Happy New Year!

I genuinely thought that this might be the year that we made it to midnight...but we didn't come anywhere close. There is an unfortunate paradox wherein we feed our kids an abundance of junk (in this case a variety of junk dipped in chocolate fondue) in celebration of special occasions, thinking that they will enjoy and appreciate the splurge, but we end up NOT enjoying the celebration at all because their sugar-overload results in such poor behavior that we end up just counting the minutes until bedtime. New Year's Eve was a classic case and point. We had all the best intentions of celebrating all night long with movies and snacks, but it turns out that the boys are chocolate-dipped Oreo lightweights--it was wrestle mania 2014 after just a few rounds. We skipped to the good part--the sparkling cider toast--and called it a night. 

Our movie and treat night didn't pan out the way we planned, but I couldn't ask for a better way to ring in my New Year than beside my best friend.

Stealth Mode

Our anniversary fell on a Sunday, so we celebrated with dinner and a movie the night before. On our actual anniversary, we decided to do something really lovey-dovey and romantic...like shoot each other with guns. The boys joined us in an intense all out nerf gun war. I felt like Angelina Jolie in an action movie leaping into the air to hit my target and stealthily rolling across the floor to find cover. You know what they say, a family that plays together stays together. Happy Anniversary, babe! 

12 Year Anniversary

He is the peanut butter to my jelly, the milk to my cookie, the cherry to my sundae, the rootbeer to my float...the love of my life. Happy 12 year Anniversary!

Christmas Eve

Sometimes I reflect back on a special occasion and think about how we could have made it more special or note how we could make it better the following year. That is not the case with Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is perfection. It is all of my favorite things all wrapped up into one magical day. I love the tradition: the food, the games, the movies, the Christmas pjs, the cookies left out for Santa. I love both the eager anticipation of gifts soon to come, and, the feeling of contentment that we have everything in the world that we could ever need. I love the celebration in honor of that perfect babe born in a manger so long ago whose life and death gives MY life purpose, meaning, hope, and peace. 

We literally hold money back from every paycheck to be able to go on a once a year, hog wild spending trip for our Christmas Eve feast. Even with the help from Nana and Papa Grover and Tim and Maria's family we hardly made a dent in this decadent spread: 

After gorging ourselves, we played a few kiddie games like Christmas Bingo and pin the carrot on the snowman. 

Nana read a special Christmas story:

We acted out a very simplified nativity:

Then the kids ran happily to bed to wait for Santa Claus to arrive!

Christmas Part IV: Partying!

If I posted a picture of our family calendar for the month of December, it'd show every square filled in with parties. Church parties, class parties, birthday parties, soup parties, neighborhood parties, slumber parties, company parties...you get the idea. I love getting together with all of the people that we love--feeling the energy of "goodwill towards men" and the building anticipation of Christmas to come--and celebrating this special time of year. 

Ward Party:

Nana Grover's Birthday Party:

Neighborhood Party:

I proposed the concept of throwing a neighborhood nativity party to two of my dear friends and they took the idea and ran with it. We served a three course progressive dinner while our children performed a live nativity complete with caroling, costumes, and a straw-floor Bethlehem scene! It was as spiritual as a program involving 30+ kids could be;)

Family Slumber Party:

The boys look forward to our annual slumber party every year. We begin with a pizza dinner and games and then throw in a Christmas movie while we pile on top of the air mattress and eat treats.

Minute to Win It:

I thought it'd be fun for the boys to invite their own friends over for a Christmas party, but I think they were more interested in scarfing down the Oreos and dog piling on each other than they were my minute to win it games.

Company Party:

One of Aaron's policy holder's invited us to a private showing of a kid's movie with an open concession stand. We asked several times if they knew we had five kids...five loud, wiggly, junk-food-loving kids...and they assured us that it would be a very family friendly event. We didn't all make it through the entire show--when Ben's popcorn ran out he was done and Rocky thought the staircase made a perfect playground--but everyone had a great time!

Christmas Part III: the Treats!

The reason it's taken me so long to blog about Christmas is that I'm just now recovering from the exhaustion of it all! I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but, really, Christmas is a lot of work! I guess I can't ask for sympathy since I come up with dumb ideas like baking 65 dozen cookies to deliver to our neighbors all on my own. Our house was a frenzy of cookie-making: both ovens' timers buzzing at alternating intervals, my poor little kitchenaid churning out batch after batch of dough, and caramel sauce, chocolate drizzle, and powdered sugar everywhere. I really do love to bake, but I'm going to have to downsize our friend list to keep my sanity intact next year;)

Most nights in the month of December we warmed up a cup of hot cocoa and kicked things up a notch by dunking Tim Tams. So good!

One night, we capped off our trip to visit the reindeer with a stop at the ice cream parlor. 

Besides pizza, there are very few meals that our family can agree upon...so it feels like a really big treat when we go out for breakfast because everyone likes pancakes! 

Christmas Part II: Decorating

Over the years I've developed a love/hate relationship with our Christmas tree. I love to gaze upon the beautiful tree, glowing with white lights and adorned with ornaments gathered and collected over time, but I HATE, well, just about everything else where the tree is concerned. I'm just going to say it: after this year's Christmas Tree shenanigans a pre-lit artificial tree isn't looking so bad...and that's saying something. We gave up on the magical tree farm experience when we left Washington, but you just lose a little something when you back the pick-up up to the Home Depot tree lot and toss in the first tree you find so as to not have to unbuckle the kids from their car seats. 

I would like to extend a challenge to anyone who believes that they possess a happy marriage to attempt to position and center a fresh Christmas tree into a small, wobbly stand and then string millions of strands of lights with temperamental fuses and NOT at least think a few bad words. The tree put up an impressive fight, but after a couple of hours of wrestling with it, Aaron came out victorious! 

Ok, I will add to the "love" side of the equation that I do really enjoy decorating the tree with the boys. It's so fun to see them pick out each of their favorite ornaments and place them carefully on the tree. I love to reminisce as I place each of my kids' school project handprint ornaments, or travel souvenir ornament, or hand-me-down heirloom ornament on our tree...a living display of our family's memories and reminder of our most prized blessings. 

Maybe by next December I'll have forgotten my gripes and only remember this spectacular tree and these happy faces and we'll continue our fresh Christmas Tree tradition.