Random December

Jerrica celebrated Christmas Australian style in shorts and sunglasses at school.  She thought that she was all that in her outfit.

Our fridge was plastered with church magazine posters.  I loved the messages in each of them.

 

The big girls went to a really fun Christmas party.  They brought white elephant gifts that I bought straight from the ARC.   Jacob also went to a white elephant gift exchange party.  He was excited to get the movie, “Now You See Me”.

Many a craft was crafted.  Rebecca made the cutest washer snowman necklace at Achievement Days.  Ash made a cute button tree.

 

The girls burned fingers on glue guns to help me make a ton of feather ornaments to go on giftcards and chocolates for teachers, neighbors, and friends.

 

The kids drew each other’s names and came up with clever gifts for each other.  Jerrica drew a soccer picture for Nathan, and could not wait for him to open up his little soccer package from her.

 

Rebecca had to do a dance routine at school and went all decked out for the day.

 

I thought about making more reindeer holders for my gift card gifts.  I just wanted something homemade to go along with them. 

We did the 12 days of Christmas for a family.  The kids LOVE this tradition each year.  There is something about sneaking around late at night.  We also did a secret Santa gift for a family.

 

I had a piano recital of Christmas songs.  Jerrica made me smile as she donned the reindeer antlers and proceeded to try and play more than her chosen song for the recital.  I should have recorded the kids.  Stephen was out of town on business and I was doing good just trying to get through the night. 

 

About ten of my basketball friends met one morning for breakfast and an ornament exchange.  It was fun laughing and stealing each other’s ornaments.  I ended up with a basketball ornament that graced the top of my tree for the season.

We also went to a couple of really fun Christmas parties.  One of them had gingerbread houses there to assemble as we ate.  I thought what a clever idea that was to be the centerpieces on the tables and to add to the mingling of everyone as they were decorating them.

Stephen’s company had a nice Christmas party at the Sunbird restaurant.

It was a very busy month and I know that I’m missing something!

Gifts

I was talking with Kristy and Ryan about presents after Christmas.  We smiled at what the kids deemed as the favorite gifts. 

Sydney was sweet to share her crutches.  Kristy had picked them up from Good Will and EVERYONE played on them.  I thought that for sure someone was going to really break their leg using them.

Thomas was so into his binoculars.  He thought they were the coolest things ever.  I smiled when he told Kristy as he was looking through them, “Mom, you are HUGE!”  Just what a mom wants to hear.

  Nathan always wants a new soccer ball every year.  AND every year he spends hours playing with it, making every dime worth it.

Ashley had let me know that all of my daughters have aprons made by me, except for her.  So for her homemade gift I made a little cherry apron with an extra apron on the front to dry her hands.  She LOVED it!

Another cute homemade gift was Benjamin’s punching bag.  He is constantly punching on Kristy’s legs so she made him a cute punching bag to hang in his door way.  I thought it was SO cute!

 

My two little girls got tablets.  I’m not that excited about how much time they think that they need to spend on them.  Technology is awesome with all that we can learn and do, yet it can consume us if we let it. 

  

Kristy made really cool magic wallets where the money switches back and forth when you open and shut them.  The kids are stilled mystified as to how they work. 

Then Kris and I made lacey make-up bags for all of the older girls.  They really turned out pretty.  I can already see that bag being toted around here and there getting ready for dates and other activities.

 

The other hit was the big marble knockers on the string.  I had picked up a pair at the Mexican market.  There was always a steady beat by someone playing with them.

I have decided that some of my favorite gifts that I have received and given are those that are homemade!  There is just an extra special touch of love in them.  :)

Christmas in San Antonio, Texas

All of Stephen’s family got together in Utah for Christmas.  Some of my family decided to get together in San Antonio at my sister’s house.  We were having a hard time deciding where to go, but then my sister’s husband got orders for their family to deploy to Korea for TWO years.  We HAD to go to San Antonio to make memories before they left.

I LOVE my sister, our husbands get along, our kids all match up in ages and adore each other, it was perfect!  We were talking afterward how no one even fought ONCE!

Anyway, memories were definitely made!  We started out our trip staying in Lubbock, having a pillow fight in the hotel and enjoying Texas shaped waffles for breakfast.

  The kids immediately paired up and started doing their own thing.  All around the house could be found little pairing working on projects, playing games, and talking.

Many rainbow loom bracelets were made!

The next day we headed over to take a picture of all the kids with Santa at Bass Pro, but ended up with a picture in front of the antler tree.

Then we went downtown to check out the Alamo.  We saw a lot of Davy Crockett’s old possessions and all kinds of other artifacts.  According to Stephen, we didn’t read and learn enough while we were there, could that be due to the fact that we had a TON of little kids with us. 

 

We then walked down the River Walk to do lunch.   We laughed as Aunt Kristy offered a PBJ sandwich to Super Dave.  Nathan had his soccer ball with him, which started everything.  I kept smiling the rest of the day at the little interchange of conversation with Super Dave.

The River Walk was beautiful.  It’s so cool how it flows through restaurants, hotels and even the mall.  Here are a few pics from our walk.

   

We ended at the Market to do a little more Christmas shopping.

After our walk, we spotted a two story McDonald’s and decided it was time for a treat.

 

We had beautiful weather and a beautiful day!

Lou’s Big Pizza was another HUGE hit!  This is what the kids’ faces looked like when then brought it to our table…

 

 

They brought these long plates to the table before the pizza arrived.  We were all quite curious and then the pizza came!  It was a 42 incher, but they also make a 62 inch pizza.  It was BIGGGG!!!!  It was good too!