Christmas Eve

*In an effort to get caught up on my blog before summer I am doing talk to text on my phone.  I am trying to proof read as I go, but am not catching everything and am not fixing mistakes like capitalization or punctuation.  I figure something was better than nothing, and this is the best I can do right now. 

As I mentioned in my previous temple post on Saturday morning, on my way to the temple, I decided to listen to a YouTube video my cousins, Hayden and Jackson, made for their YouTube channel, Stick of Joseph. It Was a narration of scriptures, putting 3 Nephi and the New Testament in chronological order along along with musical numbers. It was so powerful and beautiful, I knew I wanted my children to see it. As I was listening and driving in my car, the sun was just coming up and I knew that I wanted them to have the same experience.

On Christmas Eve morning, also a Sunday, I woke up early to prepare. Jason and I went in and woke the kids up at six in the morning. They found these bags to light their path down to a dark living room with only the light of the Christmas tree. They had hot chocolate waiting for them.  We sat on the couch and cuddle blankets and watched this special Christmas devotional. The kids loved it and it felt Holy. 

However, as best laid plans usually go, I forgot to turn off the oven and the hot chocolate boiled over and burned on the stove. So I had a fun little Christmas Eve activity cleaning my stove from burnt milk.  

Devotional was over I sent out this brunch/treat table for the rest of the day so the kids could just come and graze.  And then we headed off to church. 

After church during lunch, Jason started our annual reading of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. 

Then we Frosted sugar cookies. 

The older kids may have gotten a little carried away and had a little too much fun frosting their cookies. That’s all I will say about that.

Around 4 o’clock, Noah and I ran over to the Clark’s for their Christmas Eve buffet. They have it every year and I love that they invite us, but most of our family doesn’t like soup so it feels mean to make them sacrifice a yummy Christmas Eve dinner for a little sociality. But Noah has renewed his friendship with Emerson so he wanted to go. I was grateful and we headed over for about an hour.

I ran home to finish our Christmas Eve dinner of a seafood buffet. It might be our favorite dinner of the whole year!

I am in love with our new front room. I just loved our new table for the holidays, and that with our Christmas pictures.  This year we had a tree in the front window of our beautiful room. It made me swoon all season.

Then we watched a Muppets Christmas Carol together. We watched it last year. It didn’t go great with Dane and Eve. They didn’t really get it and just kind of were bored and distracted everyone.

This year they were a little to into it and got really scared. Ha ha, you can’t win.

I took this picture of myself to remind me to blog about the emotions I was having. I’m grateful that I did because I wouldn’t have remembered. Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, and almost all other holidays and birthdays is like putting on a performance for moms. We spend months preparing and we have a short time to put on the show. It requires total mind and body and spirit. It is often working almost 24 hours straight for a few days in a row. People are mad and disappointed, and also overjoyed. You can’t please everyone and often have people telling me that you’re wrong.  And sometimes they’ll be right. You can’t do everything right even if you try. This year was particularly busy. It was probably the busiest Christmas Eve we’ve ever had. But as I said, sitting there watching a movie I don’t particularly like with my family under the glow of the Christmas tree, knowing I had at least four hours worth of prepping for Santa to come. I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming feeling of peace, joy and love. Being engaged in the work for my family and my children is all I want to do. I know I wouldn’t have had this moment of gratitude had it not been for all the work I have been into it. The top part of this paragraph definitely sounds like I’m being a bit of a martyr, the words sound that way,  I recognize that. But it’s not how my heart feels. It’s just reality. It is hard and I don’t want to pretend that it’s not. It is often and I don’t want to pretend that it’s not.   but it is oh so worth it.  I hope I am always wise enough to sacrifice myself and my time for my family because I have learned that when you lose yourself you find yourself .  

After they went to bed Santa came.  

 

Temple

*In an effort to get caught up on my blog before summer I am doing talk to text on my phone.  I am trying to proof read as I go, but am not catching everything and am not fixing mistakes like capitalization or punctuation.  I figure something was better than nothing, and this is the best I can do right now. 

