Christmas and visitors

Last week we celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday, which threw off my schedule, which made me forget to blog. Ergh. Holidays really throw everything off. But this week went smoothly, and I didn't feel like Christmas day was a chaotic mess, so I'll call it a good holiday and continue on.

The family, minus Megan's clan, in my parent's newly wall-less great room.

Emilia was half-way through this book before the night was over. It's her second time reading it.

I really enjoyed our Monday night FHE activity. Our oldest nephew, McKay, entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) about ten weeks ago. He's preparing to serve a mission for our church in Russia and will leave in about two weeks. We get the emails he sends each week, but we hadn't written to him yet, so for FHE, we all wrote him letters, and the girls--who had each made him a Christmas ornament for a gift--wrapped their gifts to him. It was cute to see what they wanted to say to him and it was a good time to reflect for me.

I'm really liking my new haircut.

On Tuesday, we took the letters and ornaments, along with some chips and salsa and homemade goodies, put them all in a box and went it to him at the MTC. Since we live near Provo, where the MTC is, we just had to take the box to a nearby shipping store and they delivered it same day. It worked out nicely. Apparently, the food wasn't the best choice (he said in his next email that he had way too much food sent to him), but hopefully the letters and gifts from his cousins were appreciated. We enjoyed making them.

I love my goobers. This one should have been born in Old Hollywood.

Tuesday night through Thursday evening were sort of a blur. We had gifts to wrap and I embroidered a handkerchief for Steve. I ended up having to go to Walmart not once but twice. Once on Christmas Eve.

I know. I'm that person. The one who has to shop on Christmas eve. In my defense, it was for milk and bread and the items from you-know-who that Steve didn't think to shop for before Christmas Eve. Not my fault, really. Right?

Joseph and Mary

Mary pondering the baby Jesus.

The angel and the shepherd (who nearly whacked the angel in the head with that crook)

The wise man presenting the baby with myrhh.

The evening of Christmas Eve, we drove up to the Watts' and had a simple dinner and a sparse Nativity "play." There were only our three girls to play all the parts, so it was interesting. Especially when our shepherd (played by Cecily) heard the Angel (Emilia) and ran screaming from the room. Of course, she ran back again a few seconds later, because it's just fun to run while wearing a head covering and holding a cane.

It was a white Christmas.

Christmas Day, we opened presents from Santa, watched Return of the Jedi (so the kiddos would be prepared to watch The Force Awakens this week--and really, when is watching Star Wars not a good idea?), opened presents from each other, put together a new Lego set, and had frozen pizza for dinner--because not having to make dinner is an awesome Christmas present if you ask me.

Then we had Saturday to prepare ourselves for the Coming of the Cousins. Which is really just Nicole and Tristan's three girls coming to stay with us for three days while they head off to the Caribbean.

Today was interesting, getting six girls 8 and under ready for 9 o'clock church. The hair alone took me nearly 1/2 an hour. But they were all good at church and played like rock stars at Grandma and Grandpa's house the rest of the day, so I feel like we're off to a great start.

One of my Christmas gifts. Socks are always welcome for this cold-footed girl.

Cecily told Steve to sleep (on the living room floor) and then laid down by him.

Of course, Mira joined in soon after.

And then there were three. :)

Cutest elves ever

We're here at Nick and Wilda's and I'm glad to be done with another week. The month between Thanksgiving and New Years always seems to run me ragged. It seems to run most people ragged. Which makes me wonder, are we really honoring the spirit of the season by doing this to ourselves? Is there another way to celebrate that wouldn't require so much busy-ness and would allow us to focus more on the Savior? I haven't come up with an answer to those questions yet. I'd love to hear your ideas if you have more insight than me.

This last week, we had a couple Christmas-related activities. We decorated our tree for last Sunday. Steve was wise and decided to do it in the evening after we'd gotten PJs on. Then when Cecily decided to be a terror, we just stuck her in bed and went on with the decorating.  Wednesday, Steve worked from home so I could take Emilia to the Ballet West production of The Nutcracker at Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. It was an 11am mantinee for a bunch of schools. Surprisingly, the children all behaved themselves well and it was a beautiful production. Emila threw a fit at intermission that her cousins all got nutcrackers and she didn't (she brought one from home). She also was not happy to have to sit through the whole show or the drive home. But a stop at McDonald's for a Pokemon happy meal improved her spirits.

I also had writing group this week, with submissions to read. But since it's Christmas, I also made gifts for everyone. Below is a picture of a bookmark I made for them. I laminated them after this, but I forgot to get a picture of that before I gave them away.

Friday I got to hang out with a good friend, and Saturday, we did some decluttering and I got to write for a few hours. Writing was heavenly. And I'm so close to finishing this book! I'm excited to be done with a first draft so I can move on to editing.

