Christmas 2008

Our Christmas P's...

Preparations

When we returned from our trip to California for Thanksgiving, the first order of business was to decorate the house for Christmas.

Picking out the tree -- it was cold!

Decorating the tree -- Oliver has gotten over his aversion to the camera

Our snow-village collection. We had to put a moratorium on buying new pieces a few years ago so they'd fit on top of the piano.

Our complete Hallmark caroling snowmen collection (I only had to buy one on ebay). It's nice to have some decorations that the kids are allowed to touch. Unfortunately Hallmark didn't make much of an effort to coordiate the music so when they are all playing at once it is quite a mess.

Oliver did a little more Christmas crafting


Parties

Scott and I went to two dress-up Christmas parties this year, although only got pictures of our outfits from the first. I'm not sure how this tradition started, or how it could ever end, but my suggestion that maybe next year we actually dress nicely was quickly shot down when Darin & Suzy upped the ante with their full ghostbusters outfits.

The search for the perfect white elephant gifts is a year-long effort. The 3D kitten clock and the festive duck family were big hits this year.






The Tanners had their annual sub-for-santa party and this year raised a record amount of money for a Burmese refuge family. We went to walmart and they organized us into teams and everyone got a list of gifts to buy and an envelope of money and the race was on to finish first and use as close to all the money as possible. Scott and I took home the 2nd place trophy for our holiday sweater vest outfits.

A few days later we took our annual outing up to Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights at temple square.

It was cold.

We attempted to get a Christmas card picture taken (too bad -- missed that boat this year).

We took Trax to get some dinner

and tried once again to spark some interest betweek Jack & June.

For the next party we splurged and flew the whole family to California to see the Underwoods at the beach.
It was amazing to get on the plane in the snow and get off to the warm ocean breeze. It's been a while since we've all flown anywhere, so that was very exciting. But after a crazy-hectic-almost-missed-our-flight-were-it-not-for-it-being-delayed-10-minutes experience at the airport on the way out, it was up for debate whether or not it was better than driving (I still say yes, Scott says no -- I say next time we drive I'll be behind the wheel and he can entertain the kids. Then we can decide).
It was so fun to see everyone (it's been a while) and the food was good and presents fun and the kids had a great time getting reacquainted with their second cousins (not to mention the fact that the boys' xmas lists grew after seeing Ethan's super cool remote control car).

Tuesday night we went up to Paul & Beckys for the annual Zackrison extended family Christmas party. We were glad the party was postponed (although not glad Grandma was sick) so we were able to make it. June loved their new Leonburger puppy.

Pre-christmas (aka Christmas Eve)
(That P is a stretch, I know)

On Christmas eve once everyone was back from their last minute errands and we'd delivered all our neighborhood goodie plates, we piled into the car and went up to Thanksgivig Point to see the lights.

It was an impressive display and (when they looked up from their DS's) the kids really loved it. After the lights we went to PF Changs for dinner. This is the second year in a row we've done that, so I guess you could call it a tradition, although I'm not sure we intended it to be -- it's just one of the only place around open that night. It's nice to not have to cook & clean up before the Big Night.

Pajamas

We haven't really done this in the past, but this year we did outfit the kids with new xmas PJs. They were all pretty hyper and excited on Christmas eve and had a pretty hard time settling down (which makes for an even longer night for Santa). The jammies got good use, though, since on Christmas day no one ever got dressed (and at 2pm some of us are pushing a 2nd day of jammie-wearing -- although I'm still holding out hope for a shower).

Paper

Santa came!

Presents

Brenden's Christmas list read "Surprise me!". Oliver's list had toys from every commercial, catalog, and infomercial he's seen for the past month. Highlights from Santa this year were the Wii, a remote control car like Ethans, Webkinz, a baby doll stroller, a waffle maker, an ebelskivers pan (like Ana & Darin got too!), clothes, shoes, pedal board & case.


Other favorites were the favorite things package (thanks for putting it together Rachel!), the new bike & monster truck stuff from Gma & Gpa Z, the globe from Zack & Ana (we can finally get some perspective on just how spread out the family is), the books from Stephen & Mei Li (they're being a bit overshadowed today, but will come in handy when school gets back in and the boys are back in their reading habit), and the handmade beauties from Annee. Thank you to everyone for their efforts and generosity.

