Fat snow, Candyland and Coat Check

It's been raining and dreary for days. It actually feels too cold for rain, but apparently not. I feel like if you are going to freeze your buns off, at least let all precipitation should be white and beautiful. 

And for about 15 minutes today, it was.

We made it into On Track for our yearly tradition of Candyland. As Brian was explaining the drunken process he went through in designing the gameboard, I had a very strong feeling that he forgot to provide dice.  Or game pieces.  I suppose that's all a part of its Crossfitty charm.

Without a word, everyone dug in their cubbies, purses and gymbags for a suitable marker. We settled on a barbell bushing (big silver cylinder) and we all downloaded dice apps.

We rolled and worked and scaled and cheated.

Perfect way to end a year.

Yin and Yang

Mark and I ended the night chaperoning the New Years Youth Dance. It was fun! And it was also long and loud and we got stuck in the coat check in the freezing Relief Society roonm and being 42 is exhausting. We dance for the 4th time ever. We'll need to chaperone more dances if we're ever going to get out of the single digits.

2018 was pretty great. And I think 2019 might possibly break my heart, but I supposed it's coming anyway. Happy New Year!

Let's pretend

That our kids don't have a dance on the actual New Year's Eve and we don't need to be there to chaperone to keep our kids from sneaking off for a hallway smooch. Or that we aren't the coolest bishop around and need to be at the dance to be DJ Marty Party.....

Let's pretend that it's New Year's Eve and we're going to chill in our jammies and play games.

Happy New Year's Eve Eve!!

We descend upon the dentist

I don't remember making a dentist appointment for the kids over Christmas break. That doesn't sound like something I'd want to do. But then again, if we're on Christmas break, I don't have to take them all out of school and we don't have to worry about all the work they're missing. 

Seems like a pretty good idea to me.

And for some strange reason, the boys get along when sitting in itty bitty chairs and playing on the old video game consoles in the waiting room. 

And Megan is obsessed with photo bombing. Even if its just a foot. (I can hear her delighted giggle now).

And just because I don't want to forget it, but can't bring myself to tell anyone in my immediate circle, here's the story of the day:

The hygienist was cleaning Ethan's teeth and said, "Do you bite your fingernails?"

Ethan: "I little, I guess. Why?"

Hygienist: "I just dug a fingernail out of your teeth"

Ethan: "Are you sure it wasn't a toenail?"

Hygienist: "I'm going home" lol

Mom: Trying to find a hole to crawl into.

Christmas Day 2018

Mathew tried to wake us up at 5 am.

He was unsuccessful, but in reality our fate was sealed. Once I've been woken up....its just a matter of time before I get out of bed and face the day. 

Especially if the day is Christmas day! We could here the excited whispers downstairs and we couldn't help but join in. But seriously, look how dark it is outside. It is DARK. 

Anna remembered to put the star on the tree for Advent. That's probably a first. Everyone fights over the privilege and then forgets because their so excited about the presents.

Everly decided that it was much more fun to open each gift with her eyes closed.

That way, she experiences the full effect of the surprise all at once.

Anna received her harmonica! She's asked for one for years. Except for this year! It was the perfect surprise!

Laney was the first to unwrap her Lite Brite.

"What's a Lite Brite?" she said.

Oh....just wait. You'll love it, Laney.  But your feet will not love it and neither will the vacuum.

Megan fanned the pages of her newest piano music. Ah, nothing like the smell of pride and prejudice!

Mathew was so excited to finally receive his video game.

so. excited.

Ethan had a pretty sweet Christmas. He also learned the life long lesson that just because it says "poster", doesn't mean it's an actual poster.

Mark and I both gave each other loads of Cubs gear....but my favorite was watching him upon his Wally's World Moose Mug.  It's not easy to surprise this fella. It would help if we didn't share the same Amazon account, I suppose.


Oh hey! Looks like the sun is finally coming up! Neat.

Aren't the pups so cute in their Christmas sweaters?? I'm sure they just love them!

The rest of our day was spent grazing on stocking treats and breakfast casserole.

Rolling with the homies...

Discovering that Lite Brites are the coolest.

Making our first ever brined turkey. It was UHmazing. Because of salt. Salt is the best.

I may have sampled it's right shoulder. Just a nibble.

Our favorite apple cranberry stuffing recipe.

Oh, did I say OUR favorite? I meant MY favorite. Everyone else hates cranberries and apples and celery and ....stuffing.

More for me!

Our Christmas meal! 

Complete with sparkling cider in the moose mug.

Merry Christmas!

Flamenco Finale

Well, here's the thing.

This skirt was never ever EVER going to turn black. 

I dyed it 5 times. I washed it 5 times. 

I dyed it in a big canning pot and lied to my kids when they asked me what I was "cooking". 

I told them it was a big batch of Christmas stew....for dipping our treats into. They were understandably horrified. 

And still. 

This is as dark as I could get it. 

Late on Christmas Eve, I added some big flowers to it and boxed it up. It may have been kind of wet from a water spill on the countertop. But I was OH SO VERY tired and I boxed it up wet.

I think it wasn't what she had pictured, but it was pretty darn romantic. And with a fancy black fan thrown in for good measure, I was hoping for the best.

She would seem she felt pretty good about the result!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started with the discovery that Mark and I had both bought him the same cubs shirt. Which naturally means that now I have one too....

Twinners!

 After an unfortunate trip to Walmart that lasted two hours too long because I unwisely arranged for grocery pick up on Chrismas Eve.... (Also... Everly, Megan and Mathew hadn't bought their Christmas gifts.  Whoops!)

We finally took some time to make our braided bread. This time with salt. Anna is learning Ethan's tossing technique. If anyone can beat the gluten into submission, it's Anna.

While the bread was rising, we set out to make some gingerbread men. They were so cute...and the cookie dough was pretty delicious.

Everly remembered that it was her turn to put up the Santa for Christmas Eve. We've been strangely inconsistent with remembering the calendar this year, so it's a good thing she has such a fantastic memory.

Yay for tall big brothers!

Our bread turned out beautifully! And we followed Mom's advice to make smaller loaves and get a few more out of the batch. Why didn't that ever occur to me?

We packed up our loaves, dropped off a couple on the way to dinner and then headed out. We thought we'd try to go to Sho-gun, but couldn't get a table, so we went over to Cheddars and we were glad we did!  The food was delicious and we had a nice time. The table we were given reminded us of our own dinner table and everyone naturally sat in their regular spots.

Everly learned how to use her thumb to trap water in her straw...

The littles played with putty on one side...

And the bigs quoted movies and spoke in their outside voiced on the other side.

It was fun! And I had no dishes to do and those onion rings were....the best!

We dropped off the remaining loaves of bread and then headed over to the Christmas Place neighborhood for our annual Minivan Express, albeit without tickets or cups of cocoa. With full bellies, the kids overlooked the omission.

Soon we were home and opening our Christmas Eve jammies.  Much silliness ensued.

Mark and I had one of the kids take a photo of us.....and we laughed when we saw it because we look EXHAUSTED.

So we sat up, perked up and tried it again.....not so bad!

The kids were sent to bed and made a last ditch effort to entice Santa with our pan full of unfrosted gingerbread men.... what can I say?  I guess these required one too many steps for today.

 I thought the ice packs around the milk were nice touch....warm milk is getsgusting.

I finished up working on Laney's infernal flamenco skirt and Mark brought down gifts for the tree.

I love seeing it all full and bustin and lit up!

And we were in bed by 10....if only it hadn't felt like midnight...