Christmas Vacation Recap

We had over two full weeks off of school for Christmas vacation!  It was a great time of relaxation, sleeping in, few obligations and fun.  For a blogger, I pretty shamefully did not document much with photos, so I will just give a short recap.

1.  MOVIES, MOVIES, MOVIES!  Our family loves movies and we watched a lot of them.  We got an awesome amount of movie theater gift cards for Christmas so we were all set.   We saw the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Frozen, Saving Mr. Banks, and Anchorman 2 (just Jen and Dave.)  Plus we ate lots of popcorn!

At home we watched Elf, A Christmas Story, White Christmas, RIPD, and Lord of the Rings.

2.  Double feature movie night with friends.  We also had our friends the Griffins over for a double feature and pizza party.  We watched the new Superman movie and Wolverine along with eating some yummy Jet's pizza.

3.  Midnight bowling.  Ashley didn't want to go the whole break without a little bowling practice, so we decided to go to the "all you can bowl" from 10pm-12am.  I mean, it's not like we had to wake up early the next day.  Ashley bowled her personal best so far 190!  That girl is getting close to 200!

4.  Hanging with friends.  Both girls went to parties at friends houses and spent other time with friends. Paige went to play with friends - American Girl and Minecraft were favorite past times.  Ashley went on mall shopping trips and to the movies with her friends.

5.  Friends and family parties.  We are so very fortunate to have good friends here.  We were on the receiving end of some great holiday invitations.  We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve with friends at family dinner parties.  Besides delicious food and awesome company, we played games, chatted, went caroling, and had all sorts of fun.

6.  Binge-watched "Once Upon a Time."  For the past 6 plus months, the girls and I have been watching the tv show "Once Upon a Time" on Netfix.  Currently, season 3 is running on tv, so we have had to watch two seasons to catch up.  It hasn't been easy because the three of us can never sit down at the same time to watch tv, so it's definitely taken longer than expected.  Well we are now all caught up thanks to binge-watching over Christmas break.  Of course, the down side is that now we have to wait every week like everyone else for each episode.

7.  Eating lots of junk.  My sister Debby and her husband, Sam, sent us one of those gift towers of fruit and candy.  9 levels to be exact.  That along with other treats, gifts, and candy left us with a counter full of food.  At the beginning of the break, I thought there would be no way we could get through it all.  Update - we pretty much were able to eat our way through it.  It has been junk food city around here.  I've hardly cooked any regular meals because we've been eating out or eating so much other crap no one was ever hungry at dinner time.

The tower of treats - pears, apples, candy, chocolate,
cookies, nuts, crackers, oh my!

A fun gift we received, homemade vanilla extract

8.  Candy-making.  I know that it is kind of ironic to follow number 7 above with a story about making lots of Christmas candy, but it's just not Christmas to me without making some candy.  I will report that we did gift over 75% of it.  I made fudge, English toffee and sugar cookies.  I didn't have to make caramels because a family friend makes the best caramels and gave us a huge tin.  LUCKY.

9.  Games.  Each girl got a board game for Christmas.  Ashley got a chess board.  The girls are just beginners but they have been playing a lot and honing their strategies.  Paige got the game Hedbandz which is always good for a laugh.

Christmas Day

When I think back on the Christmas mornings for our family, they really have always been pretty peaceful.  Our girls never wake up too early, usually around 8 am.  Our tradition is that we can each look in our stockings while we wait for everyone to gather and get in position to open presents.  After that we each take turns opening gifts which include gifts from Santa and family all mixed together.  

I don't make my kids get dressed before they open presents or anything like that.  I figure they are wearing brand new pjs why not enjoy wearing them for a little longer.  This year, the girls really didn't even know what they wanted.  Neither of them had any big ticket items on the wish list.  In fact they barely had wish lists, maybe that's why I had such a hard time getting everything ready.

 Paige got some Minecraft plush figures in her stocking which were a major hit.  That girl, along with all her friends and about every other kid her age is OBSESSED with Minecraft.  I read an article once that said it can be an educational game as it teaches kids to build societies and prioritize needs and supplies, etc.  I cling to that in order to convince myself that it's okay :)

Paige got Monster High doll she wanted along with some American Girl books, crafts and clothes.

