Packing Up Christmas

Now that my house officially looks like an after Christmas sale, I thought I'd post pictures of what it looked like when it was beautiful…

I love the way the house looks from the street when it's all lit up with Christmas lights.  McKay kept his blinds open every night in December so he could fall asleep with all the lights from outside filling his room.  

One of my favorite things about Christmas is these books.  When the kids were little, I would wrap them all right after Christmas and put this basket under the tree, and they would unwrap a different one and read it every night until Christmas.  Now we just read them all on Christmas Eve.  I love that this basket is filled with great stories and that my kids were as excited to read them this year as they were when they were toddlers.  

I love our Christmas tree.  My favorite thing is to have the dining room lit up every night with the lights from that tree.  

I love the way the presents gradually fill up the space underneath the tree.  My mom made that beautiful tree skirt.  

Every ornament on this tree means something to our family.  We always pick up a Christmas ornament from the vacations we go on.  This one was from our trip to Florida this year.  

I got this one last December when Craig and I were in Scottsdale.  

I have every ornament my kids have ever made…sometimes multiples because they each made the same one.    

There is a small collection of T ornaments that I've found over the years.  

And baby ornaments for each of the kids…except Megan.  I'll have to write a blog post about that next year when she finally has her own baby ornament on the tree.

There are a handful of ornaments made by my grandmother and my great aunt that I love to be able to put on my tree.  This one was actually made by my dad.  He was secretly crafty.  He got a kit one year thinking that we could make these together and he turned out to be so much better at all the tedious pinning of sequins on Mrs. Claus' little dress.  Every time I look at this ornament, I think about my dad's huge hands meticulously pinning on every one of those little beads and sequins.  Amazing man...

I always mourn those days in January when the Christmas baking comes to an end, and the decorations have to be put away.  The house seems to go from beautifully filled with color to cold and stark.  All of those corners where poinsettias and lights have been are now just empty.  I always think at this time of year that I need to find some kind of interim decorations so that it's not such a sad transition.      

I like the chance to clean those corners, though.  And the opportunity for organization that comes with a new year.  I might love this transition more if I had the energy to do it all at once like I usually do.  But gradual is good, too.  It's good to have the kids help with all the stuff that usually appears and disappears while they're all at school.  And it's given me a chance to appreciate what a blessing it is to have 100% energy.  In my head, I'm thinking that I never want to waste a minute of energy again, but…I'm sure an occasional day on the couch will slip in there.  

I'm grateful for yet another amazing Christmas season, for traditions that the kids have come to look forward to and love.  I'm grateful that this year necessity made it possible for them to learn to make some of those family recipes that I always worry will be lost forever when they leave.  I'm grateful to have been surrounded by family and friends who we love.  And as always, I'm grateful for the abundance that comes from the knowledge of the Savior's love for each one of us.  What a great year 2013 has been.  

Skype

I started to include this in the other post I wrote about Christmas, but it sort of requires it's own space.  

I have a special place in my heart for missionaries.  I don't know if it's because I love that 18-21 year old age.  Or if it's because I know so many people who have children serving missions.  Or if it's because I can feel the impending departure of my own little missionaries in a few short years.  But whatever it is, I am drawn to these amazing kids.  I love having them in our home.  I love watching them bring the Spirit into places where it has not been before.  And I love watching them mature and change in the short time we have them in our ward.  

We don't always get as attached to missionaries as we have become with this particular companionship, but we always include our house on their regular dinner calendar.  The two currently serving in our ward are Elder Christensen (from Utah) and Elder Saenger (from Oregon.)  We discovered Elder Christensen in September just after school started.  His companion at the time was Elder Wilbur (also from Utah.)  We instantly connected with both of those missionaries and soon became a regular stop for them at least a couple of times a week.  Elder Wilbur was transferred to East Texas at the beginning of November and replaced with Elder Saenger.  We love him as much as we loved Elder Wilbur.  These two boys have totally become part of our family.

Missionaries in our Church serve for 18 months if they are girls, or 2 years if they are boys, with very little contact with their families.  They are asked to leave home, forget themselves, and work daily to teach the gospel to people who have not had a chance to hear it yet.  Most of these missionaries are called to serve in places far from where they live, where they may or may not have ever traveled or even heard of before, and sometimes to speak a foreign language.  They get to email their families once a week, and Skype (or call if they are serving in a remote area) twice a year (Mother's Day and Christmas.)  

