Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve was on Sunday this year, and going to church was a good way to start out the day. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, playing games, a video chat with Peyton and McKenzie, and going to Grandma's for our traditional 7-layer salad dinner and acting out the Nativity.

 This is the first Christmas in a LONG time that it's just our family and my parents celebrating. The kids were bummed to not have Todd's family here to celebrate since they've been here the last 4 years, so we figured out a way to act out the nativity with them anyway. The stable was in Seattle with Eloise and Ben as Mary and Joseph, and we had shepherds and wisemen here. It worked, and might have been the least crazy version in a long time, since they had to stop and listen to each other on the video chat, rather than just everyone talking over each other. 

They also opened cousin presents and everyone had a good time seeing the funny things people got for each other. 

Our best attempt at a family picture with all the kids:

Annie's present of a mullet wig was possibly the biggest hit of the evening. Everyone had to try it on, and some don't look half bad with it on.

Christmas morning dawned with much excitement.

Before: 

During: 

Megan got some weighted stuffed animals, like animals she loves at her therapy appointments. They're named Raddish and Raddish Jr.

Ryan has been asking multiple times each day for Minecraft Dungeons. When I got into bed on Christmas Eve I found a note from him saying, "If you haven't already, go buy Minecraft Dungeons now!" He had gotten through all his presents when I found one last present from "Your favorite parents" and he was so excited when he opened it to find a coupon with "Minecraft Dungeons" written on it. He said, "You ARE my favorite parents!"

Post present carnage: 

Grandma took the picture for us and we told everyone to hold up their favorite gift. Megan has Raddish Jr., Ryan has new running shoes, I'm holding up a knife, Jacob is holding up his Circus Animals that I made special for him GF, Rachel is holding her CREO trading cards, and Annie is holding up the pickle ornament that Megan got for her full of pickle gummies, which I know was NOT her favorite, but still pretty funny. 

Each year the kids get an ornament representing something they did that year. This year Rachel got a car since she started driving, Ryan got a shoe because of his running, Megan got Harry Potter since she and I finished reading the series together. The ornament I'm most proud of is this one that I fixed up a little. The school in Annie's play, instead of being called Hogwarts, was Frogbull academy, so I changed this ornament to match that. She was very pleased with how it turned out (so was I).

We headed over to Grandma's house for dinner and to open presents. She got the kids inflatable paddle boards, which are pretty giant. We'll have to make sure to spend some time down at Patagonia this year and put them to good use.

The day after Christmas we got in the car and headed up to Provo for the rest of the week. We made record time, only stopping 3 times, and got there in less than 12 hours. Upon arrival we gave Grandma and Grandpa Campbell the gift Jacob was most excited about: a photo book that had pictures from all the kids and grandkids from this year including our visit this summer and Jesse and Annette's wedding. It was a big hit and everyone enjoyed looking through it.

It was a good Christmas filled with family.

Christmas prep

Black Friday thrift shopping with Cari and Sharon we found some great headwear.  

Since I hardly get to see Karolee these days I thought it would be fun to volunteer together at the Giving Machines. It was good to catch up, but super boring on a Monday while no one was at the mall. 

Our stake had a Youth Christmas Party where the youth got to choose from 4 or 5 different service opportunities. They got to do good stuff, hang out with friends, and eat yummy treats. I was in charge of the ornament station, where the kids made an ornament to take home and deliver to someone along with an act of service.

Ryan and Grandma ran the Jingle Bell 5K at Mica Mountain this year. 

Ryan's goal was under 30 minutes and he killed that goal, getting 26 minutes. 

I'm glad Ryan has inherited Grandma's love of running, and glad they could run this together.

My mom and I kept our annual tradition of making Christmas goodies. Before:

After:

Turns out after counting all the kids' teachers at school, church, gymnastics, piano, etc, there were over 40 teachers, probably closer to 50. Add in co-workers, neighbors, ministering families, and friends and we had probably about 80 treat bags/plates to give out. 

The Grandma/Grandpa Reimanns invited us over for a party with Jill's family, our family, and my parents. It was fun to get together and I hope that becomes a tradition. The kids played Christmas songs on the piano, we sang carols, had ice cream, and played a new game: one and done. A good time was had by all.

On Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve) Jacob, Annie, Rachel and I went to the temple for baptisms (and initiatories for me). Afterwards we came back and picked up Megan and Ryan to go out to lunch at 5 Guys. Everyone loves some tasty burgers. 