Ashley got some gift cards and her very own CHI flat iron.  She straightens her almost every day and she has been using my flat iron.  Now with her very own, she doesn't have to come into my bathroom every morning at 5:30am to get ready.  Hey, I think I'm a winner with this one too!!

As a surprise, Dave bought me a paperwhite Kindle which I love and I bought him a new sport coat.

Part of the aftermath
 

After gifts, I made a bacon and egg breakfast and then we lounged around and played with our new things.  The girls had fun playing Hedbanz and Chess.  Dave and I played too and honestly, not sure what I'm supposed to say about this picture:

We also got a very sweet Christmas surprise from Dave's parents Jim and Carolyn.  They sent us a fresh flower arrangement for our Christmas table.  It was such a kind gesture to let us know that they were thinking of us on Christmas day even if we are far apart.  The carnations came in a beautiful red vase, which I love having, and were a welcome addition to our table during Christmas break.

Later, in the evening we went and had dinner at our friend's house, Alan & Julie Thompson.  It included the Thompson family, our family and the Sister Missionaries in our ward.  I didn't get any pictures, which I feel bad about because we had a great time.  We had a delicious ham and potato dinner and then we played a hilarious and rousing game of Apples to Apples.  Speaking of apples, Julie made a delicious apple pie for dessert that had shredded cheddar cheese in the pie crust.  What a great idea and it is very tasty.  I better get the recipe for that one.  

Christmas Eve

Wow, Christmas Eve?  How did that happen?  It literally snuck up on me.  The last week before Christmas was busy, busy and sick.

Ashley survived her first finals week at school.  This is different from when I was in high school.  We didn't have finals or anything like that.  Schools around here are a little more like when you are in college.  During finals weeks, you don't have regular class, you basically go to your scheduled finals (1-3 tests each day) and then go home early.  Finals do count towards a portion of your grade but it's not your whole grade so that is a good thing.  Basically, going into finals week there was really only one class that she needed to do well on in the final and that was Honors Biology.  The rest of her grades in her classes were pretty much set, which means that in order to have an effect on her grade she would have had to either fail the test or ace the test, since neither scenario was likely it took a little pressure off.  For Biology she had a high B+ in the class, right on the border between an A and a B.  If she could get an A on the final she could get an A in the class AND…..she did it!  Phew, what a relief to have that behind her so she could enjoy Winter Break with no homework or school worries.

I unfortunately, got sick during this week.  It wasn't the flu but it was a horrible virus.  I caught it from Ashley and man did it kick my butt.  The worst part is that it basically put me out of commission for 4 days---4 days that I needed to get ready for Christmas.  Basically, it left Dave to try and help and then just an acceptance that some stuff wasn't going to get done.  I barely got gifts to extended family in the mail and for our family it was "we have to go with what we got."

This is when I became extra thankful for invitations from friends to have holiday dinners with them, because honestly, preparing or even shopping for Christmas dinner was not going to happen.  We had Christmas Eve dinner with the Oscarson family.  They hosted us along with two other families - the Stradlings and the Flinders.  They have their big Christmas dinner on the 24th so they can casually enjoy Christmas Day - it's a great idea.  Again, I failed at the picture taking thing but I can tell you what we did.  We had a fabulous prime rib dinner at the Oscarsons.  After dinner the younger children played some Christmas songs on the piano as Corinne Oscarson teaches piano to 4 of the kids, including Paige.

We then bundled up and went caroling and took some treats to different neighbors and friends.  Paige absolutely loved this part.  As we were caroling she told me this was a great Christmas Eve.  I guess we better take her caroling more often.

After the caroling, we went over to another family's house for dessert.  We all brought a different dessert to share.  I made a mint chocolate brownie trifle.  It was delish.  Along with dessert, we acted out the nativity, with scripts and homemade costumes.  Our girls were two of the three wisemen.

It was a fun evening of good food and friends and were very grateful to be invited to share Christmas with them.

Afterwards, we came home and opened our Christmas PJs and as it was already pretty late, it was time for bed and dreams of sugarplums dancing in our heads.

First Bowling Medal!

