That Tuesday was E's Christmas choral concert. It was so nice to hear so much beautiful, religious, Christmas music. She even got a speaking part in the concert as well.
That Friday while E was off a her Thespian Conference, I celebrated another birthday. I was woken up to two of my children's very excited faces. B gave me a DVD with all kinds of cheesy Christmas movies, which I love! M, E and T went in together and gave me a Kindle Fire for my combined birthday/Christmas present. I was totally surprised and I LOVE it!! It is basically an iPad with all of the functionality of my Kindle. It is attached to my hip at all times. That night T took me out to dinner. It was a nice relaxing, fun day.
That Saturday we had our ward Christmas party, Brunch in Bethlehem. They had a full nativity, good food and finished the activity with Santa in the North Pole. B even sang Silent Night with all the primary children. It was perfect blend of the spiritual side of Christmas with the fun of Santa.
Following our breakfast, T and B headed off to our community's Christmas party. The coolest thing about this was that Santa and Mrs. Claus came riding in on a fire truck. This was not to be missed by B! Two of her favorite things together. She did make the comment to me that all of these Santa's weren't the real ones, they were just daddy's dressed up. I asked her why she thought that and she said that Santa didn't have time to ride in fire trucks and go to church parties! She is a smart one.
B had a Christmas program at her school. She got to dress up and sing Away in a Manger and do a finger play about Christmas trees. It was super cute!
The last day of school was pretty busy. I picked E up from school and went to see M at his middle school, be part of a flash mob. It was fun to see him dance with the group.
That night was my annual Holiday Piano Workshop and Recital. I have all my students come to my house for dinner, learning games and a student only recital. B is now my student and was so excited to be a part of it all. She played Up on the Housetop and did a great job!
The next night we made our annual Christmas movie with our friends. I don't have any pictures of this, but we do have a DVD copy of it. This year's theme was A Busted Carol, basically Ghostbusters meets A Christmas Carol.
On Saturday night T and I had a Christmas party. We haven't had one for six years. Hmm, that coincides perfectly with B joining our family. We invited all of our old friends and had a great, if not more mellow time. I guess age really does slow a person down.
On Monday the kids went over to my parent's house with T to make gingerbread. I would say a house, but this year, it definitely was not that. They decided to make a Hunger Games themed one. It was pretty funny, especially with the whole, May the odds be ever in your Flavor!
For fun and because my niece K is here, my mom decided to treat all the big kids to skiing for the day. They hadn't gone before (sad, since we live in the mountains), so they took a ski school class and had fun. Grandpa drove them up and sat in the lodge while they skied. While the bigger kids were gone, the little ones went to Firehouse Subs and Build a Bear with Nanna (my sister and I tagged along too!). Those are two of B's favorite places, so she was thrilled. She ended up with a dog named Chocolate.
Another family tradition is to celebrate Christmas Adam. That is the day before Christmas Eve. We make sure the house is totally cleaned up. We order Beaujo's Pizza and watch all three of the Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen. This year we had my niece come over and celebrate it with us.
Christmas Eve is probably my favorite part of the season. We gather together as a family with my sister's family and my parents, and even my niece this year. We have a delicious meal then have a nativity program.
It was nice for my girls this year because they didn't have to be Mary. When you are so outnumbered by boys, it kind of leaves little choices in the roles. In fact this year everyone got to play only one part. E was the angel, B a shepherd, M was still Joseph. My three nephews were the three wise men and my niece was Mary. My dad was the narrator and the rest of us were innkeepers and camera crew. We even had only the kids playing the music. E played her flute, M played his guitar and B played the piano. It was great to see all the talent.
Next we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and have cake. This year I went the easy route and got mini cupcakes. I topped them with chocolate nativity pieces. This was the perfect size, since everyone was so full from dinner. After that we moved on to our final part of the night...the pajama hunt. My sister handled that this year and the kids had to do an Amazing Race to earn their jammies.
We finish the night by driving around looking at Christmas lights and then setting out the cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer. T and I set up for Christmas, then watch the beautiful movie, The Nativity. It is a perfect end to a perfect day.
Christmas day was amazing. There were so many great gifts from Santa, the Wise Men, and all the family. We even got to go to church for a shorter program. After church we went to my parents to open all their incredible gifts. This year Christmas was a little different because we headed to the airport and flew to California for T's brother's wedding.
The first day we spent just hanging out with our good friends T and J. It was so nice to be somewhere much warmer. We even hit the beach, just cause we could!
The next day we went to Disneyland. It was so beautiful to see it all decked out for Christmas! We especially liked the new Star Tours (E ended up being the rebel spy)! B was finally old enough and brave enough to go on some big rides. It was a crazy crowded and it made the rides kind of hard to go on, but we still managed to have fun.
The next day we began our drive up to Sacramento. We decided to divide up the drive by stopping in Santa Barbara. It was beautiful, and the kids loved being where 'Pysche' takes place.
The next day we stopped and had a late lunch with some friends of ours from B's travel group to China. We haven't seen them since then. It was nice to meet up with another family and reminisce.
We met up with T's family that night at the hotel in Rancho Cordova. It was fun to catch up and see everyone before the big event the next day. R and J got married in the Sacramento temple. It was a beautiful wedding despite the weather. They are so happy and it was great to see. The reception was in Santa Rosa and was very pretty. We did a lot of driving this day, but it was so worth it to be part of this special day.
New Year's Eve was spent recovering from the long drive down the night before. We napped and then hung out, ate munchies, watched movies and the ball drop with T and J's family. J took the big kids and T to a local fun park the next day and they rode cars, did bumper boats and mini golf. It was a quiet, fun way to start the New Year.
2011 was an incredible year full of joy and heartache. We have all grown and stretched. It went so very fast that I almost feel time is slipping through our fingers. I'm grateful to be a part of this family and to have a new year full of possibilities ahead of us.
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