Happy Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve.

Sunday, December 21, was the Winter Solstice. Our choir director reminded us that on the darkest day of the year, it is important for us to think about Christ's light and share that. It was a beautiful Christmas program at church.

After church we managed to get a couple family pictures of everyone looking pleasantly at the camera.

We also got pictures of Jeremy and me together. It was a great way to emphasize Short Girl Appreciation Day.

It was also Humbug Day but I was so happy because of church. There was only some grumbling later. It happens. 

The kids took a couple days to build our balloon Christmas tree. Sunday, Jeremy decorated it and we had a little tree lighting. We got Jeremy's parents to join with us on a Zoom meeting then we got to chat with them for a while.

Monday, December 22, I got out for a morning walk at the park with the lights. I listened to some Piano Guys Christmas music (great for feeling the Spirit) and felt such strong gratitude for my Savior. After the shortest day of the year, feeling his light meant so much to me. I was crying so much while walking around the park, I don't know how helpful that was for my breathing while I was trying to exercise. Ha Ha.

In the Come Follow Me manual and on Instagram, Elder Soares shared some thoughts about Jesus Christ being our light, our life, and our hope at Christmastime. It went right along with my thoughts that morning. I do feel so much gratitude for my Savior when I've been thinking of some stressful things.

At home that day, Jet and I enjoyed a Discovery Kit from the Provo Library. This time, we read books and did activities (puzzle and fishing game) about Ocean Life.  

That night we went to another Interactive Movie at the Provo Library- The Nightmare Before Christmas. We went to one before when we watched The Princess Bride and unfortunately last Christmas, we missed the one for The Muppets Christmas Carol because too many of us were sick. 

We loved this one. We got to sing along with the songs, cheer and clap, etc. It was great for Jet because he loves that movie so he knows the songs and enjoyed doing the activities.

 

Tuesday, December 23, I got out for my morning walk again. The light of the sunrise was gorgeous. It was National Roots Day so I sent a text to my in-laws telling them we're grateful to all be part of the same family tree. 

That night, Jeremy, Nichole, Jet, and I went for a drive looking at Christmas lights and decorations. We've been so busy this was the only night we could do it. It was nice and we even drove up to see the Christmas Star on the mountain in Pleasant Grove. 

I am grateful for celebrating Jesus Christ's birth this season. My life is so much better because of Him. He is my light, my life, and my hope.

Merry Christmas! 

More Celebrating in December

December 17 was Maple Syrup Day. We tried out for the first time our four waffle waffle iron we got from my in-laws when we were visiting them this Summer.

Jet couldn't wait so he got a waffle to eat while I was still making them. The following happened when Jr. saw-

Jr.: Can I have a waffle, too?

Jr.: Sorry. May I have a waffle?

Jet: May you?

Jr.: Yes.

Apparently Jet learned that from me. I had no idea I did it. "May you?" Chuckle.

 

That day we also had the opportunity to go caroling around the neighborhood with other people in our ward. Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I joined the people going out. We caroled to several people who live alone. Some aren't able to make it to the church building on Sundays so have to watch church from home. We could tell that our brief visits and singing really meant a lot to some of them.

Jet joined in on a couple of the songs which was so sweet and said, "Merry Christmas," to a few people. I hope my boys learn from these experiences that it feels good to do service and I hope they want to find more ways like this to do it.

December 18 was Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day. When Jeremy called for family prayer that morning, I answered this way. "Kristin the Human. What's your favorite color?" He laughed and told me I was awesome but never told me his favorite color during that phone call.

We had Buddy the Elf type breakfast for dinner. When I put together my plate of food, I remembered it was supposed to be mixed by hand then shoveled into my mouth with my hands. Wow. That was disgusting. But funny. I did wait until after my kids had eaten most of theirs with a fork before doing that.

We started the movie, Elf, and ended up pausing it at this spot where one of these elves looked... um... kind of... crazy looking? 

Speaking of that particular elf with the glasses, did you know the actor who played that elf, Peter Billingsley, played Ralphie in A Christmas Story many many years ago? 

Speaking of A Christmas Story, during the holiday season I daily passed a house with a full size leg lamp in the window. It's a yearly tradition for that house. So awesome. I didn't get a picture of it but I love it.

December 19 was Oatmeal Muffin Day. We ate those.

 

We got Nichole home from college for Christmas Break. Yay. Just in time for some celebrating. The new Percy Jackson and the Olympians series was premiering so we had blue foods to eat while watching. We didn't have any blue jelly beans unfortunately but had some fun with blue pancakes, blue scrambled eggs, blue milk, blueberry bagels, and blue butter on toast.

The butter totally looks like frosting so there is a certain taste that is expected from it but it does not taste like frosting. I would not want a spoonful of that to snack on. Ugh.

There were no food coloring fiascos during this, either. Hooray.