 

Ashley's bowling season is in full swing.  She has on average about two meets a week and then goes to tournaments on some Saturdays.  In her first tournament, in the JV division, she placed 15th out of 61 bowlers and her team took 3rd place overall.  She got her first bowling medal.  Way to go Ashley and the Lady Wolves!

Church Christmas Activities

At church we had a few different Christmas parties.  One for the Primary, one for the adults and one for the youth.  Everyone got a party.  Seems like a lot of extra work to hold so many different parties, but I'm not the decision-maker so we just went with the flow and partied, partied, partied.

First up was the Activity Day girls mother/daughter Gingerbread house party.  All the girls bring their moms and decorate a gingerbread house together.  For the last year, Paige has been bringing two friends with her to Activity Days.  It's been a great way to share our faith with friends and neighbors.  Her friends, Samantha and Riley came with their moms and we decorated the night away.

Paige and her house (oops I probably should have been
in the picture too!)

Riley and Jane

Samantha and Michelle

Paige's finished product (did you know that kits come with
fondant now?  fancy)

The next party was the Primary family Santa Breakfast.  This was the day after Dave's surgery so he couldn't go with us, but the girls and I went for some waffles and sausage.

Paige sitting on Santa's lap

The following weekend was the Adult Christmas Party.  I didn't take any pictures but it was basically just a Christmas dinner with socializing.  Fortunately, Dave was feeling good enough to go.  He also made a huge batch of mashed potatoes for the dinner.  We did not go to his work party this year as he was recovering from surgery and honestly, we really didn't have time for it anyway.

The last party was a youth party for all the teenagers in our ward.  It was held at someone's house, we ordered a bunch of pizza and all the kids brought a white elephant gift to exchange.  I think they had a fun time hanging out, eating and opening/stealing the crazy gifts.  The gift Ashley brought was a big kitty cat poster rolled up with 4 cans of root beer hidden inside.  She came home with a Thai elephant wall hanging--literally a "white elephant."

Both of the girls were also invited to Christmas parties with friends so they were very busy on the social scene.  Good times!

Surgery at the "Taj Mahal"

Less than two weeks before Christmas, Dave woke up with pain in his abdomen.  He had an umbilical hernia and needed surgery.  He had to wait about a week before he had his surgery.  The timing was both good and bad.  It set him back a little at work as he pretty much had to work from home the whole week before the surgery and then have almost another week after to recover.  And as far exercising or physical exertion, that was a no go too.   Lucky Dave, he did get out of some serious snow shoveling and any gym time.  It sort of felt like just when he had plans to get things going, all of sudden he couldn't go.

On the other hand, this happened in 2013 which saved us some money.  If it had been after the new year, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums would have reset.  Fortunately (and sadly) with all of Dave's health problems this year, we reached our max on everything sometime in the summer so basically this surgery was 100% covered.  In fact, he had surgery on Friday, Friday the 13th.  Some people may have been a too superstitious to have surgery on that day, but believe me neither of us wanted to wait or get any closer to Christmas.

The surgery was a pretty routine, out-patient surgery.  He had his surgery at a newer hospital that is SO fancy, the people who work there call it the "Taj Mahal."  I won't say its the Taj Mahal, but it is definitely the nicest hospital I've ever seen.  The patient rooms feel like you are staying in a high-end hotel.  The rooms have beautiful views and 2 (yes, 2!) flat screen tvs.  I got to enjoy free fresh fruit and Starbucks herbal tea while I waited for Dave.  We ended up spending the whole day at the hospital but everything went well.  I'm glad he was okay and all patched up.

Nutcracker 2013

Ah, the Nutcracker Ballet.  This was the second year Paige danced in the show.  Thank goodness it's only once a year, because it gives parents plenty of time to forget how hard it is.  Parents forget, sign their kid up again, and then once they remember what performance week is like, it's too late!!!

Let me tell you what performance week is like.  On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday there are mandatory technical and dress rehearsals.  They run from 4:00 pm to almost 10:00 pm.  Basically, the second Paige gets home from school, I rush to get her dressed, do her hair and makeup (in a VERY specific way) and then run over to the theater and basically sit there for 6 hours of rehearsals.  I also want to point out that these are school nights.  After the rehearsal, she has to come home and shower off all the make-up, hair gel, spray, etc.  She gets to bed pretty late.

