Christmas Time is here . . . and almost gone

One of the girls', especially Kirsten's, favorite Christmas activities was making Christmas art projects.  Nearly every day this month Kirsten asked if we could do an art project.  It's exciting to see her interest in creating things, coloring, and drawing.  I think she is quite talented.  Reagan enjoys doing Christmas art projects, too, but since she's younger, she doesn't seem to have quite the same attention span for doing art project after art project.  

On December 16th we went to the Springville Art Museum to attend Santa's Art Shop.  The museum had set up four crafts for kids to make, and Santa walked around saying hello to the girls and boys as they made their Christmas cards, reindeer puppets, Christmas tree scenes, and Christmas ornaments.  Santa even provided milk and cookies.  Yum!  Our girls were basically in heaven with all of the art projects. 

The Saturday before Christmas we went to the Rec Center, and Santa and Mrs. Claus just happened to be there!  The girls got their pictures taken, and then we went to Kirsten's Zumba Christmas party.  Kirsten takes a Zumba class every Saturday at the Rec Center.  The class is included in our membership, and she has so much fun.  For the Christmas party they danced to some fun Christmas songs, and they even got a treat bag with an ornament and candy.  Reagan was so sad that she couldn't dance.  The minimum age to participate is four.  It's so hard to be the younger sister.  However, the teachers were so nice and gave her a treat bag too.  With candy in her hand, she forgot all about her disappointment.

That evening Matt and I went out to celebrate our anniversary.  We've been married for 6 years now, and I'm so grateful for the years we've had together so far.  For our date, we ate at the India Palace and splurged.  I even bought a shrimp plate, which is the most expensive of all the meat options.  After that we went ice skating, which was fun.  It was nice to be able to hold Matt's hand while skating and to skate more quickly than we did the week before.  

On Christmas Eve, Matt's brother Jake drove down from Logan.  We all watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town in the afternoon.  

Then we prepared our Mary and Joseph dinner.  The idea of the Joseph and Mary dinner is to pretend like we're eating what Mary and Joseph might have eaten as they traveled to Bethlehem.  Our menu was simple:  pita bread, cheddar cheese, goat cheese, crackers, summer sausage, little hot dogs, clementines, and sparkling grape juice.  I know the meal wasn't very authentic, but it was fun to eat on the floor and talk about Jesus.  We also watched a short movie about the Nativity to set the scene.  

After dinner, we got in the car and went to Spanish Fork to look at the Festival of Lights.  The Festival of Lights is a drive through light display.  It's very pretty, and since you drive so slowly, the girls got to get out of their car seats and get a better view.  I think being out of their car seats was their favorite part of the whole experience.  Freedom!

Christmas morning was exciting.  The girls loved opening their presents, and you know, so did I!  Matt got me a Garmin fitness tracker, which is kind of like a Fitbit.  It keeps track of how many steps you take, how many calories you burn, your heart rate, your sleep, etc.  It's really neat.  Matt and I also bought season tickets to the Orem Hale Center Theater, so that we can go see lots of plays this next year.  I'm so excited.  I love plays!

In the evening, Brian, Norma, and their kids joined us for Christmas dinner, which was a much more traditional Christmas meal.  I baked a ham, and we had rolls, potatoes, fruit, and dessert.  It was yummy.  Following dessert, we had our Christmas program.  Brian and Norma sang "Silent Night" in Indonesian, I played "Gesu Bambino" on the piano, Kirsten sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," Reagan sang "Jingle Bells," Sierra played "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on the melody harp, William told us about a picture he had made from turquoise, Jake read "The Christmas Donkey," and Matt read from Luke 2 while the kids used the Nativity to act out the Christmas story.  

It was a very Merry Christmas!  Enjoy the pictures!

We made these wreaths out of paper plates and decorated them with beads.

 

Reagan with her Rudolph puppet at the Art Museum.

 

 

 

Kirsten with her Rudolph puppet.

The girls with Santa at the Rec Center.

Kirsten in her Christmas dress.

Reagan in her Christmas dress.

Mimzy sent the girls a singing Nativity, and they love it!

Pulling out gifts from her stocking.  The water colors weren't the most exciting at the moment, but now that she's done a few art projects with them, she's pretty excited about them.

Reagan loves her Cinderella magic wand from Santa.

The girls loving their Paw Patrol cups.  Thanks Beth and Marc!

Beautiful Reagan in her new Elsa dress from Nana and Grampa.

Kirsten sledding on Christmas day.

Reagan sledding on Christmas day.  She wasn't up for it.  Too tired from all the other excitement.  Poor girl!

Kirsten is Snow White, and Reagan is still Elsa.

Jake reading "The Christmas Donkey" during the Christmas program.

Brian and Norma gave Matt a big serving fork, so that we can finally stop looking for the big serving fork we never had but always think we have come Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Brian and Norma gave the girls a little squeeze toy and some pretty stickers.

Jake helped Kirsten do the Paw Patrol puzzle she got from Aunt Emily.

Pretty Snow White.

Elsa and Anna are playing with play dough!

Pretty Minnie Mouse.

Ice Skating

On Saturday evening Matt and I took the girls ice skating for the first time.  Last year Kirsten asked to go, but we never fit it in.  Honestly, I was a little nervous about how our girls would do on the ice, especially one year old Reagan.  This year, however, I set those concerns aside, and we took them ice skating.

