Happy Christmas

Jeff and I didn't make it to bed until around 2:30 in the am. That is a record around here for being up so late. So we were very grateful when the kids didn't get up until about 9:00! Fortunately Santa made it to our house and boy did he come through!

I just have to say this because I find it very ironic (or ironical - that's for you Andrea!) that Neil Diamond, a Jewish man, is singing Christmas carols. Yes I do listen to Neil Diamond, yes I do own his Chrismas CD, and yes I even went to his concert years ago and had a great time - remember Harm? And I have listened to his Christmas CD in years past, but for some reason when Jeff went to put his cd in to listen to as we opened gifts, I couldn't do it! It just didn't make the cut. I knew he didn't really mean or believe those words when he sang those songs. Is that totally crazy? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, the girls had a great time opening their gifts and helping Sarah with hers. They pretty much got everything they asked Santa for, so they were quite happy. I asked them what their favorite thing was that they got and they really couldn't pick just one.

The rest of the day was relaxing and fun. I have to admit that I was somewhat torn. I would have loved to have been with our families, but the other part of me liked it being just the five of us at home. We had no where to be, no errands to run and nothing to do other than enjoy the day and be together. We don't get many days like that so I really was happy to have this one. We could have used a little snow - but I guess those in Utah got to enjoy that instead!

So this is Christmas......and what have you done?
I have seen what matters most. I have watched my children believe in and feel the magic of Christmas - something I still believe in and feel too. I have felt the Christmas spirit and hope I can keep it all year through.

In the words of John Lennon:
And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun.
The near and the dear one, the old and the young.
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Let's hope it's a good one without any fears.

Christmas Eve

Since we weren't going to Salt Lake to be with family or St. Louis to be the Blairs for Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve with our other family the Browns. We all love spending time with them. The girls especially. Amy is our favorite kidsitter (can't call it babysitting to Emi and Ada - "because we're not babies!"). She is so great with the girls and they adore her. The girls even love hanging out with the three boys, Jason, Stephen and Mark. It's like having their cousins right around the corner.

We had a fun evening with dinner, lots of treats, stories, music and games. The missionaries serving in our ward also came over, Elder Stanford and Elder McQuinn. After dinner we had a little "program" of stories and singing. Then we played Christmas carols on the hand bells. Emi and Ada were the leaders, choosing which song to play and giving everyone their music. It was quite a show!

After that we played a traditional English game where a prize is wrapped in lots of layers and each layer has something (either a piece of candy or a forefit I think they called it), we played the kids version where each layer had a piece of candy. So you pass the package around the circle while music is playing and when the music stops the person with the package unwraps the top layer and gets whatever is in it. This continues until you get to the prize. Emi and Ada weren't quite sure about this game at first and didn't want to end up with the package. Then once they saw what was going on, they were all for it! I think there were 20-30 layers. It was funny to watch. Ada ended up with the prize, a "Cars" theme ball.

The Brown's have a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve and it's always the same thing. They included each of us in their tradition, so we were each given a present to unwrap - new pajamas! We usually let the girls choose one present to open Christmas Eve as well, but since I hadn't wrapped anything yet, gratefully this got to take it's place!

Sadly after that it was time to go. "Santa" had lots to do! Like I said, I hadn't wrapped a single thing and the girls were all wound up - so I knew it was going to be a late one trying to get them in bed and asleep, wrapping presents and then playing Santa.

I'm so grateful to the Browns and all they do for us. Thanks Paul, Alison, Amy, Jason, Stephen, Mark for being our family and letting us spend a wonderful Christmas Eve with you! Love you guys!

Salon Emi & Ada

Last night the girls "invited" (more like forced) Jeff to come to their "Salon" for a manicure, haircut and make up. Sorry Jeff that's what you get when you live with 4 girls! HE HE HE

Lucky for him it was only pretend make-up. Can you just imagine what he would look like if it were real?

By the way - "You look maaarvalous!" (insert Billy Crystal voice here)

Note to self.......

Don't order your Christmas cards at 11:30 and night when you are REALLY tired!

Don't get me wrong, I love the picture I of the girls I put on our card, but I was experimenting with different tones of black and white and thought it looked okay when it was on the computer. I was too tired to really worry about it any more and wanted to get cards off my to do list - so I ordered them. But then when I got the cards, they didn't look quite like what I thought they did when I ordered them. The color reminds me of one of those western pictures you get at Lagoon! (You'll see what I mean when you get our card)

This is the one on the card:

See it looks okay - maybe it's the card I chose or can I blame Costco for the darker tone on the card?

Here is the color version - should have gone with that!

Oh well, next year hopefully I'll be more on top of it - here's to hoping anyway!

Nothing is sacred!

Not at our house anyway! This morning I saw my window of opportunity to shower and get ready for the day with little or no interruptions. Sarah was getting sleepy and the girls were down eating their breakfast - so I thought! So I put Sarah on our bed hoping she would fall asleep while I showered and got ready. Shower accomplished! I came out of my bathroom to find this:

The girls decided to have a dress up moment with my "unmentionables" with their sister! And yes, that is a Seasame Street blanket on our bed! Don't mock - it's freezing here! Besides I love it, some things you just don't grow out of!

My brother....

For the last 2 years I have put together a family calendar for my side of the family and we are doing it again this year. My siblings send me pictures to put on the calendar and my brother Mike emailed some to me and I really didn't look at them until today. I opened up this one and of course it made me laugh - but more that it usually would have. I'm always up for a good laugh, and for the last few days I've really needed one and this was it.

Thanks Mike for always making me laugh!

Hope it make you laugh too. In the wise words of Grandma Hinckley "...The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."

Someday I hope to be half the woman she is and was. But for today I'm going to try to laugh a little more!

The dreaded family photo!

I usually just take pictures of the kids for our Christmas cards since Emi and Ada aren't very cooperative with any one else taking their picture besides me. So needless to say I end up in very few photos with them. But they have become comfortable with my friend Alison taking their picture and agreed to let her take our family picture.

So we got all ready. I was even having a semi good hair day! Everything seemed to be working out as plannded. I thought this will be great I can get one more thing crossed off my to do list (yes I have turned into my mother and I make lists!)

So Alison came and started taking pictures. We'll they just didn't seem to be turning out quite right. She couldn't figure out why, she was worried that her camera was needed to be fixed! So we tried some others. It didn't take long before Sarah was done and so were Emi and Ada. So we stopped and Alison said she would put them on a cd and we could look and see how they turned out.

So she gave me the cd on Saturday and she figured out what the problem was with her camera. When she took it out she accidentally hit the focus to manual from automatic! We got a good laugh out of it, because very few of them turned out and now we know why!

Christmas card pictures - back on the list.

Here is one that I think turned out quite cute of just the girls!