If only the days were a little bit longer then I might be able to keep up with my blog. Instead here I am posting my Christmas pictures before January ends. Oh well.
We had a blast this year building our gingerbread house. Julia and Josh were so into building it and making it look just like the display picture. All I had to do was put the frosting down this year and the kids did the rest. I felt great not having to build the darn thing all by myself for once.
While two of my kids were working hard on decorating the gingerbread house my other “two” kids were eating the candy, that will be Andrew and Spencer.
We also wrote our letters to Santa. Julia wrote her entire list by herself. She included her Rapunzel tower and a toy minivan for her doll family.
Josh got frustrated that he couldn’t write. He even tried drawing the toy he wanted but got mad again and upset that wasn’t going to be able to tell what he wanted. We told him that Santa already knew what he wanted. #1 on his list was a fire truck, #2 what else but trains.
Andrew was excited about bugging his siblings while they were at work.
On December 8th we had Josh’s Christmas program. He didn’t want to go until I mentioned that there were going to be treats. When I asked him why he didn’t want to go he said,: “well we are singing today and don’t like that, I don’t want to sing”.
He kept true to his word. While all the other kids were excited to sing the songs he was standing still with one hand on his pocket and a straight face looking at the other kids as if they had given into their mom’s wishes.
Every now and then he grabbed a prop and attempted to move his hands but that was it. Funny thing was that after the program he sang all of the program songs just for me.
The kids sang songs, read stories, made some gingerbread houses. Julia was helping him make his and I love that picture of both of them looking at each other and conspiring on eating some of the candy.
That same night we went over to Julia’s school for her kindergarten program. She is amongst the tallest in her class so was clear in the back. I was lucky to have taken this picture because most of the time I couldn’t see her. She was thrilled about her program though. They sang 2 songs in Spanish and 2 songs in English. One of the Spanish songs happened to be one of my favorite when I was little: El burrito sabanero.
On December 9th we had our traditional Christmas party. The kids love to have all of their cousins over to play. We had such a great time playing and opening presents and just enjoying each other’s company that evening. I also changed a couple of my recipes, the best change was to add ready whip on top of my hot chocolate recipe. Oh my goodness that was amazing.
With both of the kids out of school I really struggle getting anything done. It was a good thing that my shopping was all done with otherwise we would have been in trouble. I felt so behind that it was the 21st when I finally realized that I had not made my Christmas cards yet. I got all the kids ready that afternoon and spent a couple of hours trying to take a decent picture of all three of them. Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of three kids? It was a nightmare. Andrew just wanted to sit on my lap and Josh was done smiling after 5 minutes, my poor Julia had to keep a smiling face for her mom, oh well.
These are some of the shots I took that I really liked
This was our Christmas card after I put it all together! Turned out pretty cute I think and all it took me was one entire day, I remember now why I procrastinated
That same week we managed to go to Temple Square to see the lights. We took the train down to Salt Lake City because it is Josh’s favorite thing to do. We looked like snowmen at the train station waiting for connecting train. I don’t think we’ll be doing that again. Besides the freezing temperatures it was a gorgeous night.
The Night Before Christmas. 
For some lucky reason Spencer had Christmas Eve off this year. I can’t say how helpful that was. I made us a big fancy dinner with holiday mash potatoes and oven backed chicken and green beans casserole. The kids thought it was fancy that we were using goblets to drink our sparkling cider.
Our tradition is to watch the movie about Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve, after which we can open 1 present from under the tree. The idea of opening a present was stronger than the desire of watching a movie for some reason.
After getting ready for bed they stormed into the front room and ready themselves to pick one present each.
Andrew went first. He loves dogs; “goggy” was the second word he learned after “mamy”, so Julia got him a little pull dog which he felt in love with………… until Joshua opened his present.
Joshua got another Thomas friend for his collection. Julia got a doctor set from Josh. She says she wants to be a doctor when she grows up so she better practice.
After they traded toys and played doctor for an hour they got sent to bed
Julia woke up a couple of times to go to the bathroom “supposedly”. After a couple of hours of sleep josh finally woke us up at 6:30. He was upset that Julia nor Andrew were awake yet so he took it upon himself to wake the others.
I was on video and camera duty that morning so I didn’t quite managed to take as many pictures, but as far as I could tell Santa managed to bring everything in the list and then some.
Unfortunately Santa forgot to put the candy canes up high in the tree but the time I realized what was going on Andrew had already devour half a dozen, wrapper included.
For breakfast I made this cute little cinnamon roll tree. I was going to dye the icing green but everyone was too hungry to wait.
As you can see Andrew really enjoyed it.
Well that was our December, wonderful and full of magic like always
