The Coat
Back in December, we came across this video on the church website. It’s a beautiful, wordless cartoon depiction of an act of charity, taken from the life of the prophet Heber J. Grant. Maddie cannot get enough of watching it:
She asks to see it often. As soon as we pull it up she shouts, “Big one! Big one! Full screen!” because the default small version just isn’t enough for her.
Even though we’ve seen at least 20 times, I still tear up at the end.
The Flurry of Christmas Day
Christmas was a bit hectic this year since it fell on a Sunday. And though we had plenty of time to get ready for church since it didn’t start until 1PM, it meant we actually had to get out of our jammies and stick to a schedule. Then we had to come home and prepare Christmas dinner. But it was nice to celebrate the Savior’s birth on the Sabbath and partake of the Sacrament on this special day.
The day whizzed by but we did enjoy the excitement the kids felt seeing their “Santa” gifts and digging in to all the sweets, goodies, and food that make this holiday so joyous.
Stockings are always stuffed with one small toy, sugar cereal, goldfish crackers, “cuties” oranges, chocolate of some sort, and candy canes. Maddie had consumed most of the candies before breakfast even started. The rest of us paced ourselves, especially since we needed to save room for our healthful lunch of cinnamon and orange rolls.
Even though Maddie asked for “pink” as her sole Christmas present, we went outside the box and got her something we knew she’d love: Darth Vader. It’s really a gumball machine (don’t tell!) but she just enjoys pushing the button to hear his infamous breathing sound.
Of the many things Warren wished for this year, we decided on the art kit and “how to draw” books. He set to work right away and created some awesome drawings. He even got his requested emergency candles in his stocking.
All of that sugar consumption must have gone to her stomach because after awhile we found Maddie hiding behind the couch. She said her belly hurt. She just needed a breather. She came out some time later ready for more.
Getting ready for church is always stressful. It’s even worse when there is the distraction of new toys and candy. Somehow we made it out the door, and on time even.
We had so much food. Truly, we are blessed and have all that we need and then some. We ended the day with a roast beef dinner, complete with potatoes gratin, salad, and coconut cake.
Our Christmas was indeed Merry and Bright.
O-Christmas 2011
Like every year, we make it a point to head down to my parents’ house the Saturday before Christmas. This year, the Saturday before just happened to be Christmas Eve.
As usual, my family went all out with food, and treats, and presents. They are too generous.
We had a wonderful day with them.
Viewing the Christmas Lights
We decided to take the kids for a drive around Santa Barbara to see some Christmas lights. There is even a website that gives you a whole route to take, complete with directions of where and when to turn. (Thanks for the tip, MK!) It’s the same path that the touring trolley cars take. It sounded like a great activity for the Christmas season.
There is only one word that can be used to describe our evening of Christmas light viewing: BUST!
And it wasn’t because there was anything wrong with the route or that the traffic was out of hand. No. It was because our children either a) fell asleep or b) complained the entire trip. Specifically, the three youngest nodded off before we even made it off the freeway exit and the oldest whined about every single thing.
Maybe we set the stage wrong, I don’t know. All I know is that from the moment we turned on to State Street and the start of the route, Warren began complaining.
“What is this we’re listening to?” he grumbled from the back, even as the brightly lit store displays and decorative stars over the street lamps gleamed outside the car window. The Christmas c.d. had just switched to a comedic story we enjoy hearing once a year, “Polly Anderson’s Christmas Party.” Perhaps he was expecting “Frosty the Snowman” and was greatly disappointed to hear a Canadian accent instead.
After the fourth time whining to know when it would be over, I turned around in irritation.
“Warren, we’re here to see the lights. Your sister and brothers are asleep. That means this is all for you now. If you’re not enjoying the drive and happy to see the lights then we’re going to go home,” I told him sternly. His half-hearted okay led me to believe that his bad attitude would reappear shortly.
Unfortunately, I was right. We continued on the path and made it to the second neighborhood of many participating houses when he piped in once again.
“I’m bored!” he announced in a surly, Grinchy tone.
I took one last terrible picture of a lighted house (photographing in low lighting from a moving vehicle has too many limitations, even with a good camera) and told Colin to turn that car around. We were going home.
As soon as we stated that we were done and heading back, he let out a wail. And then he kept wailing all the way home.
“I want to go back! Let’s go back! We didn’t see enough lights! Please! Please! Let’s see more lights! We have to see more lights!” he cried in outrage.
In our 20 minute drive home I went from supreme irritation to disappointment to sympathy. In the end, I just felt bad for him. Sometimes it’s hard to be a kid. You just don’t know what you want or how to express it and when you do get what you want sometimes it’s overwhelming to handle.
