Christmas!

CHRISTMAS EVE!

All the prep and deciding and planning comes to an end. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are my favorite. 

Jim took his parents and Evan flying on Christmas Eve. They did a touch and go on Orcas Island. 

Andrew kept wrapping himself into a present using his shirt and a scarf and a snake. He would hand me a tag that said "To Mom open on Christmas Eve".

I would unwrap him and act surprised. 

For dinner this year I got a chicken pot pie from Costco. I loved that I didn't have to cook. It was pretty good. I give it a B+ (the plus due to the ease factor). 

Creme brûlée again. 

We opened pajamas,

we sang The Nativity Song,

the kids were crazy with excitement. 

Around 9:00 we told the kids it's time for bed and they were sooo excited to go to bed. They literally cheered and ran to bed and lay still and quiet. 

As I was tucking them in, Andrew gave me a kiss on the cheek. He NEVER kisses me. So this was a real treat. 

Today he said to me "you know that Christmas Eve kiss?" 

"yes"

"well..." and then he took my cheek and wiped it off. I'm so mad about that. 

The next morning Avery said she tried and tried to sleep, but it didn't happen until 3:00. Yikes. What torture. 

Everything is ready!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Jim goes down and makes sure Santa came, making comments like "ooh cool!".

It makes the kids crazy. 

Then he says "come on down!" and they scream and jump around and say thank you. 

They unwrap and ooh and ahh. 

This year was extra extra. 

We had them open the Nintendo last. Whenever they were about to open it, Jim would say, "eh don't open that yet. It's boring"

and they were NOT expecting a Nintendo, and they FREAKED out. 

It's such fun. 

Truth! I love the Christmas morning effect. I'm so thankful we live in a place that we can indulge in such unnecessary excess for a day. 

The weather was awesome...the kids were able to go out in the neighborhood and show off their treasures. 

Legos allll day. Allll over the table. 

Moms are in charge of getting us to Christmas day, but the day of, the Dad is in charge of setting up all the things. Jim had to set up so many accounts and figure out all the gadgets. We had so many things charging in chargers this Christmas. Every charger, every plug: UFOs, my vacuum, motorcycle, race cars, and on and on. It was a charge-y morning. 

Jim got his dad an iPad, so they spent the morning working on it. 

MY FAVORITE thing about this Christmas was all the handmade gifts from Andrew. 

This was to Avery:

It was an instruction booklet about how to fix a hoverboard. 

This was to me:

A non-fiction booklet about Blu-charzard. It told all about the body parts of the Pokemon. 

(here is the descriptive back)

This is for Jim. I LOVE the story of how mountain biking was invented - inspired by an owl. 

Once upon a time there was a mom named Kelli. She had three babys named Avery Evan and last but not least Andrew. 

And there was a dad named Jim. 

He was going outside and there was a squirrel. 

And he shouted SHOU!

And then he saw an owl spin its feet around and he got an idea. 

So he maked a bike. 

And saw a mountain with a big smile. 

They talked to each other then there was more people with mountain bikes so they were gonna have a mountain bike race. 

On your marks get set go!

So they were racing really fast...

(and on the next page)

and Jim was the winner. 

I knew that Andrew "made" gifts for us all.

 I was annoyed when he wanted to wrap them, (I'm the worst mom ever!), but I didn't know what they all said. 

So on Christmas morning when I read them, I was just delighted. 

This is Evan's. It's an Amazon book about all the possibilities of buying Pokemon on Amazon. 

Look at this glorious mess! I love it so much. 

These two played a make believe story with all their new lego figs. Lego movie and Ninjago characters had a mash up. 

It's sad when the day is over. 

It's sad when you start to tidy up the glorious mess. 

The next morning Jim and Joe went on a bike ride, and I tagged along as the third wheel and went for a run. 

I haven't been up in the forest the entire month of December! It felt so glorious to be back. 

That evening we went to Olive Garden. 

I love when they play together. 

Andrew finished his Temple of Fragile Foundations on Post Christmas Eve. 

December!

Here is all the fun and busy things we did all month:

1. We had a Grinch night. We watched a conference talk where they quoted the Grinch, then we had Grinch drinks and read the book. 

Andrew read it to me a few times more throughout the month. The older I get, the more this story resonates with me. I am 85% the Grinch most of December, but there is always a moment of redemption sometime in the month where I remember how lovely and magical Christmas can be. 

My kids are the reason for both my Grinchness AND my redemption. 

One day Andrew said "you know what I love about Christmas? Being together with my family."

And truly, the whole season is about tradition and memories and nostalgia. Name another time of the year where we haul out boxes of stuff and look at trinkets we've kept from our childhood. 

The memories of Christmas from when I was a kid are so fun and rich and delicious. 

I had NO idea how much pressure and stress is on moms' shoulders to make Christmas happen. It's fun, but it's also just A LOT. 

So, I guess I'm saying "BRAVO to my mom for all the glorious Christmases from my childhood. You hid your stress well."

I don't hide my stress so easily. But this year was actually a good December. The kids have been trained up well to NOT PLAY WITH THE DECORATIONS. 

For some reason nothing annoys me more. haha. 

I didn't have to throw any presents out the front door because of fighting,

I didn't have to tear down decor and put it on a high shelf. 

2. Remember Andrew's first round of school pictures? 

We got retakes and:

They aren't better. 

haha oh well. 

I subbed a few times this month in my kids' classrooms. 

One day in Avery's class, someone started playing music (during a break), so I started dancing...and she got SO embarrassed.

But then she told me she secretly likes it. 

3. Evan was a flag scout the VERY LAST PACK MEETING EVER. 

I feel so relieved. I can't keep track of all those darn trinkets that he only cares about for two seconds and then leaves all over the house. 

4. Our friend gave us this chocolate tree to decorate that was just fine and dandy, but I do not like decorating candy with lots of candy. (ahem gingerbread houses)

5. Ward Party. 

I love that they take the most busy people in the ward and have them be in charge of throwing a party for the rest of the people. HOWEVER, because all of our best friends are also in leadership, the pre party set up and the post party clean up are actually the REAL party. 

PS I was in charge of the salad and I have 7 extra bottles of salad dressing. 

6. Christmas Sunday outfits. 

7. Andrew got this card in the mail. 

We all died laughing. 

Jessica is the one who sent it. She's so funny. 

8. Grandma and Grandpa got here Monday!

10. Christmas Eve Eve Avery slept by the tree (because G and G are in her room). 

11. Avery's friends had a gift exchange. They came up with the idea like two seconds before Christmas day. 

The week leading up to Christmas, every time I would go to the grocery store, I swore "I'm not going to a store again until after Christmas!" but then I ended up going like three more times before Christmas. Including the time I had to stop in and get a gift for one of these yayhoos.