Saturday was Nick's birthday, so for our dessert tonight, I made his favorite: carrot cake. I still have carrots in my garden because my kids won't eat them if they're not baby carrots from the store. Here's a monster one I picked. Crazy thing.

I got these flowers from a friend for my birthday. I also got a bouquet from Steve, which I didn't get a picture of. I love having beautiful flowers around the house at any time of year, but it's a special treat in the middle of winter.

Since we got all the Christmas decorations out, we of course found the "stylish yulecaps" as Steve calls them. The girls have had a lot of fun wearing them this week.

Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out about Christmas gifts this year. I have a few more to purchase. Mostly for Steve. I have an idea of what I want to give him, though, so hopefully, I can continue with the calm in that department, because I don't seem to be calm in many other areas.

Next Sunday we're having the Frohlich family Christmas celebration since Megan will be in town from Colorado. So the girls will have lots to entertain them after that. I'm looking forward to the new entertainment. The mess, not so much.

Let's see if this one works

I didn't realize that none of you were getting my posts for the last few weeks. I had the emails all set up and did the posts, but this new web host that Steve got us broke things again. SO...you should get multiple emails from me today that cover the last few weeks.

I told you last Sunday we went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner (again), but I didn't get any of the pictures up. So here are the three I took. :) I didn't get everybody in the pictures. Our family was there, Ben's family, Alison and her boyfriend, Justin, and my parents.

The rest of the week was super crazy. I needed to make meals to take to a family in the neighborhood who is struggling financially and just had a baby. I also wanted to make meals for Nick and Wilda because Wilda was having her (2nd) knee surgery on Thursday and didn't have anyone coming to take care of her this time. Since I was already making meals, I figured I might as well make enough for my family, too, so I didn't have to cook for us separately. I didn't have the ingredients for all that, so I had to shop Monday morning for those, and then I just did a cook-all-day marathon and made 9 meals that afternoon.

before

after

I had a presidency meeting on Tuesday, and I got a drastic hair cut/color which took about 2 1/2 hours. I worked on processing wedding photos that day and on Wednesday. The wedding I did a few weeks ago needed to get their pictures. The girls were really cute that night, wanting to give me a "spa day" to help me be ready for my birthday. (It's from a Fancy Nancy book we own.) So they set up a chair in the bathroom, and made a spa menu. They gave me a "soothing face mask," a manicure, a foot bath, lotioned my hands and arms, and did my hair.

Wednesdays are always crazy, since I have to take Emilia to school at 8:30, then Mira to preschool at 10, pick Mira up at 12:30, Emilia at 2pm, and then Emilia has an art class at 4pm. Driving around alone takes up most of the day! Steve had a job interview that day, and had his game night as well. But Wednesday was also my birthday. I tried to have a stress-free day, despite all the running and other stuff, but I didn't quite make it. I bought us Papa Murphy's for dinner, but the Christmas tree fell over four times that night before I figured out how to weigh it down properly. Luckily it wasn't decorated yet, so at least I didn't have to worry about ornaments, just TONS of pine needles.

To make up for my rather stressful birthday, Steve took Thursday off and we had a fun day. The Scholastic warehouse sale started that day, so we all drove up and met Nana and Grandpa at the warehouse. We had fun picking out lots of new books for the new year. Steve let me write for a few hours and cooked dinner. Then the whole family went down to the church to help set up tables and decorations for our ward Christmas party which was Friday night. It went smoothly, but was unimpressive. Nothing to talk about except I was surprised by how excited the girls were to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. In past years, they've cried and been scared of Santa.

We also had a fun Saturday night. Steve and I had bought a Groupon for a Paint Nite, which is where you sign up to paint a particular picture (they have a different picture each night that you can sign up for), and then you go to the venue and they provide everything you need to make that particular painting--paint, brushes, canvases, easels, aprons, and an instructor who walks you through the steps. We picked reindeer for our painting. It was a lot of fun to be creative together!

We also had an "opening reception" for the Christmas Lambs exhibit that Emilia was selected for at the Springville Museum of Art. She thinks it's funny to call it the SMA. She received an Honorable Mention for her work. But it's so fun that she has art in an established art museum! I'm proud of her and how hard she works on her pieces. And for her putting up with my hovering while she works, too. :) I hope that these opportunities are giving her confidence and faith in herself and her abilities.

Today, we didn't go to Nick and Wilda's because of her knee surgery, so we went to church and then spent the afternoon/evening here. I was hoping it would be quiet and relaxing, because I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society today and for some reason it was a hard lesson to teach. It had me nervous all morning. But, no. The kids were on one tonight. Crying over everything, whining, fighting with each other, yelling at us. It was terrible. We sent them all to bed early. Hopefully tomorrow will be less tumultuous in the kid department.

This week coming up seems like it should be less crazy. But I'm not really good at mundane and slow, am I?