New Year's Eve

We rang in the new year a few hours early by burning a Christmas tree in the company of neighbors with whom we were partying.  Good food, good conversation, a wild dance party, and a tree burning.  Does it get any better than that?

Christmas Day

Christmas arrived nice and early, especially early for Brandt, whose excitement for the whole thing wakes him earlier than usual.  By the time Blythe and I woke up, presents had been sorted, stockings squished to try and determine contents, and Brandt was beside himself.  Kent got up with him to make sure he didn't want the girls, taking one for the team.

 Look what we found when we came downstairs!  Santa had come! He had eaten his root beer float, and he left a letter as well as presents.  Blythe said, "See Mom! Santa does write letters!"  There has been some discussion about whether or not Santa ever wrote letters back to children, and I told Blythe I wasn't sure he had time.  Apparently, I was misinformed.

Santa brought Blythe a Barbie cash register instead of the Barbie computer she had asked for.  I hadn't seen any Barbie computers for girls her age, and told her I wasn't sure Santa would think it was appropriate either.  She might have been a tad bit disappointed.  Santa brought Brandt a remote control Lamborghini, just what he wanted.  Even though Brandt did not sit on Santa's lap or write him a letter, "He always knows what you want," Brandt told Blythe confidently two days ago.  I think Santa had something else in mind for Brandt, but figured it out just in time!  Did he remember the 9-volt battery to run the remote control car?  No, but fortunately, we had one on hand.  Phew!  Christmas morning might have been ruined.

Blythe wanted to start a new tradition this year.  We would each take turns pulling one item from our stocking and then opening a present, and everyone would watch everyone else.  That way none of us missed anything.  We all agreed this was a fine idea, one which slowed down the frenetic unwrapping.  There are only four of us, so no one had to wait long for their next turn.

I made crepes for breakfast, another new tradition I think.  We haven't had to have a Christmas breakfast in the past as we have been with the DeMartinis, but as we were by ourselves, I thought crepes were just the ticket.  So did everyone else.  We ate lots and lots.  It snowed heavily overnight, leaving the world a magical white.  Blythe informed us the snow came from magic dust left by the reindeer.  I'm not sure where that came from, but who am I to get into a meteorological argument with my daughter on Christmas?  December 28th maybe, but not Christmas.  After breakfast, Kent went out to shovel, and it didn't take long for the children to bundle up and tromp around in it all.  We came in for hot chocolate and spent the rest of the morning reading, Lego constructing, and gaming.

Kent was up wayyyyyyyy too early with Brandt.

He read the paper and took a nap on the couch.

 

Post shoveling action watching.

Lots of snow.

As today is Sunday, we got to attend church, but we only went to sacrament meeting.  I've decided I love having church on Christmas, though that is perhaps because we meet at 1:00pm.  We were able to do all our Christmas morning stuff, then get ready and head to church for a focused celebration of our Savior's birth.  There was wonderful music, the reading of the first Christmas story from the scriptures, and a very thoughtful, sweet message from the bishop.  It was fun to see neighbors and wish them merry Christmas, and to take the sacrament, remembering the purpose of Christ's birth--for him to come to earth and be our savior.  It was a very sweet meeting.  

I wanted to take a family picture after church.  We followed Ty and Janie Rasmussen home because I hadn't been able to wish them merry Christmas, and I asked if they would take our picture.  Brandt got out of the car and threw a snowball at the car door, but it missed and went into the car, hitting Blythe on the face.  She began to howl, Brandt climbed huffily back in the car when I chastised him, and so Kent and I took a picture alone.  No full family picture today.

Kent and I look good, even without the children.

In the afternoon, after church, we headed over to Grandma Sue's house to play with cousins.  Everyone came over for food and fun, and we had lots of both.  The adults began a game of charades, but it didn't take too long for the children to join in.  It was hilarious.  Not all the kids were very good at acting out their words, but Brandt was quite good.  He was very imaginative.  One of his words was "taco truck" and he acted out something no one understood at all.  When his time ran out, we asked him what he was doing, and then he showed us how he was making tacos.  Thing was, it looked like he was pulling ingredients out of his back pockets.  We all laughed and laughed and then laughed some more.  And then, while playing a new game called Speak Out, I laughed so hard I peed my pants.  Well, almost.  I had to leap up and run for the bathroom because it was going to happen.  Seriously.  We went home around 7:00pm, content with all the fun we'd had all day long.  It was a wonderful Christmas!

