Holiday Goings-On

Whew! We have been very busy around here, but I am going to try and give an abbreviated version of what we have been doing- while Emme is sitting on my lap! Yikes!

Here is cutie Emme the Sunday after we put up the tree. Never again will I try to decorate with all the kids at home. We worked for two days to have the whole house all clean, so that we could have a fun day of decorating and then make cookies. But it was terrible!! Alex kept going behind me and undoing everything and the other kids were pulling out everything from the boxes. I was rather cranky the whole time and have decided that it would be a nicer memory for the kids to come home from school and be all excited that Mom decorated while they were gone. Rather than, "I remember decorating with my Mom every year. And she was always so mad!" Lesson learned. Sometimes your "vision" has to be re-adjusted for reality.

Another lesson- Thanksgiving Eve. After decorating, the next day we were going to ring in the holidays with a Christmas movie and popcorn and hot chocolate. I wanted it all to be so nice and the house all clean, especially since the next day everyone was coming to our house for Thanksgiving. By the end of the day, I felt overwhelmed and the house was a mess! I felt so discouraged, that once again, no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't what I wanted it to be. But, I walked away from all the mess, we pulled the couch up close and Danny made a fire, we had hot chocolate and popcorn and watched Mickey's Christmas Carol. And guess what? It was so fun! In fact, afterwards Tristan kept saying, "That was so fun!!" The lesson learned this time- just because it isn't perfect to you, doesn't mean it isn't wonderful to the kids. They really weren't worried about the sink of dishes anyway.

So here is a picture of us as we got under way.

Alex being Santa for Alaina. He wanted people to sit on his lap so badly. And Alaina really took it seriously and thought about it when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas.

Thanksgiving was super fun, relaxed and pleasant. Lots of food, lots of talking, afterwards we watched Jeopardy episodes and laid around. Haley and Dallin came for dessert, and we were all deliciously lazy.

 

See how big Irelyn is? I am going to put on pictures of her right away. She is changing so fast!! 

Ward Christmas Chalet- Emme and Josh hugging beforehand. The best part of the Chalet was- I wasn't in charge of anything. And I was so glad. :)

Christmas party at the Gables. Alex cornered Santa and sang Christmas songs to him. Santa was very accommodating and Alex was very happy.
Their party was great and I wish I had gotten more pictures! Lots of delicious food and singers and Santa and great decorations. I was grateful that we got to go.

Silly Alex. He found a way to combine his two favorite holidays, Halloween and Christmas.

 The kids had over two weeks off for Christmas. They don't go back until this Tuesday. It is really hard to take all 5 kids places by themselves, but we can't just stay at home all the time! So I tried to take them all to the mall to see Santa. It was..okay.... until the end, when I swore I would never take them all somewhere by myself again! But, we did see Santa! (Tristan is behind the poinsettias.) 

Well, this takes us to Christmas. I will stop for now so that you can breathe. But brace yourself, Christmas pics to come soon!! I know you can hardly wait!!