 I hadn’t been to the temple to do endowments since I broke my foot. I had gone and done baptisms with the kids, but not gone for myself.  Partially because of my broken foot, partially because of scheduling, And partially due to my lack of prioritizing. On December 23, Jason insisted I go to the 7 AM session. I was so grateful for him to help me find the time. As you can see from the picture I got there just as the sun was coming up to find the gates locked. I guess they closed it because it was December 23. However, I looked at almost every other temple and they were open on the 23rd so…. 

It was OK because on the way to the temple, I had a burst of inspiration on how to make our sabbath Christmas Eve perfect.

I did go to the temple the next Saturday morning and had one of the best sessions of my entire life. I received all of the comfort and direction that I had been missing for the last few months. Instead of withholding it from me because I hadn’t come Heavenly Father just gave it all to me when I did come. It was another testament to the fact that Heavenly Father is eager to bless us, and meet us where we are. Since that session I have been going to the temple at least twice a month and it has been wonderful. 

Minute to Win it

*In an effort to get caught up on my blog before summer I am doing talk to text on my phone.  I am trying to proof read as I go, but am not catching everything and am not fixing mistakes like capitalization or punctuation.  I figure something was better than nothing, and this is the best I can do right now. 

I was in charge of the activity for Family home evening one night and I threw together a quick minute to Christmas win it game. I really had the idea and put it together in five minutes, so I was pretty proud of myself. It ended up being such a big hit. At the time I thought we should do this every month. But four months later, we’ve never done it again. Seems to be how it goes sometimes?

If I remember correctly, Brock schooled us.  Everyone just wanted to beat dad, which may or may not have cause him to stretch the rules a bit, which only made it more fun…. Until it wasn’t.  😬
 

Rick's Singing Party

*In an effort to get caught up on my blog before summer I am doing talk to text on my phone.  I am trying to proof read as I go, but am not catching everything and am not fixing mistakes like capitalization or punctuation.  I figure something was better than nothing, and this is the best I can do right now. 

Mandy and John Ricks threw their "annual" Christmas sing along. They used to do it every year, but since Covid, they hadn’t started again. It is one of my favorite parties because I love singing Christmas carols.  I also really appreciate all the effort that they go to and are willing to do something a little bit different. They both share their talents in a very obvious way and I love it.

 

Grandma visits and comes to all our stuff

This post is going to do double duty.  My mom came out to celebrate mine and Dane's birthday and see all the kids Christmas concerts/programs.  So this post will talk about her visit AND their performances.

First one was Megan's choir concert.  Megan has had a rough year with choir.  Their music teacher mysteriously quit/was fired the night before their fall concert.  Rumors have swirled about why, but the kids loved him and have been so sad to loose him.  They had a long term sub for about a month while they did interviews (my friend, Mandy Ricks) and then they hired a replacement teacher DOCTOR Bueler.  He insists on being called doctor. That should have been their first sign.  Let's just say it hasn't gone well.  

But they did a nice job on their Christmas concert, and I am glad that Megan enjoys music.

Next was Noah's concert.  Same stage. Different nights.  Noah likes his music teacher, but hates his class.  He was always complaining about how bad they are and how no one listens or takes choir seriously.  We always thought he was being a bit dramatic.  Turns out he wasn't.  They forgot the words to a couple of songs and sang the same verse for Frosty the Snowman 3 times.  haha.  

Glad Grandma could come!

Lastly, we went to Dane's preschool Christmas concert.  He was so excited.  He knew all the songs and all the actions.  He didn't do them all all the time. He was a little shy and a little embarrassed at first, but by the end he warmed up.

We got grandma and Jason!

Other fun things:  One morning grandma made gingerbread houses with Dane and Eve.

We made our own.

One night we made pizzas for dinner.

And played card games

And grandma took us all to Dairy Queen.

In the evenings or during nap time we left to go shopping for my birthday/Christmas present.  We had some things we wanted to buy for our house... but we never found what we wanted.  So we got a new picture of Jesus - which I love.  It is always fun when grandma comes!
 

Megan's Deliveries

 For over a year Megan has been baking cupcakes every Sunday and delivers them to young women who have birthdays that week.  She goes all out, making their favorite kinds of cupcakes and decorating  them.  She is so thoughtful.