The shows are on Saturday and Sunday, which basically means repeating the whole, hair and makeup routine.  The show itself is about three hours long.  To add to my joy this year, the two numbers Paige was in required a hair change.  Usually, everyone wears their hair in bun for every dance, but a few numbers require hair down and curled in spirals.  Lucky me, Paige had one of these dances, which meant curling every single piece of her hair in ringlets.  Then running backstage during intermission to re-do her hair and help her change costumes.  Fortunately, Paige and her best friend Riley danced together so I could tag team with Riley's mom and take turns helping the girls.

It was all pretty exhausting.  Paige was pretty grumpy and sleep-deprived and I was definitely running short of patience, so we had some bad moments during that week, but we survived.  Paige loved dancing on stage.  The show was great and in the end everyone was happy.  And we will probably end up doing it again next year, sigh.

instead of flowers, we bought Paige a ballerina Nutcracker

Shed a Tear for the Magic (Christmas spoiler alert!!)

So, last year Paige got an Elf on the Shelf as a birthday present, which put me in the position of having to welcome an Elf into our home.  I am not a fan of the Elf on the Shelf.  Don't we have enough to do already?  However, Paige was super excited and I didn't want to let her down.  So during the Christmas season last year, we had "Candy Cane" our elf showing up every night.

Fast forward to this year, as December is approaching, Paige is eagerly anticipating the arrival of her elf.  She asks me when I think Candy Cane will come back.  I tell her it will be soon.  Well, Paige being the inquisitive person she is, decided to google Elf on the Shelf to see if there was specific day that she comes back.  Uh, oh!  What she reads about on Elf on the Shelf is shocking!

She comes to me and tells me that it says, "parents move the elf around!"  "Is that true?"

Now, there are a few problems, to name two:

1) I am not prepared for this.  I am caught a little off guard.
2) I do not like Elf on the Shelf and am probably predisposed to any way to get out of doing it.

Soooo, without really thinking it ALL the way through, I give it to her straight.  She is shocked and sadly says, and I mean sadly, "I thought she was real."

Of course, Dave being wiser than me says, "you know what this is going to lead to, right?"

And not 10 minutes later, Paige comes back and asks about Santa.   Shoot!

All I can say, is that it was sad.  She even shed a few tears, not all out upset but just sad.  This made me  so sad.  I knew this was coming, she had asked about it a few times in the weeks before, so it was probably time, but I wasn't quite ready.  AND I COMPLETELY BLAME IT ON THAT STUPID ELF!  Curse you elf!

Anyway, she did say, that she wanted to know and was glad we told her but I definitely felt the loss of the magic and innocence in a way that I didn't feel with Ashley.  Maybe because Ash was a year older, I was more ready and of course, Paige is our last child, so Christmas won't be the same anymore.

Honestly, Paige seemed to get over it quickly.  I was a little melancholy and sad for a few days, wishing I could have a redo, but life moves on.  Christmas was different this year, but it was still special, just in a different way.

And for the record, it was probably a good thing this was my gaffe and not Dave's otherwise, I'd probably still be holding it against him.  Thank goodness he is so forgiving and was so tender with Paige.

Wicked

Way back in August, Ashley's birthday present was tickets to Wicked.  She had to wait, for the show to come to town and for the best seats, we chose a show in December.  It was a long time to wait, but it's Wicked, so it's worth it!

Dave and I saw the show quite a few years ago when it first came to Chicago, but this was Ashley's first time.  I consider our experience this time, the tale of two stories--the good and the bad.   The show itself was fabulous, but everything else that evening was a bit of a nightmare for us as you shall soon learn…

First up, we had three tickets to the show.  Dave, Ashley and I were going to go.  Paige had mandatory dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker so she couldn't go.  Unfortunately, the day before the show, Dave developed a hernia and was in and out of some serious pain.  He decided that he probably couldn't go with us.  We thought about taking Paige, but she decided she needed to be at rehearsal so we had an extra ticket.  Considering the $100 price tag for each ticket, I didn't want it to just go to waste, the least we could do was give it to someone to enjoy.  So last minute, Ashley invited her friend, Jane, from church to go with us.  This was seriously, last minute, the girl went to school thinking she was going to have to babysit her brothers and sisters that night, but came home to learn that she had about 1 hour to get ready to go see Wicked.  Surprise!

