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