Fine. I'll Blog

It is the season. Sickness is starting to happen. So, I'll just quickly blog that December 11 was National Teriyaki Chicken Day and International Mountain Day. We had teriyaki chicken and I made a mountain of mandarin oranges.

O.K. Until next time.

 

I Don't Wanna

I don't wanna blog right now. I still need to catch up on dishes. 

How about instead of doing a nice blog post, I show you what our sky looked like Tuesday evening?

 Cool, huh? I love nature.

Service and Burnout

We did so much that first week of December. I wanted to get things in before the tradition of being sick during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Actually, nobody was sick for that this year. Yay. We did enjoy watching it together.

In Sacrament Meeting that morning, our bishop talked about doing simple acts of service, which as you know I've been thinking about and trying to do lately. He shared an experience where he offered to throw away somebody's trash for them because it looked like they were done eating. Simple acts of service. I offered to take someone's cart back for them in the Costco parking lot. I was already taking mine back and he had one arm already full. Simple acts of service. At church, I complimented a couple men on their ties because the Christmas season brings out some awesome festive ties. Simple acts of service.

I also took some time Sunday afternoon to make paper bag puppets with Jet. He loved it. 

So I tried to do service. I tried celebrating. Then Monday and the burnout came. I had my nice little breakdown, feeling the overwhelm. I managed to clean and vacuum the living room. I did not manage to catch up on dishes. Did you know baking uses a lot of dishes? I still haven't caught up on the dishes. I'll just admit that right now. And I want to do more baking (read that with a whiny voice).

I still managed to do service when a couple people asked me to help with things. I mean, when someone needs a balloon blown up and you have access to balloon pumps... 

Monday evening, I dragged the kids (a couple were grumpy and didn't want to go- everyone's feeling the burnout and overwhelm) over to the mall for something new. 

They had a live nativity. Students from one of the local high schools were the performers. I knelt down with Jet to explain who the different people represented. When we get to the different groups (shepherds, wise men, etc.) in our family scripture study, I'll be able to remind him of what we saw. 

We also got hot chocolate and brownies there which we were excited about because December 8 was National Brownie Day.

Jet wanted to go inside the big Christmas tree while we were there. It is so cool looking inside.

 

We enjoyed the holiday lights (including the lights of the fountain). 

Here's a funny story. We sat down by the fountain to let Jet eat his brownie because he was just carrying it around for a while. While we were sitting there, Lucky handed me his napkin which he had shaped like a flower and said, "Here's a pretty flower for the lady." Awwww. When Jet finished his brownie, he handed me his crumb covered napkin and said, "Here's a napkin for when you finish your brownie." Ha Ha Ha Ha. I think he did it in a similar voice to what Lucky was using which is what made it hilarious. Have I mentioned I love my kids?

 

We got to see live animals as we walked back to our van, including a camel.

The weather was so good that day. We were really fortunate. I think the student performers were also really fortunate because when Nichole went to the mall just a couple days before that, it was so cold.

The grumpy kids didn't stay grumpy very long which I am grateful for and Jet was very well behaved.

We talked about how many years ago (November 2017), most of us got to ride a camel, so when we got home, Jet got on his brother's back and told us, "I'm riding a camel."

Since it was also Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day, we had "fish fingers and custard" at home.

Huh. I guess going to a live nativity also works for that holiday because we went back more than 2000 years to when Jesus came to Earth as a little baby.

 

Yesterday, December 9, was National Llama Day so my mom said I could share a couple pictures she took of her neighborhood llamas. She shared some llama thoughts with me as well. I love that my mom helps me celebrate. 

Mommy, Look

Jet: It looks like a hand.

 

What?

 

Lots of Lights

December 6 was a day for being around holiday lights apparently.

Since it was St. Nicholas Day, we found candy in our shoes. Lucky let me know that he had learned about that holiday in the library so when he saw it on the calendar, it reminded him that it was that holiday so he went to look in his shoes.

I need to take a little break from writing now because Jet wants his turn so this is my way of doing service for him now- letting him type.

 

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Now it's my turn (after I edited his a little). 

Besides St. Nicholas Day, December 6 was also Put On Your Own Shoes Day. That happened. 

Since the lights are on at City Center Park now, I wanted to get out for a walk on the first morning I could, which was that Saturday (because weekdays during school, there's not enough time). You know I like going for morning walks there when the lights are on. It was Play Outside Day as well.

It was raining that morning so I was worried about going out until Jeremy encouraged me to unlock my "inner Oregonian" and I realized I could use an umbrella. So I went and got a good walk in the rain and enjoyed the lights (and an audiobook). 

That evening, Nichole needed to go some places for homework so I took her to the mall and to BYU, both places with holiday lights. 

She pointed out the cool Nativity they had on the windows of the library at BYU. 

The moon looked cool that night.

We ate breakfast sandwiches that night because it was Microwave Oven Day and I made sure to cook my egg in the microwave as well as sausage links. 

 

The Muppet Christmas Carol

We normally do our tradition of watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Humbug Day (December 21) for obvious reasons. This year Humbug Day is on a Sunday and we choose not to watch movies in our home on Sundays (personal choice to help it be different from other days of the week) so we made a last minute decision to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol on December 5 which is Walt Disney's birthday (also appropriate).

I asked the kids to make guesses at which point in the movie I would fall asleep. One said the scene where Christmas Present says, "Come in and know me better man." One said during Christmas Past. One was generous and said I'd make it all the way to Christmas Future.

We had to pause the movie a few times (put food away because we ate dinner while watching). We did scripture study during one of the pauses. I ended up falling asleep at the very end of "that song" for those that have watched the extended edition. So at the end of Christmas Past right before Christmas Present.

My kids know me.