Brandon's welcome home party

From March until July last year we were very busy. Every day was scheduled tight and we jumped from one big event/celebration to another. The pace was most intense from the time Brandon returned from Ukraine in April until we dropped him off at BYU at the end of June. In that period of time we celebrated a baptism, a missionary homecoming, had company in town, transported Aubrey to multiple rehearsals and then watched her perform in the play Little Women in Portland, celebrated Bailey's 16th birthday with several parties and a short trip, and Dan, Brandon and I traveled to church history sites in Ohio and NY. In the midst of this frenzied fun we realized that we hadn't held a missionary welcome home open house for Brandon. He expressed interest in having a chance to share pictures and details of his mission with friends and ward members.

So, we found (literally) the only open weekend day - May 26th -  and invited 20 or so families to stop by our home on a Sunday evening.  We didn't expect that all 20 families would show up, but everyone we invited was able to come, and more friends came after hearing about it via word of mouth.

Brandon wanted to share some of the food native to Ukraine, so after church we started cooking a LOT of food. If life hadn't been so frantic, I could have done a better job of prepping and planning ahead of time. As it was, we grabbed a few things at a European market the night before and made the rest of the things from scratch on Sunday, using recipes we found online.

First we made about 60 blin (crepes or thin pancakes) and a big pan of mashed potatoes and shredded chicken.  We we made a few authentic Ukrainian sauces (including one with dill- yum). We also made (and bought) Ukrainian cookies and goodies and a big pot of borscht. We cooked up the handmade pierogi (pasta stuffed with mashed potatoes and meat) we had purchased.  Brandon wrote out explanations of the food which we posted on the table.

 
 And then the people started coming.  Oh wow - did they come! About 70 people total.

 It was impossible to even move in our kitchen and family room. We needed a house twice the size.

We had to create on "overflow" area in the living room where people could hang out and visit while they waited for their turn to eat and listen to Brandon's presentation. Dan answered the door and entertained them while I tried to keep the kitchen stocked.

 This picture doesn't adequately show it, but we had visitor's cars parked all the way down the street.

 Brandon displayed some of the Russian and Ukrainian items he brought home

 and showed pictures from his mission on the TV in the family room.

We realized too late that the crowd was so large that we should have had him limit the number of pictures he showed/discussed to allow more people to cycle into the family room for the presentation.   

I like hosting parties, but I have never tried to do something like this, where I needed to keep food hot for over an hour. It was basically impossible without any special warming pans, etc.  So I spent the entire party re-heating food and adding more food to the table.  That was a little hectic - I won't lie. I wish it had been possible to enjoy the presentation and visit with the friends, but oh well . . . . . 

What did the kids do during the party?  Whatever they wanted. They loved the fact that all Sunday "rules" were out the window and they raced around the house and yard with wild abandon.  They all had a great time hanging out with friends.  

 

It was a crazy and wonderful night. I would do it again, but not for a while, please.

Joseph's Baptism

Still catching up on all the awesome things that happened earlier this year . . .

This cute boy

 

was baptized on May 11, 2013 by his much-loved older brother Brandon

 
 Who had returned from a mission in Ukraine just 11 days prior.

It was a wonderful day to celebrate our precious boy's decision to covenant with his Heavenly Father through the ordinance of baptism.

We were lucky to have both sets of grandparents visiting with us. (They were able to enjoy the baptism on Saturday and Brandon's homecoming talk in church on Sunday).

We are so pleased with Joseph and so privileged to be his parents. And we appreciate all the family and friends who celebrated his special day with us.

 
 
 

Our Christmas Favorites - for the record

Christmas Books

 have always played a big role in our holiday traditions.  In the first few years of our marriage I started collecting a new Christmas book every year and some years I couldn't help but buy more than one.  We display some of our favorite books under our Christmas tree every year and now we have an "overflow" area in two baskets next to the tree.

Everyone has their favorite books:  

Joseph - Auntie Claus (all three in the series)

Aubrey - The Three Trees

Bailey -The Christmas Orange
Me -It's so hard to choose, but a few of my favorites are The Three Trees, Auntie Claus, How Santa Got His Job, and Mary, Did You Know

Dan - The Christmas Train

Christmas 1996 - I was pregnant with Bailey and confined to bedrest. Brandon (age 4) and I read a lot of stories that year.

