Christmas 2014...

Oh man. This month has been a whirlwind. Not just because of Christmas and all that comes along with that. Instead, this month brought long works hours for Clark we were not expecting, it brought several church commitments that took a lot of time and effort, it brought holiday parties, end-of-the-year dentist appointments, car registration renewal, post office visits, and so much more random stuff! The first weekend in December we needed a babysitter for four nights in a row! Just a lot of things on the calendar this month which made it feel a little crazy.

Aside from the craziness, there were really good things on the calendar too! Of course Clark's birthday always starts December off with some excitement. Our elf Clarence happened to bake a 'C' cake on the day of Clark's birthday. The 'C' cake was obviously for Clarence (the triplets made sure we knew that) but we used it for Clark's birthday festivities too...so it all worked out.  :) His 'C' cake was my first bundt cake I had ever made and I forgot to spray the pan. BIG MISTAKE. Luckily frosting was able to cover up my patchwork.

Our most anticipated event of the month, however, happened to be on Clark's birthday. It was the arrival of my parents!! They are here to stay for the next three months and we couldn't be more happy about it! On Clark's birthday they celebrated with us then spent the night here. The next morning they drove over to their apartment, got the keys, and moved into their 'new' place. The apartment is very nice with new paint and freshly cleaned carpets. But the best part about it, is that it's right around the corner from us! I mean, grandparents living in the same town??  Unheard of.

We have enjoyed their stay immensely and Clark and I have made the most out of our free babysitters.  My Dad has already put himself to work around our house, fixing pipes that won't drain, holes in the walls, paint touch-ups, etc...  He wasted no time in getting rid of the leaves that had piled in our front yard.  The kids were huge helpers, as you will see in the picture with the leaf bags.  And let's just take note of the snowflakes on our door this year.  I made those the day my parents arrived and am so darn proud of them.  No two snowflakes are alike and they just really jazz up our door.  Go me!

We wasted no time after my parent's arrival to begin all our Christmas activities.  I was more diligent with the advent calendar this year and planned things until about the 17th.  Then I burned out and put ornaments in the calendar for the last days before Christmas.  We did do a lot of fun activities though.  One, which I didn't picture and wish I did, was a nativity exhibit at a nearby LDS church.  Thousands of nativities were on display, plus a real live Mary and Joseph, although when we went to go look at the real people, Mary has disappeared on a bathroom break.  Ha!  Anyway, it was so fun to see all the different nativity sets from around the world.  There were even some musical performances and we could not believe the amount of poinsettias!  It was beautiful and we were glad we went.

There was also some gingerbread house making that we did at Grandma and Gramps' apartment.  The kids were huge helpers and only ate about 40% of the candy so that was good.  On one of our warmer days we headed up to Heard Museum to get some exercise and see the dinosaurs.  Grandma and Gramps thought they were pretty scary.  Another activity that we have never attended here in the area is the Christmas parade.  It was SO MUCH better than the fourth of July parade we usually attend. Probably due to the fact that we weren't sweating the whole time.  We were also at the beginning of the parade route which apparently makes a huge difference in candy amounts.  The triplets were wearing glasses and everyone was throwing candy to them and saying how cool they looked!  We're talking Halloween amounts of candy.  Three kids in cool shades?  Throw them some candy!  Zachary is our candy man and he was getting totally overwhelmed.  He'd open a sucker, take one lick, then say he was done so he could move on to other things.  No time to lick.  He needed more immediate satisfaction.  It was funny.

Other advent activities included eating Christmas cookies, sprinkling reindeer food at the park (oatmeal), writing letters to Santa, Toy drive, giving a gift to Jesus, making a countdown chain, driving to see Christmas lights, making silly videos, exchanging gifts with friends, doing a nativity cutout craft, and watching the Polar Express!  Gram and Papa gave us the Polar Express book and a bell ornament so it was fun to open that early and watch our movie too.  Nothing better than snuggling up on the couch next to a fire to watch a movie with the fam!

