Merry Christmas 2022

 Christmas 2022

This year we got to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together as a small family AND Ryan didn't have to work on either day. On Christmas Eve we made decorated gingerbread houses (which were actually Oreo houses), ate a yummy dinner of Stromboli, opened up the girls Christmas dresses to wear the next day, watched The Christ Child, and used rocks to make pictures while telling the Nativity story. And we read Twas the Night Before Christmas (my favorite tradition growing up). 

On Christmas morning, Ryan and I got up early to fill the girls stockings and put them on the couch. When we got them up we were excited to watch them go through their stockings and then open up presents. I got Ryan a usb lighter, a pair of light up lightsaber chopsticks, and a Peruvian tie with the Provo City Center temple on it. I got a few books that I've wanted, new throw pillow covers (probably my favorite gift, I hated our other pillow covers haha), a blanket, and lots of chocolate. Rose and Lucy got several gifts for them to share: a Yoto Player and some audiobook cards to go with it, Magnatiles, and their own little coloring tablets for them to use in church without getting colored pencils or crayons all over the place. Quinn got a little set of bear nesting dolls to gnaw on. 

Christmas was on a Sunday this year so we also went to church for an hour. Our ward had a carol service for sacrament meeting this year, which I got to help plan. A handful of members picked their favorite Christmas songs and then shared a thought about why it was their favorite song. I shared that mine is I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. 

Getting ready for church on Christmas morning was very chaotic, so after church we all took naps for a couple hours and then we had steak for dinner. After dinner we each wrote down a gift to the Savior that we would work on throughout the year. 

Things don't always go the way I plan with 3 little kids at home and 2 very tired parents. But overall we had a really nice weekend together celebrating Jesus Christ's birth and sharing our love for each other. 

Snapshots of December - Part 2

December 2022

December with 3 kids 4 and under is a little more chaotic than other Decembers. I had to decide that we would take it easier than normal. I took a month off of social media, which was really nice. I didn't see all the posts about what everyone else is doing or buying for Christmas, or get ads targeted to me about all the different things I should buy for my kids or myself. I also made a list of the things that I DO want to do so that we could make time to do them all. We did our favorite tradition: the 25 days of Christ. Where we hang up an ornament and tell a story from the Savior's life every day leading up to Christmas. We saw the Christmas lights at Pioneer Park with our friends, the Nanto's. We had fun hanging out with Lisa and Isaac at Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Natural Curiosity during Isaac's school break. We watched LOTS of Christmas movies. Rose and Lucy loved the Grinch and Frosty the Snowman this year. Those two movies (and the accompanying songs...) were on serious repeat over here. We made hot chocolate, and a teeny tiny fairy snowman. We decorated gingerbread (actually Oreo) houses. We made cookies and delivered them to our friends. And on one weekend while visiting Brigham City, I took the kids up to Logan to go on a sleigh ride with Emily and Rayna and the girls talked to Santa. He asked them what they want for Christmas and Rose said "Welllll, I want a Barbie doll, but mom said I'm not going to get any for Christmas." and Santa thought that was very funny. 

We had our annual sock exchange party in Layton with Mama and Lyle and all of the kids. Rose and Lucy were thrilled to play with their cousins and to get new princess socks. 

We had a great Christmas weekend, and then my parents came for a few days and we spent most of that time with them. The girls spent the night with them and I came over in the morning with Quinn. I loved having most of my food made by my dad and talking to my mom and the girls had a great time watching movies with Carson and letting Papa read all of the Elephant and Piggie books that this airbnb had. 

And now it's January 2023 and I am just about finished up catching up on the last 6 months of the year! 

The cutest little drawing of the Nativity I have ever seen! Art by Rose.

This painting and the next one are some pieces of art that Ryan and I bought at a super cool antique store in Salt Lake on a date. This antique store had a full sized taxidermy Lion AND an elephant foot! And so much other cool but very expensive stuff. We liked these paintings...and they were less expensive. 

These are some scratch off tickets that my mom put in our stockings from New Mexico. I won $4! 

This is funny. I was writing a blog post and I started sleep typing. (Can you tell in the last sentence? haha)