Christmas 2011

Onto Christmas, finally!! We decided to stay home this year and it turned out to be both stressful and relaxing at the same time. Christmas Eve was rather busy, actually. I forgot that months ago I had signed us up to clean the church building. I thought it would be a nice service activity for Christmas. Early Christmas Eve morning, we got a reminder call about it and rushed off. After cleaning, we quickly put the kids down for a nap and I rushed off across the border into Michigan (only 20 mins. away). I was hired to perform at 2 Christmas Masses and that took the rest of the day and evening. I sang at a nice Catholic church for their 4:00 and 6:00 Masses. They wanted me to sing Christmas morning as well, but for obvious reasons I declined. $350 for a couple Masses isn't bad! It would have been $500 had I done Christmas. I must admit, sometimes it's a little hard following the "keep the Sabbath day holy" commandment. I could make good money as a church singer. Many (most?) other churches pay their singers and cantors. I have been offered jobs, but can't take them : ( 

Anyway, it went really well and I was glad I did it even though it took up most of our Eve. The best part was after when several people came up to me in tears telling me that my singing made their Christmas. Obviously, it wasn't my voice, but the Spirit they were feeling, but it still feels good to hear that I made a difference. "O Holy Night" is fun to sing in a nice, acoustic church!

We were up most of the night finishing the wrapping and cleaning. The kids woke up at normal time (7ish) and were greeted by a pile of presents. Josie sort of knew it was Christmas, but she was more concerned with where Santa went and why he didn't stay to see them open the presents, lol. Anyway, the unwrapping began. As they opened some small presents, I quickly dressed them and fed them breakfast. I had to be at the church early, so I felt like the morning was super rushed. We had to save most of the present opening for after church. Church was combined with the other ward and was at 10 instead of 9. It was only an hour and was mostly music. I sang in a quartet and directed our ward choir. 

*The pictures are really crappy, btw. Oh well.

Here is the tree and loot. Ignore my weird outfit and hair. I was still trying to figure out what I was going to wear, lol. 

We really didn't get the kids much for Christmas. We spent maybe $100 on them combined? I was happy with that. Our kids have plenty. We got them each 2 main presents and a few small (think dollar store) items or clothes. Josie got a Little People castle set and a bike, as well as some small things from us and family. Donny got a little train set and some tonka trucks. He was in heaven.

Opening her castle set:

There was applause after each opening!!

Opening the train set:

More applause!

Later, we dined with some friends of ours. Our former bishop (now in the stake presidency) invited us for dinner. We did Christmas dinner with them 2 years ago and were happy to return. The meal was delicious and the table looked beautifully festive.

The day after Christmas was much more relaxing. Can't remember all of what we did, but we spent some time outside. It's been an extremely warm winter so far. Other than a couple flurries that quickly melted, it didn't really snow until after the new year!! Totally crazy. We have always had snow on the ground on Christmas (usually on Thanksgiving, too) since we've lived here. No white Christmas this year!! I remember 3 years ago, it was like 9 below zero the week of Christmas. This year, it's been in the 40's and 50's the last couple months. It's gotten down into the 20's and 30's, but still unusually warm.  As I'm writing this, there is no snow on the ground and it's nearly February!!!

Trying to get the hang of it:

Donny was happy to inherit Josie's old tricycle (and boots, apparently. Oops!)  : )

ALWAYS collecting sticks:

Sometime that week while Kevin was still off work, we went to an indoor bounce place that I got a groupon for. The kids had such a great time running around and getting those wiggle out!

Josie found some creative ways of going down all the slides.

Daddy got in on the fun, too!!

Donny is actually quite daring and athletic at parks and play areas. He hardly needed assistance on anything. He would climb up the stairs and slide down by himself. For him, the bigger the slide, the better!!

Family slide! Don't worry, Donny turned around on purpose : )

It was a great family week!!