Ready for Christmas

The stockings are hung, or rather on the floor by the tree, and all that jazz.

A lot of people pull out the tree the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the 26th of December, but we are more the trickle in, trickle out type. Sometime early in December, Mike put up the beautiful nativity painting he bought me the Christmas after Maggie was born. A couple other decorations made their way up from the basement (the girls dug some of them out). And most of our traditions were fulfilled.

A beautiful nativity display started to get us in the Christmas spirit the first weekend in December. We've gone the past few years and this year, like in times past, the church building where it was held was decorated beautifully with white lights and yards of white fabric and ribbons. There were tons of different nativities and creches and a live nativity as well. And the music was gorgeous. It was the first time we were able to get there for the concert. I hope next year the girls and I can make time to participate.

The next weekend was Kate's birthday and our church Christmas party. It was called "A Night in Bethlehem" and they set up the cultural hall to look like a marketplace with tents and youth pretending to be vendors. You had to pay your "tax" (canned goods for a local food pantry) and then you could enter the gym by crossing little bridge. You then had to grab a woven or wooden tray and begin collecting food for your family from the different "vendors." There was roasted turkey, cheese cubes, olives, cut fruit and veggies, quick breads, and rolls. Then you took your simple fare and found a place to spread your picnic blanket and ate as families. The kids loved that everyone was eating with their hands. Emily, especially, was in heaven. All the food was already on the floor, so there was no need to drop it off her highchair before digging in. And best of all, she could eat off anyone's plate she wanted. She would grab handfuls of food and stuff her mouth, then sit back against Mike like a big fat man before going for her next mouthful. It was hilarious. Sure, there was some spilled water (Maggie kicked over at least two cups), but it was worth it. The kids really had fun. And we got to watch a lovely slideshow of the Primary children acting out the nativity. Jen Fields, who is in our ward, put that together.

The third weekend in December, we finally went and picked out our tree from the boy scouts at the  neighborhood farm store parking lot. We love picking out our live tree and love that our tradition is so easy to maintain. It takes us about fifteen minutes.

And this past weekend, we got to carol again with good friends and enjoy a family Christmas music party. The girls performed "Picture a Christmas" for their cousins, while their dad accompanied. Nothing better than Christmas carols with friends and family in my book.

Last year, we made a Christmas countdown calendar (Hello Kitty style) with different, but simple, Christmas-y things to do all month long. This year, we were even more low-key about it, but we still tried to do a little something most days. Besides those mentioned above, we made gingerbread houses (easy-style, because my sweet neighbor gave me a kit...I only missed making the gingerbread a little). We cut a few snowflakes. We made treats for friends and Mike's co-workers. (I think these nuts are the best because they are super easy and make the house smell lovely, though I do half almonds, half pecans.) We sang Christmas songs. We wrote Christmas cards. We watched Christmas movies and read Christmas stories. (But not The Gift of the Magi. It makes me cry too much. I reject the idea that Christmas songs and stories need to make you cry. Like, I don't even think it should be legal to play that Christmas shoes song on the radio. It's probably caused accidents.) And each day we put a little ornament on an advent calendar Mike's Grandma Kay made.

We even had a little snow Thursday, though most of it's gone now. The girls loved it though. Kate was relentless until she was out in it. I think she and Maggie were outside that morning at 7:30, which is minutes after they awakened.


Maggie has been wrapping random objects around the house and having us open them the past week. I think there are still a couple of her offerings under the tree. And Emily has been inspired by Handel's Alleluia chorus and started singing along last night. But the sweetest thing

Before bed, we watched Joy to the World, as we do every year, and opened our pajamas and Mike's sibling gift. (The kids loved the handwarmers Sabrina made and the cotton candy and puppets from Kathy and fam.) But the sweetest part was the kids playing Mary all month. Especially Maggie.

And now, it's 6:30 and I am expecting little kiddos to wake within the hour. They went to bed easily and slept really well, surprising, considering their excitement level.

Yep, I think we are ready for Christmas. I better get the wassail on. But before I do, a query: Is anyone else's Christmas Eve tradition cleaning? It seems a pretty steady one around here.

Kate's Belle Party

I don't really know where December has gone. I can only say, I knew it would go that quickly. The week after Thanksgiving was spent getting back into the swing of things and sending out invites for Kate's Belle Party, 'cause did I mention? Kate's THREE! The next week was party prep, along with the usual stuff, and then partying! The third week was mostly spent just getting by, because I had a two-year-old I was watching ten hours a day along with my crew. (Luckily, that was just a short-term gig, though he is a sweet boy and the kids were really sweet with him.) And this past week was Christmas cards, Christmas cards, and a bit of wrapping and baking. Somehow, along the way, we've fit in some Christmas-y festivities to get in the mood of the season. But more on that later.

Kate with best friend Sophie

Now for a few pics from my sweet little Kate's first friend (and cousin) party, though it goes without saying that cousins are friends too. I pretty much followed the pattern I created with Mag's Cinderella party, but, of course, we had to do Belle as Kate just loves Belle. (I don't know if I've ever mentioned her Belle family, made up of varying sizes of Belle figures--Big Belle aka Mama Belle, L'il Belle aka "my Belle doll from my date with Daddy", and Tiny Belle, pictured with cake below. I think I need to invest in some princes at some point though, because all the princess figures in this house are having to rough it as single mamas.)

I'm actually not a huge party person. I like them, but don't love them. I most enjoy having one-on-one time with people and find I sometimes struggle to feel like I've given everyone ample time at parties. I think that also has to do with having the kids and parents to try to touch base with. Maybe that gets easier with practice. I think I've already decided we will just do parties every other year (but you've seen I'm not doing a great job sticking to this so far).

