It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Good thing, since it's NINE days away. (How did that happen?!) Anyway, we have been decked out for the holidays for a couple of weeks now. I just haven't made the time to blog about it. But Christmas-y we are, from our nails to our halls.

I thought H would dig decorating the tree, but he didn't have a lot of interest. Most of the time he did this:

I did still get a few pics of him learning how to hang the ornaments (even though taking them off is what he does best). And as the family lightweight, he was the official Star Placer this year.

No pics of the tree lot this year--we tried a Costco tree, and you don't get to see it unfurled until you bring it home, so it's kind of a gamble. But I'm happy with it. I'm not picky, as long as it smells nice and fresh. I LOVE the Christmas tree.

Christmas card 2010

I totally copied this idea from my friend Courtney. Here's this year's Christmas card/letter for those of you who didn't get it in the mail (some got returned, some I forgot the postage--go figure).

Front of the postcard:

Back of the postcard:

The Naughty List

J: Spends too much time away from home.

Me: Spends too much time on the computer.

Mister (7): Eats so many sweets that he’s had multiple root canals, cavities, and a pulled tooth this year. Throws his football in the house too much.

Sweetie (5): Bosses her older brother and smothers her younger brother.

H (17 months): Has an affinity for climbing and for waking up before 6am. Tackles, pokes, pushes, and hits other kids.

The Nice List

J: When he’s away, he’s working hard (still for Bank of America), serving as a member of the bishopric in our church, and squeezing in some time for sports, mainly playing golf and watching BYU football/basketball.

Me: Spends that computer time writing/editing for Segullah.org, responding to student emails and creating lesson plans for the persuasive writing class I started teaching at ASU, and trying to update my blog (bluestockingmama.blogspot.com).

Mister: Sweets for the sweet, since Mister is a kind and obedient boy. His football-throwing habits can be attributed to his love of sports and to his first year playing flag football.

Sweetie: Took her in-charge approach to life to the soccer field to become a star player for the Pink Scorpions. Thriving in kindergarten. Memorized everyone’s phone numbers in her class so we can call them at will.

H: Is an avid teeth brusher, due to the extra time he spends sitting in the sink after scaling the toilets/cabinets to get there. Has perfected his “shhh” to use when everyone else is sleeping. Gives SO many loves and kisses, and finds the world around him amazing: “WHOA!!” is his favorite word.

Christmas traveling, phase 3

The day after Christmas, we made the l.o.n.g. trek to Utah. I am still trying to forget that drive. The morning we were supposed to come home, J woke up with an inner ear virus that made it impossible for him to get out of bed--extreme nausea. So we waited until 1:30, doped him up with lots of drugs, and took off to see how far we would make it. We ended up just going and going until, at 1am, we pulled into our driveway and our cold, cold home (it had been highs in the 40s while we were gone and lows in the 20s, and because that is unheard of in the desert, we turned our heat off while we were gone.)

But I digress. Let's focus on all of the fun times we had while in Utah. We played in the snow (and apparently, from this first photo, Mister ate a bit of it). We played first, at Grandma's house, then went sledding (at 17 degrees). Even H went down the hill. Grandpa was our faithful ride up the big hill. And, no jumps, like last time.

We exchanged gifts. The boys all got nerf bow and arrows from Grandma and Grandpa and the girls all got Cabbage Patch Kids. The kids also made a few mean forts in the basement while the adults exchanged gifts.

And, we went bowling (while H went on some nice horse-back rides around the bowling alley) and to the Hansen Planetarium (no pics on the last one--I had a crazed 1-year-old to chase).

Christmas traveling, phase 2

Phase 2 of the Christmas break was my favorite: HOME! We traveled back home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and to unpack, do the laundry, and pack it back up again).

Our traditional Christmas Eve candlelight dinner.

Acting out the Nativity

Presents!

Then we went for a nice bike ride, with H testing out my new bike carrier:

Christmas Traveling, part 1

36 hours in the car over the space of 15 days. That was Christmas for us this year. And it will never happen again. It was miserable. (The traveling part, anyway, the visiting part was fun!)

So, phase 1 of Christmas traveling: California. The weekend before Christmas, we headed to sunny California. Wait. Sunny California was not so sunny. It never stopped raining. This was a problem given busy boy H who desperately needed a place to run and play. Thankfully, he did not unwrap all of Grandma's wrapped presents (like he did at our house). Nor did he take too many ornaments off the trees. And we managed to pass 5 days without anything major breaking. Phew! He did, however, find the stash of permanent markers:

In order to escape the rain, we visited the Discovery Science Center, where the kids tried out the wind tunnel, the rock wall, and the bed of nails and where H almost wore out the slide.

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's: