Merry Christmas

Highlights of Christmas morning

We thought it would be fun for the kids to sleep together on Christmas Eve.  Well, we were wrong.  They were so excited and about 10:00pm Lindsey got her second wind and would not settle down. At 10:30pm Taylor and Lauren were both crying because they just knew Santa was going to skip their house because they were still awake so late.  So I took Lindsey in my room and laid with her til 11:00pm when she finally fell asleep. At 11:30pm the other kids were still whispering away. So at midnight Santa could finally begin. And everyone was awake before 6am. So minus the lack of sleep, we had a very fun day.

Taylor loved his Lego table. We needed something smaller that would fit his room so this home made version was perfect.

I love sibling gifts- they get so excited to buy gifts for each other, but even more excited to give their gifts to each other.  It’s so fun to watch. My SIL gave me the brilliant idea to have the kids do chores and earn the money to buy the gifts.  My kids actually did not complain about washing the light switches and door frames. It was lovely. We gave them a price range and Taylor was $1 above his price range.  So he offered to do another job so that he could get the Hello Kitty toy that he really wanted to get Lauren.

Santa

When you miss the church Christmas party and the Dickens' Festival, it is slim pickings on seeing Santa around here.  I had one picture of all the kids with Santa in a Garden Nursery parking lot of all places. However, the St. George Carousel saved the day.  Not to mention we were the only ones there to see this cute Santa.I love Lauren looking at Santa and just being memorized. Lindsey and her cute hand telling him all about Dora and how much she LOVES Dora. And then there’s Taylor- he just wanted his two front teeth.  I think that was one of his favorite parts of Christmas this year. He thought it was so funny.

Advent Calendar Activities

This was our 3rd year doing our activity advent calendar.  We love it.  The kids love that we get to do something fun everyday!  And I love to sit down in November and make up a plan. I like to get each day ready so that December is a little calm and we actually get to do some different things because I planned ahead of time. Now some of these “fun” activities consist of watching a Christmas movie and eating popcorn.  Not too tough.  I write down all my ideas on a calendar and try to only plan one activity a week that requires us to leave the house. I put the slip of paper in the advent calendar the night before because I am constantly switching activities around and adding/deleting things. It’s also a great way to make sure I fit in everything that I want to do. I remember one Christmas feeling like we didn’t do a lot of the things I wanted to do with the kids. We have our traditional activities like the Live Nativity at Tuacahn. And we also try new things each year.  Last year we went to the Springdale Light parade and had so much fun. This year we went to a Christmas concert and Taylor told me it was the worst night of his life. However, while it wasn’t the worst night of my life- I could have passed on that one as well.

The kids make Rolo pretzels every year and it has become their thing.  They are in charge and have their own little system.  It’s fun to listen to them figure it out.  Greg and I unwrap rolos as fast as we can and they do the rest.  Pretty fun.

Another easy activity was making these reindeer cookies.

Sugar cookies for Santa is a must as well.

Lindsey was grossing us out with her huge bites of frosting- no wonder they get a little crazy making these.

And as long as the kids will allow it- we will always make these hand print and footprint reindeer. I just think they are the cutest.

Gingerbread Houses were the theme this year

In the past, I have been known to buy the Gingerbread kits and call it good.  This year my kids were introduced to a much more fun way… packages of graham crackers and bowls and bowls of candy that you can actually chew and eat. They were in heaven.  Our friends had a gingerbread house party and we had a great time. Lauren and Taylor thought the frosting bag was way cool. We missed another party that we really wanted to go to- she makes homemade gingerbread. Oh My!

Taylor and Lauren both had Gingerbread House parties at school as well. Lauren was having so much fun. I love this picture with her blurry hands and eyes shut. The smile was the smile she wore the entire time. And if I had video you would hear her silly little giggle.

