Christmas 2012

Each year Christmas with kids gets more and more fun. Hannah gets it more and more each year. She’s so easily pleased and has genuine excitement. She’s not greedy. I had been planting in her mind that she wanted a kitchen for Christmas. When she sat on Santa’s lap she asked for a kitchen. When she returned to me I said, “What did you tell Santa you wanted?” She responded with the biggest smile on her face, “Mom, I asked for a kitchen, but he gave me a candy cane!” That could have been her whole Christmas and she would have been so happy. When does that change? When does Christmas become a chore? I hope never. Right now I love to spoil my kids with cheer, and activities, and presents.

I started out the season with 24 days of Christmas. Hannah got to open one present a day until Christmas. I loved doing this because it brought excitement to each day and helped me organize all the activities I wanted to do throughout the month. Most things were activities. Some were little gifts. Others toys we already had that she had forgotten about. In our 24 days of Christmas we went to Salt Lake to see the lights, rode the Lindon Polar Express, made cookies, went shopping for family members, etc.

Because we knew we’d be out of town for Christmas, we had a mini celebration a few days before we left with my parents.

We were going to California for Christmas and planned on leaving the Friday before Christmas. Earlier in the week, Jonathan decided he wanted to leave on Wednesday so we could go to the BYU Bowl game in San Diego on Thursday. So we packed up early and headed out. We stayed the night in St. George and Thursday afternoon dropped the kids off at his sister’s house. The Bowl game was really fun. We had fabulous seats (5^th row, 50 yard line) and the game got especially fun in the 4^th quarter. It’s always more fun when you win.

After the game we went back to his sisters to get the kids then headed to his parents. It made for a very long day (got up at 4:45 am and got to his parents around 1 am) but a very fun day. We spent the next week going to the beach, playing at the park, seeing the space shuttle and enjoying Christmas with family.

Christmas morning was pretty laid back. The oldest grandchild there was not quite 3 so while she and Hannah knew it was Christmas, and knew Santa had come, they were fine to eat breakfast and hang out upstairs until the adults were ready.

Everyone got what they asked for and then some. The big gifts were a kitchen for Hannah (delivered on New Year’s Day back at our house), a freezer for me (delivered 2 weeks before Christmas…more on this in a minute), and a tablet for Jonathan (not yet ordered – he got one, wasn’t here before we left, then decided he wanted a different one…so we’re in the process of returning and ordering again). I guess we actually kind of struggled to pull off Christmas ON Christmas this year. Jackson didn’t get 1 big thing…but lots of little toys that currently Hannah enjoys more than he does.

We headed back home to the cold on Thursday but finished up the weekend in St. George. Once we got home we were surprised to find out that two more of Jonathan’s siblings were in town. One of the families stayed with us for a few nights and we all went to a basketball game together.

I am sad that Christmas is over. Now it is just cold and icy and there isn’t much to look forward to. I loved having Jonathan not at work for 2 weeks. I could get used to that. Now it’s back to normal day living…which is pretty good too.

Oh, I have had job of stocking my new freezer.

About that – when did I transition from wanting fun things for myself to wanting things that make my family life easier? And when did I become such a cook? In college I did dinner group. This stressed me out beyond belief because I didn’t know how to cook. I would go to my mom’s house and get a casserole from her, slice up some bread and take all the credit. Now, I plan my meals out a month in advance and am always trying new recipes. This also means my new wants are all kitchen related. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved all my kitchen gifts I’ve gotten over the past few years…I just am surprised that these are my new wants. But, I’ve wanted a freezer for a while now. Like I said, I plan out my meals a month in advance now…many of which I had been wanting to make in advance when I do my one big shopping day but just didn’t have space to freeze them. So, I am thrilled to finally have plenty of room to store all my bulk purchases and freezer meals. It’s not full yet, but I think I’ve gotten a good start on it this past week.  So far I have 14 meals, about 30 pounds of cheese, 5 loaves of bread, over 100 sticks of butter, 4 pounds of bacon, a gallon of ice cream, 4 pizzas, and a hundred otter pops.