Christmas 2011

Tomorrow is the day that I take the tree down.  I hate that day!  Taking down the tree is no fun.  I can't believe that Christmastime is over already.  It doesn't seem fair how Christmastime lasts like a month before the actual Christmas Day, but then it ends so abruptly afterwards.  Oh well...we had a great Christmas.  Here are some of the highlights (sorry so many pictures.  Preston finally figured out a way for the portrait-style ones to work!  Yay Preston!)

Arden's wintertime gymnastics show:  Check.  (She is doing great!)

Sitting on Santa's lap at Christmas parties...three times.  Check!  The kids got to sit on the big guy's lap at the ward Christmas party, the Haun family Christmas party (see below) and the Zaugg family party too.  This Santa is the one from the Haun party, and the kids were all so excited to see him!  This is the first year that I got smiles out of all three kids.  Here is Corbie and her new best friend:

 And smiley little Arden:

And Dax, who has always either cried or at least looked really concerned while sitting on Santa's knee, finally figured out who is in charge of the presents, and was more than willing to play ball this year.

Some other things that were accomplished before the big day (no pictures). 

• One zillion presents wrapped:  Check. 
• Helping with my very first school Christmas party in Arden's kindergarten class:  Check. 
• Going to see the Christmas lights:  Check.  We drove through the "Lights Before Christmas" in Layton with my Grandma one night, and then we went to Christmas Village in downtown Ogden with my parents.  It.  Was.  Cold!  The kids enjoyed looking through the windows of the little houses there, until they got too cold to enjoy much of anything. 
• Watching the essential Christmas shows (It's a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, The Muppets Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version), The Christmas Devotional, etc.)  Check! We all have our own essential Christmas shows. Daxton's essential Christmas show was the Kung Fu Panda Holiday show.  Corbie's favorite was, of course, Team Umizoomi Christmas special.  Arden liked "Search for Santa Paws" which is about Santa's dog, and "The Happy Elf," which was based on a song by Harry Connick Jr.  (Love me some Harry Connick Jr.  HATE the Happy Elf.  So glad that one is off my DVR.)  And Preston's favorite is the Johnny Bravo Christmas special.  Does anyone else know who Johnny Bravo is?  Just curious.
• Spreading reindeer food on the lawn on Christmas Eve:  Check.
• Making cookies and leaving them out for Santa:  Check.

Finally, the big day arrived.  Here is Cora opening a present from Santa:  A toy puppy!  (She started the season out asking for a real puppy, but I talked her down to this.  Hopefully it will do for a while.



Dax was so excited to get a Kung Fu Panda toy.  This toy is made to be Kung Fu-ed.  When you punch it or throw it, it says things like, "Ow!  Have you been practicing?"  and "Ohhh, my tenders!"  Dax loves it and has been using up a lot of the Kung Fu moves that used to be directed at his sisters on this toy, which was what Santa was hoping for.  Good job, Santa!

One of Arden's favorite gifts was the $5 little fluffy unicorn her dad got her (well, that I bought and put his name on the tag.  But somehow, he is taking all the credit.

Right about here I unwrapped a new camera!  Yay!  You should hopefully notice that the pictures are slightly less crappy from here on out.  Preston got Hungry Hungry Hippos from Cora!  So excited!  (We have already lost one marble, and I fear that it will be the first of many.  How on earth do they not include extra marbles in this thing???)

My parents and sibs came over to open some more presents and we all had Preston's famous french toast for breakfast.  Then we quickly headed over to church.  Arden sang a couple of songs with the primary...or at least I think she did.  She must have been standing behind a tall kid because no one could see her up on the stage.  Oh well.  After church we headed over to my Grandma Wilson's house.  Here is Corbie with one of her favorite Christmas decorations.  These little guys each ring a bell and play Christmas songs. 

 And here is me with my cute Grandma in one of her festive Christmas sweaters:

After Grandma's we headed over to Preston's mom's house, but I guess I was tired of taking pictures because I don't have any!  The kids had fun playing with their cousins and comparing what they got from Santa.  After that it was past bedtime and we had to go home and put the tired little Christmas elves to bed.  It was a very fun, very busy, very wonderful day!  Hope all of your Christmases were wonderful too! 