Too much excitement? Too much stimulation? Too much sugar throughout the day? I don’t know what happened with Warren, but I do know that he deeply regretted his choice of attitude. Maybe next time he’ll think before he complains. At least when it comes to Christmas lights.
And maybe next year, more of our children will actually be awake for this outing.
Playing School
It’s Christmas Break, but that doesn’t stop Warren from attending school. He engaged us all in the time-honored game of “playing school,” with curriculum developed on the fly that morning. They were the students, I was the teacher, with heavy collaboration by Warren.
Here is how our day went:
Art– watercolor painting
Snack & Recess– Goldfish crackers and playground time
Botany– Discussion of evergreen trees (parts labeled with inventive spelling)
Writing– Practicing letters, as Jake and Joey look on
Religious Studies– Understanding the Nativity
{Really, it was just a great excuse to use my new camera.}
“I Got a Nikon Camera…”
“I love to take a photograph.”
That’s the Paul Simon song that I’ve had in my head ever since we purchased this little beauty (an early Christmas present):
The Nikon D5100. I’m in love. Now you will see random, meaningless pictures show up on blog posts just because I’m practicing. Like this one:
It’s the handle of the orange tree planter we inherited from friends that just moved to Utah. (Thanks again, Nicole and Ryan! We miss you guys.)
Needless to say, I have much to learn about this camera. But I can’t wait to get started.
“Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away…”
{Hopefully, the song is sufficiently stuck in your head now, too.}
P.S. A special shout out of thanks to Mary Karlee for babysitting at the last minute so we could go buy this new toy and go see a movie at the theater!
Christmastime at the ER
Again with the fever.
Kids get sick. Kids get fevers. That’s the way it goes. But not every kid has to go the emergency room every time she has a fever. Yet that’s our reality and sometimes I just get tired of taking Maddie every time she gets one. Not because it’s a drag spending hours there (because it is) but because it feels like we’re torturing her each time we go.
Maddie’s sudden temperature at the end of the day, too late to sneak in to see her pediatrician, required that I take her to the hospital to rule out a life-threatening infection. Plus, we had to make sure that whatever it was could be remedied before Christmas. At least she could wear her red sparkly shoes to cheer her up a little, along with “monster pillow” and the rolls of stickers they always give her after the procedures are finished.
But we had some breakthroughs this visit. One is that Maddie is working on toilet training, so instead of using the urinary catheter (which is the most traumatic), she could pee in a cup to provide her sample. (She actually did that the last time when Colin took her, though I forgot to note it.) The other seemed so simple but really made such a difference. Maddie has always refused to allow any doctor to look in her mouth to examine her throat and they’re always forced to use the tongue depressor. Big mistake! That always makes her puke. I told her, in one of our many moments alone waiting, that the doctor was going to look at her body, including in her mouth, and if she’d just open and say, “Ahhh,” he wouldn’t use the stick. The pep talk worked. She did it. She willingly opened her mouth for him. Thank goodness for small favors!
We also learned that the ER has a portable TV and VCR set that patients can use to kill time. Because it was Christmastime, and because their selection was limited at best, we watched “Casper’s Haunted Christmas.” Please, unless you are trying to kill time in the emergency room, do not watch this movie. Regardless of the content, it’s nice to have a distraction so this technology was a good find.
It was a long 6 hours of waiting, and testing, and waiting some more. As with recent visits, nothing ugly turned up in the urine, blood, or respiratory tests, thank goodness. She was given a more tolerable antibiotic (Septra), instead of the Azithromycin that she refuses to take, and we were sent home.
I couldn’t help but speak my thoughts out loud to the doctor. Do we still need to bring her to the hospital every time she has a fever? She can communicate a little better with us now, was the rush so necessary? Could we possibly avoid this trauma? His answer was sobering. Lacking her spleen, we just can’t be too careful. We wouldn’t know for sure that it wasn’t something deadly. Tylenol would only suppress the fever not fix the cause. With all of her heart complications, we just can’t afford the risk. I sighed and knew that he was right. So, we’ll continue with this plan and pray that she’ll just become more tolerant of the procedures.
Yuletide Decor
I freely admit my obsession with holiday decorating. But I’d like to make a case for myself that this Christmas season I was tame. Only two things were purchased, so I’d call that pretty constrained. The rest are items previously made or bought, but seeing them each year brings me joy.
One purchase, in particular, I was especially thrilled about. Our friends, Mary Karlee and Ryan, hosted a Nativity party. They had read in the BYU Alumni magazine about an organization that purchases nativity sets from artists in disadvantaged countries around the world and sells them at cost. 100% of the proceeds go to the artists in an effort to help them generate income through their own craft. Mary Karlee and Ryan bought some to display in the hopes that it would inspire people to want to buy these beautiful pieces of art. I was thrilled to finally find a set that I would feel proud to display. Not that I don’t like the Little People version. It’s awesome and has its function and the kids love it. But I wanted something not plastic. Something a little more respectful of the scene.