The original plan for the evening had been for Dave to drive to work and Ashley and I would ride the train downtown and meet him after work for the show.  That way, we could avoid rush hour traffic going into Chicago and have a car to drive home after the show.  We could also grab a quick bite to eat before the show.  It would have been perfect.  Unfortunately, with Dave sick we had to change plans.  I will say that I still thought that we should take the train.  The only risk was that after the show we had a short window to catch the last train out of the city back to the burbs.  If we missed it, we would be stuck.  Dave suggested we drive in.  We could leave home at 4:30.  Even if traffic was bad, it wouldn't take us 3 hours to get downtown.  The show started at 7:30.  I didn't know what to do but eventually decided to drive.  I did, however, buy parking in advance, because I didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of parking, once we got there.

Ashley had bowling practice that afternoon, so the plan was to pick her up at the bowling alley, go get her friend and get on the freeway.  When I went into the bowling alley to pick her up, I saw her sitting down, face red and puffy from crying and an ice pack on her hand.  What?!  How did she get injured bowling?  Apparently they were practicing some kind of rolling technique on the carpet of the bowling alley and her finger got stuck in the hole of the ball and her hand got smashed between the ball and the ground.  It hurt pretty bad and her fingers were very swollen and already starting to bruise.  It looked bad.  But we had tickets to Wicked, no refunds!  Since she broke her finger before, I have a little knowledge about broken fingers and although they were smashed, she could bend them and they didn't seem broken.  Still, her hand was throbbing with pain.  I felt bad for her but we stopped at the store and bought her some ibuprofen and decided to continue icing as we drove to Chicago.

We quickly picked up her friend and headed downtown.  Things were okay for about 20 minutes then it all went bad.  TRAFFIC JAM, it was epic.  I think there must have been some kind of accident.  Plus one thing we did not consider was that traffic inbound is always worse on Friday night.  For whatever reason, this was a perfect storm, literally the worst traffic I've seen in my 10 years here.  At first, I wasn't too concerned.  It was going to be slow going, but it couldn't take us 3 hours to go 40 miles, right?!

At one point, we were basically at a standstill.  All I could do was watch the clock.  Eventually, as we crawled along, the panic started to set in.  It was a very real possibility we would not make it in time.  This is live theater, if you are late, they might not seat you.  I had Ashley searching the traffic maps on my phone.  I told her to look and tell me what color the road was on the map--red or yellow.  She said, neither, it was black!  Not good, black is worse than red.  Then we tried to call Dave and see if he could map out an alternate route for us if we got off the freeway.  He couldn't see a better way so we just had to wait and pray.

Basically, we entered the city at 7:10pm.  I drove like a madwoman or maybe I should say a crazy cabby to get over to the theater.  By this time it is 7:20 and I still have to park the car.  At this point, I didn't want the girls who had not seen the show, to miss anything, so I gave them their tickets and let them out in front of the theater and told them to go straight in and text me when they were safe and seated.  I then rushed to park the car.  What a blessing that I pre-purchased parking.  I still had to drive through the garage to find an open spot and ride the elevator back down to the street and run like a crazy woman to the theater.  I don't know how it was even possible but I walked through the front doors at 7:28, just as they were making the last call.  At this point, after having been in the car for so long, I definitely could have used a bathroom break, but there was no time for that.

Okay now the good part.  Our seats were amazing.  We were on the front row of the balcony, no one sitting in front of us.  It had been so long since I saw the show, in some ways it was like seeing it again for the first time.  Ashley, Jane and I loved it.  The music was fabulous.  Even though it had been hectic getting there, we were rewarded with a great show.

At intermission, once again I had to send the girls out on their own.  I gave the girls some money and told them to go get some concessions, because remember, we didn't have time to eat dinner.  I HAD to go to the bathroom.  The thing about the Oriental Theater is that there are not enough restrooms and there always huge lines.  I seriously, made a run for the bathroom line and probably had about 25 people ahead of me and 100 behind me.  Intermission is 15 minutes.  I stood in line the whole time.  Just as they flashed the lights to give a 5 minute warning, I was number 3 in line.  It was not an option to wait until later.  I finished my business with seconds to spare.  It was crazy.

