O "Holy" Night
Callie has asked when she can get her ears pierced a few times throughout the year. I am always able to be vague enough that she quits asking. She's my bay-baaay. But when our friends asked if Callie could get her ears pierced on Christmas Eve with their daughter Jessie, it seemed like a good time. The two girls had quite the audience between the Murdock's and Boc's.
Dry your eyes; your dream just came true.
Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven...
I got a text during the day from the Bishop's wife informing me that a member of our ward had passed away, a 30-year-old named Michael. Not a lot of people knew him but I got to know him through his ex-wife when she lived on our street. His younger sister has come to church with us in the past and I felt I should go over to the home. When I walked over, I saw grieving people inside and outside the house. A man was sobbing on the porch. I gave him a hug and he just wept. There was a language barrier but words weren't needed anyway. As I spoke to the sister she said, "I know the church will take care of this family." I thought, "Hmmm, It's Christmas Eve, no one knows you... I guess that is ME." I came home and got busy in the kitchen. I told Matt, "We are making our Christmas dinner now and taking it to the Duran's. We can buy more for us later or figure something else out." Matt got on board with it so quickly; I love him for that. Matt drove to Smith's for needed supplies while I baked the Lasagna from the freezer and made up a double batch of my famous Fired-Up Mac n' Cheese. The rest of the family wanted to come with me as I delivered it. We took over the two casseroles, bagged salads, garlic bread, and cookies to boot. (Mallerie and Ava brought home a lot of cookies from the train). As we entered the home the mood was so heavy and sad. Can you imagine??? We smiled and said, "God bless," as we set the food in the kitchen.
Our hearts were so full walking back home.
We had our Bethlehem dinner at Mark and Jamie's and then came home for our own traditions of sibling gift exchanges and jammies under the tree downstairs.
Twas the Night Before Christmas...
I really wanted to read a bedtime story to the little ones. First I went into Callie's room to tuck her in and then I read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to her. Next I went into the boys room to read to Graham. He was already in bed but I figured I could manage the ladder and perch on the edge of the top bunk. The ladder was sort of broken so by the time I got to the top it had given way. I hadn't yet perched on the bed so I went down with it, "There arose such a clatter..." Big Momma went down. The sound of the crashing ladder onto the wood floor, not to mention my behind, caused the family to come running. First in was Giuseppe. He helped me up with the most awed expression, "Whaaaaaat happened???" He took the broken ladder away, "This needs to go!" I appreciated that.
The bruise that followed was...a colorful addition.
Oooh look at the Christmas fun (aka gluttony in the form of material goods).
But hey, there are NINE of us.
Matt got some good shots before calling down the troops the next morning.
Drone Dreams.
Graham got the craziest gift of all, a 4,600 pc Lego Ghostbuster Firehouse. The catch? The writing was in Japanese (maybe it was switched in the factory;) That, coupled with the fact that the recommended age is 16+, led to a frustrated Graham. He was getting the bags organized in his room (because they didn't come organized...) and exclaimed, "Where did Santa get this from Ebay????" I realized the overwhelming project before him and suggested we tuck it away for another time. He wouldn't hear of this. He worked night and day for two weeks and finally finished strong. I'll post pic's of the finished product at some point because it is impressive!
Ava got a stack of picture frames for a collage in her room and printer to print her very own pictures from home.
Tea for two
Dreams we didn't even know we had came true.
Christmas fell on the Sabbath. I wish they had kept our time at 1 pm because we really had to push it to be done with gifts and breakfast, and ready to go by noon. The service was beautiful though and the meeting was packed. I liked that. You know what else was packed? The SNOW!!!!!!
Look at all those Lego bags! I still can't believe Graham made sense of them.
Callie stacked all her gifts nicely inside her doll tent.
Giant Jenga. Who knew what a hit this would be??
Christmas break consisted of lots of games, old and new.
We went to the outlets the next day to exchange a couple of things. Mallerie could not decide for the life of her which pair of boots to get. Ultimately she got the green and pink because it matched what she was wearing, and she wanted to wear them right then.
We were on our way to Trolley Square to meet up with Matt for our Book of Mormon celebration.
Eighth Time!
I think my favorite thing about Rodizio is the specialty drink selection. This was a very generous dinner from Matt. He said, "Completely worth it." Matt took the boys home while the rest of us poked around the few shops left.
Other ways we enjoyed our time during the break was by riding our new toys at the Stake Center,
and attending a BYU basketball game on the very day LaVell died.
When I told my mom about our outing I said, "We also saw the lights on at the stadium with his picture on the jumbotron." She said, "You know....he died."
We spent some time at Fashion Place mall, attended a New Years Eve party at Mark's, saw Mallerie catch the bouquet at a reception, and otherwise just enjoyed being together. I think it was our best Christmas break yet. And look, the first floor is DONE.
On New Years Eve we were scheduled to clean the church. We didn't get there till evening and could see that only one other family had fulfilled their assignment. The church was a WRECK. The Durran funeral was earlier in the day, and wowza, the bathrooms, chapel, cultural hall, and kitchen looked like a fiesta. It was evident by how late in the day it was that the other families were not coming, so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. It was satisfying to see the church all fresh and clean as we left.
Later that night we ate Chinese food and popped our poppers.
Since Mal was in the house we played lots of games.
We went around the table and read our jokes. Grayson said, "Mine doesn't make any sense." We asked him to read it anyway. He said, "Why didn't the skeleton go to the party? Because he had no one to go with." I asked, "Are you sure it doesn't say, 'Because he had noBODY to go with???" He looked at it again, "Oh yeah! I get it now!" After dinner we went downstairs to watch The Amazing Race till mid-night. Matt had planned to go check out the new Years Eve dance so he will know what to expect next year when he is in charge, but we simply did not want to leave the house. Even as the kids ran wild outside at midnight I stayed cozy in the basement, so content was I.
This feeling of contentment only lasted so long. I had to be at Ward Council the next morning at 7 am. It is hard getting up at 6 am when fireworks have been going off till 1 am.
The buggy thing is that apparently only the men got the memo that it was cancelled, because just the Relief Society President, the Primary President, and myself were there.
Oh well, HAPPY 2017!
