News del Mercado: Christmas 2020

While this year I did miss the concerts that we usually attend the schools to celebrate Christmas, I didn't miss the busyness of it all. And since we didn't travel for Christmas like we had originally planned, we still made this Christmas one to remember!

Christmas Competition

Karissa has a couple of fun ideas to celebrate. One was an ugly sweater competition.

Jason's is the best! We bought all these sweaters for $27 at the Goodwill, btw, so we think he was a steal! He didn't have to do anything to it!

I glued little pompoms on mine and it is a super nice quality Abercrombie and Fitch. I didn't want mine to be too ugly, just cute!

Austin went to TOWN with the glue sticks!

Erik had a great time with him and wears it many times!

Karissa is actually still working on hers because she decided to change it up. She just really loves the process of art!

Victoria got this cute/ugly vest. She didn't have to do anything to hers.

Austin's was finally dry enough from glue and paint the next day to wear!

Karissa just wore this for the PJ day. She got this sweater at 5 Below. She'll finish her ugly sweater one day...

The other was a Deck the Halls where we decorated our doors.

Victoria's door. She had an ornament for each of us and a positive quality she admires in us- so thoughtful!

Mine and Jason's door (I will resue this wrapping paper!)

Karissa's door. She used chalks for the colors.

Austin's door (he decorated the bathroom door so Erik could do the boys' door, but Erik never ended up doing it because he was reading all morning when we did it.)

We never actually decided on a winner for either one, it was fun to just do it for something festive. I will be taking the snowflakes and snowman to my classroom for January decor. Definitely want to put all those things to good use!

Houseguest

The McEwens went to Florida for Christmas and since we decided to stay, we watched their dog Daisy for them. She has been the perfect houseguest and has brought lots of laughter and outside time for us. Even the cats are getting used to her!

The cats LOVE eating the dog food, so we gave up on keeping the cat food up high and Dasiy eats the cat food. They're all going to be messed up after eating all the wrong food!

The boys love hanging out in Daisy's cage!

We love her underbite!

On our warmer day, we took her to Maybury. Karissa ran with Daisy while the others rolled on wheels.

She has a cute little sweater for colder days and she does shiver when it's colder!

Service!

President Nelson and our Bishop have been encouraging us to get out and serve, so that's what we've been doing. This week of Christmas we took our friend Angelisa (who just lost her mom to cancer) to downtown Detroit to see the big Christmas tree and get hot chocolate. None of us had been there for that. I loved seeing her surprise and awe in looking at the enormous tree and lights! It was a magical evening. We then were blessed to have her come to our house for Christmas Eve dinner and the Nativity. She wanted to be the narrator. She was so good for that part because she read slowly and was not distracted by family issues (which sometimes can happen). We also played the Light the World Challenge for the 24th where we were supposed to share why each person is loved around the dinner table. It had such great meaning that night to hear what everyone had to say about each other, and I know Angelisa felt the love in the room. We had tacos, tamales, rice, seven-layer dip, chips and salsa, and salad. Both evenings I loved watching her laugh and talk so much more than I have ever seen! Usually, it's just me taking her somewhere or shopping with her and she's really quiet. Boy, with my kids around, she was having a blast!

Our first view outside the parking garage.

Angelisa has the best smile!

The main tree.

Our beautiful table with Erik's plate here at the end.

Taco bar

Mary and Joseph

Narrator, Sheep, and Shepherd

Angel and lighting coordinator.

Wiseman

On Christmas Eve morning we had signed up to ring the bells for the Salvation Army at Busch's Grocery Store in Plymouth. It's definitely a higher-end grocery store and Plymouth is a more well-to-do-area, but we were in awe at the generosity of so many people! We sang Christmas carols most of the time, with masks on of course, and we were set back so we were socially distanced from everyone. Many people thanked us for being out there in the cold with our kids. One man even got us some hot chocolates from Speedway, which was so thoughtful. I loved everything about that experience!

Gifts!

We usually open our Secret Santa gifts on Christmas Eve, but Angelisa stayed longer than we thought she would, so we decided to just open them with the presents on Christmas morning. Since Victoria is usually in charge of Secret Santa, she had everyone put their gifts under the small tree by the stockings for us to do SS before opening stockings. We all were so happy with the gifts we gave and received from our SS. It's definitely one of my favorite traditions now. The other gifts followed the stockings and were opened in the living room. Everyone was content with their gifts this year, which always brings me joy.

We woke up to a white Christmas. It all fell exactly when we were sleeping. Nothing was on the ground at 10:30 pm. It all fell sometime before we woke up at 7am.