Christmas has come and gone and we made a lot of amazing memories. December was a wonderful, relaxing, fun month for our family.
On Christmas Eve, I woke up really early (4:15 am) and was too excited to go back to sleep. I got up and watched a Christmas Hallmark movie while I wrote some letters. Ashtyn woke up early as well and to keep her from waking up her sisters, I had her come down and sit with me on the couch.
When the other girls woke up, we made breakfast. I made eggs, sausage, and bacon, and I had made rolls the day before. We also had some yummy breads that our neighbors had given us. It was a really good breakfast and we had leftovers for Christmas, which was perfect.
After breakfast, I needed to make the pie still for Christmas Eve dinner (I had wanted to finish everything before Christmas Eve, but I didn't quite manage it). I put on a movie for the girls (they picked Barbie Nutcracker) and made the pie and ice cream. While the pie was baking, we got out board games and I played them with the girls the rest of the morning. They had been looking forward to playing games with me all week and they had a lot of fun.
Then we had a quick lunch and put Rylee down for her nap. While she was sleeping, I packed the car with everything we would need for Christmas Eve and cleaned up the house for when we got home. Then I recorded Ashtyn playing her Christmas songs on the piano for her.
As soon as Rylee woke up from her nap, we went over to Danny and Lindi's for an early Christmas Eve dinner. It was small, with just them and Hannah and Dalin and us, but it was really nice. We had turkey and other traditional foods and it was all really yummy. Then we did the nativity. Parker really wanted to be Mary this year, so we had Ben be Joseph. Ashtyn wanted to be a shepherd and Rylee was her sheep (Rylee crawled around since before her nap saying "Baa!"). The nativity on Christmas Eve is my favorite tradition and it was lovely.
Parker brought her own hat and scarf to be a head covering for herself.
Dalin was her donkey to ride on.
With baby Jesus in her tummy.
Wrapped him in swaddling clothes.
The Angel appearing to the shepherds.
Then Hannah had the girls open their presents from her (she was too excited to wait) and the girls had everyone open the presents they had made. Around 6:30, we went over to Ben's grandma's house for about an hour. It was really nice to see her on Christmas Eve, a tradition that Ben's family has had since he was little.
She made them flower headbands.
The girls were ecstatic.
When we got home, we did interviews in front of the tree with all the kids. Ben took the other kids upstairs to change into pajamas while I did each child. Then we opened up our Christmas Eve gift--this year we did blankets instead of pajamas and the kids were very excited. Then we set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer before snuggling up on the couch to read The Night Before Christmas and sing Silent Night together. Then we tucked the kids in and waited for them to fall asleep before finishing Christmas preparations.
The next morning, Ashtyn woke up really early to check if Santa had come--he had! I made some eggs and heated up leftovers and took that up when Parker woke up (she slept until the normal time). We ate our breakfast upstairs and once we were all done and ready, we went downstairs to see all the goodies Santa brought.
Christmas morning was so fun! Santa brought the girls everything they wanted and more. We got Rylee a slide and had set it up for her before we went to bed the night before and she was so excited. We could hardly get her to open any other presents because she was having so much fun sliding. We opened the gifts the girls made first, then Liselotte's gifts. Then we let the girls open their big gifts from us. It was a long process, since we gave the girls plenty of time between opening to let them play with some of their new toys.
The first thing Parker wanted to do was put on her dress from Santa and then go find the headband Hannah had made her.
Ashtyn and Ben gave Parker a "special surprise" by giving her the Gameboy.
And then Ben gave Ashtyn his old DSI, something she was wanting to save up for.
It was a complete surprise to her and was her favorite gift.
Once everything was open, Ben and I took a shower and got ready for the day. Around 10:30, we went over to Danny and Lindi's. The girls each got to bring one of their new presents (Ashtyn brought her DSI, Parker brought her Barbies, and Rylee brought her kitty cat who she named Glitter). We ate treats and watched ballet and exchanged the couple of presents we had left (Danny and Lindi do a "Golden ticket" for a date during the year and a memory page of the last year's date, and we had a picture slideshow for them). We stayed until about 2:00, when we brought Rylee back for a late nap.
Parker loved sitting with Auntie, eating candy and watching ballet.
During Rylee's nap, I read and then took my own nap. I was super tired from waking up so early and being up so late. After dinner, we watched Abominable together until bedtime. After we put the girls down, Ben and I watched a show together while we took down Christmas decorations.
When I was packing, I asked Ben what clothes he wanted me to pack for him. Parker got really excited, ran upstairs, and came back with about a week's worth of outfits😂
The next morning, we woke up early and loaded up the car to drive to West Jordan. The drive out was really easy--the girls watched Swan princess and The Tigger Movie while drawing on their new drawing tablets the whole time.
We stopped at my grandparents' house and visited for over an hour. It was so nice to see them. Then we went to my mom's and hung out their for a little while. After Rylee's nap, we went over to the church to see their cousins and let the kids play. It was sad to not do the traditional Christmas get together, but it was so nice to see who we did get to see.
We already miss Grandma Dee!
After we cleaned that up, my mom babysat the girls for us while Ben and I went and hung out with Jon the whole evening. It was so fun to catch up and watch some shows with him. I was too tired to stay super late, so we headed back to my mom's and went to bed.
The next morning, we loaded up and came back home. It was a quick trip and we wished we could have stayed longer, but we were so grateful to be able to go out and see some of the family we hadn't seen for a year. We hope we get to go back soon for a longer visit!
Here are some other highlights from the month:
This was technically in November, but I couldn't remember if I shared these pictures of us helping Danny and Lindi get a real tree.
