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.  

Let's Go Back and Remember December

O.K. Besides holidays, here are some other things we did in December (before Christmas). 

Let's see what I can remember from so long ago based on pictures I find. Sigh.

 

Jr. had an orchestra concert. Here's a picture of him. 

Jet played with Legos. Here's a picture of him.

We were sick a lot. Here's a picture of soup. 

Some of us went to our ward Christmas party. Here's a picture of us.

 

I've changed my mind. I don't want to catch up on all the stuff we did in December. We were sick. We ate food. There were snuggles. We eventually made it through to Christmas.

 

Speaking of Christmas, we did manage to squeeze our Polar Express book reading and movie watching in even if we've had better Polar Express parties in the past.

We were also going to go to an Interactive Muppet Christmas Carol event at the Provo Library like we did for The Princess Bride in August but we had to cancel our registration because of sickness. We watched the movie at some point at home. 

 

And the kids did build our Christmas tree out of balloons again this year.
 

Mom: How do you like the ornaments on the tree?

Jet: It looks perfect.

 

 

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.

Christmas Eve 2022

We made it to Christmas Eve.

Nichole built our balloon tree frame yesterday and the boys helped her put branches (balloon dogs) on it. Today the kids and Jeremy got some balloon ornaments on it while I slept through The Muppet Christmas Carol. We'll get a star up later (I say as it's bedtime on Christmas Eve).

We also had Christmas Eve dinner and a little Christmas Eve program where we filmed ourselves saying what we'd been up to this year and what we were looking forward to next year. Then we turned off the camera for our last Countdown to Christmas scripture and testimony sharing.

The kids opened pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa and put them on. Jet was so excited for his dinosaur jammies. Roar. 

Then he was excited about grabbing his big brother's pajama bottoms and putting them on his head then grabbing his other pajama top and putting it on his legs. It's like the Sandra Boynton book, "Blue Hat, Green Hat," where the turkey keeps putting clothing items on the wrong places. 

So I had the kids stand in front of the tree and say, "Oops." 

Then they smiled and I got that picture. Way to go, kids.

And Merry Christmas to you.

Bonus: I made Parker House Rolls to go with Christmas Eve dinner. The dough was supposed to raise until doubled but it filled a lot of the bowl already when it started so when it finished...

Jr. said they're called Parker House Rolls because they're the size of Parker's house.

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.

Cabin Fever!

Jr. was rolling out pizza dough in the kitchen... or so we assumed. We started to hear the sound, "Pound Pound Pound."

From the living room, Nichole called out, "What's going on?"
From the kitchen, Jr. called back, "Quarantine!"
Later, the cackling began. And of course this all made us think of the song from Muppet Treasure Island, "Cabin Fever."

Oh Yes, We Did

October 14 was Chocolate Covered Insect Day. Jeremy had been looking and we finally found some in the gift shop at the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. Last time we celebrated in 2014 we got them at Farm Country and there were only 4 in the package (they weren't at Farm Country this time). This time there were 6 in the package. 1 for each of us. Nobody had to share a bug.

Nichole and Jr. Jr. had white chocolate meal worms. Jr. had a regular chocolate meal worm. Dad and Mom had regular chocolate crickets and Lucky had a white chocolate cricket. That's the one he really wanted.

We just had to celebrate this year. Lucky has been talking about it and talking about it. He really wanted to eat a chocolate covered insect since he didn't get to last time. He wasn't yet a year old at the time so I wouldn't let him have any.
Here are some of the comments heard this time-
Jr. and Jr. Jr.: It's like a chocolate covered pretzel.
Nichole: This makes me really want chocolate covered things.
Jr. Jr.: Ooh, you can see little legs.
Mom: It still tastes like a chocolate covered cracker.
Lucky: It was yummy... and crunchy. It was kind of weird but it tasted like chocolate.

I'm still confused how my pickiest eaters will balk at the meals I prepare them yet have no thought to eating a chocolate covered bug.

 I just love that last picture of me. What do you think? Facebook profile picture?
 
Earlier in the day, I was talking to my mom and told her, "Jeremy and I are going to head out to see if we can find some chocolate covered insects to celebrate the holiday today." Since October 14 was also Columbus Day, she was confused as to why we ate insects on Columbus Day. Jeremy explained it this way, "If Columbus' ship was going really fast and he was standing at the front of it with his mouth open..."
Have I mentioned I love my husband? And his humor?

I don't have any pictures but I can tell you about October 15. That is P.G. Wodehouse's birthday. We also found out it is National Grouch Day.
To celebrate, we watched The Great Muppet Caper. How does that celebrate those days, you ask? Well, at one point in the movie Miss Piggy and Kermit are hiding in a closet of some wealthy person's home since Miss Piggy is pretending to be a wealthy person herself. The door is opened and after a short conversation with a character played by John Cleese, Miss Piggy says, "Thank you, Jeeves," and she and Kermit leave. Now P.G. Wodehouse wrote the "Jeeves" books so you can see that we were excited that came up in the movie.
As for National Grouch Day, Oscar the Grouch has a cameo in this movie alongside Peter Ustinov. That was what made us decide to watch that movie. The Jeeves line was just an added bonus.