Merry and Bright

Our days have been "merry and bright", though we definitely didn't have a white Christmas. For starters, see this couch? This was my Grandma Carrie's.

 We have had it for the 15 1/2 years we've been married. We moved it to the basement Christmas Eve because the Black Friday purchase I made arrived just in time!

Some love taps from our cat helped pull the fabric out.

 Here's our new couches! One in the living room

 and one in the family room. I've never had two couches in my living spaces before. It's kind of exciting!

 Other exciting happenings before Christmas:

-singing Christmas carols with Grandma and Grandpa

 -Victoria's Pioneer breakfast at school where Grandma told some of her ancestor's stories.

 -getting cozy

 -sugar cookies

 -Austin's first pj party at school

 -decorating "gingerbread" houses with our good friends the Looslis

Erik and Victor

Karissa and Daria

Austin and Dallin

 -more cookies (gingerbread this time)

 - Mason jar snowmen at the library

 - lunch at IKEA (it's free for kids on Tuesdays!)

 - and the Nativity.

 Christmas morning Erik was more excited about his orange in his stocking than I thought he would be. Too bad he didn't eat it!

 Karissa got a Barbie dream house. Lucky girl!

 Victoria's new boots and pants.

 Go Blue!

 I saved this baby a few months in my neighbor's garage. A friend gave it to me since they didn't use it anymore. Let me tell you, we're getting plenty of use out of it here!!

 Lots of hair doing around here too.

Merry Christmas!!

Gift of Service

I was very touched by the blog that my sister posted a few days ago on her blog: mcdonaldfamilynews.blogspot.com. We had decided with our brother that we would not exchange gifts this year with each other, but perform an act of service in honor of each other. Since they both live in Utah, they got to serve together, visiting some family members in a retirement home. Sounds like they had a great experience and their children really felt the importance of the gift of giving.

We had a few small opportunities to serve. First, we let the kids pick out cans to bring to school for the food drive. I always participate in this, but just hand the kids some cans and send them off to school. I decided to let them choose which cans they want to bring instead so they are more proactive in the experience. We also participated in the Giving Tree through church, another thing I always do, but again, the kids aren't as directly involved. I chose an 11-year-old girl from the Detroit area, hoping it would make more of an impact on Victoria. I had picked out and purchased the coat, hat and mittens, but had the girls come with me to pick out some toys. They also used their own money, which made it more memorable for them, hopefully for the better!

You can't see her Monster High dolls that Erik is holding, but we got her two of those. 

My mom and her husband are here for Christmas and got to share in our final experience of giving. We went caroling to our neighbor's homes on the 23rd. We caroled to a neighbor we don't know very well and she was the happiest and most appreciative. We also caroled on Christmas Eve at a retirement home with a couple other families from our ward. Some of the residents were pretty out of it, but you could tell they enjoyed having us there singing. Some waved their arms around, others joined in singing. I think they especially enjoyed watching the four 3-year-old boys run around.

I really hope our kids remember these experiences and that we can continue in this tradition.

Merry Christmas Karina and Derek!

In the Spotlight

Karissa got to participate in the second grade play at school. It was called This Old Gingerbread House. She even tried out for Gretel, but didn't get the part this time. She's been really doing well with reading and voice fluctuation, so I think one day she might do well having a big part on stage. I wish I could have enjoyed it as much as I was looking forward to it. We were only about 5 rows back, but since she was on the first row, I could barely see her. It didn't help that Erik was standing on my lap, his back pressed against my face, so he could see her too. Jason got this shot with is camera. This is the chocolate bar she made, which is the candy she ate from the gingerbread house.

 When I finally got up to stand on the side, hoping Erik would stay with Jason, he followed me. He then proceeded to go back and forth between Karissa and me. After the second time, while I was trying to decide what to do without causing a big scene, the music teacher, who directed the play, picked Erik up, which started some real reactions from him, and asked whose he was. I was very embarrassed as I went to collect my son. I left the room with him and missed her part. I found out later that they accidentally skipped that part.

At our ward Christmas party on Saturday, Karissa was the narrator for the little presentation the Primary kids performed. Victoria played a bell in one of the songs. They didn't even tell me they had these parts until an hour beforehand! That was a great performance! ( I forgot to take still pictures though.)

Last night Karissa's dance class performed their Christmas dance to Jingle Bell Rock. I've given up trying to get videos from YouTube to my blog. They been causing me real problems the last few times I've tried. Here's a picture with her teacher, though.

Call Me Crazy

We started out December with a bang. As is our tradition, we went to the tree lighting at the Summit the first Wednesday of the month. Every year is slightly different and every year we love it just as much, sometimes even more! This year, the dancing was great, as usual. Cookie decorating (and eating): can't go wrong with that. Suddenly, we ran into this guy.

The Summit mascot Bartlett the Beaver.

 Then we ran into this guy. The kids couldn't get enough of him. Victoria met us there with her friend Janelle, and they enjoyed flirting with the Grinch. For this picture, Austin was intent on drinking his punch and a little wary of the Grinch. He warmed up later and was hanging on his leg, Erik on the other, but I couldn't get a good shot of them with the other people around discovering that the Grinch was there.

