Remembering Christmas

I might have been a little cynical in that last post. Not the entire season was stressful, just that one week of snow days. It really was a rough one! And I really do need to simplify and organize my holiday season a little bit. Despite all that, there was plenty of Christmas magic around here. Here's what I hope to remember from Christmas this year.

12 days of Christmas for US! Each day we got a piece of a nativity and some other little treat/Christmas decoration from an anonymous family. We have our suspicions, but we made sure to keep the blinds closed and their identities protected. I'm so grateful that during a busy time of year someone made time to drop by our house every night! I hope we can pass along that magic next year. It was really neat.

A special gift for Carver... Christmas Eve and we got a knock on the door from a sweet deacon in the ward who had a present for our little man. It made us both choke up at the love he showed to Carver, bringing him a super-cool extra-large egg of silly putty. So thoughtful. Kudos to his great mom for helping it happen. And to that good boy who RODE HIS BIKE in the snow to deliver Christmas cheer.

A gift of time... There were many thoughtful, generous gifts received this year, but hands down my favorite? Derek's time. I got a gallon of paint from my parents (who knew I'd ever be grown up enough to actually WANT that for Christmas, but I REALLY did!) and Derek offered to help me paint the half-bath that very night. I took him up on it and I am so grateful that he helped me FINISH something. That never happens. We've even hung pictures in there and it feels so great to see it come together.



Christmas pjs - oh, boy! I saved a bundle and made them this year - just the pants. And it was all sorts of variations on the wrong fit. Derek was the big winner, though. I'll only post a picture if I get permission. T-I-G-H-T!! Oops. Next year I'll make up for it with a huge-mongous pair, right?



I got approval for a shot of the tights, I mean snowman PJ pants. He graciously wore them for the family picture, but worried they might rip if he tried bending in them more than that.



Christmas Eve... my FAVORITE day of the year. The Nativity story, the pjs and driving around to look at lights. This year we added vocal solos by the girls and testimonies, which were both the highlight of the evening. Simple, heartfelt expressions of what Christmas is all about. I love the anticipation, too. Lydia's delighted comment, "I thought I heard sleigh-bells!!" as we were going inside after looking at lots of snow-covered Christmas lights nicely sums that up.









A VERY white Christmas... just a couple pics. 2 full weeks of snow on the ground?! This is Seattle! It's been crazy. But once I finished all the errands and got over the permanent lack of school, it's been pretty fun. I'll have to post more funny pictures of the kids in the snow later. Here's where the sandbox should be...



And the day I'd been waiting for - the retaining wall was covered by snow drifts.


Okay, one more - this is next to our driveway, built up from weeks of shoveling. Not to mention the drifts that blew into our yard from across the street.



Thinking about Mary and Elizabeth, who strengthened each other and reaffirmed their faith as they both carried very precious sons of God. I've been really touched by pondering on their time together, a very young woman and a very old woman - experiencing the greatest miracle of their lives together. I LOVE the Christmas story. I never get tired of thinking of the symbolism and the magnificent faith of those involved.

Isn't Christmas great?

the MAGIC of Christmas

This holiday season has been so hectic. Maybe it's because I'm a classic procrastinator, finishing more than one child's stocking on Christmas Eves past. Maybe it's because Relief Society responsibilities really pick up this time of year (Christmas drop-offs, Christmas CDs from the RS Presidency, 2009 lesson schedule, and I'm teaching in two weeks?!! YIKES!). Maybe it's because I lost a full week of productive activity due to massive amounts of snow and ice and the dreaded school cancellations. Maybe it's crazy to try to make so many gifts myself. Maybe it's because I expect too much out of myself and Christmas.

My vision isn't complicated. Every night read the scripture from the Friend magazine, set up the little advent house and read one Christmas story. That can't take more than 15 minutes, right? But I find myself setting up at least 2 houses when I get around to those, catching up on as many as 3 scriptures and blowing off the stories all together.

It doesn't feel magical, it feels nutty. I've had some sweet personal moments reflecting on the Nativity story and witnessing beautiful acts of kindness this Christmas, but mostly I'm just overwhelmed. What do YOU do to have a simple, Christ-centered Christmas? What do you wish you did? Next year I want to be DONE EARLY. Christmas cards ordered, letter written, presents purchased, teacher gifts thought of, etc... I want to bask in the wonder of Christmas and the love of the Savior, have time to snuggle up with my kids and read my favorite stories. I want to FEEL the magic, even if I am all grown-up.

Snowed in

Just when you think there is nothing harder than sacrament meeting with a wiggly, noisy 1 year old and a busy 3 year old... they cancel church for snow and ice. ALL day at home with them and nothing to do IS harder than sacrament meeting! We even toyed with finding another ward to visit and have a break to our day, but all the local wards were canceled. Seattle is a funny place to live in that way. Sure, it's slippery, windy and in the 20s. But we could just drive slow, right!

I'm trying not to hyperventilate thinking of the potential school snow days this week, the LAST week before winter break anyhow, the days I'm counting on to wrap up Christmas projects and shopping without children in tow. AUGH!

