Holiday Overhang

Late nights and early mornings, excited, hyper children all around, days on my feet shopping, baking, washing dishes, laundry, shopping, baking, doing dishes, decorating, shopping, wrapping, Christmas parties, eating too many goodies, trying to fit in normal things like laundry and piano lessons and homework, shopping, cooking, etc., results in something like this:

Not being able to carry on a coherent conversation.
Taking my new driver out and telling her to step on the accelerator when I should have said the brakes.
Telling her to step on "that thing" because I can't for the life of me remember the name of the clutch.
Relating this all to my husband and telling him that I have "holiday overhang".  And let me tell you, that when you can't even say it right, you've got it.  Bad.

At least the process was fun.

Christmas!

Jacob was thrilled to have the biggest present, so of course he had to open his first!

Give this boy some Despicable Me 2 band aids and he is a happy camper.

 Callie got him his own set of racquetballs so he is ready for the ball wall at school now!  As soon as he opened them up he said "Ha Ha - Jacob.  Mine are hot pink!"  Red, anyway.

 Callie just found the surprise down in her bedroom:  a queen-sized bed.  Now she can use the cute bedding she bought!

 Drew got Callie fabric to recover her chairs - stay tuned for the makeover.

 Camden with his new Playmobil set "my very own big legos!"  When he first opened it up Drew announced, "He got a tutu!"  No, it's a tepee.  Another fun moment was when Camden was unwrapping a spherical present.  Daddy asked him what it could be and Camden said, "a fire truck" -  close, it was a ball with no packaging.

 This gift was intended to be a bit of a joke, but I thought the silhouettes of the capybara and unicorn turned out cute.  Thanks for the idea, PB!

 I love to see the kids playing with each others' new things.

 Callie got some FOXY new socks

 The middle of the blissful mess after everything has been opened.  Hannah is in her typical position:  reading one (or more) of her new books.  Dad is sporting his BSI pajamas.

 This guy wanted a bow and arrow SO BADLY.  Santa delivered!

The girls and I went downstairs and jammed to our cassette tape of  Hansen that came in our package from Uncle Aaron R. while recovering Callie's chairs.  I think we are the first grateful recipient of that gag gift.  We may never pass it on!  (Actually, we can now that Callie bought the Mm-Bop mp3).  

This is how the chair looked when my mom recovered it for me around 1990 - Williamsburg blue, baby

It was cute and purple when we did a mini-redo for the girls when they shared a room

 Here is the new chair:  I think this is the hottest it has ever been!

I got to spend some time outside with this fun boy while he used his new bow and arrow set.  It was sunny and beautiful.

We were so very lucky to have Lisa join us for Christmas again this year!  She is an extra set of helping hands, and a lot of fun.  

Group Shot before heading off to bed after a great Christmas day:

 The Gap Group:  

There were some stellar deals going on in early December and so some of my kids that I thought needed sweatshirts got some.  I got one for me but I thought it would be weird to wear mine for a few weeks and then the kids unwrap theirs, so I wrapped mine up for Christmas, too.  Camden happened to be with me when I made the purchases and he has a good memory.  When I unwrapped mine Camden said, "Mom!!  You got this for yourself!!!"

Christmas Eve

I thought that with Emmie old enough to be Mary this year for our nativity reenactment, it would solve some problems from past years.

Well, at least we had a very attentive and devoted Joseph.  And our donkey, as always, was a hit. 

Hannah was pretty excited to be a sheep.

This might be the most earnest, sweet Joseph we have ever had.

Emmie either wanted to be IN the manger or running away - none of this holding the baby business.  All in all it wasn't particularly reverent, but I hope it turned our hearts to the real meaning of Christmas:  the Savior and the beginning of His life here on earth.

Daddy saved the evening by suggesting that we sing some Christmas carols.

All while viewing pretty Christmas lights out the window!

Christmas Festivities

Time to pick out a Christmas tree!

By sheer luck, we planned to get our tree on the snowiest day possible.  It got us in the spirit of things, traipsing about in a winter wonderland.

 Some of the family agreed on "the perfect tree", and some of the family just got plain cold.

Two really cute snow bunnies 

You know you've got great eyelashes when they get covered in snowflakes

Trimming the Tree:

Camden and Emmie kept occupied with the jingle bells and storage bins while I strung lights and cranberry strands.  Then the kids get to put the ornaments on.  

Of course no one wanted to hang ornaments on the backside of the tree - you can't see them back there and it's scratchy, besides.  I think that it why our tree fell over when it was almost finished being decked.  Fortunately it missed a little person by a few inches.

 There is a frustrated mom in the top right corner.

It just didn't look the same after we put it upright again.  Back to re-stringing the lights, and the cranberry strings....  Not easy with a 12 foot tall tree, I can assure you.  This will be my last year stringing the lights - I am ready to pass the torch!  (I wish I could convince my family to get an artificial, pre-lit tree).

This is how Camden gets ready to go out to play in the snow.

Emmie and Daddy bundle up to go outside and look at the pretty lights on our street when he gets home from work.

Ward Christmas Party:

Must be Santa...or Bishop

Some silly selfies of the photographers

The bishopric is in the hot spot - and Drew may have been a little worried about his daddy so he joined in, too.

Seeing the Lights on Temple Square:

Decorating Cookies:

I love to see how creative my kids get

Swimming at a fun pool on Christmas Eve:

This may be a new tradition to wear the kiddies out!
While we were at the pool Camden had to take a break to pee 3 different times - and it was an emergency, every time.  And still, in the 10 minute drive back home he had a serious emergency and couldn't wait any longer.  Being Christmas Eve traffic was a little heavy but he insisted that he couldn't wait five minutes until we got home.  We may have stopped at a deserted parking lot and let him pee in a snow drift.  Just maybe.

 Picking up a new bed on Christmas Eve!  Our Honda is handier than you might think for hauling things like queen-sized mattresses, our canoe, and our Christmas tree!

We banned the girls from their rooms and all people from the basement starting at 2pm on Christmas Eve.  We snuck in our new mattress to our room, and after the kids were settled in upstairs that night we snuck our old mattress down to Callie's room.  She had been using her new queen-sized bedding on a twin mattress on the floor ever since moving into her new room.  On Christmas morning she got a note saying to go check her bedroom for a surprise.  She was thrilled to see a big bed all set up with her new stuff!