North Pole Express
We always ride the Christmas train the night before the kids get out for Thanksgiving break. This officially kicks off the holiday season. We were disappointed that Ava was not our host this time. She was all hoytie toytie in first class.
We turned the chairs to face one another but this left little legroom. Grayson went and sat on the other side of the train. Matt felt a twinge and went and sat by him. You can see them behind C.
Nice, this way I could face everyone. At the North Pole Graham gave Santa the Shaka.
Callie's best gal pals, our next-door neighbors, were riding in the seats right next to us, which was a real treat. This must have been Santa's first train EVER because he whizzed through the kids rather quickly as you can see. Aware of this, the conductor came through later and asked if we were able to get a photo with Santa. I said, "Yes, we did." I am content with this one.
It's these monkeys I want photos of, not the man in the big red suit.
Matt finally came and sat by us again and left Gray to sit stone face on his own. I was getting such a chuckle out if it. You would never even know he was with our group.
You know, I could have arranged for him to be getting a root canal instead...
Gray did find joy in the Christmas train puzzle. We started this over Thanksgiving break and all took turns working on it at the table. The second puzzle we started on was more difficult so just completing the border took awhile. Then one day we saw most of it wrecked and all over the rug. It was painstakingly put back together. However, a few days later I saw Poe sitting at the table like she was going to play the piano, except the keys were the puzzle pieces she was scooting to the floor!
Callie's hair is all curled in the above photo because she had her choir concert that very night.
Midway Tree Lighting
My Kazoo's came in handy once again!
Callie shone like a Christmas Angel right in the center.
Chillin with the babes.
Babes chillin outside.
#LIGHT THE WORLD
My Laurels made these adorable paper plate candies full of Debbie Cakes inside. The next evening the ward met to divide treats and then visit ward members. We took Gray and Johnny to a family who is afflicted with cancer. The boys were assigned snow removal for this family and we thought it a good idea for them to meet. The funny thing is, this family is obsessed with puzzles. They were framed all over this house. Since we are currently in a puzzle craze ourselves, we genuinely ooh'd and ahh'd at the complexity.
Swiss Christmas
This year the crèche display was at the Midway Town Hall. I took Graham and Callie. Graham acted like he wanted to dig his eyes out. I was glad to have Callie along to appreciate the sacredness of it.
That evening I had a bridal shower to go to. I asked Callie if she would like to come with me. She was most excited about this since she has never been to a shower and was very curious. She sat by me on the couch very politely. It was just so much fun having her along. A friend commented to me, "She is so sweet!" The evening itself was sweet. I have lived here long enough that even though there have been many boundary changes I know a good group of core people. They felt like, "My people."
Pop pop
I got a knock at the door one day. If it is the UPS guy he usually just goes on his way after a few raps, but this time he stayed. I opened the door and he told me had over 40 soundbars to deliver and asked where I would like them. "The garage I guess...." Oh boy, there goes Matt's parking spot. When Matt came home he asked, "Where are the rest of them?" "There's more???" He was mailing them out to his customers and it took him many trips to the UPS store. I told Matt, "Make sure you keep the garage closed, I don't want someone to come by during the day and rob me." He said, "No one will rob you." I said, "All it would take is pop pop." He liked this so much that he referred to them as pop pop throughout the month.
More DID arrive a few weeks later (The UPS guy asked, "What are you doing with all of these????") Finally Matt got them all mailed off (phew, I was safe;) After looking at them all month I thought maybe we should buy one for our family for Christmas. It was difficult to wrap so I just had a big bag over it. The kids barely lifted the edge on Christmas morning, "It's just one of those things from the garage..."
However, Gray said it is one of his favorite gifts. Movies sound amazing now and his video games, even better!
Twelve Days of Christmas From Matt
This was a mid-month surprise that I totally was not expecting. As you will discover a lot of time, effort, and thought went in to making this happen for me. Matt says he enjoyed as much as me.
Day 1: Sparkling cider and chocolate
Day 2: A cooking class for Two. We drove to Harmon's at Traverse Mountain where we learned to make Tamale's.
Boy, I knew it was complicated but good night! We both realized from this class that though we enjoy eating tamales from time to time, we will never be making them from scratch. Our instructor was a jovial Peruvian and I was embarrassed at our very white, BLAND classmates.
The instructors sent us home with enough food, that I kid you not, we feasted on for a WEEK. One afternoon Ava was home for lunch and I was cooking up a tamale. I got a sales call for a free siding estimate. I informed the salesperson that we have stucco. She kept going on and on and on anyway. I kept repeating, like a broken record, to every one of her questions, "I am not interested." Ava was laughing quietly at all of it. Finally the lady asked, "If you are not interested, let me ask what has kept you on the phone this long?" I said, "I am making a tamale and it has 30 seconds left." Ava busted up. The saleswoman panicked and tried to up her sales pitch, "How old is your siding did you say?" I reminded her, "We have stucco," The microwave beeped, "Gotta go, bye-bye!"
Day 3: Service. We bought three Bags of Groceries for K and G
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| Katrina had lights strung so festively in their South Salt Lake apartment. |
We shopped at Reams and filled three bags of groceries. No one was home when we got to their place so we used the spare key and put the groceries away. After, we checked the traffic update because coming down the canyon had been NUTS-O.