 

Christopher is saying "Platypuses walk sideways."

It was totally unintelligible!

Christmas Eve

We began our day with a DeMartini Family breakfast at Christopher and Tysen's house.  We had a delicious meal, then exchanged cousin presents.  We have done this on Christmas day, but last year we had to do it on Christmas Eve because Guy and Mikayla were going to be out of town on Christmas, and we all liked it.  The kids were delighted to be getting presents a day before Christmas, and are always glad to be with cousins.  Unfortunately, Bryan and Melissa weren't with us.  We missed them!
Before we left, as I was preparing fruit, I had Brandt wrap presents.  He wrapped all the family photo books.  He's a good worker.

We got home from breakfast and wrapped presents.  Brandt and Blythe wrapped their presents for each other, and a few extras I let them help with.  We did dinner food preparations, and then took off for Sandy and Barrus Family Christmas Eve celebrating.  We met up at the Institute Building again, the perfect venue for a lot of Barri.  I made two large pans of gratin and shrimps as an appetizer.  

We had a great time with Barrus cousins.  There were lots of us this year.  David and Sharon were there with almost all their kids and grandkids.  Only Brooke and Eric were missing.  Lee, Cammie, and Aaron came, as well as Ian and Jodi, and Katie and Kristy with all their groups, plus us and some friends of David and Sharon.  Most lucky of all, Grandpa George was in town.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a group picture.  Makes me sad because there were really a lot of us there and it would have been a great shot.  

After dinner, we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I got an excessively large wrench, Blythe got a small gumball machine with no gumballs, but she put marbles in it, Brandt got a little packet of Legos, and no one can remember what Kent got.  Because we were such a big group, we gave each person only 30 seconds to pick a gift and open it, or steal someone else's and have them pick a new gift and open it.  The whole thing went very smoothly and didn't take nearly as long as it has in years past.  Sharon then rallied all the little kids for a stirring performance of the nativity, complete with songs we all sang, a visit from angels, and the birth of baby Jesus.  I did get a picture of our talented performers.  Aunt Sharon had purchased enough jelly-bean pooping animals for all the children to have one, and we left filled with food and the Christmas spirit.

Grandpa won a pair of silly glasses during the white elephant exchange.

He was kind enough to give them to Blythe to bring home.

I can't imagine why he didn't want to keep them.

A wise guy.

Mary/Lucy

Joseph/Jake and Mary/Lucy

Aiden or Ashton, but I don't know which one

Angels Blythe and Aubrey

The cast: Lizzie, Scott, Tyson, Becca and Emma, Katelyn, Aiden/Ashton, Caleb, Emmy, Lucy, Ethan, Jake, Aubrey, Brandt, and Blythe

Brandt and Jake

On the way home we got into a discussion about what relation Brandt and Jake are to each other.

Although Brandt is only a few years older than Jake, Brandt is actually first cousins to Jake's mom, Kristy.

That makes them first cousins once removed.

Jake and Brandt's children will be second cousins, even though they will be closer in age.

We got home from Christmas Eve celebrating and checked out Santa Tracker.  He was getting closer, so Brandt and Blythe quickly got ready for bed.  And although they were in bed at a reasonable hour, I'm not sure how quickly they fell asleep.  Kent and I set about doing last minute preparations for Christmas morning.  We wrapped and filled stockings, and at Brandt's suggestion, put out a root beer float for Santa.  Brandt was absolutely CERTAIN that Santa would prefer a root beer float over a plate of cookies.  Blythe worried about how it would still be good for Santa when he came, because the ice cream would melt, but we promised we would put it out very last thing before we went to bed, and assured her it would still be good when Santa arrived.  

There is always so much excited anticipation for Christmas, and this was certainly true this year.  Blythe especially has been eagerly counting down the days.  It will be wonderful good fun to have it finally here tomorrow.  I hope it's not a disappointment for anyone.

 

 

Blythe has been very concerned about leaving something for Santa.  Her love language is gift giving, and for days she has been worrying about what to give to Santa.  After all, he gives her something every year, and she wants to give something to him, too.  She made the necklace above for Mrs. Claus.  It's got cute wooden balls she wrote on and decorated, as well as jingle bells.  She couldn't really think of what to give to Santa, so she wrote him a nice note, and I assured her that he would be so pleased with her letter and the root beer float.  She didn't need to do anything else.  We'll see if he takes it with him tonight.