Since the last two Sundays were holidays, I let myself be lazy and not do blog posts. But now I have a ton of catching up to do. Because they were holidays!
Two Sundays ago was Christmas. We felt very blessed this year. We've had a stable past couple years and had no worries about buying Christmas gifts for everyone on our list. We were able to give generously to a United Way Giving Tree name. We helped out a friend who was struggling this Christmas. We donated to a couple of projects. And we still felt like we got more than enough on Christmas morning. My only real worry is that my kids will never know what it's like to not have enough and won't appreciate all they have and the feeling of safety and comfort it brings.
I wrote in my journal a few weeks ago that I felt the Christmas Spirit this year more than I have in a long time. I think it's because I finally got my hormones and depression mostly corrected and I feel more able to be joyful.
So as I was able to serve the people around me, I felt fulfilled and closer to the Savior. One way I tried to serve was to give a gift to a friend from church who has decided that church isn't for her. It makes me sad to know that she doesn't feel accepted and loved enough to want to be there. So to show her that she is still loved, no matter how she chooses to worship, I tried to give a thoughtful and loving gift. I gave her three things to represent the three gifts of the Magi to Christ. One was this nativity set that I painted for her.
The next was a wheat bag that I made (because I LOVE my wheat bags and I wanted to share the wealth). I also made wheat bags and handwarmers for neighbor gifts this year. The ones below are the neighbor gift ones.
The third was a book, but I didn't take a picture of that. The handwarmers and neighbor gifts were fun to put together. I don't usually get crafty for neighbor gifts, but I was in a crafty mood this year.
I also made a wheat bag for each of the girls so they would stop stealing mine. :)
This is what happens to my house when I get in a crafty mood. Just multiply this picture by every room in the house.
Mystery got into the holiday spirit, too. ;) She loves sleeping on top of paper. It's the weirdest thing.
On the 24th, we celebrated Christmas with my family at Ben's house. When I was little, I remember going to my Grandma and Grandpa Frohlich's house with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. We would all sit around the livingroom. Or perhaps squish around the livingroom would be more accurate. The kids who could read were allowed to hand out gifts from the enormous pile around the tree. Then each of us would open our gifts in turn and watch as the others opened theirs. It was magical for me. The pile of presents around the tree and the excitement of knowing your name was on one of them. The anticipation of waiting your turn. The mountains of colored paper and shiny bows that accumulated over the hour it took for everyone to open. Not quite being sure what you would get, but knowing you could play with it with your cousins after the opening was over. Even picking up the paper afterward was fun when some hooligan would start a crumpled up paper fight. I loved everything about it. So I'm glad that my family has adopted that same ritual.
The table was beautifully set for lunch when we arrived.
The kids never strayed far fro the tree and its pile of presents. (This is Ford trying to run off with one of them.)
We all ate dinner together. The kids even had their own table.
The next morning, the girls were so patient. Cecily gets crazy when she doesn't get enough sleep, so I made the older two wait to go through their stockings until she woke up around 9am. Perhaps that was harsh of me. *shrugs* Oh well. They gotta do hard things sometimes.
Cecily with our stockings. Emilia put out stockings for their reindeer stuffed animals on Christmas Eve and Santa was kind enough to leave a note saying that though he appreciated how thoughtful she was, he only had time to take presents to real children on Christmas Eve. She smiled and agreed that he had a point.
The favorite gifts from Santa were Glitter Force dolls (that Momma did not think were a good purchase). This is a picture of them holding up the packages. They were so excited, I couldn't get a not-blurry picture.
These are the dolls out of their packages.
After seeing what Santa brought, we got ready for church. Each girl got a new dress and I tried to do their hair extra fancy.
I don't know if you can see it, but Emilia's was supposed to look like a Christmas tree with a star at the top.
Mira got double french braids with silver ribbon tied at the ends.
Cecily got criss-cross ponytails with new little bows at the end.
The service was beautiful. Lots of members of the ward sharing their musical talents and a few words by the bishop finished off the hour. There was a great sense of comraderie and unity that day. I felt uplifted and known.
After church Nick and Wilda came down and we opened the rest of our presents with them.
The rest of the day was just hanging out and playing with our new toys. I particularly enjoyed snuggling with Cecily in the afternoon and eating babyback ribs for dinner.
Steve had the entire week off between Christmas and New Years, so the Tuesday after Christmas, we decided to take the kids to Moana. Cecily also got a Build-a-Bear gift card, so we planned on going to the theater at the mall and then taking her to Build-a-Bear to pick out her stuffed animal. The movie ended up being sold out at the mall, so we hurried to Build-a-Bear to get the stuffed animal before running to another theater for showing an hour later. Of course, there was a Build-a-Bear party with 17 kids in it that came right at opening, so we ended up
running back to the car after waiting in line
forever to get a Barf and Belch (from How to Train Your Dragon). Cecily has very much enjoyed having it, so I think it was worth a little bit of stress to get it for her right away.
Later that day, I got to go out with my friend Gina to shop and have a late lunch. The lunch was from the Trolley in Springville and it was to die for. Yumm!
Steve got to play LOTR twice that week, we drove up to Layton to visit the Nelsons and go sledding again, we had a popcorn and ice cream party with Grandma and Grandpa Watts (because that's what we'd given them for Christmas), and then had a stay-up-late New Years party with Gma and Gpa and the Nelsons Saturday night. Sunday and Monday were also spent with cousins and grandparents. Steve was nice and took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum and the Discovery Museum without me so I could write.
This is what happens when you have entirely too much fun and stay up until midnight.
I felt pretty on New Years day. My kids are pretty cute, too.
Grandpa has been reading a book about all the systems of the body to the girls. It was quite the group on New Years eve.
They also did true banana splits that night. Don't those look delicious?
On one of my shopping trips for Steve, I ran into a pair of Converse All-Stars in baby blue. So I gave them to myself as a late birthday present. 😍😍😍😍😍
This last week was mostly spent in recovery mode. Grocery shopping, cleaning, resting. Not taking down the Christmas tree, though. Maybe I'll do that next week. :)