The canyon was closed. Argh. I wouldn't have minded being stranded but that night was the ward party and I was in charge of setting up the chapel with photos of Christ. I had them all ready at Wal-Mart, but they needed to be picked up and framed. My Counselors and Advisers came through for me big time and did all of it. With nothing to do but wait, we drove down the road and dined at Village Inn. Katrina said it took her a little while to realize we had been there, and though I didn't feel like the food we bought stocked the cupboards much she said, "That is the most food we have ever had." Furthermore, "That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." Kudos Matt!
When we finally did make it back to Heber I was pretty pooped and would have rather gone home, but a kind neighbor I invited already had my kids at the party and I also needed to stay and clean up. I saw a member of the ward council who joked, "Oh sure, now you show up." I find that I don't have a sense of humor for jokes that cause a courtesy laugh. On the other hand, I was touched that my friend, of another faith who I had invited as a service to her family, ended up being a service to mine!
Day 4: We drove to Elko for Romney Kate's Homecoming! Matt had a four-hour audio Christmas story for us to listen to during the four hour drive.
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| Romney, Ava, Sophie, Alivia, and Mallerie |
I was sad that Sadie had left to go pick up the pizza when Romney walked in with her friends. Mal screamed and ran to her and they just hugged and hugged. It was the sweetest! Romney is the sweetest! Her talk was so great and it was a joy to sit there and hear experiences she shared from the heart.
Day 5: Matt surprised me with an iphone 5 case. This was such fun and we weren't even half way!
Day 6: Mallerie came with me to my workout that Monday morning. After the class as we were leaving, Matt was waiting by the racquetball courts. Mallerie ran around the track while the two of us played a game. Matt said, "I will spot you six points, but the looser plans our next Anniversary. The six points didn't help me at all. I could blame the loss on being already winded, but in truth I stink at racquetball.
"See You at 6 pm for the Christmas Party!"
Taysulzol Annual Christmas Party. Lehi Utah. December 19, 2016! Nearly all of the Taylor Grandkids!
"Workin it" with James the Mormon and David Archuleta:
It warmed my heart so to see that their dancing days are not over.
I will put in a plug for a mouse pad with a calendar on it. I always need to see what day it is when I am at the computer and so it is extremely handy to have this info on the mouse pad. Love it.
Day 8:
A little backstory: Towards the beginning of the month an Amazon box was dropped on the porch. Matt has told me that he has never once been to Amazon's site. I had lots of stuff coming from Amazon so I cut open the box only to see it was not something I had ordered. It was a 2017 Mary Engelbreit Calendar. I have put up one of her calendars for the past several years and was delighted to see it but also realized this was not meant for my eyes. A quick glance revealed the box was addressed to Matt. Oops. I texted my confession and asked Matt if he would like me to wrap it. He said, "No! Stash it away and quit opening my boxes!" Oops.
By the way, CALENDAR has EIGHT letters in it.
Day 9: Matt prefaced his card with, "...I hope you don't solve this present before you open it!" It was books for the nightstand.
Day 10: Rolling Pin. When I bought a marble rolling pin for my cousin Shannon's wedding this past August from Crate and Barrel I hinted to Ava how much I would love one to replace mine at home, which is cracked. It was from my grandma. She gave Sadie and I each one as a wedding gift in 1994. We told Shan, "This is what Grandma would give you if she were alive today." We attached Grandma's famous cinnamon roll recipe. It really was the perfect gift.
Okay anyway, the second week of December (before Matt even started this twelve-days thing) we ate at Texas Roadhouse with other Frito couples. As we got in the car afterwards, Matt began to play his voicemail over the bluetooth speaker, "Hi this is Angie from Crate and Barrel, your order is in..." He hurried and turned it off. I said, "Yay!" The next evening we were at Sam's in SL right across from Fashion Place Mall. I said, "Matt, you may as well pick up my gift. I will even wait in the car."
On day ten Matt wrapped it with a card, "You use your 10 fingers to operate this gift!"
Ironically, on Christmas day I opened another rolling pin from Ava and Mallerie. They said, "You can take ours back." I will not. I love them both too much. More than once I have needed two rolling pins and now I have them.
Day 11: Let's stay up past 11:00 pm (It was Christmas Eve).
Day 12: A Dozen Roses
Wasn't this so fun? It was beyond sweet of the guy to put it all together. I will remember it always.
Traditions!
JR is steep with tradition. Second grade always does the Christmas Program, thus it was Callie's year to shine, "I won't be seeing Santa Clause, somebody snitched on me," Callie sang into the mic.
I can't remember what I said to Matt to have him blush so.
"Who has a beard that's white...
...must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa, Santa Claus!"
This program is cute enough but completely void of any reason. Without the reason for the season, it is just a lot of Ho Ho Ho.
Much like our annual Gingerbread decorating tradition.
Callie was giddy-gumdrops.
Graham stealing a few.
Matt said, "Your sweater is on inside out. I answered, "I know, I am trying to breathe new life into it." I have just got to get me another Christmas sweater.
This guy is getting good enough that when I look at these pics I can't remember who made which.
We made sugar cookies (mainly so we could check one more thing off Graham's tradition list). We put them on plates to take around to the neighbors. The kids like to knock and run when they leave treats. However, at one house we saw that Callie knocked on the door. When she came back to the car we asked her why she didn't knock and run. She said, "Oh, there was a note on the door that said, 'No Sneaking."
(Hehe "No Soliciting")
Something New!
We can't be so set in tradition that we aren't willing to try something new as well. On December 3rd, I took Graham and Callie to Orem and we picked out a LIVE tree!
There is nothing like being at a fresh tree lot at Christmas time.
Brought me back to times of yore.