After that, Annie, Megan and I went to see the play A Christmas Carol that Annie's friend, Courtney, was in. It was a good way to spend the day leading up to Christmas Eve. 

Awards

At the end of each quarter the middle school has an awards ceremony recognizing good academic acheivement. 1st quarter Annie and Ryan both got the Principal's award for straight As and the Pride award for coming to class prepared all quarter. Annie also got an award for excellence in band. 

The DWE PTA was awarded the School of Excellence award for all the work we put into focusing on the arts last year, including the Reflections program. The banner arrived this fall and we snapped a picture. I'm proud to have been involved and helped achieve this for our school.

2nd quarter Annie and Ryan again recieved the Principal's Award and the Pride Award. It's great having responsible kids.

Phoenix/Mesa trip

 Jacob's cousin, Caroline reached out to invite us to the Updike family Christmas party up at Aunt Nancy's house in Phoenix. We had that Saturday open, so decided to drive up. It was fun to see everyone and have time to visit. There was a fun White Elephant gift exchange, and we came home with a Mrs. Potato Head, a foot massager, socks, beef jerky, and a couple more things.

Rachel got to show off her sketches to Aunt Cari, a great artist in her own right, and talk a bit with her. She also reconnected with her 2nd cousin Mariah, who has so many of the same interests, so they had fun talking and finding all that they have in common.

Ryan and Hyrum (Mariah's brother) had some fun together, too. It's always fun to find someone the same age who is as crazy as you. 

Since we were planning to go up to Phoenix, I texted Darleen Frost, the girls' former YW president and my friend, who had moved up to Phoenix a few months ago to see if they'd be available to meet up. Thankfully it worked out and we met at the Mesa temple to walk around and see the temple lights. It was good to see them again and catch up a little. And the girls loved getting to hug her and update her on their lives.

Annie had come down with something that morning, so felt pretty crappy the whole time. If we hadn't been planning to meet the Frosts she would have probably chosen to stay home. Or if she had known how crappy she would feel she would have stayed home. When we left she had medicine in her and it helped, but every time it was wearing off she would regret having come. We'd give her more medicine and she'd be ok again for a while. Rachel was super vocal about wishing she had stayed home because she didn't want to get sick and miss finals. Thankfully we all stayed healthy and Annie recovered the next day and was able to go to school on Monday. 

Performances

 'Tis the season of performances! The Cienega Instrumental Music Program had their fall concert in November. Rachel had a SOLO! And she did a great job with it. The final for Symphonic Band was a playing test for new seats next semester and Rachel moved up from last chair to second chair! Mr. Bailey made it a point to tell me about how impressed he was with how much Rachel was improving since the beginning of the school year. I think part of it is that he's been pushing her to do things that are hard, and part of it is that she's been bringing her trumpet home and practicing a lot this year. She's becoming a stellar musician.

Annie joined drama this semester and absolutely LOVED it. They did a play that was a spoof on Harry Potter: Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone. Annie got the role of the Censor, which turned out to be the villian of the play. She did such a great job! 

Having had so much fun in drama, she was really very torn about next semester. She wanted to do drama again, but she also wanted to do basketball. The drama teachers said that if you're doing a sport, don't bother coming out for drama because they would conflict too much. Annie loved basketball, especially because it was fun with Courtney last year. But she also loved drama and wasn't satisfied when I reminded her she would be able to do it again next year first semester. She finally talked to the teachers and set out her dilemma and suggested that maybe she could have a small role since she would be able to come on Fridays (but miss M/W practices), and 4th quarter she could come all the time. They agreed and she was so relieved and excited.

Desert Sky band had their concert in December. 6th and 7th grades played 3 songs together, then 7th and 8th grades played 3 songs together. Short and sweet and very well done. 

Ryan and Carter are happy to be in band together, and both playing the french horn. It sure makes for more fun having a friend to sit next to in band. 

After the Desert Sky concert we went out for ice cream at McDonalds. 

The last school performance for December was the Cienega Fine Arts Showcase. They started with the marching band playing out front, then we walked through the fine arts hall to see the artwork on display before finding our seats in the student union for the other performances.

Each group played/sang one number, then they all finished together with the Hallelujah Chorus, which sounded so good. 

Ryan and Megan also performed a Christmas song each at the Reimann's party that we went to, wrapping up the performances for the month.