In preparation for our ice skating adventure, I showed the girls several Youtube videos of toddlers ice skating.  Apparently, two year olds can ice skate if given the opportunity.  I also showed them videos of Nancy Kerrigan figure skating.  They were both very impressed by all of these videos, but I could tell that Reagan was particularly interested. 

On Saturday morning, I told them that we would be ice skating in the evening.  They flipped out!  Reagan told me how she was going to be the fastest ice skater.  She would skate in circles, jump in the air, and never fall down.  For about twenty minutes, both girls informed me of how good they would be at ice skating, and then I started feeling nervous.  What if they hated ice skating because they couldn't do it as well as they expected?  Feeling it was my duty to give them a somewhat realistic expectation of their ice skating abilities, I carefully said, "I'm glad you're so excited about going ice skating, but I don't want you to be disappointed when we go tonight.  Learning to ice skate can take time.  You might fall a few times, but that's okay.  You just get right back up and keep practicing."  Kirsten seemed to accept what I said and spoke positively about how much she would practice, but Reagan was entirely undaunted.  She said, "Don't worry, Mommy.  I will be the best ice skater.  I won't have to get back up because I won't fall.  I will never fall down!"  I couldn't bear to dampen her enthusiasm.  So I let both girls tell me about their amazing ice skating skills for the rest of the day.

When we actually went skating, they both went right out on the ice, and they did a great job!  They might not have been skating circles around us, but they did do much better than I expected. 

Kirsten held Matt's hand and found her legs pretty quickly.  By the end, she could skate quite a distance all by herself.  She didn't like it when we let go of her hands, but she could do it.  Of course, she fell down several times, but she did get right back up and keep practicing.

Reagan held my hand at first, but after struggling for almost an entire rotation around the rink, I asked Matt to try teaching her.  Then we decided that she needed a walker or else she wasn't going to be able to get anywhere.  After we got her the walker, she held on, and Matt and I took turns pushing her around.  At one point, Matt offered to take pictures of Kirsten and me, and he left Reagan in the middle while he followed us around the rink a bit.  Glancing to the center, I saw that Reagan was skating away from her walker--ALL BY HERSELF!  Matt rushed over to her to congratulate her on her skating ability.  Apparently, she could skate by herself, albeit slowly, if we didn't hold her hand.

Everyone had a great time.  That night I even dreamed about ice skating!  We are ready to go ice skating again as soon as possible.

Getting ready to go out on the ice.

Reagan with her walker.

Matt and Kirsten skating.

Me and Kirsten skating.

Reagan skating away from Matt.

Kirsten and Reagan giggling about using the walker together.

Christmas Preparations

The past week has been full of fun events!  I have always loved Christmas, but the Christmas Season with children of my own is especially fun.  I love how excited they get about everything.  

Kirsten has wanted to make gingerbread men for the last two years, and we finally made them!  Both girls love the story of the gingerbread man.  Unfortunately, none of ours came to life.

Kirsten was covered in flour.  It was literally everywhere.

This is some of the final product.  They were even yummier than they look.

Reagan and Kirsten were having a dance party in the living room, and when Reagan made this cute face, I had to take a picture.

On Saturday, we cut down our Christmas tree in the Wasatch National Forest.  I bought a tag from the Forest Service, and we got to pick any tree we wanted.  The one on the ground next to me is the one we picked.

Matt chopped it down.

The girls loved roaming around in the forest.  Some of you may doubt that this is indeed a forest.  I'm actually kind of surprised anyone is allowed to cut down trees.

Kirsten enjoyed throwing the snow in the air and pretending it was snowing on her.

Reagan has the cutest smile.  After we got back in the truck, Kirsten said she liked the forest, and Reagan said she didn't like it because she had a "hard time."  She fell down once, but other than that she seemed to be enjoying herself.  Kids are funny.

Last night we saw Santa at the library.

Reagan was scared when he first came in the room, but after a really long wait, she got over her fears and jumped onto his lap as soon as it was her turn.

Thanksgiving Day

This Thanksgiving was one of my favorite Thanksgivings of my life.  It was certainly my favorite Thanksgiving since going away to college.

We had Brian, Norma, William, and Sierra to our house for the big celebration.  They arrived a little before noon and stayed until around 7 that evening.  Everyone was so relaxed and happy.  Kirsten and Reagan play with William and Sierra all day, and that made it easy for the grown-ups to talk and get dinner ready.

I brined the turkey this year, which means I soaked it in ice water, apple juice, and various spices over night before I put it in the oven on Thanksgiving Day.  It was really moist, and I thought it tasted great.  If you ever try brining your turkey though, be advised that it cooks a lot faster this way.  According to how much the turkey weighed, it should have taken a little over four hours, but in reality it only took 2 and a half hours.  I'm glad I had a meat thermometer.  Otherwise I probably wouldn't have thought of even checking on the turkey that soon. 

Everything was yummy, which makes for a nice Thanksgiving.  Norma and Brian brought sweet potato casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, and I also made the stuffing and the gravy.  For dessert we had key lime pie, apple pie, and double layer pumpkin cheese cake.

After dinner, the kids played outside while the grown-ups talked.  Brian fell asleep on one couch, and Matt fell asleep on the other couch.  Reagan came inside around three o'clock looking beat, and she took a nap in her bed.  Norma laid down in Kirsten's room on the bottom bunk, and I dozed off while Kirsten, William, and Sierra watched The Road to El Dorado on Netflix.  Everyone was so relaxed, as I've already said.  We had good company, and I got to be at my own house with them.  I think that is what made it my favorite Thanksgiving ever.