Christmas festivities

 We made it through another Christmas season, a busy time, but full of parties, gifts, music, spiritual thoughts, and opportunities to give.  We enjoyed the ward Christmas party, which was ugly sweater wearing, dinner and dessert, visit with Santa Claus, primary kids singing, and a performance by Nathan and Jared!  Nathan and Jared did silly things for each verse of the 12 days of Christmas.  I led everyone in singing the song while they were on stage acting out funny things for each verse.  It was a hoot!  Originally, Alex was asked to do the song, and he was willing, but when we started talking about who would do it with Alex, we thought of the boys.  We showed a You Tube video to Nathan and Jared, and they got really excited about doing it, so we let them run with it.  I thought they might chicken out, but they didn't, and did a good job with the performance!  I didn't get a chance to video them since I was leading the singing.  You'll just have to take my word for it that it was funny. 

Here's the video they were replicating. 

The kids are getting a little bit old for sitting on Santa's lap, but Weston and Savannah still wanted to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  It was funny listening to Weston say "Attack on Laketown" (a Lego set) and Savannah wanted a Barbie Dream House.

You can't do Christmas without sugar cookies.  I made some, but the one Weston is holding with all the frosting he made at a friend's house. 

We bought items to put together 3 bags for the homeless.  Our church has been putting these together annually to deliver to a homeless shelter.  Our teacher gifts this year were "snowman soup" (with hot chocolate, marshmallows, candy canes, and chocolate).   We also made some treats (peppermint Chex muddy buddies) for friends and neighbors and baked cookies for a couple different events. 

Here are a few miscellaneous photos from Christmas - Savannah standing by a giant tree in town, Owen's church class doing a nativity (Owen is the donkey!), and me enjoying a small moment to relax in my elf socks - one of my favorite things to do is just sit back and look at the lights on the Christmas tree. I don't get very many moments during December to do that, but I did snap a photo in the rare moment.   

A couple other memorable events for me, without any photos, were the ward Christmas musical programs.  I sang a solo for our ward program - "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem".  Alex and I attended the other ward's program the following week, which was really good.  We knew several of the people that performed since our ward just split a couple months ago.  Our ward dissolved, split into 2, and then joined 2 other wards in town.  It was a little sad to see half of our fellow ward members go the other direction.  

We also had fun doing an evening of Christmas caroling with some friends.  I love the musical events associated with Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve, the kids got to open a present, which were fleece blankets.  I also wrapped up a box of  Cocoa Puffs, which Savannah had been begging for.  I never buy that kind of cereal, but they get it when they go to grandma's house.  😊  It was a nice treat for them to eat on Christmas morning while they were waiting to open presents.  We watched Miracle on 34th Street that evening.  

We had a nice Christmas Day.  The kids opened all their presents - they're really spoiled with all the new things they got from Santa, from grandparents, and Aunt Jane.  It kept them busy most of the day, playing with all their new things.  Nathan only wanted one thing - a phone, which he did get (finally - he is probably the only one at his school that didn't have a phone yet.  In his woodworking class, there is a cubby for each of the students to deposit their phone in during class.  Nathan was the only one who didn't have a phone.)  Jared also got a phone, just without any data.  Savannah didn't get her Barbie Dream House, but she was okay with the dollhouse she got. 

 
Savannah also got a large Hatchimal, which is pretty fascinating.  An animal comes in an egg and you have to hold it for a while before it hatches.  It eventually does crack the egg, and then you take it out and interact with it.  Its eyes turn different colors, indicating what its needs are (that it wants to be played with, fed, upset, etc.)  Feeding it means making it swoop down like it's flying down for food.  You can also "teach it to talk", record things you say that it will repeat.  It starts in a baby like state and "grows" into a toddler state.  The animal itself doesn't get any bigger, but the interactions get a little more involved, like being able to "talk". 

 I made crepes for lunch and we had a nice Christmas dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, green beans, and squash. 

We did our birthday party for Jesus on the evening of Christmas Day.  I think I'm going back to Christmas Eve next year.  The excitement for new toys and being tired from waking up early took its toll on being able to focus on the Savior.  We did our traditional singing and reading about the birth of Jesus and then had cupcakes and gift we would give.  I bought a New Testament study manual for us to use this year, which we are giving as a gift to Jesus this year.  We're focusing on the New Testament in our church curriculum this year, with a new emphasis on home centered teaching.  So we need to step up our studies at home together. 

The weather was great for an outing to the school to play basketball and ride bikes during Christmas break.  Weston is still learning to ride a bike, so he needed to practice.  It was a hoot watching him try to ride a bike.  Half the time he was screaming, and despite having a large open space, he managed to run into one of the basketball goals.  "Turn! Turn!"  Crash...  it really takes talent to hit the pole with the bike...