Christmas!!!

The tree on Christmas Eve in all her glory ready for the big day!

Christmas morning I woke up feeling aweful. I knew I was coming down with something. However the day would not wait. Since last year the kids woke up about 5am, I am convinced it was a Christmas Miracle that the kids slept in till 8:14!!

Amelia with her Horse Mosaics by Numbers craft.

With her rocking horse.

Brodrick and Miles loved all of the Imaginext Space set we got them. Tim and I joked that we didn't need to open any presents under the tree since all they wanted to do was play with what was up and ready for them when they came down stairs.

Miles with his John Elway Starting Lineup Figure. He also got a Alex Rodrigues and Brodrick got a Jerry Rice and a Lou Gehrig. Add them to Miles already beloved Jackie Robinson and they make for some pretty fun times!

A pretty cute story- because Miles already had a great love for his Jackie Robinson figure/toy, when he saw that Brodrick got a black athlete, Jerry Rice, and he did not, he was pretty jealous. Aparently he has it in his head somehow that black people are the best athletes. Watch any major sports team play and you know why. So crazy how kids get those ideas in their heads at such young ages.

After presents and breakfast I went to bed and didn't really get up all day. Thankfully the kids were happy with their new toys so not too much damage was done.  Brodrick caught the flu on the 23rd and thanks to some doTerra essential oils he got over it by Christmas. I got the flu on Christmas and got feeling better in about a day, but then ended up with a sinus infection and an ear infection. Boy do I have a new found sympathy for my children who have had reccurent ear infections. Ear pain is some of the worst I've experienced. 

Here I am with a fever of 103.3, doing my best to give love and attention to my kids while I fight off the sickness.

For the rest of Christmas break Tim, Amelia, and Miles all passed around the flu. It was no fun to be dealing with all the sickness but we are glad we are past it! It puts our blessings in perspective for sure.

Christmas Taditions

Gingerbread Houses:
December 16th we made gingerbread houses. I learned the hard lesson in years past of collapsed house mid project and opted to hot glue the graham crackers together this year. You heard right. Blasphemy or not, I wasn't in a condition to handle crying/screaming tantrums and chose using the glue over not doing the project at all. This year I also searched to find a special gingerbread frosting that worked more like cement. I had no plans in consuming said houses so I was undeterred when the recipe called for raw eggs. The special frosting worked like a charm. Sadly Brodrick missed out on the fun because he fell asleep early. I see a recurring theme of sleeping when candy is involved. This trend my prove beneficial in the future. The older kids and I had a great time putting together our houses and eating candy in the process.

sticky hands!

Miles LOVES candy canes!

The finished products.

Nativity Story:
Our family usually participates with all of our extended family in acting out the Nativity story at our family Christmas party/get together. It didn't happen this year so we decided to do a version at home with our little family.
On December 18th I printed off this little paper puppet nativity and let the kids color the characters and then we cut them out and mounted them on Popsicle sticks.We had a fun time performing the nativity while Tim read the story from the Bible.

Funny story about Mary- Amelia added eyelashes and bags under Mary's eyes. When I asked her, "Amelia, did you as the lines under her eyes?" Her reply was, "Mom, she JUST HAD A BABY." Apparently she's caught on to my question on how my friends with new infants are sleeping. It was so funny!

Lights on Temple Square:
On December 21st, the Friday before Christmas, we went for a visit to Temple Square! It was freezing! On our way to SLC I called the Texas roundhouse in Sandy and got in queue for their call ahead seating. We were at the temple for less than an hour- keep it short and sweet- then drove back toward home. We walked into Texas Round House and didn't have to wait at all, as soon as I gave them our call ahead number they took us back to our table. It worked well since the kids were saying they were hungry even before we got to SLC.

Meal at a Restaurant:

Eating out at a restaurant is something the kids love but we never do unless grandparents are visiting because it is expensive on a graduate student budget. It was definitely a special treat appropriate for the Christmas season. The children were ANGELS. Seriously, I don't think they have ever behaved so well at a restaurant before. It was wonderful to enjoy great food and each other!