Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas--All in One Post

We have been celebrating and celebrating, enjoying lots of fun activities, and I am going to include all of them in one large post.  There will be lots of pictures and lots of explanation, and I hope to get it all included in one sitting.

On Saturday the 14th, the DeMartinis all gathered for a kid Christmas party.  The children all love to be with their cousins, and we try to have a variety of activities--games, treat, fun.  It was party day for Blythe who had not one but two birthday parties before our family party.  She went to a Super Hero party for Grant Seamons, then a fairy party for Emma Bradford.  The picture below is her with her fairy wings and face painting.  Unrelated to Christmas in any way, but she sure is cute.


Before we started games, I wanted a picture of Christopher and Tysen and all their kids.
Wee Rowen was only born two weeks ago, and we didn't have a complete picture of all of them.
This one doesn't do them justice.
And don't you love the light cord hanging off the side of the mantle?
This picture isn't going anywhere but here.





When Mikayla was in third grade, she made a super cute pasta Christmas tree that my mom puts out every year when she decorates.  Although it is just bits of pasta glued to cone shaped cardstock, it is darling.  She thought it would be fun for the kids to make their own, and I was super excited.  I wanted two pasta trees for my Christmas decoration!  Knowing that the glue would need time to dry, we started by gathering the kids, spreading pasta all over the table, gaving them each some glue, and then told them to go for it.  Oddly, none of the kids liked having glue on their fingers, the pasta didn't stick very well, and by the time I had finished taking the three pictures below, everyone was pretty much done.  Even Blake.  It wasn't as easy as it seemed it should be.  I said to Blythe that we could work on them at home with hot glue instead of Elmer's, but through the rest of the month, even she was unwilling to do one at home.  A craft!  Maybe next year.




Sharae had put together a dice/present/glove game.  Everyone got a present but they could only open it with gloves on, they were all well taped, and they had to roll a certain number of the die to start.  I think.  I was cleaning up pasta while all this was happening.  I did hear shrieks of delight.


We had a dart games at our Halloween party and the kids liked it so much, we decided to do it again.  It is a bit dicey throwing darts at balloons stuck only to a large piece of poster board, but we were careful to keep all people and both dogs away from the back side of the Christmas tree.  There are Tootsie Rolls in each balloon, so not only do they get the thrill of popping a balloon, they get a candy too. 


All the pictures below are terrible.  
Children so rarely stand still, and my camera can't keep up.



  
Brick with Guy.
They were safely out of the line of fire.

We next had a story, Alexander's Dream, about a little reindeer who is trying to get to the North Pole, and Santa.  It is a participation story.  Every time the story says "North Pole" or "Santa" or "reindeer" or several others, someone has to do something.  So in the picture above, Crew is the North Pole--he must turn around.  Brandt is Santa and he has to "ho ho ho."  Makenna is the reindeer and she shakes bells.  Blythe is the dream and she sighs sweetly.  Griffin is ice and he has to shiver, while Ava has to thrown snowflakes as snow.  Luke was the bear, but he was having a pout about something and not in the picture.

After the story we divided into two groups and played Christmas bingo (with M&Ms) and Don't Eat Rudolph (with M&Ms).  There was a lot of chocolate consumption and again, many shrieks of delight.




When all the games were done, we tried to get the obligatory "All the Kids" picture.  We actually were missing Donovan, but the rest were there.  We had varying degrees of success.

In this one, Makenna looks like she has her fingers in Collin's nose.
Why?
Hard to say.

In this one, both of my children are being weird.
Again, why?

Not terrible, except Brick, Collin, and Makenna are not looking at the camera.

Several not paying attention.

What is Blythe doing with the basketball?
Where did she give it?
What is Makenna trying to pick off Luke's neck?
Why is the second oldest giving us the most grief?

And finally, our last attempt.
Makenna is not looking, but she was not really very cooperative the whole time, 
so it is what it is.
Quite frankly, I think it's cute.
I wish Donovan were in it.

December 19th was the kids' school Christmas programs.  Unfortunately, we had to go twice.  The morning kindergarten performed in the morning (obviously) with the 4-6 grades.  The 1-3 grades, plus the afternoon kindergarteners, were in the afternoon.  So we had to fight for a place to watch and listen twice.  It really is pandemonium.  I went very early for Blythe's program and actually arrived while they were practicing.  This was excellent because I sat on the front row and got video without background noise or having to struggle to film around someone else's head.  None of the still shots were much good, but I did capture everything on video.

This is a darling picture of Blythe, and the only one really in focus, but everyone has demon eyes and 
the red eye fixing didn't really work.
Amanda and Daniel on the left, Jack and Lilly on the right.



Singing "Elmer Elf"
This year there was a departure from previous year song choices.
Blythe sang "Frosty the Snowman" instead of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."
Now we have a hippo from Brandt, but not one for Blythe.

Grandma Dawn brought McKenna and Greyson for both programs, but we didn't see them in the morning.  In the afternoon, we all got to sit together.  McKenna wanted to be up singing, not sitting and watching.


Here is our Brandt, with Mikayla (blurry) on the left, and London and Abram on the right.
I suggested he take off his sweatshirt when he got to school so we could see his green shirt underneath.
He apparently forgot.

Brandt is the middle of a crowd of second graders.
He sang "Jingle Bells" with a fun alternative part that his class sang, and "Still, Still, Still."
Brandt and Blythe both knew all the words to their songs and sang beautifully.
In fact, they kept singing all through the month.

I already blogged about two Christmas activities, our adults only Christmas dinner, and our trip to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square, so look elsewhere for those.  Those were on the 20th and 21st.   