I love our new set. The fact that it’s almost ambiguous plus the beautiful black wood make it so striking. It’s from Kenya, Africa. I love knowing that the artist who made this is able to prosper from his own creation.
The next purchased items were supposed to look like this, but I was lazy. Or really, I just ran out of time and realized that I didn’t have the paper punch to create the leaves anyway. So instead I just wrapped the styrofoam in pretty paper and called them trees. Colin thought that was a bit of a stretch. He referred to them as festive cones. Judge for yourself, but I liked how they turned out just fine.
We didn’t technically join in on the Elf on the Shelf fun, but we did already have an elf. It was my mom’s first Christmas decoration when she left for college. Needless to say, he was around before this new elf craze began. He’s retro. I believe his name is Charlie. That’s what I kept calling him, anyway.
Other items scattered around our home have a good amount of history too. Like these ornaments. The wooden one of the angel on the sled has adorned the little table top tree we put up in the kitchen since I went off to college. The popsicle stick and fabric nativity ornament was made at my mom’s Relief Society Christmas Party years ago. It seems in stark contrast to the Lucy “Psychiatry Booth” requiring 5 cents for use, received when I was about 16.
Our faux mantle over the non-functioning fire place holds the all-important Christmas stockings. I bought that picture ledge specifically for the purpose of hanging stockings and it does the trick. Our stockings are a hodge podge of decorations collected and made over the years. The blue snowman soccer player was originally started for Colin at one of the craft days his mom’s side of the family used to hold during Thanksgiving reunions at Ensign Ranch in Washington. By the time I got around to finishing it, Warren was in need of a stocking so he inherited the thing. No one told me that stockings have a uniform protocol for direction, so his is facing the wrong way. So far, he doesn’t seem to mind so much.
Window decorations that look pretty with light shining through.
The kids love this finger puppet nativity set, but Jake and Joe chewed on them a little too much for comfort considering the materials and paint are a tad suspect.
The hallway entry table hosts our gingerbread advent calendar plus some simple pieces like pine cones and subway art I printed for free off Pinterest.
Little elements of the Christmas season that make me smile when I look around the house.
Cookie Exchange
Christmas is a time to eat. And what better way to celebrate the season of endless goodies than by hosting a cookie exchange– my first ever.
For some sad reason I did not take one single picture of this wonderful event, but rest assured I had a good time.
It was quite the cookie feast! Each gal who attended brought 2 dozen freshly baked cookies that were absolutely delectable. Chocolate, chocolate mint, lemon, raspberry, caramel and chocolate… What a spread! We sampled some there and took some home for later. I compiled the recipes into one collection that you can see here, if you’re looking for some tasty cookie ideas.
To make sure we had more to eat than just sugar, I served veggies and hummus, mini quiches (from Costco), herbed goat cheese and crackers, wassail, hot chocolate (that turned into pudding because I forgot to turn the crockpot to low!), and the recipe find of the year: Cranberry-Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip and crackers. Please trust me, you must try this. I know this post is about cookies, but no one should go without trying this dip!
I wanted to have something for the many young children that would accompany their mamas to this event, so I put a table outside with flat gingerbread cookie houses, like this one, that they could decorate with cream cheese frosting (made by my friend, Rebecca, at the last minute as I was scrounging to finish setting up before the party started) and tons of candies. I’m pretty sure that most of the kids just licked the frosting and candies off the cookie, but I think they walked away satisfied.
My goal was to spread Christmas cheer and gorge on eat as many tasty cookies as possible. Mission accomplished, as far as I’m concerned. I loved spending time with friends as we munched on all the fine food the party had to offer.
I think I’ve found a new Christmas tradition.
Christmas Hand Rolls
I’ll admit, this post is a little bit of a tease. Every year we make these special candies for Christmas. Some to give as gifts and some to eat. And every year people ask us for the recipe to which we always answer, “Sorry, it’s a family secret.”
I will tell you this: those are peanuts you see coating that dark chocolate, so if you have a nut allergy we won’t leave them on your doorstep. And the soft candy center has a light fruit flavor, sometimes lemon, sometimes raspberry, and maybe next year orange. But that’s all the hinting you’re going to get.
These treats come from Colin’s dad’s side of the family. “Hand Rolls” are kind of a misnomer, but the process required to make them is somewhat intense. Colin and I have been making them together for the last 4 years and it’s become something I look forward to every Christmas season. It’s really his baby, though. I’m just the eager assistant. Each year we perfect the system even more. This year I’d even call it streamlined.
To those of you who have received these goodies and have tried to crack the recipe, feel free to keep guessing. But we stick to our vow of candy secrecy. Our lips are sealed.
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