Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

The boys were out playing basketball, and the mailman drove up to deliver stuff, got out, and played 2v2  with them for a while. ha! It was awesome. 

The day before we had left him some cookies in the mailbox. I assume that's legal? 

The Dicksons came over and we took a walk through the forest like old times. 

Our Christmas Eve evening is always pretty low key. We have a few traditions:

Dinner, open pajamas from G and G Larsen, be hyper and silly,

watch Best Christmas Pageant Ever, eat Christmas pavlova. 

The kids open gifts they got for each other so that they aren't "over shadowed" on Christmas day. They have fun playing with the dollar store garbage they got for each other. haha It's so fun. 

This is the first Christmas that ALL the kids admitted to not believing in Santa. 

It's such a weird shift to big kid Christmas. It's fine, just different. 

We tucked them in and got to work. They knew they couldn't come downstairs because Santa's workshop was in session. 

They are still so so excited. Andrew can't hardly handle it. 

They got around 4 or 5 hours of sleep. That just breaks my heart. 

I love it. I really do. 

But I also woke up in a sweat worried that somehow I would disappoint them. It's the most stupid worry, and I know it. I can't fully explain what my worry is - I think it has to do with why I don't like throwing a party - I just don't want to promise a good time, and then have that expectation unmet. 

It makes no sense. I feel like it's a thing I need to get a grip on because 

A. they are way spoiled rotten

B. it is a stupid waste of energy

I don't even know why I'm typing about it because the day was beautiful and fun and the kids were so thankful and we had such a blast together all day. 

One of the best things is when Koda opens her presents. She loves them. 

We are also going to Disneyland soon. It's been a while since we went on a "just us" family vacation. 

This is such a hit. He is so good at drums! 

You know the "yearbook" set up in his room? Four yearbooks he has spread out for a practice drum set? 

Well this sounds similar to that unless you have those headphones on. With the headphones on it sounds like the legit drum set. Who is the genius that invented this?

We are a few days into "Post Christmas" and it's just my favorite time of our lives. We eat and play and play and eat. 

We have played three rounds of Ticket to Ride

watched a million episodes of Clarence - the kids just purchased season one and are binging it start to finish. I love that show

parallel build Legos

paint my toenails

try and learn a Zelda song on the Ocarina

Jim has built/hung a few dozen things

gone to the beach to hunt for rocks to spin in our new rock polisher

text with all my family about their Christmases 

Andrew's hands smelled like literal poop after handling this "pretty" dead crab. 

I just treasure these days in my heart. They are the best ever. 

 

Solstice

Here are the rocks me and Roxanne packed out from Point Whitehorn,  3/4 mile hike to the car. It was hard! haha 

But we did it on purpose for a challenge, because we drove past miles of beach and rocks we could have used for the workout of climbing up and out with "weighted vests" on. 

We were going to have our party on actual Solstice day as usual, but a few days before, Cooper broke his ankle in 3 places during wrestling and had to have surgery! 

So we moved the party to Monday so that the Blacks wouldn't miss it.

Which means we had our Solstice party on Christmas Adam. 

There were a lot of giant teenagers at our party.

Also, per tradition, La Gloria doesn't know my order when Jim goes to pick it up. 

This year they got it very very wrong and gave us 3 pounds of tamales instead of beans and chicken. 

Just whattt everrrr. 

It doesn't matter because guess what? NO MATTER WHAT sun is coming back to us, so I don't care about what food is served at my party. 

 

Tis the Season

I know I start every blog post with some iteration of "this went too fast",

but for real Christmas season went so so fast. I think because it started later (with Thanksgiving being later this year), but we were not one bit ready to give up the magic. 

Our number one activity we did was watch Christmas movies together in our new living room on our new big couch. We have movies left that we didn't get to. Why does it have to go so fast?

Anyway, this was us putting up the tree. These are the kids' ornaments this year. I got them from IKEA from one of the million times we have been to IKEA lately. 

One night Eldar Christofferson came to Everette to speak to the youth, so we dropped the youth off, then went to a hockey game. 

This month has been pretty mild, but also kind of windy and LOTS of KING tide. 

Lots of debris is flung on roads from waves reaching up and over. 

We made peppermints and watched Charlie Brown.

Ward Party

Probably my favorite thing of the season was this shadow nativity. 

Last year Nettie did it in her ward. If you watch the video of it, you are immediately inspired. 

I really wanted to do it for our ward, so about in October when we were neck deep in IKEA boxes/cardboard, I started cutting out props and getting the ball rolling. 

We practiced/prepped with the youth for three Wednesdays. They were surprisingly into it. 

I had Jacob Meaker sing and play guitar for it (he's the guy who also built my shower). 

The day of the ward party, everyone performed flawlessly and it was so so great. 

There is something so special about this rendition of the nativity. 

So many people told me how affected they were by it. 

The best part is that my kids, including Andrew, are so excited about doing it next year. They are already declaring what part they get to be. 

I think the anonymousness of it makes them brave,

but it also creates an artistic space so that the audience can fill in their own blanks. 

It's just so awesome. I loved it. 

All month, the three of us got together on "Fri-yay" to hang out. 

Some days we are on trails, but this day we ate good food instead. 

Basketball has been a big part of this season, and I love it. 

Evan "started" this game and played a lot. 

One of the dress up days at school, these two wore the same pajamas. 

It was on accident, and Evan allllmost went upstairs to change,  but I insisted they keep matching.

A girl at school asked Avery if he is her boyfriend? haha She made sure to clarify "HE'S MY BROTHER".

What a cute couple. 

Another dress up day was "family picture" and all of Avery's friends matched outfits. 

At a white elephant exchange for youth activity, Evan reeeeeaaaaallly wanted the dart board they brought from the dollar store, but then he ended up getting this even better dart board someone else brought!

Evan made sure to have the candles burning every night during scriptures. 

Fri-yay:

This day we brought backpacks and packed out big beach rocks for our solstice fire ring. 

Look how cute they are in their new Christmas outfits! Andrew has finally entered the button shirt/tie stage of church. 

He doesn't know how to smile and look at a camera though.

Last week Avery gave a talk, and the youth sang O Holy Night,

this week Andrew and the primary sang "If I Were There".

G is for First Game

I love having a professional photographer's son on the team!

Evan didn't think he would get any playing time, but he played at least half the game and scored twice!