After Thanksgiving we put up the Christmas lights. I was still not quite recovered from COVID so I needed Drew's help with some of the pushpins.
In fact, I felt like I was better for about a week after being sick at Thanksgiving, then it seemed to come back and lasted a long time. I was sick for much of December. Super lame.
We didn't need to put our icicle lights on the outside of the house because my parents have string lights up year round, so we put them up in the family room instead. They are very cozy.
Everyone had a few more weeks of school before the Christmas fun could commence in earnest. Poor Merrick spends lots of time alone.
But he does his best to stay busy.
He was very happy when Allen started his Christmas break and could FaceTime during the day.
There were some Christmas themed writing projects undertaken this year...
...and Christmas crafts. The reptilian eyes crack me up. I'm pretty sure this was Rafe's.
Annie has been writing a lot on her own lately. "There'll be scary ghost stories..."
Colette got to come home when her break started.
Merrick didn't have to eat alone! Merrick's favorite lunch right now is a cheese sandwich. Like a sandwich with normal fixings, but just cheese.
Colette started seeing more of Jacob Mickelson after Thanksgiving when they started pseudo-dating. It gave us an excuse to do fun things...
...like make gingerbread houses! I didn't have what I wanted to use for the frosting, so we risked it and made the royal icing with egg whites. No one got sick.
They turned out pretty cute.
The kids were proud of their efforts, but they mostly just wanted to eat candy.
There were more puzzle nights and game nights...
...but then Colette left us for Guatemala. Sad day. Haley had already left to spend all of December there. My first year living back at home for Christmas and half of my family isn't here!
There was still plenty to do. Like Christmas shopping. I am always so relieved when the shopping is over. I wish I could be like Kate and have it all done by Halloween.
Fabrina Sorbes, our Christmas elf, needed some help with Annie's requested present from Santa this year. Annie wanted a vaporeon toy.
The toys one can find on Amazon are cute, but expensive, and don't really capture the seal-like characteristics of vaporeon's body. I started drafting a pattern for Fabrina.
Mock-up
Fabrina sent it for me to approve before she finished stuffing it. It looked kind of horrifying with its stuffing entrails spilling out. We decided it needed a wire skeleton to help it stand up. I had some wire leftover from our hay bale gardening adventure that we decided to use.
It turned out so beautifully! Thanks Fabrina.
I made some more music ornaments for my moms this year.
I also had a wrapping win when I preserved a secret for myself by wrapping this present from Marcus and Melanie with my eyes closed, so I wouldn't see what it was.
We squeezed in a trip to the passport office amidst the Christmas preparations to get passports processing for our upcoming trip to Guatemala. We made an appointment at the Cedar Hills office and took the kids in for their pictures.
Then, finally, Christmas break time!
Pajamas are the order of the day.
It's a good time.
There hasn't been a ton of snow this year.
We had enough one day to make a snowman at Grandma Paula and Papa Mark's.
There was a snowy school morning.
But other than that it's sort of been like an Albuquerque winter. It'll snow...
Then it will be sunny...
...and "warm" the next day...
...and it all melts unless it's in the shade.
We haven't even been able to maintain a sledding hill off the picnic table. I don't like how brown the mountains are. Makes me want to take short showers and do dishes like we're camping.
There was quite a bit of chess over Christmas break.
Uncle Isaac caused me to suffer a long, slow death.
The kids made a nativity in their play room one day.
It was pretty cute. I like the Gorilla as the shepherd.
Merrick's preschool had their Christmas presentation.
He played Joseph for the Nativity reenactment.
It's a cute preschool. Merrick knows his letters really well and has gotten way better at writing and coloring. I do have some fine arts snobbery towards the music--I feel like they learn lots of different words that sort of rhyme to the same five songs, and I think she sings them too low for the kids to be able to practice singing very well, but I'm obviously not making the effort to teach him songs that meet my high standards at home, so I can't complain.
Rafe rocked it in his Christmas piano recital--his very first public performance. He was not nervous at all.
And he loves that Santa hat.
Vivien would have played in her Christmas guitar sing-along, but I'm a terrible mother and mixed up the days, so they showed up to a dark, empty venue 24 hours late while I was at my symphony concert. But here she is making a D chord on her fork with peas at dinner time.
There was yet another nativity reenactment in the Lamoreaux's barn for the ward party. Vivien and Annie got to be angels and sing Vivien's favorite song--Silent Night.
We took some Nativity pictures for a video Nana made for her missionaries.
Playing with shepherds and sheep.
Rafe's cheeser face!
This is the nicest in-front-of-the-tree picture I was able to get. These are hard every year!
