Celebrating Christmas

Since Megan got sick the week before I had been praying that everyone would be healthy for Christmas. Christmas Eve morning I took Megan in to the doctor where she got antibiotics to help her ear infections heal, and Annie was already on the mend from her short-lived cold. We had a fever-free day, so felt ok about everyone coming together on Christmas Eve afternoon/night as is our tradition. Grandma and Grandpa unveiled the big cousin gift (that stays at their house):

The foosball table was a huge hit. And the fact that it has an air hockey table underneath, and I think at least one more game was a double bonus. It has been a high-use item ever since.

We had an interesting acting out of the nativity story. Baby Jesus was highly sought after (fought over) and there was a good bit of chaos.

But after we got all that out of the way we did a cool thing that was actually very quiet and cool, passing a flame around on candles everyone had, sharing one reason they're thankful for Jesus Christ.

Everyone was actually very reverent and nothing caught on fire, so it was a win-win.

Afterwards, it was cousin present time, and presents from Grandma and Grandpa, so the rowdiness returned. The boys all got hats with their names on them, which they thought was really cool. Cousin gifts were fun and exciting.

But eventually we were able to pull ourselves away and head home to open our pajamas. The kids loved their fuzzy onesies:

The next morning the kids amazingly slept until nearly 6:00. No one was up super early or multiple times all night. It started out nice and clean and calm:

And ended up with a huge mess of wrapping paper and boxes:

Probably the biggest hits as far as presents go were the roller blades those who didn't already have them got, Megan's huge stuffed giraffe and her new glasses, and a new basketball hoop. The hoop and the blades have been used probably daily since Christmas.

She's been begging for glasses for a long time. At least since Ryan got his last summer.

Unstable Unicorns was a big hit, too, and gets played quite a bit.

Any Christmas day that ends up outside in short sleeves shooting hoops is a good one. :)

Christmas prep

We set up our three Christmas trees this year. But we can't find pictures of any but the boring one in the family room.

Ryan got to put the star on the main tree in the front room, and we always try to document that so the kids don't fight over whose turn it is to put the star on. Oh well. Next year it's Megan's turn. :) The kids helped decorate the house this year (after I decorated for both Halloween and Thanksgiving while they were at school and Megan got mad at me for not letting her help). It did make decorating a bit faster, even if they didn't do it all "right" (like I normally do). But good enough is good enough.

We had Christmas concerts to attend. Rachel's middle school concert was pretty good and less painful than I had anticipated.

Rachel did great on percussion. And the songs were enjoyable and even though it was combined with the orchestra it wasn't as long as I had anticipated.

Annie's chorus got to perform at Holidays on Houghton and they did a great job.

The kids, of course, also had a lot of fun running around the rest of the booths and offerings of the event. They jumped on the jumping castle, told Santa what they wanted for Christmas, got their faces painted, ate free pizza and Eegees and sub sandwiches.

In my extra shopping trips to get ready for Christmas I would stop at Goodwill when I drove past and found some good ugly Christmas sweaters and Christmas shirts. The best find of all was this Bob Ross Christmas shirt that says Happy Little Trees:

Grandma had a craft day where the kids made ornaments. We have so many ornaments now.

We weren't as involved in Light the World this year as we have been in years past as far as actually planned events go. I don't think we ever got around to chalking our neighbors' driveways, which is one of the kids' favorite activities. We mostly stuck to smaller things, like the suggestions to smile at people you see, or write a note to someone, etc. We did, however, continue our tradition of doing a sock drive at school. With cousins at the school, too, we involved them, so instead of 3 classes last year (since Megan was still in preschool), we had 8 classes (Sammy's preschool did participate). With all the extra participants we reached new heights, collecting 1000 socks (500 pair) getting close to our previous running total, which I think was around 1400.

I always think it's cool to see how much difference a little effort can make (really, very little--taking boxes to the school and sending home a flier). And I love that my kids get to be a part of it and hopefully realize that one person can help make a big difference in the world.

There were lots of decorating activities going on during the month...
At young women they decorated Christmas cookies:

Megan's class decorated gingerbread houses:

Ryan's class decorated gingerbread houses:

And Annie and Eloise's class made winter wonderlands:

When Grandma Campbell was visiting she took the kids to the store and they each chose fabric they liked and she sewed them each a pillow of their own. They love them and use them for movie nights and sleepovers at Grandma Knight's house, and any old time. 

Annie's chorus had another performance, this time at their school just before school started one morning.

It was so cold. Definitely one of those days that reminded me how thankful I am to live where we live. I can barely handle the 30's with a little wind. Snow and negative temperatures would do me in.

