Whirlwinds of the Season 2015

North Pole Express!

Kei and Ademir joined us on November 25th for a ride to the North Pole. There is a new set and there was fresh snow falling right on cue, but all of our eyes were on Gio!

Mallerie kept us entertained till the big man boarded.

Mallerie continued to entertain all month long in the first class coach.

Midway Tree Lighting Festival!

Children's Choir/Tree lighting in Midway. Callie and Graham had such a good experience with this! They loved the practices, they loved the performances. All of it. And we loved watching. All of it.

They were told to wear Christmas colors. Ava said to Callie, "You should wear the elf costume." She was all over it! Though it looked a little itchy and Callie was dying of heat by the end.

Herself the Elf

My Instagram Caption for this: Christmas in Underway in Midway!

A visit from Father Christmas ended the show.

Lights!

I decorated the porch and Matt put lights on the house. It was good while it lasted...(I'll tell ya later).

An Angel was Baptised: Paisley Elaine.  December 6th, 2015.

We had lunch at Pizza Pie afterwards, the girls took a trip to the Beehive Bazaar, and we ended the day at a Cultural Celebration at the Tabernacle on Temple Square!

Ava's Band Concert!

She is really enjoying playing the flute and would like to pursue it into HS. Time will tell! I stayed after to help pass out poinsettias that people had ordered for a fund raiser. 

Mallerie had participated in selling poinsettias also, as well as wreaths, which she sold about 45 of! It took us a good three hours to drive around delivering all of them. Mallerie is fun enough to be with that it went by lickity split. 

Gingerbread Houses!

I got my hands on a Christmas sweater from JC's early in the season. I was happy to have it! I wore it to the High Priest Dinner, the family Christmas party, Callie's class party, the family party, Christmas Eve, ect. I highly recommend one. It made me feel festive. I love that part in Christmas with the Kranks where Nora finds out Blair is coming home for Christmas and she says, "I need my vest!" and proceeds to get her tacky Christmas vest out of the closet. I felt the same way!

Mallerie guessed which house the girl's decorated. Grayson was delighted when she guessed INcorrectly.

Santa came to Kings!

Santa asked the usual questions, "What would you like?" Graham answered, "Shoes." But Santa wanted more details, "What kind of shoes?" "Tennis shoes." "Which brand?" "...Sketchers." "What COLOR?" (at this point I wanted to whisper, "what's the difference Santa?") Graham thought, "...Green!" "What SHADE of green?" (Is this guy for real????) "Neon green!" Somehow Santa's description got lost in translation and Graham ended up with some gray Nike's.

Cookies! Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom Nom....

2nd Grade Christmas Program! 

Graham had a solo! For the first part of "I'm gettin nuttin for Christmas." He sang into the mic right on pitch nice and nice and loud. He also had a speaking part. But where he really stole the show was during the....

...dance! Matt went to the morning performance and I went in the afternoon. Between the morning and afternoon shows I heard so many comments about how Graham was the favorite to watch during the Mexican dance. I could see what they meant, he really could shake those hips!

Callie and I went back for every performance after that.

Christmas Letters/Crafts!

This letter was before Graham modified his first wish to a pair of shoes (we had a little chat about how some things are too grand, even for Christmas).

Both Graham and Callie were overjoyed to receive a box of crafts early in the month. (craftyfunmom.com) I was happy to have it to pull out when winter nights were long with anticipation. 

A Trip to the Mall!

Ward Christmas Breakfast

The fact that it was at 9 am on a Saturday keeps this title from getting an exclamation point.

I have found that you sure don't have to look hard to run into the big man this time of year.

Zollinger Christmas Party!

Before the blessing on the food Linda gave some guidelines for the night, like if the parents could help make sure the kids weren't taking food into the classrooms at the church and running around with food. I heard one of the little boys whisper to his cousin pretty irritated, "We just want to have a good time."

When Aunt Linda said the party would have a special guest we all assumed it was the man in red again. However, it wasn't!

My aunt Linda had really thought of everything! She had a cookie decorating station for the kiddies, cold cereal for kids who were too picky for taco soup. There was a talent show by the kids,  lots of visiting with cousins and loved ones, and lastly a white elephant exchange. Mallerie and I have really enjoyed the sweaters we got from Rachel. Like seriously, it replaced my Christmas sweater.

My dad's other sister Chris presented us each with a book of Christmas memories that we had submitted to her. It is a treasure! I had to stay up that night and read the whole thing! 

Timponogos Intermediate School Service Project!

This was on the hompage for the school district. The kids gathered and wrapped items for Sub for Santa. Grayson looks like, "Yep, that's what we did."

Bunnies on the loose!

I noticed one evening as I was feeding the bunnies that they weren't there and they had dug under the fence. However the next morning they were under their heat lamp. I wondered how long this had been going on. I figured it didn't matter if they ran around loose now that they knew where their home was. It wasn't uncommon to see Skipper sunning himself on the deck or Charlie out the kitchen window.

However, letting them roam free resulted in this:

Times TWO. They never did come back around, which I was sad about. 

Awards!

Dear Mallerie, On behalf of the Patriots Anonymous we would like to congratulate you on the achievement of being selected as Best Person of the Moth. Best Wishes, The Patriots Anonymous of America.

(It's better than getting egged!) 

Reflections!

Though I wasn't there to see it in person, Callie told me all about how she was called up during the assembly to stand next to Graham and get a golden certificate! It doesn't take much to get a certificate, you just have to enter an art project of any kind. However, her classmates did not know this and were beyond impressed when their fellow kindergartner was called to the front of the gym. She looked out the see a girl with her jaw dropped, hands on cheeks.

When Callie sat back down this girl said, "Callie, I did not know you were going to get that award! I am so sorry for being mean to you. I am going to be nice to you from now on. I did not know you were going to get that award!"

I went back to help with Graham's Christmas party later in the day. When we were on the playground breaking the Pinata the all-day-kindergarten class ran out.  Some kids were giving Callie hugs. I said, "Your friends looked happy to see you." She said, "Well, it's because of that award..."

Here is her Underwater car (I think you need to cock your head)

The back reads: "The world would be a better place if cars could drive in the ocean so we could see underwater. there aren't any wheels because you don't need wheels in water. It took me a really long time." 

-Callie (Kindergarten)

"The world would be a better place if they had a flying police car that went fast. He could catch bad guys faster that had a better jel and it can not let them out. And it can drive automatic."

-Graham (2nd grade)

And those are the whirlwinds of December (minus SNOW!). You probably figured we were going to do most of these things, but I bet you didn't know Callie was going to get that award.