New Year's Eve Nachos 2018

Mommy, Look

Jr.: It's Christmas spirit.

(crushed peppermint candy sprinkled on his hot dog with ketchup)

Light Your Faith

 

The last week of Light the World is "Light your faith."
Besides celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, I completed a goal that was set earlier in the year.

I finished the Book of Mormon before the end of the year! 

It was a wonderful experience to read the Book of Mormon again this year and I can't thank Jeremy enough for listening to me when I shared my insights into what I was reading.  We've had wonderful discussions about the Book of Mormon and I'm so excited about the discussions we'll have while reading the New Testament in 2019 (and of course as I continue to study the Book of Mormon).

A Relaxing Day

December 26 was Wren Day.  Nichole and Jeremy went out looking for a wren but didn't find one.  They did find a hummingbird, though.

December 26 was also National Candy Cane Day.  They boys decided to celebrate by decorating themselves with candy canes.

Today was nice.  Jeremy and I decided to celebrate Wren Day Observed.  We went for a walk along the Provo River Parkway.  It was snowing and it was cold but it was completely worth it.
We saw chickadees, flickers, robins, spotted towhees, mallards, coots, some goldeneyes, downy woodpeckers.  We also saw some white-breasted nuthatches and brown creepers.  I hadn't seen any creepers yet this year (in Utah) so it was so nice to see a bunch of them chasing each other around on the trees.

And yes, we got our wren.  It was a Winter Wren, which is not a bird normally found in Utah. 
Kind of like the yellow-bellied sapsucker we saw back in January.  Jeremy saw it while on a birding field trip.  I went out to find it and it took me three tries and many hours standing around until somebody happened to mention it was on the opposite side of the cemetery from where I was looking (and where Jeremy saw it).  There were a bunch of us birders looking for it so several of us did get to see it.  Now that again is the difference between a birdwatcher and a birder.  Someone who goes out to see birds versus someone who stands around in the cold January weather for hours waiting for a bird to show up.  When it doesn't, that someone comes back again and again until they find it.

Back to today and Wren Day Observed.  We got our Winter Wren.  It was so nice to come and pose for us.  So worth the cold.

We stopped by the place for the hummingbird, just in case, but it was snowing quite a bit so we weren't surprised when we didn't see it.  It was probably hunkered down hiding.
It was a nice relaxing outing with my husband.

This is me so happy with the birds we saw.

We ran some errands and when we got home, I made hot chocolate for the kids and I sat down with my new rice warmer and mug of mint herbal tea.  Mmmmmm.  So relaxing.

I've enjoyed my bonding time with my husband today and how relaxing things have been.  Ahhhhh.

Humphrey Bogart's Birthday

December 25 was Humphrey Bogart's birthday.  What better way to celebrate than by opening presents (can you believe I didn't take pictures of present opening?), having a special dinner the night before,

Eating scones with blackberry jam in the morning (Mmmmmmm),

And making gingerbread houses with friends?
I had two 5-year olds helping me.  Can you tell?

Oh, and wasn't it nice of me to make homemade gifts to celebrate his birthday?

I decorated a bowl for Jeremy and this time I traced my hands.  He really likes the one from the kids (I blogged about it the beginning of December).

I made each of the kids a new rice warmer.  They haven't had new ones since Christmas 2013 and eventually the rice warmers broke.  Jeremy's is still fine.  Lucky never got one but has been wanting one.

Unfortunately I didn't make one for myself (even though I also needed a new one) but that problem was solved in the form of angels from our ward.  One of the kids from our Primary class dropped off a rice warmer as a gift the other day.  Hooray.  I kind of claimed it for myself.  I hope the rest of the family doesn't mind.  It smells like mint and makes me think of relaxing with a nice warm cup of herbal tea.  Mmmmm.  Thanks, angels.

And thanks to all the wonderful friends for their kindness this month leading up to celebrating Humphrey Bogart's birthday.  How did you know?

Rad-ish Night

Kristin: You know what would make this salad awesome?  Radishes.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to buy radishes when I was shopping for what was on the menu.  December 23, Radish Night.  On the menu plan- salad with radishes.  I didn't forget the lettuce.  Oh no.  We were good there.  But the radishes?  I didn't even think to buy them.  I was getting lots of things for Christmas dinner and other things, but no radishes.  It didn't even cross my mind to get any.
Oh well.  Salad is great.  Salad is awesome.  Salad is rad.  But that night?  Our salad wasn't completely rad.  It was rad-ish.

