Christmas 2011

Wow.  Christmas has been the far, far off date for so long.  Matt and I vividly remember discussing "where will we be a year from now" last Christmas knowing he was a couple weeks away from returning to L3.  Little did we think that we would spend it in Italy after doing a short stint in Germany, but on our more permanent way to the Middle East.  But we did and are.

So Christmas Eve was spent doing laundry, baking cookies for Santa and smashing potatoes to take to a group dinner.  The Shefchiks invited us over for dinner (and home teaching).  He is our Branch President and has 4 kids ranging from 9 years to 4 months.  His wife Natalia was one of my first correspondants back when we thought we would be in Sicily earlier and stay longer.  She has been very kind to us.  We were joined by Tammy and another family from the branch with two teenage girls and a 4 year old boy, the Shadacks.  It was a big group and made for a nice evening.  The younger kids played Apples to Apples while the moms finished prepping dinner.  We ate and chatted and ate some more.  I learned another tidbit about the DoDD school here.  The Elementary School and Middle/High School sit across a walkway from each other.  The elementary is rather normal size, then the grades get smaller.  I knew there were 36 seventh graders.  Sometimes we ask Isaac if he would like to be #37?  Over dinner we learned that Amy Shadack is one of TWELVE graduating in 2012!  I no longer can say I had a tiny class size.  They all know each other really well.  Before departing for the night, we read from Luke and sang corresponding carols.  It was a nice evening.

When we got home, we had a good video chat with most of my family camped out in Colorado.  They have everyone but the oldest and youngest.  It looks like they are set for a week of fun!  My kids liked seeing their summer stomping grounds covered in snow.

In the morning, the kids slept longer than expected.  I guess we have an engrained habit of staying up too late and sleeping in too long in the morning.  Mom and dad weren't complaining though.  We didn't have any of our own Christmas decorations, including stockings, so the kids had used one fancy house sock each.  You can see a picture of one later. The kids strung yarn through the socks and hung them from the stair railing by the tree.

Jessica asked for a baby ostrich to be friends with Pecky her current ostrich and a baby sheep to be friends with Shaun.  Here she is with both.  The ostrich has been named Roosevelt and the sheep is Timmy (from the Shaun the Sheep show).

Lego CITY!!  Putting this together took up the rest of her day, minus church and minimal food.

Makenna showing off her new socks. 

She was most excited about muffin tins and blueberry muffin mix!  She has been pining away wanting to bake.  I stumbled upon some old kid quotes the other day.  This is from at leaset a year ago.

Isaac:  Why are you kicking me?

Makenna: I'm mad!

Isaac: You need anger management.

Makenna:  What?  I can't make muffins every minute.  

Isaac: Huh?

Makenna: Muffins make me happy.

Isaac scored a speaker dock for his iPod.

Jess has erasers!

Makenna has earrings!

 HER OWN STAPLER!

 WITH STAPLES!

Breath strips.  "I have wanted these for so long!"

Makenna's stocking.  Jessica had a monkey (surprised?) and Isaac a reindeer.

We paused after stocking and santa presents to eat our traditional breakfast of pancakes, strawberries and plenty of whipped cream.  After a few too many pancakes, we took turns opening presents from family and friends.  Most special were the kids' special gifts to each other.  Makenna spent hours crocheting a blanket for George.  It was her first big project.  Isaac spent even more hours and days and weeks taking over 3,000 pictures and editing them into 3 movies ranging from 6-8 minutes long starring the girls' animals.  He made sure that box was the last opened. Inside was the first of several clues leading them on a treasure hunt ending at the TV where he had the first one ready to watch.  BIG HIT!  Thank you cards will soon be coming to extended family!

Everyone chilled with a book or legos or their new iPhones (Dad and Mom finally got upgrades!)  We picked up before church because we were expecting company afterwards.  But church is worth  mentioning.  The branch pianist didn't show, so Isaac had his first turn playing for sacrament meeting.  It's much more tricky to play with a congregation singing along than just playing at home, but he did a good job and grew in confidence as the verses went by.  He played Silent Night for the closing song and nailed it, both hands, full harmony.  Huge upgrade from me plunking out the melody line.

We had invited L3 Troy and L3 Brian (family back in SLC) and AF Jason Lott (family back in Vegas--we are old neighbors) over for Christmas dinner, but Brian wasn't able to come.  His loss.  Matt was making his famous steak and grilled pineapple salsa.  Yummmmm.  He starting grilling the vegetables and I was on chopping duty.  A couple hours later the salsa was done and I put together the salad while he grilled the steaks.  It was an amazingly tasty dinner.  Jason had to leave after dinner to go to work.  Troy stayed on and we had another round of The Bean Game.  Everyone went to bed extra late.  Poor Matt woke up early for work Monday, but the kids spelt in late.  We did a bit of school Monday and had more time with Christmas books and legos and re-

watching Isaac's present.  

Grilled: pineapple, onions, bell peppers (peeled), jalapanoes (peeled).  Cilantro, and a pinch of salt. 

The steaks were cooked to tender perfection.