Christmas BREAK

We are officially on Christmas break and I’m so excited. I honestly can not believe Christmas is only in 4 short days. I can’t wait. Some things we will not be doing besides no school is NOT making school lunches, of course! But also we will not be doing homework, or karate, piano or basketball. Instead, we will be playing games, making crafts (Taylor already has picked something out of a book and has it bookmarked to make in the morning),making more treats, watching movies, having a pajama day and maybe sleeping in? … Umm I doubt it.

A funny story about NOT sleeping in… At the Gardner household the first number you learn is not 1 or even the number that tells how old you are. Oh no. It’s the number 7. Why? Kuz that is the magic number that has to be the first number on your clock before you can come out of your room in the morning. So last week Taylor tells me, “Mom, I got tired of sleeping at 6:10am so I just read 9 chapters in my book by my nightlight till my clock said 7.” He’s trained very well. BTW, yes he does have a reading lamp in his room now. Merry Christmas!

 

Bring on December 1

We are READY!

Candy chains- check

Advent Activity Calendar- check

Lego Advent Calendar- check

Springdale Light Parade

 In December, we do a Activity Advent Calendar.  It is so much fun.  We all just love it.  We do a lot of the traditional things that we would already do and add a few new ones.  It's so nice to plan everything out that we are going to do for the month to ensure we do everything that we want.  And I've learned not to put the card for the activity in the countdown til the night before.  My master calendar is in pencil and we switch things around a lot.  But it works for us!  One of our new things this year was to go to the light parade in Springdale.  It was perfect. Springdale is just quaint and fun in itself.  But the cars and trucks lighted up with lights and Christmas music blaring from the trucks was just cool.  Not to mention, my kids were pretty much the only kids on our street so they got lots of candy!

All night I was playing around with my camera.  Frustrated that I knew enough about the settings to change them, but not enough to actually fix something when I messed it up.  Like all the blurry Christmas lights at night.  Then I turned and saw Lindsey going in for a hug from Lauren.  I got down at their level and was hoping for the best- no time to figure out ISO at that moment.  And I got it. By far, one of my favorite pictures of the season.  Pure Love.

December would not be complete without baking

 The kids decorated sugar cookie for Santa.  Taylor put a "few" too many sprinkles on his and thought Santa would love the extra sprinkles!

 Making Gingerbread Houses is a must as well.  Both of the kids made their own this year.  And Lindsey just watched and ate candy- with a big smile on her face!

 Taylor and Lauren have mastered the Pretzel Rolo treats by themselves.

And who could resist Nutter Butter reindeer.  Another kid friendly treat that they love to make.

Kids with Santa

Taylor has a way of coming up with things that he wants- that you might not always find at the store. Just things he creates in his little mind. So Greg told Taylor that he needed to give Santa some options, just in case. So he thought of some other options for Santa. One of the options was the "Up" movie. Niiice! Very doable.

So Christmas morning, before the kids are set free- he tells Gma "I wonder what options Santa chose for me."

We wrote letters to Santa and then took them to him. How nice of him to have a cute little mailbox for them to go in! Once again... the kids loved it. And I LOVED that we walked right up to him and didn't pay a penny!

Christmas would not be Christmas without....

"What I always wanted!"

Matching jammies with cousins

Gingerbread houses (We went the easy route this year -Rice Krispie house) The kids love this tradition

An Awesome Christmas

All 6 siblings, 1 house, 1 Gpa and Gma, 8 grandkids under the age of 7, LOTs of good food!

2 turkeys

1 ham
15 gallons of milk
25 two liter soda
8 quarts of eggnog
7 lbs of butter
3 batches of homemade rolls
triple batch of pancakes
15 lbs of potatoes
15 loaves breakfast bread
8 dozen eggs
8 (16 oz) steaks
7 lbs pork loin
1 gallon nacho cheese
2 giant sticks of summer sausage
2 big bags of tortilla chips
6 bags potato chips
lots of cookies and treats
1 loan batch of caramel corn...

Need I say more?????????