The Life of a Gingerbread House

We received a gingerbread house kit from a dear friend this year.  A couple of days before Christmas we decided to give it a try.  Here were are...all ready to go!

(Yes, Cora is already sneaking a finger full of frosting.  And yes, Arden is in her pajamas.  But that is because it was "Polar Express" day at school.  Arden came home with a little golden ticket her teacher had given her, and was COMPLETELY convinced that she was going to be going on the really real Polar Express.  Like to the North Pole.  To see Santa.  I tried to manage her expectations a little and tell her that they were probably just going to pretend to go on the Polar Express, but she didn't believe me.  She was going to the North Pole.  She was actually really worried that when she was on the really real Polar Express, there wouldn't be a bathroom on the train.  :-)  She was a little let down that it turned out to be the pretend Polar Express, after all, but she was excited that she got to have some chocolate milk and an Oreo with red filling.  Just as good as a trip to the North Pole, right?  But back to our gingerbread...)

Here is the little house once we finally got it sticking together!  It took us a couple of tries to get this thing to stand up.  The only gingerbread houses I have made in the last 10 or so years have been made of graham crackers, which aren't very heavy.  Luckily, the frosting that came with this kit was just like superglue after a few minutes.  Cora still looks a little worried that the house might fall over.  Probably because if you look at it from her angle it was leaning pretty far.  But it stayed up!

 Dax was pretty uninterested in the gluing of the house, but once the candy came out he quickly found his way over to where we were and wanted to help.  The problem is that we took so long getting the house to stand up, that by the time the candy was getting put on the frosting was pretty much the consistency of cement.  Our house didn't look nearly as nice as the one on the box, but we had fun making it.  This is the picture where I said, "Smile for the camera and then you can eat the house."  Arden did great, but the other two couldn't keep their eyes off the prize...

 After a few more tries and a little bit of threatening, I finally got them to all look at the camera...maybe not smile at the camera, but at least they are looking...and licking their little chops in anticipation.

 Okay, kids...go for it:

 Here is Daxton eating the pine tree out front of the house.

I sooo meant to take a picture of the sad, broken down house completely stripped of all of its candy sitting in pieces on the counter that night, but I forgot.  You can picture it though.  This gingerbread house had a very short life.  But a very yummy one. 

Merry Christmas

There is SO much to post about Christmas this year, but when I think about how much stuff there is to post about I don't want to post at all!  So for now, I'll just do one picture.  

This is a picture of one of my favorite moments of Christmas.  This is Christmas Eve, after everything has been done.  We had spread the reindeer food on the lawn and set out cookies for Santa.  The kids were in their new Christmas jammies, and were all nestled and snug in their beds.  The presents were wrapped and put under the tree, and everything was perfect.  I love this moment when everything is quiet and still and just waiting for the crazy happiness that will come in the morning.  I took this picture right before the stockings were filled:

Now that it is all over I wish I could go back to this moment and do it all again! 

Here Comes Santa Claus

I was going to post some pictures of the kids with Santa Claus this year, but I still can't get the dang things to work right!  All of my portrait-style pictures ones keep coming up landscape!   AARRGGHH.  (Help?  Please?  Someone?)  So this is the only picture that comes out the right way. It is a cute one of Santa reading "The Night Before Christmas" to Dax and Corbie.  This Santa came to our family Christmas party last weekend, and sang songs with the kids (he even sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with them, which isn't quite a Christmas song...but hey, there is a star in it) and then read them this story before doing the usual come-sit-on-my-lap stuff.  Isn't he cute?  The kids LOVED it.

I'll see if Preston can help me out with the pictures and try again another day.  Now I am in a bad mood so I gotta get something off my chest.

The kids and I were out running a bunch of pre-Christmas errands today, (despite the cold that I have caught...oh how I sometimes wish for mommy sick days) and we were listening to a lot of Christmas music.  I really love Christmas music.  Well, almost all Christmas music.  There are a few Christmas songs that by this time in the season make me want to rip my ears off.  For example:

-Baby, It's Cold Outside: any version.  The lyrics of this song have always struck me as a little creepy.  I mean really, the girl wants to go home.  Get out of the way and let her out the door!  I just feel bad for her, especially when she says things like, "Hey, what's in this drink?"  Does she suspect this guy of slipping her roofies?  Run, sweetie, RUN!