That's why we put ourselves on the missionary calendar in October!  There is nothing like being a tiny part of that reunion between a missionary and his or her family.  It makes me cry every single time I think about those sweet families who anxiously await their semi-annual phone call from their missionaries.  I cannot even imagine how difficult it would be to not get to hear my children's voices on a daily basis, and only communicate with them via weekly email.  I am in awe of the parents who send their children out and the sacrifices they make so that their kids can be successful missionaries.  And I'm so happy to connect in just a small way with the families of these two amazing missionaries. 

After we carved out a little personal space for each of them and got them connected on two different iPads, they talked to their families for almost 2 1/2 hours (which was probably a lot longer than they were advised, but we didn't really enforce a time limit.)  We snuck these pictures just after we had given them a 10 minute warning for dinner.   That's Elder Christensen in what used to be Emma's room but is being transformed (slowly) into McKay's room.



And this is Elder Saegner trying to be patient with the constant flow of girls into Craig's office reminding him that dinner was happening soon.  :)

When they emerged out of the little spaces we gave them, those two missionaries were absolutely glowy!  One of them has been out for 18 months and the other has only been out for 6, so it was interesting to talk to each of them about how they felt talking to their families.  Both were so uplifted and encouraged.  Both were unbelievably relieved and happy to have connected almost face to face with their families.  And both were motivated to get back out and work hard to do what their families sent them out to do!  I loved that we got to experience that from behind the scenes.  It was a little bit like inviting their sweet families into our home for a few hours.  We love Elder Christensen and Elder Saenger and we are so grateful for all that they do and all that their families have done to make it possible for them to be here.

We could not have asked for a better Christmas opportunity than to have these two missionaries in our home talking to their families on Christmas Day.  
 

Christmas Day

I know I'm supposed to be recovering still and taking it easy, but it's Christmas for heaven's sake.  I'll sleep later…

We blocked out the entire day on the missionaries' calendar about 6 weeks ago.  Have I mentioned how much we love these two Elders??  This is how they showed up at our door at 8:30 on Christmas morning.  So cute!

Craig was in charge of Christmas breakfast.  Hot chocolate bar, orange rolls, and his mom's traditional Swedish rice pudding. 

Have I written anything about rice pudding before??  Probably not, because we've never actually tried making it.  Whenever we spend Christmas with Craig's family, though, his mom makes a giant pot of this and we have it for breakfast with orange rolls!  My parents tried making it for Craig once when we spent Christmas with them.  But we have never actually made it in our house…until this year!  Craig texted his brother, Mark, for the recipe, because Mark is the rice pudding expert these days.  And bright and early Christmas morning, Craig woke up to start cooking.  (Can I just tell you how shocking and wonderful it is to write that someone else woke up bright and early on Christmas morning and started cooking??) 

Here's the fun part about this tradition:  Just before everyone is ready to eat, all the bowls are set out on the counter.  Into one of the bowls, Craig's mom sneaks a blanched whole almond.    And then a scoop of rice pudding is ladled into each bowl.  They are randomly distributed to the family for garnishing, and whoever finds the almond has good luck for the upcoming New Year.  We modified this slightly because Megan is allergic to nuts and we used a chocolate chip.

Every year that we celebrated Christmas with Craig's parents (and there were several) Savannah ended up with the almond…Every.Single.Year.  We made sure this year that it was an equal opportunity chocolate chip, that none of the kids were even in the kitchen with us when we served the rice pudding, and that everyone randomly grabbed a bowl and didn't stir it (since that chocolate chip melted almost instantly and would have changed the whole color of the rice pudding.)  But despite our best efforts, guess who ended up with that lucky bowl of rice pudding??  Yup…Savannah!  That girl never ceases to amaze us…for lots of reasons, but the rice pudding thing is becoming a bit of a legacy in our family.  I'm not sure what we would actually do if someone else got it one year?? 

Here's the recipe for rice pudding in case you're feeling like you need a new Christmas tradition in your family, or if you just want to try it.  I understand that Mark Thunell makes this a couple of times a week!  

Rice Pudding

6 C whole milk
1 1/2 C long grain rice
4 oz butter 
3/4 C sugar

Put all ingredients into a large stockpot and let it all come to a boil.  Turn heat to low and stir constantly while mixture simmers and thickens.  About 45 minutes.  Serve with heavy cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  

After breakfast, we asked the missionaries to take our annual Christmas picture on the stairs.  It's been awhile since the whole family was in this picture.  Nice to have impromptu missionary photographers available on Christmas morning.  

And then we moved on to the presents!

