G is for Gonna Be Christmas Soon

This is going to surprise you, but this month is flying by.

All the Christmas things and the basketball things and just all of it is a giant blur.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that basketball doesn't get shut down. eye roll. 

If the children aren't going to be able to play sports, they will just go home and play on tik tok. 

So pick your poison.

Ugg. I'm so covid fatigued. 

Andrew told Ward Party Santa that he wants a b b gun for Christmas just to hear the santa chuckle and say "You'll shoot your eye out kid".

We always find fun things on our night hikes. The rock snowman was our main treasure this time.

Say hi to the ugliest tree in the world. It put me in the worst mood. It's so scraggly and half the lights are burnt out.

After it was up and decorated, I marched into Costco and bought a new one. 

We transferred the ornaments and I love my new tree. 

Here are this years' ornaments.

When we did baptisms in November, the grounds keeper jumped off his lawn mower and handed us all these hand made ornaments. 

Then Koda ate it. wahhhh. 

The last day of school before winter break was ugly sweater day.

We don't have any ugly sweaters, but I do have this awesome sweater I used to wear all the time when I was Avery's size. It's one of my favorite finds from my thrift store days.

It served as an adorable "ugly sweater" for my middle schooler. 

Her English teacher sent this pic in an email. It snowed for ten minutes so they all went out to enjoy it.

For the record, this was the day that many kids stayed home because nation wide there were threats of school violence stemming from stupid tik tok. 

What a world. 

Ok, there is always a Sunday in December that Avery teaches the best family home evening. 

It's always random, never assigned, and the topic is a surprise.

This week we were sitting in Stake Conference when she asked if she could do FHE tonight. 

The focus was service. She talked all about what and why we serve. Then she had these chain papers ready for the boys. They wrote a small act of kindness that they would do every day leading up to Christmas. They picked their own things they would do. They could go big or small. 

One of Andrew's was "make a chilli dog for someone"

One of Evan's was "take a break today. don't serve anyone" (but then that day he cleaned the whole house for me, so I'm thinking reverse psychology?).

Andrew's first chain on Monday said "massage someone's feet". 

cha ching. 

This year we made gingerbread houses because I had tons of leftover stuff from doing it with the young women. PS I was just released from YW Pres. I have mixed feelings about it.

Evan was SO excited to build his gingerbread house. He said he day dreamed about it all day at school. While Mr. Minkler read a book at the end of the day, he sat there and planned it all in his head. It would have two eves like this and a flat part so that he could sit his Santa and reindeer up there:

Those gum drops are the reindeer. 

I think it's fabulous. 

Andrew put a lot less effort into his house...

....and finished. 

Avery is back there folding laundry because she told me she needs a job, and I told her I need an employee, so we shook hands and she gives me an hour a day where she does whatever I tell her to do (beyond all her regular chores).

This was one day in December when school was cancelled because the power went out.

I was so annoyed. I swear school feels negotiable these days. The kids aren't one bit surprised when they are told school is cancelled. 

I took them to the trampoline zone, and they played for hours. We met a million friends there. 

Merry Christmas!

Ornaments this year were turtle doves.

All month long, Andrew talked about how much he wanted a turtle dove (because of Home Alone 2).

He asked about my turtle dove my mom gave me when I was a kid.

Then one day we were doing homeschool -  making BIRD FEEDERS! - and the package of turtle doves arrived at our door. 

They petted them as if they were real, and named them.

Andrew said, "I can't wait to give my kid a turtle dove when I'm a dad."

Turtle doves represent love and friendship. They always come in pairs: you have one and I have one, so we will always be friends. 

**CHRISTMAS EVE**

Lately Andrew has been turning into a dog. 

It happens if you snap your fingers. 

Then you have to spank his bum to get him back to human form.

Here he is eating his kibble.

Human form. 

Dreaming about Christmas morning. 

Christmas eve is such a fun day! It's sooooo close! The kids were just beside themselves. 

We went on a walk down at BP to pass some time and spend some energy. 

I'm still trying to nail down a Christmas Eve meal - something that's easy, but special.

We had pot roast this year. It still turned out to be a lot of work and a lot of dirty dishes.

I think next year will be soup and sourdough. I always love that meal.

Finally we opened Gma Larsen's PJ gifts. 

There was SO much hugging. 