- Wonderful Christmastime: Paul McCartney.  I love the Beatles and was lucky enough to see Paul McCartney live when he came to town last year.  Love him.  Brilliant.  But sorry, Sir Paul, this song is horrible.  Just. Aw. Ful.  And oh-so-catchy.  Now it is stuck in my head.  Again.  Crap.

- Christmas Shoes.  'Nuff said.  (ihateitihateitihateit)

- The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Arden loves this song and won't let me change it if she hears it in the car.  Seriously?  This song is like 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, except for Christmas.

- Anything by Michael Bolton or Neil Diamond (sorry Dad).

- Mistletoe by Justin Bieber.  Sorry, I just don't get it.  Sure, the kid can carry a tune, but his pants remind me of Dick van Dyke's pants in Mary Poppins when he is dancing with the penguins.  You know, when he pulls them half way down and then has to waddle around like a penguin.  And, sorry to all those tweens out there, but when he says dumb stuff like "I'm-a-be under the mistletoe with you, shawty," I want to die.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  :-)  Merry Christmas!  I promise to do a happier post next, especially if I can figure out this dang picture stuff.


Zaugg Christmas Pageant

Yesterday we had our First Annual Zaugg Christmas Pageant.  We had a beautiful Mary (Arden).  We had a baby Jesus (played by one of Arden's dolls who happens to be a girl, but we wrapped her up in her pretend swaddling clothes enough to hide the pink bow in her hair).  We had a Joseph (Preston).  We had a shepherd with his sheep (Dax and a few stuffed animals).  We even had a heavenly angel (little Corbie, with her tin foil halo and pink wings).  I got to be the narrator, and also played various other parts, including the donkey, the innkeeper and the three wise men.

It may have been one of the shortest Christmas plays ever, but it was fun and it hopefully gave the kids another chance to remember the real Christmas story. 

The play started out okay with Corbie the angel telling our Mary that she was "Going have a baby!  His name wiw be Jesus!"  Mary and Joseph then headed off to Bethlehem, but I am pretty sure the real Mary didn't giggle like that while riding the donkey.  After they got themselves settled in the stable, we turned our attention to where the shepherds were abiding in the fields.  The Shepherd himself was pretty much running around and around the room and not keeping a very good watch over his sheep by night, but he did stop running when Cora yelled at him "Hark.  HARK, DAX!" Then I whispered to her what to say...it started out pretty good.  Corbie was so cute sitting on my shoulder and saying her lines.  We got through, "Be not 'fraid for be-hode I bing you good tid-ines of gate joy" but after that she got a little tired and so we just summarized the rest as "Baby Jesus is borned!"   The little angel helpfully pointed to the couch where Arden, um I mean Mary, was, and yelled "Over dere!"  Dax did such a good job of coming to see the baby and kneeling down by him oh-so-reverently where he lay in his toy basket, er...manger. 

The angel had lost interest after her turn in the spotlight was over, so we quickly moved on to the wise men (me) bringing the gifts.  We received some actual frankincense and murr as a gift a few years ago, so it was fun for the kids to see what those things are.  The play was pretty much over so we got ourselves some treats and burned some of our frankincense so the kids could see how good it smells.

Arden has already "called" that she gets to be the angel next year.

Sure do love those Christmas Cookies

The other day for FHE we made lots of Christmas cookies!  We made them to deliver to the kids' nursery and primary teachers as sort of a "thank you" for putting up with the kids all year and teaching them so much!  (And boyhowdy, those nursery teachers have earned themselves some cookies!) 

The kids were all so excited to help.  Unfortunately, as the number of helpers increases, the process of making cookies actually seems to slow down instead of speed up.  For example, at one point we had to add 3 1/2 cups of sugar to the cookie dough mixture.  In order to keep everyone happy, Arden got to put in one cup, then Dax got to put in one cup, and then Cora got to put in one cup.  I got to put in the last 1/2 cup.  This is how everything went.  (Actually, that was one of the easier ingredients since there were 3 cups...the real drama was when there were only 2 teaspoons of baking powder.)  However slow the process, they were happy to be my little helpers.  Here is Dax, helping me finish rolling out some dough:

They all liked to take turns choosing what cookie cutter to use.  Daxton's favorite were the Christmas trees, and Arden liked the stars.  Cora liked the "jingle bells."  (I am seriously struggling to get the new blogger interface to put my pictures the right way.  Any suggestions???)