By the way, it's been a few weeks so there have been a few episodes we've watched now of the series. We're enjoying it. We are book lovers of course. Most of us have read the Percy Jackson books. Lucky is reading them now for the first time. The discussions while watching the show together have been fun. I love family bonding.

 

The Winter Solstice was on December 21. It was a perfect excuse for another Fablehaven Feast using recipes from The Fablehaven Cookbook. Told you we're book lovers and love to find ways to celebrate based on books.

This time we had more Ogre Stew (it's a favorite). We quadrupled the recipe so we could have extra to freeze. Yeah, it was gone in about three days. Didn't end up freezing any of it.

We had Muriel's Pretzel Knots and Olloch the Glutton's Caramel Biscuit Bars.

For months Lucky has been wanting Zombie Cake Eyeballs so I finally made them. Wow. That is an ambitious recipe from the book. It's not so much hard as time consuming. Definitely not one I'll make often like Ogre Stew. We didn't even decorate all of the cake balls we made. There was another jarful of just white chocolate covered cake balls.

 

December 21 was also Humbug Day. It has become tradition to watch The Muppets Christmas Carol on Humbug Day if possible.

Back in 2020, Nichole said, "Happy National," before Scrooge said, "Humbug," then she said, "Day," after he said it each time. This year I said, "Happy Humbug Day," after he said, "Humbug," the first time. This is what happened then-

Nichole: We forgot to do the traditional...

Mom: We've done it like one time.

Nichole: One time makes it a tradition.

I love this family. I love finding reasons to celebrate.

Winter Solstice Among Other Things

December 21 was the Winter Solstice, the first day of Winter. When Jr. was going to make pancakes the day before, the smoke detector went off (not from his cooking, from bacon grease and water in the skillet). I told the kids to open windows but to make sure to close them before sundown since the next day was the solstice (it's been tradition this year on the solstices and equinoxes). We ate fluffernutter sandwiches again.

 

The 21st was also Short Girl Appreciation Day. I got a picture with my teenagers who were not standing on their toes nor was I slouching. Throughout the day, Jr. gave me hugs and told me that he appreciated me (not just because I was short, but because I do so much).

Also on the calendar for that day was Yule. Jr. wanted to listen to music. I told him he could only listen to music if it was with a Yule log fire like The Piano Guys or Josh Groban. Jr. found a YouTube video of Link standing by a fire. He put it on the TV then put Breath of the Wild music on the computer. Bwah ha ha ha. Clever boy.

 

The kids took turns doing online crossword puzzles for National Crossword Puzzle Day also on the 21st.

 

For Family Home Evening lesson, we read the nativity story in Luke 2 as we drove to West Mountain. As we drove along we saw sheep. We were like the wise men traveling to see the Christmas star. That day Jupiter and Saturn were the closest to each other in alignment with Earth that they have been in 800 years. Nice and bright... and around Christmas time. That's why it is known as the Christmas star. We drove to the other side of West Mountain with just the hill behind us with no house lights and farmland across the lake at the place we stopped so not a lot of lights there either. There were some other people with vehicles in the same area but it was a big area so no one was too close to each other. 

It was fun to see the planets. Looking closely with the camera, we could sort of see Saturn's rings and some of the moons of those planets. Jet loved seeing the sky with the half moon and stars.

 #LightTheWorld suggested getting as many family members together for a virtual hangout that day. I didn't suggest doing a video call like we did for Thanksgiving but while we were out looking at the Christmas star, my sisters, Mom, and I were all texting about it. Both of my sisters were also out looking at the planets and unfortunately my mom had rain. It was still fun to chat together and see pictures of my sister's view.

Everybody say, "Christmas Star!"

Since I finished reading A Christmas Carol on Saturday, we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol when we got home from seeing the Christmas star since December 21 is National Humbug Day. Every time Scrooge was going to say, "Humbug," in the movie, Nichole would say, "Happy National," before he said it then would say, "Day," after he said it. Heh Heh Heh.

 

It was also National Flashlight Day. We definitely used flashlights while we were out at the lake in the dark.

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.

Humbug

Honestly, if I wasn't doing LIGHTtheWORLD, I wouldn't be writing this blog post.  Late nights and early mornings are catching up to me (Ah, the season of Christmas).  I need to go to bed so I'm going to make this quick.  I guess that works for Humbug Day which is December 21, right?  Actually, this evening we let the kids watch The Muppet Christmas Carol after they made balloon ornaments to put on our balloon tree.  That's how we really celebrated Humbug Day.

O.K.  Back to making this quick.  The theme for LIGHTtheWORLD today was "Jesus forgave others and so can you."  I chose to laugh a lot instead of get upset a lot today with my children.  That included when they were jumping on me or right in my face during Christmas singing performances at the school.  It helped me be less grumpy and was a good reminder that they are special little people who need to be treated well even if I might normally get frustrated.
I can't put all my thoughts and feelings into words right now since I need to go to bed so this is just a little something.  Service in our families is just as important as service to others outside our home and how we treat others can definitely be a service.