Christmas Extravaganza!

Without that extra week between Thanksgiving and the beginning of December, last month seemed to go at warp speed! Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was staring us right in the face. My mom flew out a few days before the rest of the crew, which was wonderful to get to spend some one-on-one time with Grandma Joanie. But let's face it, the kids were super excited for Uncle Taylor, Grandpa Tom Tom, and Auntie Whitney to fly in and join the fun.

Grandpa and Taylor flew in late Monday night (the 23rd), so bright and early Christmas Eve morning--right after a pretty stellar dance party, we headed out to show Taylor around town. We checked out Pinehurst Village where the US Open will take place this summer, as well as Southern Pines Reservoir.

Even though it was bright and sunny it was very chilly! Grandpa ditched us for the links, so the rest of us met Jon--who'd had to work a half day, at Chick fil A for lunch. 

We let the kiddos burn off some steam in the play place, as well as shared a delicious peppermint chocolate milkshake, before finally heading back home where the kids bounced off the walls with all of their pent up Christmas Eve excitement! 

Finally dusk fell and the Christmas Eve magic began! We decided to celebrate my family's tradition of "Christmas Around the World" and picked food from Great Britain to feature. 

My mom splurged and roasted some amazing prime rib, then served it with mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, apple and walnut salad with Stilton cheese, Christmas ribbon jello salad, and salted caramel bread pudding for dessert. Yum!

 Happy Christmas Eve, ol' English style!

Next we acted out our own little Nativity and sang Christmas carols to help celebrate the true meaning of the season. Lucy played Mary and Jon was Joseph.

Zach-O (and his broom/staff) was the shepherd, while Leah (who did NOT cooperate) was supposed to be a little lamb.

We made Taylor be one of the Wisemen who came bearing gifts. He wasn't too thrilled about participating either.

After we wrote down our "Gifts to Jesus," Grandpa headed up to Raleigh to pick up Whitney from the airport. We kept teasing the kids that we hoped her airplane wouldn't crash with Santa's sleigh up in the air--and when questioned, they admitted they'd rather have Whitney than Santa, so that's gotta be true love! Right before bed we opened up one present-- which is always new pajamas.

After a quick secret Santa delivery into the backwoods of Carolina with a Christmas box of groceries for a family in our ward, we hurried home so the kids put out the cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. Which Leah promptly got into and ate a few of. Naughty baby!

Finally, off to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads! They look pretty excited to me!

Lucy's loot-- an art table for her many, many art creations and crafts (I found the desk for free in the garbage pile, cleaned it up, repainted it, bought a new knob, and it turned out super cute!), tons of craft kits and new markers and colored pencils, a razor scooter, and lots of fun stocking stuffers.

Little Leah's pile-- a V-tech tent with lots of music and buttons to push, a singing rocking horse, a new baby photo album, and a Baby Einstein toy.

Zach's stash-- a T-Rex Hot Wheels track, the Bat Cave, Star Wars toys, a Nerf gun, and a Superman toy to go with Batman. I'm not sure if the kids or the parents found it harder to go to bed on Christmas Eve night!

Ta-da!! Let the chaos begin! The kids woke up around 7:15 a.m. and made their way downstairs to see all of their goodies. We didn't have one sad or disappointed child--they were all thrilled with everything, and with Christmas on a budget, I'd call that a success.

At first Leah was totally freaked out about sitting on her rocking horse. She'd scream bloody murder as soon as you put her on it. But now she absolutely loves it-- she climbs on, pushes the button, rocks away and says, "Wheee!" It's super cute.

And my personal favorite part of the day: Christmas Breakfast. I love getting to sit down and enjoy a nice big breakfast while basking in the glow of the best day of the year. My family's tradition is to have ableskeevers (little ball pancakes with applesauce inside), scrambled eggs, sausage, and hot chocolate. 

Jon and Taylor in the newly founded "Ghost Rider Pajama Club," thanks to the awesome skull pjs Tom Tom purchased for the boys on Black Friday. Sweet!

And Whitney and I in our twinner pajamas. It was so fun having everyone join us for a North Carolina Christmas. My parents and Taylor left right after breakfast to drive up to Richmond to spend the evening with Devin and Sarah and their girls. Whitney and our family spent the rest of the day lounging around in our pajamas, watching movies, playing with new toys, and eating all of our Christmas treats. That night we packed up so we could join the growing crowd in Richmond for a weekend of Trasher fun!

December Dialogues

Is it really, truly January already?? Holy smokes!  December just seems to fly by faster and faster every year. It must mean I'm getting older... But before we get to covering Christmas 2013, I've got to wrap up the first few weeks of December since there was lots going on!

 Just after Lucy's birthday our ward held it's annual "Nativity Lighting Ceremony" with hot chocolate and cookies served beforehand. They have a huge hand-painted wooden Nativity that they set up outside in front of the church building the first Sunday of December. 

 Lucy is our social butterfly and was more than happy to sit and visit with her little church friends! It was FREEZING cold and raining when they lit the Nativity, so we didn't last much longer than that. 