After they were baked, we had to wait for them to cool off before we could frost them.  Unfortunately, not all of the cookies survived long enough to get their frosting:

Fortunately, a few did survive to the frosting stage, and Daxton and Arden LOVED to put sprinkles on.  Cora too, of course.  She dumped and ENTIRE new bottle of sprinkles on her first cookie.  Should have taken a picture of that cookie.  Here is one of Dax's creations, about to be eaten by the artist himself:

Arden likes to put a little bit of each kind of sprinkles on her cookies.  





After all of the testing, there were still enough cookies to drive around to the nursery and primary teachers, and the kids added a little Thank You/Christmas card to each plate.  Corbie was SO dang excited in the car as we drove around.  As soon as I started to slow down, she started screeching, "I wanna come wif you to da dohwuh!  I wanna hode da pwate!  I wanna hode da PWAAATE!"  Luckily, Daxton didn't mind that Cora got to hold all the plates.  He was happy to stand next to her and yell "Merry Christmas!" along with Cora when the door was opened by one of their nursery leaders.  At one house, he stuck his head inside and said "I looove your Christmas tree!"  Silly kid.  Arden was a little shy to give the cookies to her primary teachers, but she was brave and did it, and even threw in a "Thanks for being my primary teacher!" along with her Merry Christmases.  

I am so thankful that there are so many amazing people willing to teach and love my kids, and I appreciate them much more than a plate of cookies can say!  They are so awesome and so patient, and I can't wait to see what the kids will learn next year.  (watch out Sunbeams, here comes Dax!)

Future Paleontologist (or Future Kung Fu Panda)

Dax, my dinosaur freak, got an A-Z dinosaur book a while back. It has a dinosaur for every letter of the alphabet. He loves that book, and it has had to be taped together with green tape to keep it from falling completely apart. He used to like me to read it to him at bedtime, but lately he insists on "reading" it himself. I was surprised that he can actually name most of the dinosaurs all by himself. He told me he wanted me to take a picture of him reading it, so I did. If you are in the mood to watch a 3-year old say large words...for example: "D is for Dip-wod-ocus (Diplodocus)" Enjoy!  (Actually the video of him reading the whole book was taking forever to upload, so I shortened it a little, so now it is just I - Z or so, but you get the idea).

This kid's mind is truly a mystery to me.  Today we were at my Grandma's house, and she was talking about a show she had watched about grizzly bears.  Dax jumped in and said something like, "Once if there will be bears in my house mommy will hide but if I am all grown up into Kung Fu Panda, then I will use my super hero Kung Fu Panda super moves to kick it and then mommy don't have to hide any more."  What?

Christmas Confusion

We are busy getting ready for Christmas around here. I still have some shopping left to do, but I am getting closer. We are doing our best to try and make sure the kids understand that Christmas isn't all about presents. Tonight for FHE we were trying to get the kids to watch part of the Christmas devotional from Sunday. If you saw it, you know they had a video depicting the birth of Jesus. They were showing the part where Mary and Joseph are travelling to Bethlehem. Dax was sitting on my lap, and I said something like, "Look, Dax! There is baby Jesus' mother riding on the donkey." Dax said, "Where is baby Jesus?" I said, "He is in her tummy." He turned around and looked at me with concern on his face and sweetly asked, "Did she eat baby Jesus???"

We have also been going through our toys and deciding which ones to donate to a toy drive. Arden was at school, so Dax and Cora were helping me decide which toys to choose. They were both so generous, and Dax even tried to give his favorite stuffed T-rex. I explained that we should just give the toys that were still in good shape that we didn't play with very much anymore. Cora sweetly offered up an armful of Arden's toys, saying that "I don't pway with these any-mo!" So nice of her! :-)

What traditions do you have at your house so that your kids don't get too caught up in the presents!presents!Santa!presents! aspect of Christmas?