More holiday happenings

What is it about all the December craziness . . . . er, festivities.  Are we all nuts or what???  Somehow we squeeze in school programs, musical performances, Christmas parties, treasured family traditions, gift buying and wrapping, service rendering, treat making, book reading, Christmas movie watching, whole house decorating, and carol singing into one very short month.  It feels like we are scheduled nonstop from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

I really love Christmas - I always have.  When I was little I would cry if the Christmas tree wasn't shaped just right because I wanted it to be perfect, and I loved each and every Christmas decoration in our house. I was so excited for Christmas each year that I started the countdown in August and couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve - and then I would sneak in to see what Santa brought me long before everyone awakened. Even after Dan and I were married I would get really sad when it was time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations, because that meant that the magical Christmas holiday was over for another year.

I still love Christmas in the same way - it is a wonderful time of year. But it is also exhausting now that I'm the mom. Don't tell my kids, but these days when it's time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations, I am relieved. I am happy to return our home to an uncluttered state of normalcy and return our schedule to a manageable level of busy.  Usually by the end of December I am Christmas caroled out (of course, we start listening to carols in October), and I'm ready to welcome January.

Anyway, school is out as of today. So far this month we have read at least 40 Christmas stories under the Christmas tree, delivered all the neighbor/friend gifts which are getting delivered this year, wrapped the presents, and done a fair amount of holiday baking. We have participated in some great service projects, have attended all sorts of performances, and I think I helped in the 1st grade classroom at least 80 times (okay, it was only 6 times, but it seemed like a lot).  We have watched all the classic Christmas movies (and some not so classic ones which really should be dropped from the lineup) . It has all been super fun, but now we are looking forward to some quiet, relaxation, and contemplation in this week before Christmas.

Bring on the holiday and some time to think about the true meaning of Christmas.

A few more images of the past weeks:

Joseph making his masterpiece of a gingerbread house at school.

 

And a new haircut right after school (not technically a Christmas activity, but something to get done, nonetheless).

Delivering neighbor gifts - homemade Lion House rolls and strawberry freezer jam.  We all wore festive Christmas hats except Bailey. And we will  not let her live it down.  Even Brandon (in Ukraine) said via email that he would have proudly worn a Santa hat to make the deliveries.  But, Bailey, we still love you and we know that you just wanted to be the only non-geeky one of the bunch.

Joseph and I attended a super awesome Christmas carnival at his dentist's office.  Seriously. This is the most fun dentist in the history of the world.  There were oodles of fun festivities, including letter writing to Santa, free pictures with Santa, games and prizes, a petting zoo, and a deejay playing music while we ate treats.

 

  And we managed to catch Santa a second time, at the ward Christmas party.

 Joseph has already written at least a thousand letters to Santa.  He is prepared, that boy is.  (Oops - the first picture below is a love letter to me. But I like it, so it's going to stay in this post,)

 

Snuggles

This morning my baby (who will always be my baby, even though he is six) woke up with a bad dream.  He called out to me with a tremulous voice and then gladly ran over to my bed and climbed in.  Dan was already downstairs and Bailey was getting ready for early morning seminary, but I had a few minutes to rest with my Joseph to help him get back to sleep.

As soon as he was lying next to me his breathing slowed and his fears dissipated. Within a minute he was asleep again, but with one foot on my leg to make sure I was still nearby.

I thought about how often this scenario has replayed over the years. When each of the kids were young and they had their "can't sleep" or "scary dream" moments, they have snuggled with us in bed, or I've laid down with them in their bed. Just my proximity calmed them, and they were able to let go and go to sleep.

It's breathtaking how quickly kids grow up. Pretty soon Joseph (like the rest of our kids) will be too "grown up" to need my help to go back to sleep. Or, maybe they do need help, but their worries and concerns are sometimes too big to be calmed by mere proximity to Mom.  I wish I could make all my kid's problems go away as easily as I helped Joseph go back to sleep this morning.

For right now I will enjoy the fact that there is at least one problem I have the power to solve.

Announcing . . . . Belle!

Aubrey auditioned for Beauty and the Beast, a community musical to be performed this spring. She found out yesterday that she received the lead role of Belle!  We are excited for her.

In other musical theater news, last weekend was her Christmas performance with her musical theater group.  They did a review of songs from the musicals White Christmas and Mary Poppins. She did great!  I never have much success getting video to upload on this blog, but I'll try again later today.

I had to use the super zoom lens on my Canon to capture some shots. Because the shutter speed was so low in the dim auditorium (with no flash, of course), I got some . . . . interesting pictures.  But, something is better than nothing.

After the show with Bailey (holding the candy grams we sent her during the performances).

Soccer in the Rain

Soccer season can be a wet experience in Washington. I bet you're surprised, right?  Joseph had a pretty good soccer season. Basically, their team didn't win a lot of games (but at this level they don't technically keep track of the score).  However, they did work on their soccer skills, and treats were always provided after the games. That counts as success in my book.

 

 

Joseph's famous open-mouthed look of concentration:

 The mouth again and again.

Soccer is really about hanging out with buddies.

 Cool balancing moves.

 Half-time merriment:

And treats and trophies. 

Dress up Time

Last month the kids had a lot of "theme" or "spirit" days at school. They had fun.

Joseph's 50s Day (to celebrate the 50th day of school):

 Aubrey's Spirit Week:  50s day

 

 Crazy Hair Day

And Bailey, looking very spirited, on her way to a high school football game (she has come to really enjoy the football games.  It doesn't hurt that they are great social opportunities, and that our football team is really good and took 2nd at the State championship!)

 
And, finally, this isn't technically "dressing up," but it is very spirited.  When we had a day off in November we invited friends to come over for a Just Dance party.  Here are Aubrey and her friend Katelyn.

Leaf squishing

(I just noticed that I never finished this post from November. So, here it is, a little out of order.)

In our neck of the woods you can't really jump into a pile of crunchy leaves, because leaves here are more . . . squishy.  It seems like every fall we get a week or two of heavy rainfall, and then the leaves all come down. We have two big trees in the front which drop a lot of leaves to cover the neighborhood.  This year Joseph was my most helpful leaf raker.  He wanted to rake every day, no matter how cold or wet it was outside. One day he tried to jump into the piles.  It wasn't as fun as I remember leaf pile jumping being because the leaves were so wet that he didn't want to land fully in the pile.


Joseph also thought that using the leaf blower was super duper fun. Bailey was also very happy to help with yard work/leaf cleanup. Probably partly because she is a big fan of fall and winter. She cheers when it starts turning colder and wetter.  (I'm sure Aubrey would have also been a good leaf raker, but it seemed like she was never home when it was light enough to do yard work. She doesn't get home from school until almost 5 p.m., when it is completely dark.)

Menial chores like raking leaves are much more fun when I can do them with my kids.