especially thoughtful gift (especially for a 13 year old boy). It turned out darling! (Is "darling" better than saying "cute"?)
Emily had me. She painted me a picture of a tree, a "family tree" as she described it. I loved it. I loved that she painted it for me and loved that she painted something that represented our family. I loved it. It says "Families are Forever" on the bottom. Did I mention that I loved it?
I had Tyler. I wasn't quite sure what to make for him. Then I found this awesome BYU super-duper fluffy fabric. With Robyn's help I made some super-duper cozy pajama pants.
Matt had Amy. He decided to make her a purse. We again called on the very talented and ever-willing-to-help Robyn. Emily and Matt picked out the fabric and Matt bought a few things to go
inside (a little brush, mirror, chap stick, etc.). It was a bigger project than anticipated, but turned are adorable!! And Amy loved it. It's been on her shoulder ever since Christmas.
Christmas Eve we had my family over for a little party. That will have to be a later post since this one is getting lengthy. After that Matt and I spent several hours getting the kids rooms ready. They had beds... but not much else. Nothing on their walls or any decorations. I'd talked with the kids in the past about "themes" for their rooms. When the girls moved into the same room they had decided they wanted a nautical theme. So they painted their room red and white with a blue stripe around the middle. They I found a darling shelf in the shape of a boat, some oars, a captain's wheel and some other nautical themed items. We also put up some pictures. We really liked how it turned out.
I had assumed Tyler would want a baseball themed room, but when I had asked him a few months earlier he said he wanted an "international room." We had brought him home a drum from Ghana and a bush knife from Vanuatu. He also had a horn he'd gotten from his great-grandpa. So we made it an international/adventure room. Matt went through some of his mission boxes and found a whip and some bola balls that the Argentine cowboys use. He also found some leather plates that had pictures of Argentine cowboys using them. We asked Matt's Aunt Rosemary for help making a vinyl saying for the wall that said, "Life is my adventure." Matt came up with that. I thought it was perfect. We got a globe, a trunk, and some other international decorations.
We had told the kids a few days before Christmas that we we were expecting a baby and told my family on Christmas Eve. It made for an especially sweet "Family Christmas" which is what we'd been trying to create. Christmas morning began with sacrament meeting and participating in the choir program. It was wonderful. I couldn't help the tears as we sang the song, "Baby, What You Goin' to Be?" It's a beautiful song about the infant Jesus. But standing there, pregnant with our little one, singing that words "Baby, what are you goin' to be? What are you goin' to say?" was a overwhelming. Even though the whole world isn't waiting for our baby like the world had been waiting for the Messiah, I am waiting, anxiously awaiting to see, what our baby will be.
After church Matt and I started getting our Christmas breakfast ready. When the kids came they were excited and full of things to share. We opened stocking gifts first. That was something else we had divided up. Everyone had a certain amount of money and was to buy stocking stuffers for everyone else. We each took our stocking and took turns opening a gift. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone had gotten for the others. The girls had gone in together to get Tyler some golfing stuff, including hand decorating 11 (that's Tyler's number) golf balls with inside jokes and cool designs. They got Matt camping gear and me perfume and lotion. Matt got us each a mini multi-use tool. He even picked out pink and purple ones for the girls. I was in charge of treats for all the stockings. After stockings we opened the gifts that we'd gotten, two for each of the kids. I so enjoyed the feeling in the air. I so enjoyed sitting by Matt and watching the kids.
After gifts was breakfast. The kids were much more excited about this than I expected. Brett's croissant dish has been officially voted onto our Christmas traditions list. We also had stuffed french toast with homemade buttermilk syrup, juice, and cinnamon rolls. I overestimated the combined size of our stomachs, but no once complained during subsequent meals of leftovers. (How cute is Matt is that darling, one-of-a-kind paisley apron!)
Matt encouraged the kids to take their stuff up to their rooms. Tyler headed up first and Matt followed. Matt said Tyler was really surprised, turned and gave Matt a hug. Sigh. Wish I'd been there as Matt explained about his mission items and why we'd chosen some of the other things. The girls heard them talking and headed up. They saw Tyler's room first and then headed to theirs. They had big smiles and hugs for us, too as they looked around at all the cuteness. Happy.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with toys or napping or watching a movie. It was a wonderful day. A wonderful Family Christmas.
I need some hot chocolate and some Bing Crosby.
1 comment:
What a great family! I love all the pictures. You guys are amazing!
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