The first day of December, we made countdown chains. Each night, we'd take one off and the girls loved it.
We watched lots of Christmas movies and I got lots of snuggles.
We spent a morning making paper ornaments, then decorated a mini tree up in Parker's room.
This is Ashtyn's baby Jesus on a star.
Parker's Christmas tree
Ashtyn's gingerbread man.
Parker's gingerbread man.
Ashtyn's tree.
My mom got the girls these beautiful white dresses.
Parker especially loved hers and would wear it as often as I let her.
We spent one Sunday morning decorating the tree before taking pictures in front of it.
There weren't any events where the kids could sit on Satna's lap, but Santa came to our house! We invited Makenzie, Koy's cousins, and Ashtyn's friend Elsee to come see him with us. Parker was so excited, she jumped into his lap first and kept trying to give him presents.
Rylee loved Santa. She was a little shy on his lap, but after her turn was over, she kept trying to climb up on the couch with him again.
Ashtyn was cute with Santa. She tugged on his beard to see if it was real, but when he asked if she had any questions for him, she said no.
Santa was cute. After each child had a turn with him, he gathered them together to talk about the real meaning of Christmas and the symbols that point to Christ.
One day, we made paper snowflakes to hang on the ceiling of the girls' rooms. Ashtyn made so many on her own and loved seeing the different patterns that emerged. She also loved making tiny ones.
Parker was able to make some snowflakes on her own, but her favorite thing was for me to make different hearts all over her snowflakes.
I found a recipe online for homemade snow and it was a huge hit! I wasn't sure how Parker would feel about it, since she doesn't like to get messy, but she was actually the one who played with it the longest!
Ashtyn had fun making snowmen out of it.
Rylee loved it. Eventually, she started trying to eat it (it was baking soda and hair conditioner), so we had to put it away from her.
One morning, we had Makenzie and Navy come over and we did a Polar Express party. We had tickets, read the book, watched the movie, and ate popcorn and hot chocolate in our pajamas.
We spent one day making gifts for siblings and Ashtyn had a couple extras she wanted to make. The kids had fun with it.
Parker liked making the gifts, but her favorite part was wrapping them and then putting them under the tree. After she put them under the tree, she would find whoever the gift was for and give them a big hug.
Rylee was pretty young to understand the concept of giving gifts, but she loved the painting part!
Rylee loved bells! She had a little collection that she would carry around, including her silver bell and her jingle bell. Her favorite song was Jingle Bells and she had me sing it to every time she went to sleep.
The girls had a lot of fun helping me make gingerbread cookies, coloring paper ones while they waited for their turn with the cookie cutters. I just used store bought frosting to decorate.
We ended up with a few extra plates we were able to give away, even with halfing my recipe.
We used graham crackers to make gingerbread houses this year. We also used upside down ice cream cones to make trees to go with the houses. We invited Makenzie and Koy to come decorate with us. Ben put the houses together while Makenzie and Koy and I helped the kids decorate.
These are the finished products of the paper gingerbread men Parker did.
One night when i had young women's, Ben did a Pokemon party with the girls. As part of that, they drew Pokemon. Parker's was the first one and it was sad type. Ashtyn's was the second and it was Christmas type.
I had bought these jewel stickers, and one day the girls used these and markers to decorate paper trees. It was a great activity for all ages, since Rylee could do it mostly on her own and Ashtyn could make it more difficult for herself.
One tradition we have is to make a new ornament as a family. This year, we used Ashtyn's perler beads to make a Christmas tree.
This was our dancing Craisins experiment. You put baking soda and vinegar in a jar with water and Craisins. The Craisins then dance up and down in the jar, something the kids love to watch.
We did a lot of baking, especially at the end of the month. Rylee was my biggest helper, always wanting to mix for me. The other girls would play or watch movies more, but Rylee stayed with me most of the time in the kitchen.
Homemade Christmas Oreos.
Sugar cookies!
Rolls
Bread and strawberry jam
One night as we were getting ready for bed, I came in and found the girls like this, snuggling while Ashtyn read Rylee How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Ashtyn was really excited to get the Magic Tree House books from Grandma Dee and has started reading them on her own. It's her first chapter book and she's really excited.
The girls set this up on their own ...
I quickly moved it lol
This was the first time sledding. There's a little sand hill behind Danny and Lindi's house and it was the perfect size for the girls.
We also got to relax a lot together, especially after Christmas.
I didn't get any pictures of my birthday, but it was wonderful! Ben got the girls breakfast and made me eggs so I could just relax, and then I read most of the morning with some of my Christmas candy. After naps, Lindi babysat for us and we went to dinner with my mom and Luke's birthday present to us. We went to Swain's Brothers, Vernal's steakhouse. It was yummy. Then Ben took me on a surprise shopping trip to pick out some picture frames for some family pictures. It was a perfect day.
In the afternoon of my birthday, Ashtyn got to go on her golden ticket date with Grandma and Grandpa. She really wanted to go ice fishing and had so much fun! She got to bring some home and we fried it up. The girls love fish.
Ashtyn was excited on New Year's Eve, because Ben and I let her stay up a little late with us (9:30). We had a special strawberry lemonade drink and played Monopoly deal. Ashtyn had so much fun and felt so grown up.
This is one of Parker's drawings. The girls got these from Santa and from Grandma Dee and they are constantly drawing on them now.
These are little papers I had the girls fill out for the New Year. I thought their answers were cute, especially when both Parker and Ashtyn told me (separately!) that the place they most wanted to go this year was Grandma Dee's house 💗
It was such a wonderful month and, despite the craziness and hard times, a wonderful year as well. We're looking forward to 2021 and getting back into our normal routine for January.
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