And Finally, A Christmas Post

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation.  I loved having the kids home from school.  With Christmas being on Sunday, Brian didn't get much actual time off, but he was able to be with us enough to have fun.  We did a lot of things with my family and Brian's family, but we also just spent a lot of time at home, enjoying being home.

Because we had church at 9:00 in the morning, we "arranged" for Santa to come while we were gone, instead of during the night.  It worked great!  Christmas Eve we had everyone over at our house to play games and let the kids run around.  Then we went over to my parent's house for Grandma Harris' birthday party and doing the nativity and singing Christmas carols.

On Sunday we got up, and got ready for church, and went to Sacrament meeting, where Alyssa sang a solo in the ward choir (she and Kenzie Salisbury sang the ending: Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!  Born is the king of Israel.) and I played the flute with the choir for a different song.  My parents played Santa while we were gone, then came and joined us to hear Alyssa sing.  The talks given Christmas Sunday were fabulous.

We went home to find our Santa gifts, and to find that if you leave a note for Santa telling him that his glass of milk is in the fridge, he replies with, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  Apparently Santa feels the same way that I do about warm milk: nasty!

Alyssa got a small stuffed animal with an American Girls book full of fun questions to ask friends.  Rebecca got a bunch of bibs for when she's ready to start solids.  She also was supposed to get a high chair, but the boys saw it come in the mail, so we just went ahead and started using it so she could sit at the table with us during meals.

 The boys got a Beyblade stadium to share, and they each got a Beyblade.  They love them, and are always battling each other, or as Marcus says, "babbling."  When Ethan is at school, Marcus will ask me if I want to have a "Beyblade babble" with him, and we have a great time.  Really, though, those things are fun!

Sadie got a freakin' huge bone that she's already devoured, and Callie the Cat got some cat grass that she's ignored (apparently she prefers plastic) and a feather toy thing.

When we were done with our Santa presents, Brian's parents came over, and we opened everything under the tree.  This year we drew names for handmade gifts, which was so fun.  Alyssa made Rebecca a hooded towel, Ethan made Marcus strips of road that you piece together out of old jeans, Marcus made Brian a picture for his office, and Rebecca made (okay, fine, I did) a little stuffie for Ethan out of an old sock.  Ethan had said that he wanted a friend for his zuzu pet, Dowpia, so that's what we did.  We made it out of one of the socks that Brian gave me when he proposed.  I made Alyssa a scripture bag to match the scripture cover I gave her last Christmas, and Brian made me a printed powerpoint presentation offering an overnight getaway when Becca's older.

Other presents:  Alyssa got Twinkle Toe shoes; Ethan and Marcus got walkie talkies to share; Brian got meat thermometers, bear claws, and other cooking paraphernalia; Becca got a bedtime seahorse stuffy; and I got a Silhouette Cameo (I haven't set it up yet, but I can't wait.  I have a ton of projects I'd like to do!)  One of my favorite quotes from the day was when Marcus carried his walkie takie around for about five minutes, excited to have it, then when we put batteries in it and showed him how to use it, two minutes after talking back and forth with Brian he said, "Oh, it's a walkie talkie!"  Brian's mom had books made of the first two years of my blog, which I love!  It was such a surprise!  My parent's gave us a gingerbread cookie mix from Disneyland, complete with a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter.  It's so cute!

We went over to my parent's house in the evening to give them their gift, and we learned that my brother, Phil, had just gotten a counter offer on the house they want to buy.  They made an offer, but knew someone else was making one at the same time, so they didn't expect anything, but on Christmas afternoon they got an email with the counter offer.  We're so excited for them!

So it was a great Christmas.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, and half of what I took are fuzzy, but here's what we did get.

Marcus opened this present without taking the ribbon off.  it was really quite amazing.

The picture says, "What is your favorite thing about Dad?  I like him silly faces.  Marcus, age 4"

They both just conked out