There was a silver lining - we had a fun time crunching in the frozen snow in our yard and sledding down our driveway on garbage can lids. Our video camera's batteries were low so I used the extension cord from the Christmas lights on the porch to move about the front yard with the camera plugged in. We were quite the sight.





The kids were wild and silly and needed a break as much as we did. The highlight of the day was napping when Grace and Carver did. But Grace had Carver's room, Carver commandeered our bed (and somehow filled it up), so I took Lydia's bed and Derek took Ellie's. It felt a little "I Love Lucy" on separate twins, but at least we got to rest. :) The girls just colored downstairs, bless their hearts. The pictures look so warm somehow, but the wind factor has dropped the temperature to below 20 and into the single digits tonight. Believe me, it was C-C-C-Cold!





I'm not really sure why Ellie spent so much time sweeping. Maybe it was because she saw Daddy do it before he used the shovel. Maybe it was because her big scheme to use a shovel and pail to play in the yard was a total flop in the dry snow.

And here's Carver and Grace in their gear. I laughed so hard at Grace bundled up, waddling around like a little oompa-loompa. She was all excited to go out and then just wandered around, looking confused - probably wondering why this was supposed to be fun. That's pretty much my feeling about playing the snow, too.

Something I really CAN do

Okay, isn't this a darling little baking set? I found it through blogs - a friend's link to another link that led me to this cute, cute etsy shop. I might be in LOVE with felt food - easy, cheap, absolutely adorable! Unfortunately, I'm not going to organize my own little felt cookie making factory to make my millions... I'll just make a few for myself and share the tip with all of you! :)

The things I think I can do

So here's the story of Grace's "accidental a-line." I'd been watching it get long in back, a nice curly baby mullet, and thinking I'd like to trim that part off into a nice clean bob, just about chin length all around. Here's a before shot:



I let both other girls' hair grow several years before giving them a real "style" and always wondered why I waited so long. So this was unfortunately premeditated.

Thanksgiving night, Derek was bathing the little ones and I grabbed the scissors. The first cut and I knew I'd blown it. I was so excited about actually finishing my project that I didn't take the extra minute necessary to think through the details. Like how much to cut, for example. It shrunk up immediately and there was no turning back. I had to finish cutting the rest of it. The problem is that it is SO short that she really needed clippers to get the back of her neck. And my brain finally kicked in to warn me that was NOT a good idea. I didn't want her ending up with Carver's style. At least I know my limits, right? And I really did quote that line from Nemo immediately...

"You think you can do these things, Rachael, but you CAN'T!"

But I want to. And I don't want to pay someone else to do it in the meantime. So I'll continue to give bad hair cuts while the kids are little and HOPEFULLY by the time they care, I'll have gotten better at it. :)

The damage:



A side shot:



See? Grace doesn't care! It'll grow... And it actually looks okay from the front.



Oh - and along the same lines, I've recently caught myself using Ellie grammar. Words like "tooken" just pop out of my mouth in adult conversations and I'm horrified. I was a TA in college and graded papers, for crying out loud!! I've always prided myself on being a good writer. Yikes. Watch out - one of these days I'll call the Ensign a "mazagine" at church and you'll know I'm a goner.

P.S. Check out the similarities between Grace and Ellie's older picture below... whoa!

Uphill both ways

Today marks my second semi-annual run on our loaner treadmill. I huffed and I puffed and I tried to maximize my limited time with serious incline since I knew this grand occasion wouldn't come around again anytime soon. The good news is that my last attempt relied too heavily on general conference talks saved on Derek's mp3 player, which bring me to a slow, thoughtful stroll. I downloaded good ol' fashioned radio pop for tonight's event and it was MUCH easier to run, especially if I could manage to coordinate my steps to the beat (rather tricky since I'm rhythm impaired, but I guess a treadmill's thumping metronome brings out the control-freak in me).

Our treadmill is located in our fancy pants garage, where it faces an unfinished wall where a little dust bunny holds on for dear life, bobbing and swaying with my desperate exhales. Tonight, I realized that my thankful November has given way to a drowning December and I feel like I'm running uphill against the wall in a garage again and again in my daily routine.

And I keep practicing positive thinking with quotes like, "You think you can do these things, Nemo. But you can't!" Stay tuned for pics of the haircut that shouldn't have happened for the best illustration of that particular line...

But then again, things aren't SO bad. So what if my counters are perpetually covered in the day's activities and the floor is sticky AGAIN, even though I mopped it yesterday. (Was it really just yesterday? It feels like 3 weeks ago.) The highlight of my day was the conversation Ellie and I had in the car after her dance class, with Grace's stinky diaper tossed in the "trunk" of the van:

Me - "sure stinks in here!"
Ellie - "I think it smells like burritos."
Me - "what?! It smells like a poopy diaper, not something to eat."
Ellie - "well, it smells like a burrito to me. That happened on Sunday, too. It smelled bad and I thought it smelled like a burrito."

(this is true - we had a similar conversation on the way home from church)

Ellie - "Burritos is a funny word. It doesn't sound very yummy since it has "toes" in it."

Oh, Ellie!! Moments like those keep me sane. And from falling off my daily treadmill.



I found this classic Ellie picture recently. What a cutie she was! She still makes me laugh.