After the show, this was the first time all evening we weren't in a time crunch, so we took a few pictures.

Then we tried to figure out where we could get some food.  The bad thing about this is that it is 11pm at night and nothing is really open and most of the downtown area is deserted.  I just decided to drive towards the freeway entrance and see what we could find.  Fortunately, we drove by a
Subway.  A Subway that was looking pretty sketchy and deserted with only a homeless guy inside.  The girls were too nervous to get out of the car, so I illegally parked right in front, locked the doors and went inside to buy sandwiches.  We ate in the car and thank heavens enjoyed an uneventful ride home! Man, the things we do for fun.

First Bowling Meet

We are all novices to the bowling world, so we sure have a lot to learn.  Ashley's season has started and  admittedly we are still trying to figure out how bowling meets are scored or even that they are called "meets!"  There are a lot of terms, equipment and rules to learn, but everyone is learning by experience.  I'm just really glad that she gets her own locker at the bowling alley, so she doesn't have to lug her bowling ball between Seminary, school and home everyday!    

Ashley had her first bowling meet and was so nervous that she didn't bowl her best.  She was a little down about it, but we told her all she can do is go up.  I think it was hard for her because she had been bowling really well at practice and was one of the top 3 bowlers on the JV team.  Bowling is one of the those sports that depends a lot on the state of mind of the bowler.  If you let it get in your head, then it can really affect how you bowl.  Letting mistakes go and over-thinking are two things Ashley has always struggled with.  I'm actually thinking this whole bowling thing will be good for her, because she will have to learn to deal with this stuff in order to be a good bowler.

Anyways, she has practice or a meet everyday of the week so she is getting better and her personal best score is rising.  She started out around 125, then 147 and now 183.  She did much better at her second meet, when the nerves were out of the way.    

It's also kind of fun for us to go to watch her meets.  There are all these rules for spectators but honestly the best part is sitting in a bowling alley where you can order food and just watch a bunch of bowling.  Fun times!

Favorite Things Party

One of my friends had a big "favorite things" party for all her girlfriends.  Each invitee was supposed to bring 3 gifts to exchange.  The 3 gifts had to be all the same and be one of your "favorite things."  At the party, you would explain the what and why of your favorite thing and then we took turns choosing and exchanging gifts.  Seriously, it was awesome and so fun.  Everyone left with three different gifts of some really cool favorite things.

We also shared some of our favorite Christmas treats too.  It was fun to eat, visit and share presents.  A great idea for the girls to have some fun before the crazy Christmas season really hit.

So here is the "favorite thing" gift I brought.  This is one of the suggestions Carolyn gave me while she was here.  One of my favorite things is LEMON and included the awesome C.O. Bigelow lemon hand wash and jar of lemon curd from Trader's Joes.  I wrapped it up with a fresh lemon and some yellow tissue paper and ribbon.

There were a lot of neat things to see at the party and even though I couldn't bring everything home I definitely have a pretty good list of things I should try including jewelry, make-up, hair products, books, etc.

And now for the fun part, here are the three things I came home with:
1)an ice cream scoop and a gift card to Oberweis Ice Cream so I could buy 4 quarts of their delicious and creamy ice cream.  YUMMY.
2)a gorgeous pair of earrings and a movie theater gift card.  I love movies too!
3)a gift card to a fancy chocolate and dessert shop, called Le Chocolat du Bouchard.  I haven't used this one yet and I've never been to this place, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Picture Time

So it has been a while since we have had a family picture, individual school pictures etc.  I don't love school pictures, so we skipped doing them but of course, that means I have to make my own arrangements.  This would be fine except we have been busy and sometimes I feel like I'm in survival mode and honestly getting pictures done is not a priority.

Fortunately, while Dave's parents were here Grandpa snapped a pretty decent picture of our family.  I'm going with it.

Having this picture, I felt like I should get some pictures of the girls too and just get it off my to-do list.  So one day after church, we went to the gazebo down the street and snapped a few pics.

Obviously, I'm not a professional, but these will have to do until I decide to use a professional!