Some Celebrations in December

December 20- Mudd Day
I watched the first episode of the original Star Trek series with Harry Mudd.

December 24 and 25- Christmas Eve and Christmas
I managed to blog Christmas Eve but we did more after I posted.
Jr. got a fire burning on the TV by our stockings for us- Darth Vader Yule Log.

We had our Christmas Eve program where we went around and said what we'd been up to that year.
The kids then got to open up pajamas to wear from Grandma and Grandpa.

I put Jet's on him for pictures then took them off so he didn't spit up on them during the night. Then I put them back on him in the morning for present opening. Or in his case, present sleeping through.

Actually it was the afternoon when we started opening presents because I was up most of the night with Jet and slept in when I could that morning. Bwah ha ha ha. So we started opening presents about 1pm. Jet just slept in my arms and we opened his presents later when he was awake. He didn't care. ;)

I didn't take pictures of the kids' handmade gifts this year. I didn't have a lot of time so I cut out strip of cardstock and had the kids decorate them for a "project" I was doing. So Christmas day they were surprised by their new bookmarks that they had decorated themselves.

December 26- Wren Day 
Jeremy and Nichole went out birding on Wren Day of course. They saw a marsh wren. And lots of other birds. They didn't just see a marsh wren.

December 28- Stan Lee's Birthday
We watched Spider-man Into the Spider-verse as a family.

For Hanukkah, we ate latkes and played dreidel. 

Happy Christmas

It's Christmas Eve!
The boys put out reindeer food.

The tree is built.

The stockings are hung.

Time for dinner and finishing the day.

White Christmas

Last night it started snowing and it snowed... and it snowed... and it snowed... and it kept snowing.  Then this morning it snowed... and it snowed... and it snowed... etc. etc. etc.  I haven't seen this much snow in years.  At one point today I went out with a measuring tape and measured 10 inches.  Yep.  10 inches.  Wow.

Last Winter was very mild with not much snow so this is quite something this year.  We definitely had our white Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas... today was Christmas.  The kids were very happy with all their presents.  Jeremy and I were, too.

Unfortunately, some people didn't get enough sleep last night either from being so excited they kept waking up or they had to stay up anyway because other people stayed up too late. 

"I'll put you to sleep, kids." 

And... too much stocking candy was eaten instead of real food (although we did have salad and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner).  In general, we didn't do as well today with being nice to each other.  Sigh.  We need to do better.  We need to eat better and get better sleep.  And choose to handle things better.  Sigh.

In other news, I did handmade gifts for the kids again this year.
I made Lucky a penguin stuffed animal.

Jr. Jr. used to have some favorite pajamas.  Every time he had the choice he would wear those pajamas.  He wore them so much even though he got too big for them and wore through the feet.  He loved those pajamas.  They were monster pajamas.  I took those monster pajamas and made a monster out of them.  I sewed fleece to the feet to cover them.  I made a monster head to match one of the monsters on the pajamas and stuffed the monster.  Jr. Jr. was so happy when he unwrapped that.

I made Jr. a new scripture bag since the one I made for him before doesn't fit his new scriptures he got after his baptism and the other things he puts in his bag.

For Nichole I made a doll head with yarn hair to hold hair clips and hair ties.  I had one like that when I was young and wanted to make one for her.

The kids and I decorated a bowl for Jeremy.  We traced around the kids' hands and it says, "Love our Daddy!"

I'm glad I was able to make gifts for my family again.  I like doing it.

Christmas Eve

Well, today was a big day just getting ready for Christmas.  I went out this morning for some quiet time.  I took some time for prayer and personal scripture study, things to invite the Spirit.  I also enjoyed looking at the snow covered mountains in the morning light.

I've been grumpy lately and the whole family has just been having trouble fighting and yelling and being mean to each other.  But not today.  When I got home, everyone was working especially hard to be nice to each other.  The kids were quick to say, "I'm sorry."  They did better at explaining why they were unhappy about something.  We all tried extra hard not to raise our voices unless it was absolutely necessary.  "No!  Don't touch that, Lucky."  It was much better because everyone put the effort in.
Lucky and Jr. helped me make breadsticks for our big Christmas Eve dinner.

The kids helped Jeremy decorate the tree. 

Jeremy made peanut butter fudge the other day and we all got to have some today.  Yumm.

The kids watched The Muppet Christmas Carol while Jeremy and I finished preparing dinner, including our traditional Sprite with candy canes.

So much food.  What a blessing.

In the evening we had our Christmas Eve program and scripture study. 

Before that, we hung up our stockings by the fire and danced to The Piano Guys Christmas music.

After opening presents from my visiting teachers, the kids had some pie and put out a cookie and a glass of milk for Santa.

After the kids went to bed, Jeremy finished decorating the tree. 

That's how our Christmas Eve 2015 was.  How about yours?

KAT's Kreation

Boy, Christmastime is a busy time, isn't it? This year I decided to sew Christmas stockings for each of us, so we wouldn't be using impersonal Dollar Store stockings anymore. We each got to pick out which fabric we wanted then picked tops from the leftover scraps. I think they turned out pretty well. And they were pretty quick to do.

click on the picture to see it bigger

From left to right- Jeremy, Kristin, Nichole, Jr., Jr. Jr.

Phew. Now I can put away the sewing machine and ironing board to make room for our balloon Christmas tree.