December Activities

I don't know why but decorating the tree and getting out the Christmas decorations is one of my favorite things to do.  I think its because there is just so much excitement about the upcoming holiday season and everything that comes along with it. I love to see the excitement and magic that the kids have this time of year.

It is tradition that Kevy is the one that puts the angel on the tree. Maybe its because he usually just likes to sit back and watch everyone put all the other stuff up and then he wants to contribute as well.

 Every year I try and do an activity every night during the Christmas season.  Its just really important to me that my kids have lots of memories of us doing things together as a family. Many years I have failed because of exhaustion on my part, and while I still feel exhausted most of the time, things have gotten a bit easier and this year we were able to do stuff almost every night. We went to see the big tree get lit in downtown Roseville and we actually made it on time to see it happen! It was fun and not as cold as it has been other years.

 It just wouldn't be Christmas time if we didn't have Christmas Dancing.  This year Clara was able to join in with the other kids and it was pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. She loved it so much!

 Nellie joined show choir this year and so that meant she had to go early to school for the entire year on Thursday and Friday. She never complained about it. I was so proud of her and she looked so beautiful up there singing her heart out for her Christmas concert.

 I had to throw in this picture of our silly Clara enjoying a cupcake we brought home from Nellie's choir concert.  I think she liked it!

 Roseville does this really cool thing called Neighborhood Santa where they have Santa come trough different neighborhoods on different nights and this year it just happened to come down our street. It was such a fun thing for the kids, they loved it!

 Every year a bunch of families in the ward get together for a family night and walk through a neighborhood that has a bunch of good lights and then have treats afterward. Its a fun tradition that we love to do, but this year they did it a little later and the kids were just so tired so we walked through and then we decided to leave before the treats because Clara was just so done and ready to go to bed. The kids were good sports and we just ate the brownies I made in the car on the way home.

We also went to the Ward Christmas Breakfast.  I decided to finally wear pajamas this year because I never do and all the adults are wearing them as well and wouldn't you know this year most didn't. Hah, just my luck!

Instead of doing gingerbread houses, I figured the kids would rather decorate gingerbread men because they are quite a bit better to eat and we know that is the reason that they are doing it in the first place.  I think they had a great time.

We have started a few new traditions over the year that probably most people think are silly but the kids have absolutely loved. A few years ago we started opening a present the day before Christmas Eve, now known as Christmas Adam, since Adam came before Eve, haha. Well this year we started another tradition that ended up being the kids favorite thing we did this year. The night before Christmas Adam we let the kids open their new Christmas pajamas and then I made them each a little treat bag and we made hot chocolate in paper cups we could take with us and then we drove around town looking at all the cool lights in our jammies.  It was the best time!  For sure a new tradition for us! This was one of our favorite houses, it was really fun!

Christmas Day

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year and we have 9 o'clock church so I thought surely they will make it later so we can do all the Christmas stuff before going to church, but they didn't.  Instead something magical happened. It became about celebrating our Savior and his birth instead of opening presents.  It was wonderful!  I honestly wish Christmas could fall on a Sunday every year so that we could always have our focus where it belongs.

We did allow the kids to look at their Santa gifts before we got ready for church.  We did however deiced to let Clara sleep as long as possible. we figured a grumpy baby is not something we need to deal with!

 Annie got a really nice dolly stroller since she is really into babies and her other stroller broke.

 Jane was so excited that she finally got the iPod shuffle that she had been wanting;

 Lizzy got the game she asked for. It was a scary game that she played with her cousins at Thanksgiving that she really loved.

Russ asked for some walkie talkies. They were dodger blue which I think made them even better!

Nellie was excited about her Legos she got from Santa. She really has been into them lately.

 This crazy baby was having fun giving me snuggles. She got lots of babies this year because she has started to like playing them with her sister Annie.

 Nellie gave Annie her old doll as a gift because  Annie loves playing with it so much. It was really sweet of Nellie.

 Russell has been really into sports lately so we got him this basketball hoop so he could play. I love that he loves to be athletic and outside.

 This was the year of clothes for Lizzy. She is really growing up and wanting older stuff. Its crazy that she isn't little anymore!

 Clara has an obsession with hats and she especially loved the Santa hat.

 Russell is always asking Kevin if there is anything to build, he loves to help Kevin with stuff. So when we saw this kid tool box with real tools we thought it would be a good present.

 Ever since I got my poncho Janie was wanting one.  And let me tell you it was not easy finding one, but I loved this one when I found it and I thought it looked so much like Janie bug!

 Clara got the cutest outfit from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas and she just loved the sweater that came with it and had to wear it the rest of the day. She also got the cutest cabbage patch baby that was named Clara. She is really starting to like babies just like her sister Annie.

 Nellie loves cozy stuff and you can see how excited she was to get a fuzzy sweater.

 I am never very good at getting a ton of pictures. I just get so engrossed in watching the kids that I forget, but that's ok, I did get some.  I didn't however get any pictures with my parents which is kind of sad because this is our last year of having them live here with us. We are getting so sad thinking about how soon the time is coming that they are moving. I honestly don't like to think about it because we have sure loved having them nearby.

Thanksgiving with the Richeys

For the first time since we were newly married we had Thanksgiving dinner with all of Kevin's family.  We haven't left home for thanksgiving since we have lived in California.  Kelli and Lance just bought a new home so they wanted to host it at their house. We packed quite a few families in for a few days and while there was some drama, we did have a lot of fun too. I don't know how soon we will be leaving home again for the holidays so I am glad we did it. It's hard to go to Utah in the winter, with trying to find a time to drive over Donner pass and just plain freezing to death!

 The kids have so much fun playing with their cousins. I love seeing them together. Annie doing one of her very favorite pastimes. She really loves playdough.

 Grammie had a bunch of activities for the kids to do, which was nice so they didn't spend too much time on devices.

 Russell loves his boy cousins so much. He is always trying to be with the big ones and squeeze on the little ones.

 Clara and Kyler were really cute sitting there together. They weren't really to the stage of playing together, but that will come soon I'm sure.

 We all had a really great time putting the meal together.  I am always in on the cooking action because that is one of my favorite things to do and most people don't like it, so I might as well do it. I was in charge of making the rolls, the turkey and 5 different kinds of pies, banana cream, chocolate cream, lemon cream, apple and pumpkin.  It sounds like a lot but I love it!

 The kids always have such a fun time with their cousins.  Here is the kids table as it was called. This is one of my fondest memories about holidays growing up, eating at a big fold up table that had been set up for the kids.

Janie was loving on baby Rosie.  She sure is a cute baby and it was fun having her around.

 The last day we were there we went and saw Moana. It was a lot of fun (we are big movie people after all)

The day we left it had snowed overnight over Donner and they were requiring chains.  We don't have any and we didn't want to buy any, so all day long while we were driving I was checking the internet to see if if they lifted the chain requirement. Around noon and when were almost to the Sierras they had lifted it, thank goodness. Unfortunately it meant there was a lot of backed up traffic so even though we had made great time up to that point it took forever to get through the mountians.  Like double the time, or 4 hours!  It was so crappy. By the time we pulled into town we were so ready to be home and when Annie recognized  where we were and said "yay we are home!  That trip was terrible!" We had also had a few bad patches of snow through Nevada so it was so nice to be back where it was nice and warm.  We had a really good time on our trip even if us California folk froze to death and had a crappy drive home.