 And Baby Leah started walking at the beginning of the month!! I guess I can't really call her "Baby" anymore since she's more of a toddler now, but true to her personality, she just up and randomly walked one morning and never looked back. And now that she's figured out the whole walking thing, it didn't take long for her to begin running instead. Sigh.

 She is also our little musical savant. She can often be found playing on the piano and LOVES music and dancing of any kind. She seems to prefer techno (we think it's because I did so much Body Pump with her in the womb), and she loves when Jon or I sit and play primary songs with her on our lap.

 Jon got to venture into the wilderness for the first time in over a year, when he headed up on a Friday morning for the hills of western Virginia. He picked a trail in Grayson Highlands State Park, arrived and departed in a blizzard, and came across some wild horses. Although camping in freezing cold temperatures doesn't appeal to me at all, nature simply speaks to his soul and he came home rested and relaxed.

 While Jon was gone, Lucy had a primary class party on Friday night, so Zach and I (and Leah too) got to have our own Friday night date. We got soup at Panera, frozen yogurt at Purple Penguin, and went Christmas toy shopping at Kohl's. He is my little man and I will miss his company sooooo much next year when he starts kindergarten.

 The following night our ward had its Christmas party-- "A Night in Bethlehem," and even though I had braved the Raleigh Costco ALONE with three children on a Saturday in December earlier that morning (I know! I'm lucky to have survived!), Jon made it home in the nick of time to join us for the party so I didn't have to fly solo again. 

 The party was amazing. The church was completely decorated to look like Bethlehem with gazebos and a marketplace, and everyone in costume. Here Lucy is writing her favorite scripture down to put in her own "tefillin" at one of the stations.

 They had booths to try hummus and olives, smell oils like frankincense and myrrh, and cute Christmas craft activities for the kids. They had a nice Nativity program that told the story of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, and then we finished with a potluck supper.  I was glad we made it! 

 Sunday night we snuck in one of our favorite holiday traditions of watching a Christmas movie in front of the fire together, with hot cocoa and popcorn. I tried to make some egg nog bread I'd found on Pinterest, but it exploded. Ha, ha! That was fun to clean up.

 Zachary had his preschool Christmas concert on Monday night, at a beautiful local church in Pinehurst village. Here he is all dressed up and ready to go! Doesn't he look handsome?

 His class was very last after like 10 other classes, and they sang "Silent Night," which surprisingly enough he knew every single word to. The church was packed with parents and siblings, and was SO loud with all of the little kids getting antsy, but Zach's class did great patiently waiting for their turn.

 He is in a class with 8 little boys, and only 2 little girls! His poor, poor teacher.

 We loved watching this little guy sing. We were super proud of him too because when we went to pick him from his teacher after the concert, she praised him profusely for being so reverent compared to all of the other kids. She asked us if he was used to going to church, because she could really tell he was used to sitting still and being quiet in a chapel. Obviously this 60 minute concert was nothing compared to 3 hours of church every Sunday! 

Next up that week was Lucy's surprise Awards Assembly at school. I got a note from her teacher the day before saying Lucy was receiving a special surprise award and that I needed to be at the school at noon. She was super excited to see us sitting in the audience when her class walked in!

My mom had arrived from Boise the afternoon before, so it was perfect timing for her to get to see Luce be recognized for being an awesome student too. 

The first graders being awarded their "Wildcat Cub Kid Award" for excellence in behavior and academics.

Great Job, Lucy!!

 With Grandma Joanie in town, our Christmas festivities really wound up. She helped us make sugar cookies to deliver to friends and neighbors. I'm not really sure how much the kids helped, but they sure had fun rolling out the dough and cutting out shapes. Yum!

 Saturday night we were invited to the Pinehurst Country Club's Annual Christmas Party by Jon's office mate Dr. Bradley. It was the party of the season-- with all the local fancy-pants in attendance. I was just praying my kids were on their best behavior!

 We started outside (where the weather was literally a balmy 70 degrees that night-- it was SO warm!) at a bonfire where the kids roasted marshmallows and drank hot chocolate. 

 Then we got to ride on a horse-drawn carriage, which Leah loved. 

 Inside the country club they had a huge Christmas tree and carolers serenading the guests as they came in.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were also waiting to talk to the kiddos and hand out candy canes.  

 We knew we'd really arrived when we headed in to the Christmas dinner. Wowza! They had a huge buffet set up for adults, as well as a separate one for the kids. Lucy and Zach had mac and cheese, chicken fingers, green beans, french fries, oreos and milk, and strawberry lemonade. The adults had prime rib, roast pork loin, roast turkey, salmon, all kinds of roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, different kinds of salad, and huge baskets of bread. 

They had an entire entryway set up with tons of different desserts, and Zach couldn't resist the red velvet cake. So yummy! We had a wonderful night, despite the customary meltdown from Leah about halfway through dinner, and were thankful to the Bradleys for inviting us to such a fancy and festive party. It got us in the perfect mood to celebrate Christmas the very next week!