Wow it has been a while. I thought I was getting closer to
catching up and then I slipped again. Finally here it is; December 2013.
This year was no exception to craziness, over excited kids
and anxiety and joy. The kids were so perfect to each other. They wanted to watch
the movie about the birth of Jesus and just appeared they were really into the
spirit of Christmas. Jingle came on December 1st as usual and this
year he kept tricking the kids. My favorite part of the morning was seeing the
kids run upstairs to try and find were that mischievous elf was hiding.
I tried getting some Christmas pictures but I just couldn't.
Getting 4 sets of eyes to look at you at the same time just is a mission
impossible. I did however; get this cute picture of the boys. I love to see
their friendship develop as Daniel becomes older.
And speaking of older, Daniel has learned how to talk in the phone. This is a must at 1 of course!
This is just a random picture of Andrew. One second he was asking me a question, next thing I know he had fallen asleep on the armrest of the couch. I don’t know how he does it but he manages to fall sleep on the weirdest ways.
Ward Christmas Party
This was an event we were all looking forward to. I can’t
tell you how excited the kids were (especially Josh and Andrew) when they
announced in primary that the theme was going to be “the polar express”. This is
our favorite movie to watch during Christmas and maybe even year round.
We were told to wear pajamas, bring a blanket to the church
and be there by 8:00. We were given a golden ticket just like the one in the
movie when we arrived at the building. The decorations were fantastic. Someone dressed like the conductor and was
explaining what our trip was going to be like. The young men and young women
dressed up as the waiters and delivered our hot chocolate while the hot chocolate
tune from the movie was playing on the background. It was really impressive. We really felt the spirit of Christmas during
this celebration. As we were leaving we were given a little bell.
Smith’s Christmas party
We also had our traditional smith’s Christmas party. It was
snowing so hard this day that some of our family ended up missing. It was a
lovely evening: playing with cousins, opening presents, and drinking hot
chocolate.
Traditions and more Traditions.
Every year since Julia was a baby we have made it one of our
traditions to decorate a gingerbread house. I think this year has been the funniest
one yet. The kids basically took over the decorating. I was in charge of
spreading the icing where they need me to and Andrew of course had to be the
one eating the candy.
We made our visit to temple square. It was a very cold night
but it was so wonderful to be out there enjoying the Christmas music, looking
at the twinkling lights and feeling the spirit. Before we went to Temple Square
we had to stop for our other tradition: cheesecake factory.
The kids wrote their letters to Santa. Josh is getting really good at writing.
Andrew wanted me to draw the things he wanted. He did not want Santa to get
confused about what he wanted for Christmas.
We tried making some sugar cookies this year. Baking is
really not my things but we gave it a world and the peppermint frosting
actually turned out really good
T&T Competition.
This year Julia is doing competition tumbling. She absolutely
loves it. On Dec 14th she had her first event at her gym. Out of 8
girls she took 1st place. I loved seeing her face as they kept
calling other girls name but hers until it was time to announce the winner. She
was in shock. Her face was lit up and couldn’t keep smiling. All her friends
were cheering so loudly for her it was very emotional for me. She is such a
good friend and a great athlete.
Andrew’s Christmas program
On the 16th Andrew had his Christmas program. It was
so cute to see him sing and run around too. Julia and Joshua helped out with
the living nativity set we did. He was Joseph. And he kept telling the three
kings to leave his baby alone.
Christmas time
This was a busy day. The kids played all day while I spent
my entire day in the kitchen making cookies, preparing dinner and reading a
breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. Next thing I knew it was 7 pm. The kids
devour dinner in 5 minutes and then the clock started to drag for them. They had
to finish their chores, we usually watch the nativity video but josh cracked it
as he was attempting to get it out of its case. So it was a good thing I had
checked out a live version of the nativity story from the library so we watched
that instead.
After the video we gathered to open one present from under
the tree. After playing with the new toys for an hour the kids had to get Santa’s
milk and cookies ready for him and off they went to sleep.
I was dreading the night for some reason I just kept
thinking the kids were going to wake up and sneak into their presents even
though Spencer had warned them that if they woke up too early their presents
would disappear. When morning finally
rolled in I was very tired even though the kids didn’t wake up until 7:30.
They were all wide awake except for Daniel who we left
sleeping until it was time for breakfast.
Once all the presents were opened and the stocking were emptied
we were on our way to Grandma Smith’s house who had prepared a delicious brunch
for us all.
New Year’s Eve.
This was a very lazy day. Spencer had to work so we just
played games and watched movies all day long. We had Mexican food carry out for
dinner and waited until the ball came down in temple Square (New York time). I just realized there is nothing to watch on
regular TV anymore
This was such an amazing year. It went too fast. I am so
grateful for cameras which let us bring back those memories of the wonderful
times we have spent together as a family. I know we have grown closer to each
other and I hope we can continue to
Simplify our lives,
Make every moment
count,
Increase our testimonies,
Teach and learn meaningful things and
Have no regrets.