Since the beginning of the month, Blythe has been asking when we could make cookies for Santa.  Knowing that Santa wouldn't want stale cookies, I have had to put her off, and put her off, and put her off.  Finally, on Monday the 23rd, we made cookies.  We made gingerbread.  The recipe made lots and lots and the children were interested in decorating for about four cookies each.  Brandt ate three of his and left one for Santa, and Blythe ate one and left three for Santa.  Look at all those sprinkles.  I'm certain Santa was super excited when he saw them!  Turns out the recipe wasn't stellar and the cookies weren't very good.  They sat on the counter, undecorated, until the 27th when I finally threw them away.



Monday was a cookie making day because it snowed and snowed and snowed.  It was just the sort of picturesque day you want on Christmas, but it was two days early.  The children wanted to make a snowman, and Kent went willingly outside to help them.  They wanted it to look like Olaf, from Frozen, so he had kind of a skinny head.  



We had a really lovely Christmas Eve and I didn't take a picture of anything that happened.  I was just caught up in the moment and enjoying and didn't realize until all was said and done that I hadn't taken out the camera.

In keeping with tradition, we gathered with the Barri on Christmas Eve.  The past several years we have gone to the clubhouse at the development where Brent and Brenda have a house, and we decided to do that again.  We didn't get on the schedule early enough, however, so we could be there from 1-4 in the afternoon.  We had a very delicious meal, a white elephant gift exchange, and swimming, but none of it felt very Christmas Eve-y.  We were finished far too early.  

Knowing the schedule, Kent and I invited Lee, Cammie, and Aaron and Richard Ledford to come over to our house in the evening for dinner.  Cammie had to work and missed all the afternoon activity, so she was glad to have some celebrating.  I made raclette, one of my very most favorite things to eat.  We hardly ever have it because the raclette cheese costs $21 per pound, and it tends to be costly caloricly too. However, it's Christmas, so we splurged.  In addition to the raclette--made with potatoes and red peppers which everyone loved--we had salad, crunchy bread, sparkling cider and fresh blackberry sorbet Cammie made.  Everything was divinely delicious.  We laughed and talked and the kids ran around in a Christmas Eve frenzy wanting to know when Santa was coming.  We got online to tract him through NASA, and we had no problem getting them in bed when we showed them that he was nearing the country but wouldn't stop if they weren't asleep.  Kent and I cleaned the kitchen and did a couple last minute wrappings, but we were abed ourselves just after 11.


Brandt woke first on Christmas morning.  In fact, Kent reported that he woke at 3:25am, then again at 4:45am, and then for the day at 6:15am.  You can't really contain Christmas excitement.  He came in for a snuggle but then begged me to come downstairs.  I had him help me haul Kent's big present (that red ottoman) out from under the bed, and then we went down.  He piled up all this presents from biggest to smallest, shaking and feeling, declaring he was certain they were all Legos, and wanting to know when he could start opening. 


The big hunt.
Which ones are his?

Two big presents from Santa.

Brandt with his haul, biggest to smallest.

A happy family on Christmas morning.


The big hunt for Blythe.

Brandt got Blythe "girl Legos."
Olivia's house to be precise.
She loved it!
Brandt did too.

Late-ish morning aftermath.
There was stuff all over the family room.
It stayed fairly chaotic for most of the rest of the week.

Christmas morning we always gather with the DeMartinis at my mom's house for a delicious brunch.  The menu has been the same for years and years--bacon, sausage, eggs, quiche, fruit, milk, juice, monkey bread, cinnamon swirl bread, and orange rolls.  Having such a big breakfast usually means that we only need to prepare food twice on Christmas rather than three times, but small bodies need almost constant refueling, so while the adults only ate twice, we did have to feed the children more than that.

After breakfast we exchanged and opened cousin presents and fun gifts from Grandma Sue.  The boys all got killer Nerf guns.  I probably shouldn't say killer.  They got super cool Nerf guns, with extra clips and lots of ammo.  They got them all assembled, loaded, and then headed over to the church to run around the gym shooting each other.  It was marvelous good fun.  Each year I make a photo book for my mom with pictures of all the grandkids from the past year.  This year I gave everyone a copy which I should have been doing all along.  I think I will order past copies for us just because it is so fun to see the changes and growth in the family and the children in particular.

Lyla and Brick on the floor,
Blake, Guy, and Mikayla on the couch.

Sue, Lyla (she gets around), Missy, Donovan, and Bryan

Makenna, Blythe, Guy, Blake, Crew

Griffin, Ava, Christopher, Tysen feeding Rowen

Brick, Kent, Kila, and Mikayla

Share and Collin who would not look at me.

After the present opening and the great gun battle, Lego construction began.  Brandt got Rancor's Pit and wanted to put it together so desperately that we took it over to Grandma's and did it there.  Luke and Eugene put some together too.  We stayed at my mom's house until about 6:30, playing games, eating, and hanging around.  By the time dinner was over and most of the mess was cleaned up, we were ready to be home, sitting quietly.  Well, some of us were ready, anyway.  

The next day, the 26th, I spent close to five hours helping assemble Lego sets--the Lone Ranger Train, as well as The Bank Robbery set, then Star Wars Battle at Geonosis.  When I finally finished helping Brandt, thinking I could take a break, Blythe came and begged me to help her do Olivia's house.  By the time everything was put together, I was sort of cranky.  I love Legos and all the wonderfully creative things the children do with them, but I am ready for the kids to be able to do them by themselves.  Brandt can, he just likes the company.  

All in all it was a marvelous Christmas from beginning to end.  We all love to celebrate and be together with family, and remember with joy the birth of Jesus Christ.  

Look at that scary rancor.  
Even in Lego form he is intimidating.

Eugene and Luke are putting together a fire truck, I think.


Collin, can you say "photo bomb?"

Our gun wielding fighters, off to shoot each other.