After getting a bit stir crazy at home on Christmas afternoon, we took the new inner tubes out for a run on the sledding hills (turns out snow pants fit very well over jammies so still no need to get dressed!). Then back home for cafe rio style pork tacos and early (ish) to bed.

The house is a huge mess and I'm still in my jammies but we pulled it off and are so grateful for some extra time together these days. We're especially looking forward to having the Wileys here next week for a visit and extending our Christmas celebration even more!



There. I did it.

an effort to catch up

Sorry about the lack of blogging for the past couple of months. Here is my one effort at catching up and then we'll try to move forward. (Warning: this could be rather long and boring. I'm going to skip fancy formatting and witty themes in the interest of just getting this done.)

In November Oliver did a lot of crafting. It seems every time I try to distract him by suggesting he go read a book or watch a show, it results in more craft ideas. There were Christmas count-down chains, cars & boats made out of shoeboxes, and animals made out of paper towel rolls. Here he is inspired by the book Fast Food making transportation vehicles out of produce.

Really I promise I try not to encourage this. But a mom can only say "no" and "later" and "hold on" and "i'm busy" so many times. He moves forward and insists and seems undeterred until I have to finally give in a go buy him some cucumbers and mushrooms.

He saw these Thanksgiving Turkey cookies on Nickelodeon and decided we had to make some too.
Again, see how I was trying to just plant him in front of the tv for a while -- and it totally backfired on me.

Another day I needed to make some brownies for a church activity and I thought June and I could have a nice mother-daughter bonding cooking experience together. I let her help pour and mix, but it wasn't long before she realized the batter was yummy.

Rather than fighting her, I thought I could just out-run her and worked as fast as I could to get it into the oven. Indeed we did bond well during bathtime.

We spent Thanksigiving in California with the Wileys, and convinced Rachel & Chrsitine to join us.
On Thansgiving morning we participated in the La Canada Run for the Hungry (the boys did the 1-mile, Rachel the 5k).
Scott went and picked up his grandparents in Apple Valley while Rachel & Christine and I helped with the meal (we were in charge of the apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and mashed potatoes)

and the kids played with their cousins.

4-generations of Wiley men

We're considering finding an agent and offering their services to play a character aging from about age 9 through age 80 -- don't you think it's amazing how much they look alike?

I found this list folded up like an airplane in Brenden's backpack. I'm not sure if he made it at church or at school, but we found it quite humorous to read what he's thankful for. My guess is the assignment was to list 30 things you're thankful for. His teacher must have given him an example to prompt #1 on his list, and several of them must have come from him just looking around the room to try to fill it in.
Be clear that Mom & Dad got #26 & 27, far below #1 Low gas prices, and #5 hangman. But at least we beat #29 pencils.


We helped Webb set up his new Santa & Reindeer display, which made us excited to go home and usher in Christmas at our house.

We've been having a very snowy winter here in Utah so far. Luckily we knew it was coming and managed to get the Christmas lights up before it hit. It's cold enough and consistently snowing enough that it stays on the ground, and we have snowbanks growing along the sides of the roads. We are grateful to live on a cul de sac with two snow blowers and a snow plow, so we regularly come out to find our driveway and sidewalks already cleared. Brenden and Scott have worked to keep the front walk and steps clear and salted.


The boys have been sledding almost every day with neighborhood friends.
They found a couple great spots in the nearby where they can go on their own, and then we've taken a few trips to the ultimate sledding hills at Rock Canyon park (yes that is where Oliver crashed into the picnic table last year, but they're careful to avoid that now).

(I realize now in looking at these pictures that it appears we are not dressed well for the snow. I assure you that we have full snow gear for every member of the family and most days do dress warmly from head to toe. Only a couple of times have the boys been out sledding for a while before I've realized they are wearing their sneakers and low-socks.)

Brenden had his holiday piano recital and performed Jingle Bells and Um Pa Pa. Now that his allowance is tied to practicing, he was very well rehearsed and did a great job.
In November I also got rather busy at work and tried to start my Christmas shopping early. I did do quite a bit ahead of time, but didn't really know when I was supposed to stop. I think all it did was prolong the shopping period and increase the amount purchased. We'll have to figure out how to improve the strategy next year.