Christmas book reading in 2000 - Brandon age 8, Bailey age 3, Aubrey 9 months

Music 
is a big deal in the Porter household, and this tradition is definitely influenced by Dan. Our awesome music collection is loaded on the computer. The kids are experts at making playlists for every occasion. Bailey takes Christmas music very seriously and has rules for when we can start (and stop) listening to the tunes. She has sifted through almost 1,000 Christmas songs we own and has created a perfect playlist for our Christmas holiday.  Once again, it's hard to choose a favorite, but we tried:
Me - O Holy Night and The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole version)
Aubrey - When Christmas Comes to Town (from the Polar Express)
Bailey- any Christmas song sung by Michael Buble
Dan - Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time; Still, Still, Still
Joseph - Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Justin Bieber version) and Believe (Josh Groban)

Bailey's itunes playlist of 213 favorite Christmas songs

Christmas Movies 
are the best! We watch a long list of movies every Christmas season. Our faves:
          Aubrey, Joseph, and Bailey all like "The Year Without a Santa Claus."
Me - "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Year Without a Santa Claus."  "Frosty the Snowman" also.
 Dan: "A Christmas Carol" all versions
      

                                            
                                            Decorations 

have been simplified over the years, but there are still some must-dos.  A few of our favorites: 

Me - my nativity collection from around the world and the advent calendar my sister Kara made us for a gift years ago. (She gives such thoughtful gifts.)

Aubrey - the Christmas tree

Joseph -  the Christmas tree

Bailey - colored (definitely not colored) Christmas lights 

Dan- colored (definitely not white) Christmas lights

(This is why we bought an artificial tree this year which can switch between white and colored lights. Now there is truly peace in the family)

Traditions

Bailey - decorating the house and setting up the nativities

 Aubrey and Joseph - Christmas Eve sleepover in the bonus room with all the kids, watching Christmas movies until we fall asleep.  

Christmas Eve sleepover 2010- the last time we had Brandon home with us for Christmas Eve!

Tiffany: making Christmas cookies with the kids. I think I like this even more than they do because it reminds me of being a kid and trying to pile as much as frosting and sprinkles as possible onto my cookies.  I also like pulling out all the tree ornaments and remembering the significance of each one. And I love our Christmas Eve nativity play.

Christmas cookie making 2001 with the Ellefsens.  (Awesome bow, Bailey!) Brandon 9, Bailey 4, Aubrey 1

2008 - Joseph (aka Spidey) 3 years old decorating Christmas cookies

Christmas cookie making 2009 - Brandon 16, Bailey 11, Aubrey 9, Joseph (not pictured) 4

Christmas Cookies 2013

How did these kids get so old?

Joseph's maniacal face as he adds as much frosting as possible.  He takes after me . . .

Other random favorites:

Christmas Cards We look forward to them all year (especially Bailey and me) and we tape them all over our cupboards so we can read them again and again. This year we were very sad and felt friendless when few cards came until the third week of December.  Then the flood of cards started, so we feel better.

Pjs all day and Cafe Rio for Christmas Eve Dinner - our homemade version of Cafe Rio is not as good as the real thing, but will do in a pinch. Then we eat leftovers all day on Christmas, along with plenty of chocolate. And we never change out of our pjs on Christmas day.  I guess the year pictured below (2009) we had ham instead of Cafe Rio, but we were definitely in our pjs for Christmas dinner.

Neighbor Gifts Giving and receiving. We really like having an assortment of treats on the counter at all times the last few weeks of December. I mean, what is there not to love about that?

this is what we handed out this year

 

Watching the kids perform in Christmas concerts and plays - I really love this. I get choked up every year when the audience is invited to sing along for the closing song at the VSAA Christmas concert.  I don't have a picture of that event, but I do have a photo of Aubrey's Acapella group performing at Barnes & Noble. Aubrey sang a beautiful duet.

 
Joseph was in the choir for the ward Christmas party.

 And Bailey performed in the play that night. Ask her how much she enjoyed that . .

Wearing comfy pjs to elementary school - who knew that pjs and a robe would be acceptable attire for school (and that they would coordinate so well with the Converse shoes)?  Joseph's entire school had pj day  today. I wish that pjs were appropriate attire for the errands I need to run!

Helping out in the elementary school classroom at Christmastime - The enthusiasm of the kids is infectious.

Dec 2013 - helping Joseph and his classmates make yummy gingerbread houses.

We love Christmas - everything about it!