I do love inviting people into our home and I do love having friends and neighbors feel comfortable here. It's a little work, no matter how simple you try to keep it. But it is worth it to me. It is undeniably fun to make little kids feel special. Kate was so thrilled when she saw the invitations we had made with a picture of her in Belle costume on them. She went to bed holding one.

We started the party with coloring pages as children arrived, mostly in royal attire. Then, we started on lunch. I wanted to do hors d'oeuvres for our luncheon, since Belle is French, but tried to keep the fare simple. I think the kids (and adults!) enjoyed their cheese cubes, carrot sticks, grapes, and pigs-in-blankets--thanks again for putting those together, Mike, if you read this! I out-did myself by making place cards and labeling juice pouches of pink-lemonade ahead of time, but my preparation only partially accomplished my goals of keeping kids in their seats and eliminating my fears of spilling, since some kids are big drinkers and then wanted to have some extra lemonade in a cup in addition to the pouch and would get up to let me know that. :) They were all extremely cute though and I will say kids love stuff with their name on it. (Don't we all?) The name cards (index cards with stickers stuck on) were a big hit.

Next, it was cake time. As you will notice this cake is nearly identical to the cake I made for Maggie. You may also notice that pretty much all the cakes I make are a variation on a block (if I'm being fancy) or are cupcakes or plain circle or sheet cakes. I have decided I am not much into cake-decorating. I just make myself live up to whatever standard I have already set. (I am now locked into first year block and third year castle cakes.) I have, however, gotten wise and started to buy the decorating can of cup-cake frosting for the details, so I don't have to worry so much about the consistency or if the ziploc bag will break or the best way to get the frosting into the bag. Emily's fiesta was my first branch out into that and it worked so well I used the rest of hers and bought another can for Kate's. It kind of hurts the teeny bit of foodie in me, as well as my frugal side, but it is worth it. (It is also worth mention that there is a difference between gel food coloring and icing tubes--I didn't know the former existed on Mike's twenty-fourth birthday and wrote "Happy Birthday" in gel food coloring. Once I reexamined the packaging, it explained a lot.)

Anyway, the kids made me feel pretty good about my meager cake-making skills, especially since it was leaning. (My cakes usually are.) My nieces Rachel and Sarah especially ooed appropriately and couldn't believe I made it. I hope no one was too disappointed that we just used the cake for decor and ate cupcakes, so Kate could blow out the castle again the next day, her real birthday, and dig into her cake to her hearts delight.

Kate was adorable about all the attention when we sang to her. She covered her eyes in the middle of the singing with a shy grin on her face and wanted my help to blow out the number three candle. (The next day she had no problem blowing it out over and over again, as many times as she could get her dad to light it!)

After dessert, we read a Belle story and played Pin the Book on Belle. I was actually at a loss how to make the game happen, because due to internet issues, I couldn't get online the entire week before the party to find an outline to print poster-size. Thus, I had no choice but to produce my own sketch, based off a coloring book illustration. This poster of Belle is probably my proudest artistic accomplishment of my life. In addition to not being a partier or cake decorator, I am not an artist. It just shows the power of a mother's love. Thank goodness motherhood helps me find hidden talents, in addition to illuminating and sometimes exacerbating my weaknesses.

Kate and Maggie enjoyed coloring the poster together before the party and Emily enjoyed playing with it after the throng had subsided.

Last, Kate enjoyed opening her gifts. She was so excited and overwhelmed she kept making this funny muffled squeal. It almost sounded like she was in pain rather than excited and I started to worry that maybe I shouldn't have done a party and should have made things more low-key. But she was definitely happy. After the party, she kept watching the video of everyone singing to her that her Aunt Jenn filmed for us. So the party has continued to bring joy in the memory. And it was good Maggie could look at old pictures of her third birthday to keep from feeling sorry for herself.

I love my adorable, Kate. I love her spunk. I love her energy. I love her big blue eyes and her darling grin. I love her tight hugs. I love her enthusiasm. I love her sense of humor. I even love when she's got on one of her fake scowls and is trying to be grumpy.

Kate, I love you. And even though I'm proud of you for figuring out how to do a thumbs-up in honor of turning three, I miss you pointing back at me with your pointer instead or trying to hold your other fingers down while you get your thumb up. You are too cute. I'm glad you're mine.

More Family Pictures

Thank you J. Fields Photography!! I got the rest of our family pictures back last week. Jen is very talented. Ta-da!

Sunday Will Come

I've been wanting to post a bit about what we've been up to the past three weeks, but all of it seems so trivial after the damper of Friday's events in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. My heart breaks for those families in Connecticut that were affected. I put myself in the place of those teachers, parents and children and cannot imagine the horror, just as I cannot imagine the pain and trials that so many others on this earth face. It saddens me that tragedy is part of this world, but I am grateful that I can feel. That I can hurt for others' pain. That I can feel pain of my own.

A friend of my sister's posted this on facebook and I was grateful to remember Elder Wirthlin's beautiful words from a General Conference several years ago. After recounting Christ's death and resurrection, Elder Wirthlin gave words of comfort:

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come...

"Because of our beloved Redeemer, we can lift up our voices, even in the midst of our darkest Fridays, and proclaim, 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'...

"That we may always know that no matter how dark our Friday, Sunday will come is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" ("Sunday Will Come", Nov. Ensign 2006).

I love those words. I have had some small Fridays and am sure I will have larger ones in my future. But I also know that Sunday will always come. Just as the Savior died that desperately sad Friday long ago and rose the following Sunday, our own sorrows will pass away. We and our loved ones can be reunited. We too can live again.

More on the rest of life soon. For now, I am just glad to have the peace of knowing Sunday is a certainty. I wish that peace to those affected by this recent tragedy. I wish that peace to all.