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! 

Catching Up June 2025 part something or other

Who needs pictures of people when you can have pictures of food? 

June 17 Eat Your Vegetables Day

We're still using A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page. Love those cookbooks. We had Sausage Potato Hobo Packs and made cornbread (a recipe I have in a recipe box) for a side dish. Yumm. 

June 18 National Splurge Day

We decided to have a barbecue and spent money on some things for it. We had Polish Sausages and Jeremy brought home some marinated veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, onions) from Marcus' barbecue which we put on skewers and grilled. For dessert we bought waffle cones to make waffle cone s'mores. One of the activities for library Summer Reading was "make something tasty together for a BBQ." A friend stopped by and joined us for a while. It's nice to share.  

June 19 World Tapas Day

We tried some new Spanish appetizers. We had a different version of Pan Con Tomate. We had Orange and Avocado Salad. We had Spanish Garlic Cauliflower. 

June 20 Vanilla Milkshake Day

We had vanilla milkshakes but with chocolate powder and peanut butter in them, so our usual woo-woo drink. I also told people they could make fluffernutter sandwiches with whatever bread they could find since it was the Summer Solstice. We had baguettes left over from our tapas.

June 21 National Selfie Day 

I didn't take any selfies that day. I was planning to celebrate, it just didn't happen. 

June 22 Meryl Streep's Birthday

I wore my bow earrings. I did not wear my pirate ship necklace because I couldn't think of any pirate movies she was in.

June 22 was also National Kissing Day. Jeremy and I celebrated. 

June 23 Detroit Style Pizza Day

Detroit Style Pizza is kind of like upside down pizza. The sauce goes on top after the cheese and toppings. 

June 24 International Fairy Day

We kept it simple with Easy Fairy Folk Tortilla Pizzas from The Fablehaven Cookbook. 

Summer Solstice, Midsummer's Eve, and Midsummer's Day (aka more excuses for Fablehaven food)

You know we like celebrating solstices and equinoxes with nods to Fablehaven and sometimes with Fablehaven type food. We did even before the official Fablehaven Cookbook came out. Now we really like celebrating with nods to Fablehaven... through food. Anyway... we were unfortunately really busy around the Summer Solstice and around Midsummer (which are apparently not the same thing?) getting ready for a trip so even though I had good ideas for celebrating and had a menu planned out, I had to simplify last minute. So I didn't get to make Midsummer Strawberry Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips but I did make Jack-o'-Lantern Pumpkin Pie Bars which are in the "Midsummer's Eve" section of the cookbook.

There is a recipe for Lena's Loaded Crepes in the cookbook but Jr. has a recipe he always uses for crepes so he made us crepes for the solstice on June 20.

There are quite a few fairy related recipes in the cookbook but again, we were too busy to make any on International Fairy Day on June 24. Oh well. There's always next year. You know we'll be using this book for a long time.

Ooh, speaking of the Solstice, that evening (thanks for taking care of dinner, Jr.), Nichole and I went to a Relief Society activity where our good friend, Stephanie, gave us a little art lesson while also sharing her testimony. 

Even in the hard or dark times, the Lord is always there and if we look, we can see the good, the beautiful. Stephanie is a beautiful person (who has gone through some pretty hard times in her own life) and she brings so much light to so many people. I've always appreciated her example and her testimony and am so happy to call her friend.

Stephanie and Nichole have gotten together several times to do art in the past. I love that.

 

Even when we have the Lord, there are still rough days. On National Selfie Day, June 21, I planned to take selfies while doing things- weeding, dishes, etc. It turned out I had a hard day so the only selfies I took were of me sad.  

Oh well. I still celebrated.

 

On a better day, June 25 was Eric Carle's birthday. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

 

On a different but related note, June 23 (that was Midsummer's Eve and the 24th was Midsummer's Day) was National Hydration Day. It's important to stay hydrated.

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.