I taught the Primary kids the Carol of the Children to sing for the ward Christmas program. It was a weird year for me--this was the only musical number for the whole day that I was involved in. We're not in Kansas anymore. Er, rather, I'm not one of the only people who can play the piano in the ward anymore. But the children sang beautifully! Nana and Papi got to listen on the Zoom link and took a picture for me.
We had a Mary and Joseph dinner one night. Drew made fishes.
Isaac whipped up some pitas from scratch and we had them with goat cheese and honey. They were sooooo good!
We had a fun Christmas Adam with those who could come.
So many cookies! So much frosting! So many sprinkles!
We had a pretty solid Marvel roundup with the gingerbread men.
They're beautiful! No, they're not. Well, some of them are. There were enough beautiful ones that I was able to take some to neighbors. What they lack in visual appeal they make up for in taste. Oh, there's the Christmas Chex mix Kate made!
On Christmas Eve we went up the canyon with Webster folks to decorate a tree for the animals.
The Merrick Animal loves fruit slices.
Annie loves to beat up on her Papa Mark. I don't love it. I'd like her to give hugs instead of hits.
When all the wares were spread we went for a stroll to the wide campground area and built some snowcreatures. Vivs made a Grogu.
There was a Rey and BB8 as well.
Building devolved into a big snowball fight.
And when everyone had had enough of that we made our way back to the car. We witnessed a tree falling in the forest!
This is a fun tradition.
That evening Drew made delicious street tacos for dinner, then we opened...
...the Christmas jammies!
We kept tabs on the Santa Tracker throughout the evening. At one point Vivien said, "Santa's probably still over Quebec!" but she made Quebec rhyme with pubic. After dinner we did violence to Santa's head. Grandma Paula had brought the kids over one day while I was at work to make the base.
Start with the youngest...
...and move up!
After the piñata we had a lovely program. Vivien played Silent Night for us...
...the kids sang Carol of the Children while I butchered the accompaniment I was reading on my tiny phone screen.
Then we read The Living Christ paragraph by paragraph in all the mission languages. They had me read mine in Spanish, even though I wasn't a missionary. If I had a teleprompter during everyday conversations, I would be really good at talking to people in Spanish!
On our way home we stopped by a house with an over the top Christmas light program for a little bit...
...at home, Vivien used her camera to set a trap for Santa...
...and then it was time for bed!
On Christmas morning the kids took their time to wake up.
They were a little befuddled.
But very excited to see their gifts from Santa.
Vivien asked for a toy she had seen at the Glass Slipper over the summer, Rafe wanted a TIE fighter, Annie got her Vaporeon, and Merrick wanted a shark stuffy.
Drew got a fun shuffleboard/curling game from Isaac.
I don't know if any present was as much of a hit as the Pokémon cards though.
I got a new iPad from Drew to aid in singing around the piano, a sweet microphone for recording projects, and enough puzzles to keep me puzzling for the rest of the Christmas break. This one from Marcus and Melanie was pretty awful.
I embellished it and sent it back to them.
After Christmas we had a quick visit from the Richardsons on their way to CA. Just enough time for a brawl.
Then the day Vivien had been looking forward to all break arrived!
We visited the Asian market again, and Bo wanted to go up to City Creek mall so she could walk around Nordstrom. She didn't want to buy anything, just wanted to look. She wants to see what the designers are doing with fabrics and colors and construction. It's like walking through an art museum for her.
We ate good food, played games...
...sang songs, recorded some stuff, watched Wheel of Time, wrestled, all the good things.
Matchy jams!
The McEwens got to be here for our New Years Eve Party. Colette came home!
We had delicious appetizers for dinner, then watched an old Disneyland New Years countdown to toast the new year. There may have been a dance party accompanied by the drum set.
Then, bed! The McEwens drove home the next day.
And that was a wrap on 2021!
I have a few more pictures to tuck in here at the bottom that my brain wasn't clever enough to fit into the narrative earlier. Some of them are, admittedly, rather odd.
Really.
Here is a sink that died and Drew replaced. Handyman!
I also wonder if he will ever not do this. It has definitely become less frequent, but if he misses that last elimination before bed it's almost a guarantee he'll wake up in a puddle.
Here are Annie's teeth coming in before the babies are out.
Annie, Vivs and I went to see my friend Jade in Little Women.
She was Marmee, and I think it was the first time I've been able to relate to Marmee. She played the part a little less controlled and more human. The sisters are always a joy to watch.
And one more, of Baby Dean! He's a squirmy, fretful little thing sometimes, so Justin "folds him in half and cruises him around." He sure is cute!