 (yep…the paint test colors are still up on the dining room walls.  I decided that I can't decide, so I'm just going to wait until the pain meds have worn off, the holidays decorations are put away, and the dust settles a little.  And then maybe I'll be able to make a decision.  For now, it's kind of a fun conversation starter. )

I always feel so much pressure to make sure everyone gets everything they ever wanted, or wished for, or subtly hinted about during the year.  But that's so not what Christmas is about.  This year, since I was distracted, the kids really put a lot of time and thought into buying presents for each other and for the missionaries.  They weren't huge, impressive presents, but they were sincere and thoughtful, which made it so much more fun for everyone.  Each time someone opened a gift, the person who gave it to them would be riveted to their reaction.  And these kids know each other really well.  Megan used money from one whole babysitting job to pay for a lava lamp for McKay because she knew he would love it.  And he did!  McKay got Emma princess shaped Spaghetti-O's (because this is the year of the mermaid around here) and Emma was thrilled.  

The girls spent an entire afternoon shopping at every dollar store in town to make sure the missionaries had plenty to open on Christmas Day.  They got scripture markers, little book lights for late night scripture reading, Christmas ties, and boxes of crayons.  We all had a really great Christmas Day. 

After presents, the missionaries asked to have about an hour of quiet time to study the life of the Savior.  Again, I love those guys!  What a great example for all of us to see these two 20 year old boys stop celebrating and read their scriptures for an hour.  I used that time to be still and catch up on a little rest before heading into the rest of the day's festivities.  

Megan has a cute friend from church whose family had planned to go to AZ for the holidays, but at the last minute got sick and had to change their plans.  They had already had their Christmas and opened all of their presents.  Matt was lamenting to Megan about how it was going to be such a boring Christmas and that they had nothing to look forward to, so I called his mom and invited them over for a super casual dinner and games afterward.  They arrived around 3:00.  Craig had a ham in the oven.  The girls made mashed potatoes and rolls.  And Emma helped make two pies on Christmas Eve.  Matt's family brought drinks, a giant salad and green bean casserole.  It was a bounteous dinner, for sure, and I didn't have to do a thing. 

After dinner the kids played Just Dance 2014 and the adults played Settlers of Catan.  We ended the night with a huge game of Scattergories with the whole group.  

I am so grateful for the awesome day that we had.  I'm grateful for a house that comfortably holds a lot of people.  I'm grateful for the awesome friends and family that surrounds us, for an abundance of food, and for lots of helping hands.  And I'm especially grateful for this beautiful and sacred season that draws all of us together.  

Christmas Jammies

The Christmas Eve festivities were pretty quiet around here this year.  

Megan made the traditional quiche for dinner since I couldn't really do much more than direct the process.  They turned out beautiful and delicious and I think her kitchen confidence increased a ton!  She kind of loved how everyone raved about her food.  (I kind of loved that, too!)

After dinner, the kids opened their Christmas jammies.  We do this every year and they love it!  I think it's their favorite tradition.

We finished the night by reading a handful of our favorite Christmas stories.  

I love Christmas Eve.  I love the joyful anticipation that fills the house.  I love the quiet night to reflect on the birth of the Savior.  I love the traditions that we look forward to each year.  And I love being in a house filled with people I love during this amazing and beautiful holiday season.  

Busy Weeks

I think we have managed to cram every possible thing into the last 10 days!  (which is why the blogging has been sporadic lately and the pictures are non existent.  I didn't even have time to remember to bring my camera anywhere, much less take the thing out and use it.  Thank goodness for iPhones!)

After all the girls' concerts and shows, and after Craig returned from his December traveling (which we like to call the December World Tour around here) there was the annual ward Christmas party on Friday night.  I made a couple of things for the potluck dinner.  I sang a peppy, fun Christmas song in a quartet with a handful of amazing women.  Savannah played the guitar and sang "Where Are You Christmas?" and then I played the piano for the Christmas carols at the end.  

On Sunday, Savannah directed the choir.  I played the organ.  Craig and I taught our 16-17 year old Sunday School class.  And Megan and I sang a song together in Relief Society.  That might have been my favorite thing I agreed to do this weekend.  Late Friday night, a friend called and asked if we would be the closing song for her lesson.  We sang a beautiful arrangement of "He Sent His Son" and I loved having Meg next to me.  We are not usually the soloists in our family (and technically we still weren't soloists because we sang a duet after all…) but I'm feeling pretty confident about my voice these days with all the use it's been getting, and Megan is so enthusiastic about trying out her talents, that I couldn't possibly turn this opportunity down.  She's also picked up my mom's old ukulele recently and has started playing and singing along with that thing.  I love how this house is filling up with musically talented kids.  (Oh, and in case you think we've left anyone out, did I mention that we bought McKay a drum pad for Christmas so he can get ready to be in the percussion section of the band?!!…EEK!)


After church, all three girls went to YW Presidency meetings, and Craig had the Deacons Quorum Presidency meeting at our house.  

