Merry Merry Christmas

It is 1:35 am and I can't sleep. This is what happens when I drink caffeine. So I guess I'll just make the most of it! I took Elise to see New Moon tonight, and since we'd both be falling asleep since it was a late show, we got a giant Mr. Pibb and shared it. Somehow she managed to fall asleep right when we walked in the door.

Anyway, perfect time to review all those cute Christmas pictures. However, I see from my camera yields that I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures this season.

We love the Christmas Season. It is always so busy, and yet so good when it is filled with all these fun things to do as a family.

My kids must have watched Home Alone 30 times this month. Miles idolizes the ingenious booby traps in it. Jared and I couldn't help but laugh just watching the kids machine gun laughter just about the whole time. Plus, it teaches our kids the value of family. The other day Simone says this to me: "Mommy, Home Alone (Kevin) says, 'families suck!' But I don't think families suck. I like families." (it did make me cringe to hear my 3 year-old say suck, but I couldn't help cracking up.)

The other favorite is Elf. I could watch that over and over, and I love how they made such a funny movie so clean.

We enjoyed sledding practically every snowy day this December. We went ice skating for the first time ever as a family. It was hard! I'm really rusty since I haven't skated since Jared and I were dating 13 years ago. I kinda pride myself on my skating abilities (although my true talent is the stilts or pogo stick) so that was disappointing. I thought I'd be able to show off for my girls. Now I'm going to have to take them again and redeem myself.


Elise had it down! I am always impressed with her coordination.

Simone's favorite part about skating was watching and eating her treats she'd just received from Santa.

We really enjoyed the lights at Temple Square with Matt and Bekah and CUTE Jaxon. We took Trax from the Gateway, and Simone loved hanging on for dear life.



I think it was the first Christmas Eve yet that I wasn't running to the store. Elise made some yummy lemon blueberry muffins. Monet hopped on the computer every few minutes to check on Santa's progress on the Norad website that shows where Santa is at. She kept the globe handy so she could look exactly where he was. Here is Simone helping with the muffin baking. We had family coming over at various points in the day and it was really fun to just hang out at home and enjoy our visitors!



For Christmas, the kids got a Wii from their Grandparents and some games. But we didn't even give it to them until the day after Christmas so they could appreciate and enjoy their other presents. I love how engrossed they are in their new toys and figured we'd extend that. It totally worked. They are LOVING the Wii, as is Jared. Particularly because I said we'd never get a gaming system. But I am totally converted with this thing. It makes virtually no mess and my kids have hours of semi-quiet, semi-active play. Monet got a magic show kit and has been putting on tricky shows for us daily. Miles got a new Spiderman costume to replace the tattered one that has been giving him wedgies. Simone has the cutest little dress ups. She has some real make-up too. She claims she is going to fly like a bird with her new fairy wings. I am thinking I'd better keep an eye on her. Elise loves her new ipod dock. Miles also got a new tool set on Christmas Eve from his cousin. He can't help showing it off in all his pictures. He found that when you saw the barstools with the serrated plastic, it really works! Great.

Just tonight as we had another family gathering we got to talking about how neat it is for our kids that we have so many close cousins. Here is Jax and Simone riding in on their black and white ponies. They had quite the gallop down! It is so fun to me that even though they don't see each other that much, they just pick right up where they left off each time. Miles talks about his cousin Chase in California, and Ethan in Chicago, and I love that he feels such a connection to them. Even though he doesn't have a brother, he has FOUR boy cousins within a few months of him. Lucky kid!

And I just wanted to document how tired I became of doing the girls hair and getting everyone ready for pictures. So for a couple of days, we went to parties looking like Simone in the above picture. Half a ponytail, no shoes and clothes that don't match. We were just happy to get out the door. When Elise was little, we hardly left the house without a bow and matching shoes. Times have changed.

Let It Snow!

We are so happy to have some snow. Miles had a sleepover with his cousin over Thanksgiving and they made do with what they had:



But this is better!

Gingerbread Village

We kicked off the season by making a gingerbread village. We had such a fun time. I usually buy Costco's gingerbread house. But this year I bought a Wiltons from Wal-mart and I loved it for reasons that might be surprising to some. But it definitely met all of my criteria:

1. Don't think the gingerbread is actually edible, which means I am not tempted by it in the least.

2. The candy is colorful and disgusting. Also a bonus when you are trying not to gain weight during the holidays.

3. They are indestructible. One of them fell off the refrigerator and remained in tact.

4. Each kid got their own, which means a very peaceful evening.

You can probably tell whose is whose just by looking at them. Miles of course used the food coloring as blood. Raising a boy is surprisingly predictable.