Other than our not completely awesome salad (any other day, a radishless salad would be fine, but not on Radish Night), we had a pretty good day. 
We had gotten behind on our Countdown to Christmas scripture study due to illnesses and recovery and life (thankfully we had been reading some Christmas scriptures every night).  So after our beautiful Christmas program for Sacrament Meeting (wow, the music was gorgeous- and not just the choir, though Jr. and I both sang in the choir), and since we only had Sacrament Meeting that day, we had extra time after church.  We decided to catch up on our scripture study but didn't want to burn the kids out so here's what we did:
We gathered together at the table to read a day's worth of scripture study while eating snacks then we set a timer for 10 minutes of free time.  Then we gathered together for another day's worth of scripture study then 10 more minutes of free time.  We kept doing that until we were all caught up.  It worked really well.

I even managed to deliver something to someone in the neighborhood during one of 10 minute breaks.  I made it back before the timer went off.  Oh yeah, I'm awesome.  I even took a few minutes to chat with the person.  Ha Ha.

It was a pretty nice day.

Balloon Christmas Tree

Finished Christmas tree pictures.

Jeremy went beyond just finishing the tree, though.  The kids helped with branches and ornaments and Jeremy also built presents for under the tree, a candy cane arch, a wreath, holly garland, and a Santa hat.

We invited people to come see our Christmas tree since we're still new to the area and many of our neighbors are still learning about our balloon art.  We also had Chex Mix and hot chocolate for those that wanted it.  Yumm.

Earlier in the day, Jr. and I went out to deliver Christmas-themed balloon sculptures.  Jr. twisted them all himself.  He's doing really well with this.

Yesterday, December 21, was Humbug Day.  Jeremy and I decided to watch the Christmas Carol episode of Doctor Who.  I looked at the clock right before starting the movie.  Midnight.  Oh well.  I still wanted to watch it so I guess we celebrated Humbug Day Observed.

Light Your Family

This week for Light The World is "Light your family."  The boys helped Jeremy make our balloon Christmas tree (Nichole helped a bit, too).  The branches are all made out of 1-balloon dogs twisted together.  Even Lucky was twisting dogs.  He knows how to do it well.  I'll show finished tree pictures later.

Nichole and I had some one on one bonding time.  She and I ran errands together including craft shopping! We also spent some time at the Orem Library.  Nichole decorated an ornament to put on a tree in the teen section.  It's a dragon (of course) carrying Santa.

When we got home we worked on crafts while watching a movie.

Great time for all.

A Day Off

I told you it was crazy busy.  We've been celebrating and I've been taking care of sick kids.  Now I'm blogging.  Here are some more things we've done:
December 11 was International Mountain Day.  We made a mountain of grilled cheese sandwiches and went to see Nichole's orchestra concert.  Nichole took a challenge and practiced her violin every day for 100 days straight and was recognized along with several others during the concert.  She was also awarded a candy bar for her efforts.

Some of her Young Women leaders came to watch the concert to support her, too.  That was very nice of them.

December 13 was Cocoa Day.  We celebrated Cocoa Day (Observed) the next night by having our annual Polar Express Party.  Jeremy was very entertaining with his reading (it wasn't exactly as written), we had cocoa with peppermint ice cream in it and whipped cream on top, and I couldn't stay awake through the whole movie.

If you give Nichole a medium...

December 17 was National Maple Syrup Day.  We ate pancakes with maple syrup.

Other things we've done:
We also celebrated Lucky's birthday.

"Boo hoo.  There's a KAT licking my birthday cake."  

Points to you if you get the reference.

I went with some friends to see a local Christmas village put together by people in our ward.  Wow.  And wow.  They have a whole room the size of a garage with villages on tables along the edges.  Lots of lights.  Different themes.  And a lot of movement.  It's not just a bunch of houses and things that just sit there.  There are amusement park rides that move.  Ice skaters glide over ponds.  It is awesome.

Their outside is just as festive.  I only have a daytime picture.  It's all lit up at night.

I also went to a Relief Society cookie exchange.  I got to sit around eating cookies and chatting with other women.  So nice.  My family was happy when I brought home cookies from it as well.

Then yesterday, I took a day off.  After being up and down all night with a sick child, Jeremy let me sleep in while he got the other kids off to school.  Then he sent me off to go birding for the day while he took care of the sick child.  I needed it.  It was very relaxing.  After doing so much and taking care of so many people, sick or otherwise, it was nice to get out in nature and have some me time. 

After that rejuvenating day, now I can face what needs to be done again.  Thanks again, Jeremy.  You're the best.