Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We truly hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  We love this time of year to have more family time with each other and our extended family.  It has been yet another busy December, but when is December ever boring?  Enjoy the pictures, and if you have the time, my ramblings about our latest happenings.

In my last blog post I mentioned that Lee and I went to his work party and had a wonderful date thanks to my friend Kristi who babysat for us!


Elden playing with kid nativity set.


One night the kids opened some "initial" ornaments for them from my mom.  C for Clark, H for Haley etc. Thanks Mom!






It was a night everyone wanted to wear a parent shirt. Sorry Elden that we did let you wear one of daddy's shirts.


For Family Home Evening last week we went caroling with some friends in our ward.  Afterward we went to the Lykins' house for treats and mingling.  Thanks to the Lykins family!  We had a great time!  Shanna found some dress clothes. 


Shanna with one of her friends from her mommy co-op pre-school class.




My brother Daniel and his wife Amy and his family came for Christmas.  We are having a great time with them!  The first full day that they were here Daniel set up the Wii.  The kids were pretty excited.  We don't own any game system, and of course Clark loves playing the Wii.  All of his other cousins have one, or some sort of game system (well, basically all of them), so we figure we don't need to buy one, right?!




One day we took Daniel and family to the USO.  We had a fun time as always.  There is a dog there that is so sweet and Elden LOVES her.  It is so cute to watch.  But yes, not cute enough for us to buy a dog or any other sort of living thing. Having five kids is satisfying enough.


On Christmas Eve I invited some of my friends in the neighborhood to come and decorate gingerbread houses at the community center.  I made 36 of them (just the house pieces)....and had a lot left over!  We had a fun time decorating houses and I am especially glad that Daniel and Amy were here to do it with us.  Some of our kids were sick, so Lee stayed home with them.  Ila was great and helped my set up and take down. Growing up we always made real gingerbread houses every year.  I didn't do them when my kids were really little, but I started it up again three or so Christmases ago.  Last year Lena did all the hard work and we enjoyed making them over Thanksgiving in 2009. 




Ila the awesome helper!


Lizzy, another one of Daniel's fun kids. 


Aiden and Pat....Aiden and Cal are both in Kindergarten together and I met their family through school stuff.



Sarah and Patrick--the other half of the family.  Patrick and Clark were in Kindergarten and 1st grade together.  Now in 2nd grade, sadly they are in different classes.
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Lee's friend from work came with his family and parents.




Some more friends!  The boy in the blue coat--Trenton--I take him to school every morning.  He is a great boy and is really helpful with getting my kids out the door by tying shoelaces, zipping coats, etc. 










Shanna and Haley's buddy Talan.  He is such a cutie!


Later that night we had our Christmas Eve dinner.  We hope you had a great birthday dinner too Dad!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!




After dinner it was time to put on matching pj's (I make pj pants almost every year...I have skipped a year or two) and act out the Nativity while Lee read it from the Book of Mormon and the Bible.















Ila is Mary...I am not sure who Shanna is pretending to be.


Rachel the angel appears to tell Mary about upcoming birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.


Time for bed! 


Christmas morning we all eat pumpkin pie before we look at our stockings.  I made each of the kids a mini pumpkin pie.  I made 14 big pies and we are slowly pecking at them.  If you want pie, come here tonight!


The line-up.


Our kids' stockings.  We did have one out for Elden I promise!  He may get left out in many things, but he does have a stocking!  Yes, we only put a couple of things in it, but he had one nonetheless! (Don't you love the recliner?  Guess we should get a different one, but knowing us, that's not likely to happen any time soon! We have a couple more years using our furniture from optometry school. And Jenn, we LOVE our couch!!!)


It was a Lego Christmas for sure.  Clark and Cal only got a couple each, but a little goes a long way! Here are pictures of them seeing their stockings.




Our kids get a can of olives, a mini-box of cereal, an orange and candy in their stockings.  Yep, my kids love olives.








Here is his stocking!






Elden LOVES his lizard and ball that he got.














So this year we drew names in our family for gift giving.  Clark has asked before in previous years about getting presents for me and Lee and I felt bad because I didn't have the money (and neither did Clark) for him to do so.  And of course I didn't think hard enough because Clark could have made something, but oh well. Anyway, this year, I set aside some money so we could each participate in gift giving as a family.  Shanna and Haley of course drew each others' names.  So when I took Haley to buy something for Shanna (she picked out the present you see below--bracelets and such) I caved and bought one for Haley and for Rachel.  I didn't give Shanna the experience of picking something out for Haley.  I did take Shanna into my room by herself and I showed her the gift for Haley and asked if she wanted to give it to her.  Shanna seemed very excited about it and helped me wrap it. I am glad she didn't mention about why we didn't go to the store and pick something out for Haley. It did work well, he he.








Elden of course did not eat well yesterday.  I put out A LOT of candy and he knows what it is too.




I got a great scarf from Ila that she knitted.  I need her to teach me to knit!






After presents we hung out, ate and chatted with family.  I loved talking to Sheldon.  He is my youngest brother and is nearing the close of his two-year mission in Italy.  He shares the gospel of Jesus Christ there.  Missionaries can email every week (or write letters) but can only call home twice a year, Mother's Day and Christmas.  This year he was able to get on Skype.  It was great because so many of us could be on at the same time. Actually, our whole family was on together, all 10 kids and parents!  Some were in and out, but we were all there at one point or another.  (I just realized this...how cool!)  I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! We normally get on Skype Sunday nights, and it was great to have Sheldon on and hear more about his mission and things like how Italians don't eat spaghetti and meatballs.  Later we watched A Christmas Carol--with Patrick Stewart--best version I have seen thus far. After the kids were in bed Lee, Daniel and I played a new game that Lee got me.

We enjoyed our time at church and were VERY early.  Church starts at 10 and we walked into church around 9:35.  We need Daniel and his family here every Sunday.  I even started getting ready later than normal.  In Relief Society we had a great lesson about gratitude.  It was based on President Monson's talk, The Divine Gift of Gratitude.  (Click to read, it's GREAT!) At the end a lady posed the question about how could she help her kids develop gratitude. I asked one of my favorite people in the ward, Danielle, this question after our class was done.  I would also love to hear from all of you!  How do you/did you help your kids develop gratitude?  Every year we listen to the book on CD, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. A couple of years ago, or maybe even last year, this line caught my attention:

Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

That is how I would love my kids to be, a Cratchit kid! So again, please share any tips you have.  I would love to read them!

I have been thinking about New Year's goals and what I want to do and change.  I need more contemplation on this subject.  I know I need to do more gospel oriented things with my kids.  Come Thursday I'll be well into my 30s!  Well, 31.  WEIRD! Some may not like birthdays during the holidays, but I love it!  I always get to be with family (and when I was in school NO school on my birthday EVER!).  We love hearing the "story" about when my dad was born on Christmas Eve, the next day Santa gave his other brother a doll.  Guess the right Santa was not at home.

Guess my ramblings are done.  Again, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas time celebrating the birth of our Savior, spending time with family and friends, and serving others!