With my parents here now, we've worked out a system with them watching the kids.  I usually drop one kid off for a couple hours and spend time with the other two.  This has been great for me (two kids fight MUCH LESS than three) and allows some one-on-one time for the third kid which NEVER happens.  The kids love their special alone time and are sad when it's not their day to go over to Grandma and Gramps.  On days when nobody goes over there alone, we usually head over all together at night for story time, scriptures, and a show before bed.  So it's been fun so far having a new special place to go.

As mentioned before, Clarence has been busy this month.  Aside from his nightly trips to/from the North Pole, he has been zip-lining, sneaking into the peppermints, coloring, fishing for goldfish, hiding in stockings, building block towers, holding the baby Jesus, decorating himself with stickers, hiding in each of the kids' rooms, and barricading the hall on Christmas Eve.  We always enjoy him coming around and finding Clarence was the first thing the triplets did every morning. 

For the past few years I've heard talk of the North Pole Express train near us.  I've looked into it but never bought tickets because of the price.  However, three reasons changed my mind this year: 

1)  the kids loving the Polar Express movie/book so much
2)  our possible move out of the area this next year so this would be our last chance
3)  four is such a fun age to be able to do this stuff and they are so enchanted with Christmas this year

The Express experience really looked so fun so I decided to buy tickets in October before things sold out or I changed my mind.  And I'm glad I did!  It was a ton of fun.  My only complaint of the whole night was all the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiting.  Waiting in line, waiting to board the train, waiting for the train to go, waiting to get off, etc...  There were a LOT of people so the waiting was hard.  Especially for the kids.  We were so tired of waiting that we didn't want to wait in line at the end for pictures with Santa.  We're not sure they would've taken a picture anyway since an earlier Santa encounter at the ward Christmas party only yielded a high five from Caleb.  The kids claimed they would hug the 'real' Santa.  Somehow they knew the earlier one was an imposter!

Anyway, the waiting was a drag.  We did manage to have fun along the way though.  Basically the night was as follows:

receiving boarding passes, boarding the train, getting our tickets punched, singing songs, enjoying the ride (Caleb said it was too slow...I think he was expecting mountains and high speeds like the movie), seeing Mrs. Claus, receiving a bell, arriving at the north pole, walking through a forest of trees with soap snow falling on us (super fun part...kids were thrilled at the snow), sitting in the 'snowflake' zone at Santa's workshop, watching grown men elves dance around (ha!), and ringing all the bells so Santa would arrive!

And arrive he did!  He came out, did a song and a dance, talked to the kids, then gave them Frosty Chocolate Snow milk.  Zachary was in heaven.  Chocolate milk???  He couldn't put it down.  In fact, I don't know why I've never given it to him.  He does NOT like milk.  But put a little chocolate in it and he's on board.  I've purchased Nesquik since.  :)  Leah did not like the chocolate milk and wanted 'plain' milk instead.  We could've guessed that! 

After receiving milk, it was Santa picture time but like I mentioned, we opted out of waiting in line and decided to go home.  The kids were none the wiser.  On the way home we listened to the Polar Express soundtrack and book in the car.  It was a FUN family evening and I'm glad we went.  I documented the whole night with videos so hopefully the kids can look back and remember the fun too.

One last tidbit before I get to Christmas Eve and Christmas festivities.  The kids have taken an interest in my camera and ask to take pictures occasionally.  The four adults were caught on camera this month and I have to say the pictures aren't half bad!  Maybe some cameras will be good gifts from Santa next year!

The day before Christmas Eve we decided to go out to eat and avoid cooking.  I have never seen the kids eat so much chicken!  They were starving apparently.  Sure makes for an enjoyable outing when the kids eat!  We even shared a giant brownie at the end which resulted in some anxiety on Zachary's part.  When it comes to chocolate and sweets, he's not very good at sharing.  Understandable I suppose.