Finally school wrapped up with a half day that last day. We took the kids down to drop off the socks from our sock drive, then met Peyton and McKenzie at a park to play for a while before heading home with them coming out to Grandma and Grandpa's for a sleepover. It happened to be our ward Christmas party that night, too, so we all had more fun in store. 

Megan had been upset that when she talked to Santa at Holidays on Houghton she didn't get to sit on his lap (the first year she's even been willing to). So she was happy to go see Santa before the party officially started and to actually sit on his lap. 

The kids wanted a picture with the nativity scene at the entry way.

The young women (including Rachel) helped serve dinner and had a good time doing that.

There was a relatively short musical program, and the primary (or what kids were left at that point of the night) went up and sang before we headed home.

That next Monday we had planned to go to Winterhaven to see all the lights. Megan had missed a couple days of school the week before for a fever and cold, then Annie came down with the same thing that Monday, and Megan was developing an ear infection at that point (she was prescribed antibiotics the next day for a double ear infection) so I stayed home with those two while the rest of the clan headed to Winterhaven.

I'm sure they had a good time all together and with all the magical lights.

The three of us who stayed home went on our own light-viewing adventure and found some pretty cool light setups that we looked at from the comfort (and warmth) of our own car.

December activities

During Thanksgiving Break Jacob and I went on a date to the temple and Smash Burger. That was pretty much all we did to celebrate our anniversary. 13 years. It's been a good 13 years.

Rachel's friend, Chelsea, plays the trumpet in band. Rachel plays percussion, but wants to learn trumpet and switch over. She's apparently had Chelsea show her how to play a few things and can play at least one song...

Ryan signed up with his cousin, B, to learn tennis. And since it involves a ball and movement Ryan loved it. I was not super impressed with the instructor who obviously didn't have kids himself, nor much experience teaching children, and even though the class only had 4 boys, he had a hard time getting them to listen to him.

 But Ryan learned a bit about tennis, and isn't too bad. He was even asking to sign up for tennis again. I told him we'd wait until basketball is over. We don't need too many activities going at once.

Rachel has been a crocheter for a while now, but mostly just rectangular objects. I recently taught her how to crochet a hat and she made one all on her own to donate to Casa Alitas as part of a personal progress value project.

She did a great job (and was very proud of herself, judging by all the selfies that appeared on my phone).

I got to go on a field trip with Ryan and his class to the Planetarium.

They all had lots of fun, except for the one kid who hadn't eaten breakfast and fainted right in my arms when his blood sugar got too low. Made for an exciting twist. I had an orange in my backpack and once he ate that he started feeling better right away.

Same thing happened last year when I went with Ryan's class on their field trip, except it was a girl. Those crazy kids have to remember to eat on field trip days. I guess it's too exciting to eat?

Megan is super excited to finally be in gymnastics at the same time as Annie. She's been asking off and on for a while if she could do gymnastics, then I would forget to sign her up.

She is loving it and wishes she could go more than just once a week.

Grandma and Grandpa Campbell came to visit for a few days in December. The kids had fun having them around. (So did I; Janet went through my whole stack of clothing needing to be sewn or mended and did it all for me.)

The Saturday they were here we went over to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Unfortunately the Space Hangar was closed for remodeling, but we enjoyed the rest of it.

We rode the tram for the guided tour to get to go around the whole yard and get commentary about a lot of the planes we were passing.

The kids claimed they wanted to go see lots of other hangars, but by the time we got through the main one after the tour, we were all ready to go get some food to eat, so it was just the right amount of time.

We got to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Knight's birthdays with a cake Savannah made. We're happy to celebrate another year with them.

I was able to make it to the awards assembly for Rachel's school. She is a stellar student and received the Principal's award for a second quarter in a row, earning a 4.0 GPA. She also was recognized as outstanding achievement in band.

Earlier in the month she was also recognized in the Cougar Call, the school's monthly newsletter, as the student of the month in her team (set of teachers). It said:
Rachel Campbell (Golembiewski/Jordan) - 6th grade can truly be a roller coaster with the ups, the downs, the increased workload, not to mention switching classes and having multiple teachers. It can be incredibly hectic! However, one young lady, Rachel Campbell, has found a way to navigate the middle school landscape beautifully. Rachel is an intelligent, hardworking, and determined young lady. She always puts her best foot forward with her academics and interacting with her peers. We know that she will continue to shine and grow here at DSMS. Thank you for doing your absolute best, Rachel!

It was a relief to make it to the end of school. December was pack jam full of activities during school and after school and on weekends. Christmas Break was a very welcome break.