Balloon Trees and Choir Parties

I said we're balloon artists.

Our children built our balloon Christmas tree. The next morning, Jr. Jr. walked out to the living room and commented, "It smells like Christmas." I laughed and replied, "Because of the balloon Christmas tree?" "Yeah. The latex. It smells like Christmas."

We had a last ward choir practice the night before our Christmas Eve program then had a choir shindig afterward (families invited). Our choir director introduced us to some of his family traditions- games, treats, etc. It was nice and fun. Choir is my happy place.

 

December 23 was Radish Night so Jeremy cut up lettuce and radishes for salad because I was so busy. My hero.

 

Then the next morning we had a beautiful Christmas Eve musical program then family time at home.

We had our big Christmas Eve dinner. 

Jet decided at one point during dinner he was done eating and it was time to stand on Mommy's chair, lean on her head so it was hard for her to eat, and say over and over, "Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas." My child is so adorable. I love him. I love him so much. Everybody got a kick out of it and had fun. I love my family.

We took a video of ourselves saying what we each were up to in 2023, bore our testimonies for our last Countdown to Christmas scripture study, then the kids opened up pajamas to wear to bed (which I mentioned on my blog on Christmas Day).

Look at what a cute thing our Primary Presidency did for the kids and leaders. They put together a Nativity Snack Mix with different treats representing different parts of the Nativity. So sweet (and savory).

Loony Adventures

Jeremy recently was able to see a new bird- a yellow-billed loon.
 

Actually there were two. 

Nichole and I wanted to see them so he took us to the place where he saw them. We didn't see them. We saw other birds but no yellow-billed loons. Just these loons.

Yesterday we decided to try again. We went to the same place and Jeremy was able to spot one of the loons on the choppy water of the reservoir. Nichole and I got a quick look because it kept diving under the water. Oh well. Jeremy and I watched a bald eagle fly over the water. That was fun.

We stopped at another spot and saw some other birds that may have been a different kind of loon. We couldn't get a good look. And there were these loons.

Jr. Jr. requested another muffin night like we did the end of October. So for dinner we had oatmeal muffins again, Christmas banana muffins, orange craisin muffins, and calzone muffins. There was some dough left over from the calzone muffins so Jr. Jr. and I made some braided rolls. It was fun to do muffin night again.

While we were eating, Lucky asked me to tell stories from my childhood. That went right along with #LightTheWorld for that day. Jeremy and the kids started making our balloon Christmas tree that day as well.

To Light the World today we delivered brownies to my sister. Lucky knocked on the door, ran back to the van, and when my sister answered the door, we sang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." One of her kids then came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then her husband came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then more of her kids came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then my sister came out to her lawn while we stayed at the van and we got to chat for a bit. That was nice.

When we got home, Jeremy and the kids decorated the tree with balloon ornaments and a couple of the kids contributed lightweight ornaments of their own.

For dinner we had a salad bar since it is Radish Night on December 23. It is also National Roots Day which goes right along with radishes.

Lucky read a story to Jet and we continued getting ready for Christmas Day. 

We of course have been keeping up with the real reason for the season with our advent countdown to Christmas scripture study. We have been trying to do service for each other in our family as well as for others. #LightTheWorld for today is about sharing gratitude for gifts God has given. I will say that I am very grateful for #GiveThanks around Thanksgiving. It did help me to get in the right frame of mind for the Christmas season. Even though there have been some frustrating times this December, I've had a better time than some years. I'm grateful we read all of A Christmas Carol this year. I'm grateful we've still been able to do lots of things as a family. I'm grateful we've had some neat experiences in nature. I love nature and I believe Heavenly Father has given me a gift to appreciate the beauty of nature. I am grateful that unlike most years, we haven't really gotten sick this December so far and I think we're close enough to Christmas that it's safe to say we won't be miserable on Christmas. There really are so many things for which to be grateful, the best being the Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas, everyone. And of course in the words of Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol, "God bless us, everyone." He has and I recognize that.

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.

Noche de Rábanos

December 23rd is Night of the Radishes.  Traditionally it's celebrated with radish sculptures.  I did not have the time nor the energy to sculpt radishes.  Instead I sliced them up and put them in salad for dinner.  Yay!  Now we have our side salad for Christmas Eve dinner as well.

Speaking of Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Eve in general, I still have so much to do, so... Bye.