Ok.  Now for the final events.  The big ones.  The ones we'd been waiting for!  :)  On Christmas Eve we decided to eat Clark's traditional finger foods meal.  Veggies, dip, fruit, crackers, rolls, cheese ball, summer sausage, pumpkin roll, cookies, etc...  We got the food out at noon and ate off it all day.  We were stuffed!  It was perfect for the kids too.  After getting everyone ready for the inaugural nativity performance, we realized that the kids hadn't eaten dinner yet so they sat down and filled their bellies so they could perform at their best!  Which they totally did!  I was so impressed with the kids' enthusiasm for playing their parts.  I checked out this great children's book at the library which told the story of Christmas and narrated from that for our nativity.  Even Grandma and Gramps' performances were top notch.  Golden Globe nominations for sure!

After the nativity, we enjoyed listening to Grandma and Gramps play the violin and guitar.  We sang along and had a pretty good sound going.  I played a song on the piano and then the kids were getting tired and ancy so we read our annual 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' book.  Gramps did the honor.  We then moved into the TV room to watch a couple nativity videos (meant to watch Mr. Krugers Christmas and forgot...dang it!) and finished the night off with 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.'  The triplets were watching it for the first time so they really enjoyed it.  Once the kids were in bed and Grandma and Gramps had gone, Clark and I ended the night on the couch watching 'A Christmas Story.'  We had a few good laughs.  It was a WONDERFUL, FUN Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning was equally wonderful and fun.  Our friends Michael and Marisol came over to enjoy the morning with us.  The kids were up at 6:30am and everyone else arrived at 7:30am so we had a little time to open stockings, try on new costumes, and snack on some cereal.

The first portion of our present opening was all about the kids.  They just took turns and went around the circle several times.  Its fun to watch their excitement and we couldn't get things out of the boxes fast enough.  Caleb and Zachary managed to come away with new blankets!  I couldn't believe how nice and white the new ones looked.  And so fluffy.  Four years can really take the fluff out of blankets! 

We all decided to take a break and get breakfast going which was perfect because the kids just played with the toys they had already opened while the adults furiously got food on the table.  I couldn't believe how fast it happened.  Pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham, fruit, and juice.  Whew!  We loved it all!  Zachary hardly ate anything because he filled up on Hershey kisses and gummy worms at 6:30am.  Oh well. 

The most special thing about the breakfast was my new pizelle maker! Sooooo yummy and fun!  It's like homemade waffle cones so they are sweet but a perfect addition to any breakfast.  Cover them in powdered sugar, jelly, peanut butter, whatever!!  Can't wait to make more!

The cutest thing about the morning was Leah when she got to work on her new Boogie Board (thanks Gram and Papa!).  She was quiet for a while then came back and said, "Look Mom, I'm facetiming!" 

After breakfast we went outside to burn some energy but let's first take note of Gramp's Christmas sweater.  He got the honor of wearing it this year (Clark wore it last year for the first time) and made it look pretty good!  The kids kicked around their new soccer balls and had so much fun!  Look for Leah's celebration in the pictures.  She's got it down already!

Once everyone had worked up a sufficient sweat, we resumed our present opening.  Now it was the adults' turn!  This year my Dad and I collaborated on a family history book.  It's a short story of my Dad when he was younger and worked on his farm.  The book connects his caring for the baby sheep to the story of Jesus's birth.  Add in some pictures of the farm, a quote from the prophet, and pictures of Jesus and we were pretty proud of our work!  I enjoyed making the book and am glad to have it for our family to read on future Christmas Eves. 

We enjoyed the rest of the morning opening a few more gifts, one of which was a karaoke machine!  It was intended for the kids but none of them wanted to get behind the microphone.  I suppose we'll give it time. I've loved it though!  I busted out a sweet rendition of NSYNC and Grandma and Gramps did an awesome Beatles duet! 

Christmas Evening we were all exhausted but Grandma and Gramps were kind enough to come back over to babysit (I mean, the triplets were babysitting them :) while Clark and I snuck away to the movie 'Unbroken.'  It was a perfect ending to the day.

This month was fast and furious and I have a feeling this next year will be described with those same two words.  We shall see!

Happy New Year!!