Now buckle up and get comfortable because this is gonna be a long ride (or rather, long post).
For our 3rd year running, we celebrated the 8 days of Christmas. Each night (except the night that Grandma Cheryl stole the kids) we had a mini-FHE lesson centered on Christ, the REAL reason for Christmas, and then each child got to open 1 gift. I think this little idea of mine is finally paying off! The kids were much more involved this year and Payton gave us a pop quiz on day 7 and everyone passed with A+s! We talked about why His birth was such a big deal, the prophesies that came to pass leading up to and including the birth and His life, different attributes that Christ possessed, the symbols of Christmas, etc. It was fantastic and much more spiritual than our "old way" of doing Christmas!
Christmas week was busy as usual (the blessing/curse of living near so much family). On the Friday before Christmas, Payton had a sleepover to celebrate her birthday. She turned 12. It's still kind of freaking me out a little bit. She isn't in primary anymore. Crap.
Anyhow, she had some friends over and we made brownies and brookies (brownies with cookies mixed in - freaking awesome), popcorn and then watched New Moon. The girls stayed up until about 3 am so it wasn't too bad!
Saturday we spent at the school helping to host a fundraiser for the 6th grade EcoWeek trip. Clint took our ping pong and foosball table to the school and we watched other people's kids for a few hours. I came home exhausted (the kids were too) from humiliating the boys at knock out. My arm was sore for the next 4 days...man I'm getting old!
On Sunday, Jay & Cheryl took the kids down to Denver to have Christmas with the extended Jacobs family.
Monday found Payton, Laney and I baking 300 sugar cookies and a few pans of fudge.
On Tuesday, we had 32 of our closest friends over (and some of their moms) for a cookie decorating and gift exchange party. That was quite fun! The older girls did the majority of the decorating while the boys played. But everyone went caroling and that was funny! We scared a few people when they opened the door just because of the sheer number of us! Then we came back the house and the kids had a gift exchange. I was surprised by how well it went. We only had 1 kid get mad about his gift being stolen, but he is only 3 so we kind of expected that!
On Wednesday, we just took it easy and cleaned up the mess from the day before.
On Thursday, Clint took the kids sledding while I went out to do some last minute shopping with all the other crazies. Then my side of the family came over for dinner. It was great fun!
On Christmas morning, the boys woke up to find themselves trapped in the basement. Clint and I stapled wrapping paper over the basement doorway to keep them out so we could sleep in a little bit. They woke up at 6 and played Wii for a few hours. Clint and I woke up at 8 and then had to drag the sleeping beauties out of bed.
For our 3rd year running, we celebrated the 8 days of Christmas. Each night (except the night that Grandma Cheryl stole the kids) we had a mini-FHE lesson centered on Christ, the REAL reason for Christmas, and then each child got to open 1 gift. I think this little idea of mine is finally paying off! The kids were much more involved this year and Payton gave us a pop quiz on day 7 and everyone passed with A+s! We talked about why His birth was such a big deal, the prophesies that came to pass leading up to and including the birth and His life, different attributes that Christ possessed, the symbols of Christmas, etc. It was fantastic and much more spiritual than our "old way" of doing Christmas!
Christmas week was busy as usual (the blessing/curse of living near so much family). On the Friday before Christmas, Payton had a sleepover to celebrate her birthday. She turned 12. It's still kind of freaking me out a little bit. She isn't in primary anymore. Crap.
Anyhow, she had some friends over and we made brownies and brookies (brownies with cookies mixed in - freaking awesome), popcorn and then watched New Moon. The girls stayed up until about 3 am so it wasn't too bad!
Saturday we spent at the school helping to host a fundraiser for the 6th grade EcoWeek trip. Clint took our ping pong and foosball table to the school and we watched other people's kids for a few hours. I came home exhausted (the kids were too) from humiliating the boys at knock out. My arm was sore for the next 4 days...man I'm getting old!
On Sunday, Jay & Cheryl took the kids down to Denver to have Christmas with the extended Jacobs family.
Monday found Payton, Laney and I baking 300 sugar cookies and a few pans of fudge.
On Tuesday, we had 32 of our closest friends over (and some of their moms) for a cookie decorating and gift exchange party. That was quite fun! The older girls did the majority of the decorating while the boys played. But everyone went caroling and that was funny! We scared a few people when they opened the door just because of the sheer number of us! Then we came back the house and the kids had a gift exchange. I was surprised by how well it went. We only had 1 kid get mad about his gift being stolen, but he is only 3 so we kind of expected that!
On Wednesday, we just took it easy and cleaned up the mess from the day before.
On Thursday, Clint took the kids sledding while I went out to do some last minute shopping with all the other crazies. Then my side of the family came over for dinner. It was great fun!
On Christmas morning, the boys woke up to find themselves trapped in the basement. Clint and I stapled wrapping paper over the basement doorway to keep them out so we could sleep in a little bit. They woke up at 6 and played Wii for a few hours. Clint and I woke up at 8 and then had to drag the sleeping beauties out of bed.
Evidently, the kids were very good this year. They all got what they asked Santa for. They also got some things they didn't ask for.
Payton got teen magazines, fuzzy socks and cool hats.
Cole got a projector for his video gaming systems and movie watching as well as a subscription to Sports Illustrated for kids.
Cade got his Nerf Vulcan N Strike EBF25.
Corbin got Wizards of Waverly Place the Movie and a Wii Sports pack.
Laney got a Princess shopping cart.
Another Christmas tradition we have is the pickle. We don't set out cookies and milk for Santa (he gets enough of those anyway, right?) we set out a pickle ornament each year. Santa hides the ornament on the tree and whichever kid finds it first gets the pickle gift (an extra gift Santa leaves behind). This year, Cade found the pickle first and got G-Force (a movie).
Because the kids are always in my room on the computer, we decided to get them their own computer so they'll stay off mine!
I also found a really great deal on Beatles RockBand, and since we had so much fun playing it at Ian's birthday party, I just had to have one! It's been an absolute blast!
Clint got a navigation system and watch (that actually tells time) and he got me a new laptop since mine bit the dust several months ago and I just hadn't been the same.
After opening up the gifts and cleaning up a tiny bit, we had to hurry and get ready to head to the Jacobs for their annual Christmas brunch. It was yummy as usual with homemade scones and jam. The kids got a bunch more cool stuff and we came home exhausted (with a few sick kids to boot).
All in all, it was a fantastic Christmas week. I'm still recovering, but sure that I'll be pining for it all again here in just a few months!
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