National Chocolate Covered Anything Day 2012

December 16th.  National Chocolate Covered Anything Day.  Our home teachers brought us some hot chocolate mix with marshmallows, peppermints, and chocolate and peppermint covered spoons to stir the drink.  Thank you, home teachers, for helping us celebrate this holiday.

Annual Polar Express Party!

National Cocoa Day, December 13th.  Great day for our annual Polar Express Party.  Nichole remembers two years ago when we moved the furniture around to make a booth on a train to sit at with hot chocolate and oranges.  She was insistent that we do that again, though she was happy about having Clementines to go with our hot chocolate this year.

We did move a couple pieces of the couch and put a tablecloth over a crate to set our food on.  And we watched the movie, The Polar Express.  Mostly.  Both Nichole and Jr. had books they couldn't put down so they kept going back to reading during parts of the movie.  So cute.

The kids wanted jumbo marshmallows in their hot chocolate (which don't melt that quickly), so after they drank their drinks, they took forks to hold their marshmallows while they ate them.  Tee Hee.

Jr. was way too tired after the movie for us to read the book, The Polar Express, so we'll have to do that tomorrow.

Don't Want To Miss It

 Happy 12-12-12!

Not too bad for the wiggly 2 year old.

The sunglasses were his idea.

Happy celebrating!

Happy Hanukkah- A post by Jeremy

As a way to help our children respect other cultures and religions we'll often talk about beliefs and especially holidays. (We have a thing for holidays here.) Last month we had an opportunity to talk about Shiva from the Hindu religion, though there was no specific holiday attached at that time. In the past we've celebrated passover, though you'll have to forgive us if it wasn't completely Kosher- getting every piece of leaven out of our home just wasn't going to happen. Hanukkah started last night, and our kids love to play Dreidel! They love to make them spin, they love the simple rules, and most of all they love the piles of chocolate coins.

In the past we've taught them about why Hanukkah is celebrated and the miracle of the oil in the Temple (It got too late tonight to review). What are some other holidays that are a good way to introduce a religion or culture?

P.S. We've got Christmas covered- thanks :)

Let Me Tell You About My Day

I'm tired.
We got the kids up early this morning because we drove Jeremy to Thanksgiving Point to do balloon twisting at a Breakfast with Santa event.  Then the kids and I went home for a bit to finish getting ready.  Then we headed down to Salem to take Nichole to a dance practice at a school- lighting and spacing rehearsal for a show that afternoon.  The lady in charge of the dance company is a good friend and said Nichole could stay there while the boys and I went to pick up Jeremy from Thanksgiving Point, which we did.  We left Nichole with a lunch and Jeremy, the boys, and I ate in the car on our way down to Salem again.  I got to sit with Nichole's class during the show.  She really enjoyed having Mommy sit with her. 
After the performance, we all got in the car again to head back home to change because we had tithing settlement to go to at the church building.  After tithing settlement, we loaded everyone in the car again and went to Orem to do some shopping at Winco and pick up some pizzas for dinner.  Then we headed home where we ate dinner, did scripture study and family prayer, bathed and showered the kids, and dealt with stalling until the kids finally went to bed.  And Jr. Jr. got a haircut.
Oh, and it was cold and windy, too.

That was my day.  How was yours?

There's Always a Bright Side

Cold and flu season is not my favorite time of year.

On the bright side, some good things have been happening.

Nichole's third tooth came out just in time to sing, "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," for her school's Christmas Sing.  Before it came out, she was singing, "All I want for Christmas is my loose tooth out."

We also started our Advent Calendar scripture study again with the M&Ms.  So far so good.

Plenty of other things, but I don't have time to talk about them right now.

December Holidays Coming Up

December's a big one for celebrating- mostly because of Christmas.  Here are links to posts we've written about ways we've celebrated.

December 13 is National Cocoa Day.
December 13, 2011- Cocoa Day 2011

December 24 is Christmas Eve and December 25 is Christmas.
December 13, 2010- Catch of the Day
December 15, 2010- Quick, Hide Your Red Nose
December 19, 2010- Santa!
December 23, 2010- Polar Express Party
December 24, 2010- Merry Christmas 2010
December 25, 2010- Merry Christmas from the Telfords
January 8, 2011- Handmade Christmas Gifts
December 21, 2011- KAT's Kreation
December 23, 2011- It's a Train
December 24, 2011- Merry Christmas 2011
December 30, 2011- Past and Present
January 5, 2012- In No Particular Order...
January 11, 2012- Handmade Christmas Gifts 2011

December 31 is New Year's Eve
December 31, 2009- A Little Taste of Hungary
January 1, 2010- Happy New Year- Happy Cheeseball
December 30, 2010- Not Just For Guacamole
December 31, 2011- Happy New Year!

Advent Calendar
For the past few years, our family has been doing a Countdown to Christmas/Advent Calendar.  The first year, we focused on the counting down (or up) and having an activity to do every day as a family.
December 1, 2009- Advent Calendar
December 2, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 2nd
December 3, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 3rd
December 4, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 4th
December 5, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 5th
December 6, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 6th
December 7, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 7th
December 8, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 8th
December 9, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 9th
December 10, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 10th
December 11, 2009- Advent Calendar- December 11th
December 13, 2009- December 13th- Advent Calendar
December 14, 2009- December 14th- Advent Calendar
December 15, 2009- December 15th- Advent Calendar
December 16, 2009- December 16th- Christmas Dinner
December 17, 2009- December 17th- Christmas Shopping
December 18, 2009- December 18th- Wrap Presents
December 19, 2009- December 19th- Enjoy Beauty
December 22, 2009- December 20th & 21st & December 22nd
December 23, 2009- December 23rd- Toys For Tots
December 24, 2009- December 24th- Christmas Eve
December 26, 2009- December 25th- Christmas!

The next two years, our countdown activities were connected with our family scripture study.
December 1, 2010- We're making a whole advent out of it!
December 12, 2010- More About the Advent
December 16, 2010- More Advent Fun
December 18, 2010- KAT's Meow
December 21, 2010- The Light of Christmas
December 1, 2011- Countdown to Christmas
December 5, 2011- Not So Pleasant Tradition

And today, December 1, is Eat a Red Apple Day.  We're eating pizza and red apples for dinner, then for dessert we'll eat mint M&Ms as we start our advent calendar scripture study..