As we were making our way to decorate ornaments before heading home, Karissa saw the sign that Elsa and Anna were there for photo ops. I immediately assumed it would be too long of a wait, since Santa always is so we never see him at the Summit. Well, finally I agreed to check it out. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw no one in line to see them!! We waited 2 hours to see Tinker Bell at Disneyland last year and she was no better than these characters, except she had a wig. It was a moment better than Disneyland! Even Austin was stoked. We also got Elsa and Anna paper dolls they were handing out.

 When I ran into Victoria again later, I had to take them back to the "no line" room. She was pretty excited too.

 I took the boys home and Jason stayed a little longer with the girls so they could finish their ornaments. Since they were there 'til the end, they even got to sit on Santa's lap and get a candy cane without a line. Lucky girls!

The next night I took my girls to see our neighbor Bethany sing with her chorale group. There were some really good singers there! Her mom had given us 4 tickets, so I brought our friend Analee from church who we thought would enjoy it and knows Bethany from school.

After a late Wednesday and Thursday, I got to wake up Saturday to make the quiches I was bringing to the Relief Society brunch I was in charge of. Luckily, it was at someone else's house, but I had to plan and carry out all other assignments. Everything went well, though. the food was great and we had a service white elephant exchange where each sister brought a service instead of a gift. I will be getting a strawberry pie for Family Home Evening after the holidays. I am teaching someone how to crochet a headband with a flower and making one for that sister.

Sunday after church, I had about 40 people in my house for a farewell for our very good friends, the McEwen family. I had made butternut squash soup (one of my new favorites!), chili, and rolls and everyone brought a soup to share or a dessert. The McEwen's moved to China yesterday and will be there at least 3 years. They were our temple swap buddies and our holiday buddies. We will miss them! Of course, I didn't take a picture with them on Sunday, but have others with them. I was impressed at how well my kids did. I think since there were so many people here, they had no room to be extra crazy. They ate their dinner, played with friends, and I got to visit with everyone else. I was also impressed that our house could fit everyone!

Here they are from Easter.

And their 3 kids, Trey, Jasmine, and Ethan. 

This week we're unwinding. Way to start off the holiday season!

Classic

I was sitting in testimony meeting yesterday and something somebody said reminded me that I forgot to include in my blog last week the most important part of Thanksgiving. I had decided that it was appropriate to share in testimony meeting and finally worked up the nerve to share it.

I bore my testimony of how important I think it is to teach children at a young age and that even kids like Erik, who are contrary in every way, pick up the most important things. I told them how at our Thanksgiving dinner we all went around sharing what we were thankful for. Most of us said things like "family, home..." Austin said holidays. Then Erik, out of the blue when we didn't even ask him, said he was thankful for Jesus Christ. It was the best moment for a mom! I can't believe I even forgot to blog about it!

As I was sharing my story with everyone, Erik comes up to the pulpit and stands right next to the podium making faces at everyone. When I finished, he didn't want me to leave. Then he wanted to go down the stairs the side opposite I was going to go down. Then he wanted to say something in the microphone which was "blahhhh!" with his tongue hanging out! After that, I went to go back down the stairs and he wanted me to go across to the other set again. I told him no, went and sat down, and he came down the other set on his own another 30 seconds later. Way to demonstrate my point, Erik! Seriously though, his comment at Thanksgiving was priceless!

Thanksgiving Visit

We enjoyed a nice visit with Jason's parents over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was perfect; not only did they get to celebrate Erik's birthday with us, but we got to celebrate Thanksgiving and a little bit of Christmas with them. How much more fun can you get?

The beginning of the visit was seeing the kids off to school, dance, and piano along with some errands. We also had some unusual snow covering the ground for a few days. The 8 years we've been here, we've never had snow stay on the ground that long (4-5 days) this time of the year. Because of that, once the snow melted, right before Thanksgiving, the next part of the visit was Abuelo helping Jason dig the third trench to fix the electrical on our shed that never passed the inspection way back over the summer. (Grandpa Jim did the first, Jason did the second with a friend and the kids, third time is the charm, right?) Along with the digging of the trench, we winterized our yard with the help of Gramms and Abuelo. So, besides cooking and eating, we did a lot of yard work!

This was the first dusting, We got more over the next few days.

Austin, tired after school, getting cozy with Abuelo.

Hard at work!

 Some new traditions we tried this year included out Tri-Wizard Turkeyment (I had to incorporate Harry Potter some how so the kids would enjoy it more). It was supposed to be a our family turkey trot, but since it was so cold, we decided to do it indoors and Karissa made an obstacle course for us. It included jumping on the indoor trampoline, jumping over a rope. climbing through a "tunnel" (the coffee table), and gobbling like a turkey a few times. Victoria won, of course.

The prize: a turkey pillow!

After completing the Turkeyment

Master chef

Erik ate part of a roll, That's progress for him!

The other tradition was that I made butternut squash soup for lunch to tide us over for the feast. I had made it a few weeks ago and was impressed at how yummy, easy, and yummy it was! There's so many foods to eat at dinner and never room for a good autumn soup, so I figured why not enjoy good food the whole day, but not get too full until the feast?

Decorating the tree.

After Thanksgiving was over, we decided since the men were finishing up stuff outside, we may as well decorate for Christmas.

At a Christmas tree exhibit.

Doesn't look like I took pictures of the actual Christmas trees, though!

We had a great time. Thanks for coming, Gramms and Abuelo!