Oh, and the baptism…our sweet Casey was finally baptized on Sunday night.  Here's a link to her cute blog so you can read about the details and see the pictures.  It was an amazing night for her.  Hundreds of people came to support her and we had to hold the meeting in the chapel!  Savannah sang "Come Thou Fount," and another lovely girl sang "Live It" (the Jenny Phillips song from the YW Theme last year.)  And I had the extreme pleasure of accompanying for both girls.  That is my favorite place to be lately…behind the piano accompanying while beautiful voices sing in church.  I love that so much!

After the baptism a few people came over for a little Open House to congratulate Casey, and then the missionaries lingered until about 9:00.  I love that those guys feel comfortable here.  They are awesome!  

It was a crazy busy weekend, but one that was so unbelievably happy and fulfilling that I wouldn't have given up one single part of it.  I loved having something to contribute to all the meetings at church and to Casey's baptism.  And I loved hearing all of my kids share their talents.  I'm so proud of them for being willing to do that.  What a huge blessing it is for other people to hear beautiful music, or even just fun music.  It connects, and uplifts, and brings the Spirit into a room like nothing else can.  I am especially grateful for all these musical opportunities and for the busy days in preparation for the holidays.  I love this time of year and I love remembering the reason we are all so busy.  I'm so grateful to celebrate the birth of the Savior and to be able to give back to Him a little bit of the love and generosity He has given to all of us.  

The next few weeks are going to slow down dramatically (more on that later…) so I'm glad to have been able to participate in all that crazy busy-ness last week.   I hope your holiday season is filled with busy things that you're enjoying being part of and LOTS of music! 

Notes From Church

I did something scary today.  I played a piano solo in Sacrament meeting.  I don't know why I always get so nervous...like I was seriously shaking up there.  It was the craziest thing.  I've practiced and practiced this song.  And I've played it perfectly in the the privacy of my own home.  But something about playing for a lot of other people is absolutely terrifying.  BUT I did it anyway.  And it was really beautiful.  I don't know if everyone else liked it, but I loved playing it.  My hands were so shaky at the beginning that I came close to messing up a few times, but I caught it.  And then right in the middle of the song at the key change, which is my favorite part, I stopped thinking and just let my fingers do their thing.  For just a second, in the middle of that song, I forgot about all the people in the building and only thought about the people who love me.  I pictured their faces and heard their voices and saw their smiles of encouragement and I played the heck out of that song. And it worked!!  Hooray!!

I know I'm supposed to play the piano.  I know that I've been given this talent so that I can contribute.  I know there's a reason I feel compelled to practice certain songs and that I'm drawn to certain music.  I walked toward that vision today and it worked.  

Silent Night/Still Still Still

Here's what I played...you can listen to it if you want, although this recording isn't me.  It sounds pretty close, though.  :)

It's kinda fun to do scary things on Sunday!

Sea World at Christmas

On Christmas Eve, the Scout Master and I had a crazy idea to surprise the kids with one last trip to Sea World in San Antonio before our passes expired.  We have never been to SA in the winter, and we were pretty intrigued by the thought of Sea World at Christmas...."where the season meets the sea."

The weather forecast looked hopeful, and about 15 degrees warmer than Dallas for the weekend, so we happily loaded the van and drove off for our adventure bright and early yesterday morning.  

Sea World is beautiful during the Christmas season, and until it got dark, the weather was pretty darn perfect, too.  The Scout Master and a couple of the kids managed to get on a the roller coasters, and we hit all three of the big shows.  Unfortunately that's about all we were able to do because the park was completely PACKED with people.  Who knew Christmas was such an ideal time to visit Sea World?  We had forgotten about the Alamo Bowl scheduled for this afternoon, so we ran into A LOT of football fans, including both the UT and Oregon State bands!  Despite the crowds, we had a really great time.  Lots of togetherness,  and a really great way to break up the monotony of a two week vacation from school.  We stopped at a few of the outlet malls on the way home and zipped through the UT campus in Austin so that I could breathe a little orange blood into my children, and we made it home by 8:30ish.  

Here is my favorite part of this weekend and every other family vacation that we've ever been on...

I absolutely LOVE having all of my chickens in one space.  I'm not crazy about sharing one bathroom, and I'm sure the lack of privacy would be irritating after awhile, but to be stuffed in a hotel room for one or two nights is the most peaceful, content, joy-inducing thing I can think of.  I woke up at 4:00am because Mack is getting a pretty bad cold.  I gave him some water and then walked the two feet back to my own bed and hopped in.  For a minute, I just sat there in the dark and counted four little blessings and one larger snoring one beside me, and then I went back to sleep.  I love these guys so much!