We sang the Nativity Song, played with Christmas Eve gifts, watched The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,

then FINALLY the kids went to bed. They couldn't wait to go to bed. They lay there squeezing their eyes shut, trying to sleep. 

And then Santa came!

**CHRISTMAS MORNING**

There are so many fun gifts, games to play, things to put together, items to try on, plug in, read, eat. 

I love Christmas Day. It makes the whole crazy month worth it. 

But then I also miss the whole crazy month when it's over.

Here are the handmade gifts the kids made me.

I don't even know how to feel about this gift Jim surprised us with. 

Later we tried out new boots and coats and hoodies in the forest. 

We ended the beautiful day with some cake for Bailey's birthday. 

Taking down Christmas is the best and the worst. 

Each kid came up and told me how much they love Christmas and how much they are sad it's over.  

The Season!

Ok ok I have two seconds free to write about all the fun things we've been up to this season. 

Andrew's concert was so great. He had a speaking part. His little voice is adorable. He turns all the one syllable words into two or three syllables. 

Probably four times a day he asks me what my favorite song is from his concert, and EVERY time I say I don't have a favorite. But that doesn't stop him from asking me the next day.

Right this very second he is upstairs singing "bate bate chocolate"...

Also I just got a text from Mary about our Christmas card...Andrew wrote a note to them saying "Have a private Christmas" and now Robbie is singing "have yourself a private little Christmas."

haha. 

Andrew is truly the weirdest, most delightful child. 

One night out of the blue I felt the urgent need to get the tree up before December was over. 

The kids love doing all the ornament hanging. They follow through to the last ball. 

Jim worked on the outside lights all night. 

He eventually spliced working lights together in three different places.

Night riding season. 

I will never take part in this kind of nonsense. It's sooo cold!

But they say it's super fun. It's what you have to do when the sun goes down at 4pm. 

(Solstice is coming though guys! It's coming!)

The first weekend of December is jam packed with all the holiday fun around here. 

Friday we went to the Santa village. 

Evan wants a bucket full with real (not fake!) Pokemon cards. 

Andrew wants some ninjago legos. 

It's a very specific temple from a very specific part in the ninjago movie.

Later in the week Andrew wisely pointed out...

"So why do we send a letter to Santa and then go across the village and TELL him what we just wrote to him?"

But then he deduced, "probably because he talks to a lot of people and he'll forget."

Between the two boys, there is a lot of explaining Santa's magic. They both love to believe, so they both talk away the contradictions. 

We were fans of the Larsen Cabin before it was cool. haha. 

The Santa this year was just so great! He talked to the kids forever about their Christmas wishes and what they want to be when they grow up.

I know what kind of energy it takes to be this interested when you don't fully understand what the children are talking about (Pokemon), and I appreciated his effort.

Andrew started out by asking "have you seen the Lego Ninjago movie?" and then he described the temple of the ultimate, ultimate weapon that he wants. 

Evan loves traditions. Every time we are in the middle of a tradition he talks about how it's a tradition and that he loves traditions and we can't skimp on traditions. 

Our last cabin of the night is always the church. Andrew asked if those candles are a menorah? 

And do we ever get to celebrate Hanukkah? 

The very next night was Blaine's Christmas tree lighting. We have never done this before and it was so fun! It's a new tradition!

But it was extra fun because we were there with the Blacks. 

This particular Christmas tree is made out of crab pots. 

They are unclaimed pots people leave in the water, so the city makes them into a tree. 

Here is the real tree. 

Then we walked around our little town and ate free cookies and cotton candy. 

This store front in downtown Blaine is so old school. It reminds me of something...JC Penny from my childhood on downtown Maine maybe? 

Then we left the kids with babysitters and went out to eat. 

There was more tree lighting and festivities outside this restaurant. We were so saturated in the Christmas mood by the end of the weekend. 

We finally got some furniture! It feels so nice. 

Another TRADITION!

Mint making. 

This is a good one because it takes like a half hour from start to finish and the kids do most of the work. 

Introducing the ornaments of 2019. 

Another tradition Evan loves. 

And finally, 

yesterday we spent all afternoon at the site of the new library because Bailey put on a bake sale there to raise funds. She raised over 2000$!

The kids ran around for hours, eating cookies and throwing rocks in the bay. 

This month is all so busy and wonderful and awful and stressful and exciting. It's all the things and it goes so so fast. My goal is to be all the way done with all the things by Wednesday and then hopefully I can just relax and enjoy.