Holiday Hoopla

I decorated the house pretty minimally for Christmas this year. As in, besides the Christmas tree, there was no decorations. I think that's a first! I didn't put out any nativities or santas or advent calendars (thankfully my mom bought the boys each a chocolate advent calendar, though, so they still had that. Also, the 3 younger boys still put up their own small artificial trees in their bedrooms with lights and their special ornaments). When I went down to my Grandma Rose's funeral at the beginning of December, I stopped by my Grandma's house first, where my mom was staying at. She'd talked about getting one of Grandma's homemade wreaths from downstairs, but she didn't want to have to go down to the cellar and get all dirty in her nice dress. I willingly went down and made several trips carrying up lots of Christmas wreaths and swags. After my mom and Aunt Connie picked out what they wanted, I grabbed one swag and a wreath. So, I guess I did have one other decoration in the house besides the tree!!! Thank you, Grandma!

Josh and I unfortunately missed our Ward's Christmas Dinner Party because it was the same day as my Grandma's funeral in Utah, and we didn't make it back in time. However, I did get to go to my friend Gina's annual Ladies Christmas Party at her house the next day, and I look forward to it every year because of her delicious stuffed mushrooms. They are seriously the best I've had ANYWHERE--even numerous restaurants! I can't rave enough about how much I love them! Anyhoo, the ladies who come all bring some kind of food dish, we sit around talking and eating, and then we play a gift exchange game. I brought a gift of a box of dark chocolates and a sheet of lottery tickets (unfortunately none of them were big winners!), and I took home a few Christmas signs (which I hung around my home to make it look just a tiny bit more festive since I didn't put out the decorations).

Gina and her mouth-watering stuffed mushrooms.

The boys talked about decorating cookies for a Home Evening like we did last year. I did not have the desire to do the whole sugar cookie process, so instead, I bought some peanut butter M&M's, and had the boys each decorate some peanut butter cookies with them! They were yummy, and I liked seeing the variety of their handy work, although it wasn't quite as fun for the boys as frosting and sprinkling sugar cookies!

I had no idea what to do for neighbor gifts this year. My mom sent me a cute picture of an idea that her neighbor had done, and I was happy to finally have some direction! However, the gift needed some clear cellophane wrap, and I couldn't find any anywhere! We looked at all the local stores and at Walmart, too, but didn't have any luck. I was beginning to think that we wouldn't be doing any neighbor gifts after all, when I decided to go check out the store Bri-Easy Shipping in town on the last weekend before Christmas. They are in the building where Hallmark used to be, and were selling some of the inventory left over from the gift store. There was ONE roll of clear cellophane there, and I was giddy with excitement to find it and purchase it. I bought some toilet paper at the grocery store, and got to work making about 25 toilet paper snowman. I already had all the rest of the supplies on hand in my craft stuff: all the ribbon, craft pom-poms, googly eyes, and orange felt. I bought some vanilla tootsie rolls and stuffed each core with them before wrapping them up. It was a fun little project; I haven't been this crafty in a long time! I liked how they turned out, but the boys thought they were dumb and wouldn't go with me and Josh to deliver them.

I came up with a poem to go with each snowman (my mom had sent me a different poem that came with the one she got, but I didn't like it as much). I think it took almost as long for me to make the poem as it did making all the snowman! I had a few different versions, but Josh didn't approve of me using the word "shat" or "wipe your bum" in the poem, so this is the final G-rated version! 

I look forward to the Library's Pajama Party with Santa every December. This might be the last year we go to it, however, now that my youngest is growing up. I love listening to Mrs. Casterson read books, and singing alone with Anne as she plays the guitar, and being around the little kids and seeing their excitement when Santa enters the room! It's always a magical night, and it makes me sad to think that these young childhood experiences are ending as my own children age. 

Kanyon is wearing the skull pajamas that Aunt Lisa gave him for
Christmas last year. He loves these pajamas the most! 

Santa gifted all the children a brown bag with an orange,
some peanuts, some candies, and a frisbee gift inside.

Ammon's Holiday Band Concert was in the high school commons this year, due to the lack of gym space available now that the high school has added 6, 7, & 8 grades to it. There was a swing night in conjunction with the jazz concert. He had a solo with his trumpet in one of the songs, and the band concert lasted about an hour. It was super fun! There was a challenge by Mr. Anderson to give extra credit points to any student who's family members were photographed dancing during the concert, so of course Josh and I were happy to oblige!

I think it's funny that you can see the lady videoing us at the same time
this photo was taken! 

I didn't realize until recently just how often I purse my lips together!!

I like dancing with this man! He's a fabulous dancer!

The second graders did a unit on different cultures, and worked for weeks researching and writing sentences and making colorful signs, and they had a presentation day to show parents their hard work. They also worked with the Salmon Arts Council making Christmas ornaments of the country's flag they worked on. Kanyon was in the group that had the country Australia. The other members in his group were Rudi, Ava, Gary, and Brylee. Each member of the group talked about the part they individually wrote during the presentation. I liked seeing all the different displays and hearing each child talk about what they learned. Kanyon also gave his portion of the presentation at a school board meeting a couple of weeks ago, and he did a great job!!

Kanyon speaking during the demonstration.
In Australia, Santa surfs (as noted by the picture on the board)!!

Kanyon, Rudi, Brylee, and Gary (Ava was absent that day)

Kanyon with all the ornaments he made at school this year:
the glass ball he painted inside, the Australian Flag, and the
wreath made from painted puzzle pieces with his picture inside!
(that one was part of his gift to Josh & I for Christmas)

Better Late than Nev-Fir

We usually go Christmas Tree Hunting the weekend of Thanksgiving, but since we were out of town for Thanksgiving this year, that didn't happen. We were unable to go for weeks after that due to scheduling conflicts every weekend. FINALLY, a mere 10 days before Christmas, we headed to the mountains on a Sunday afternoon to pick one out. We went up Perreau Creek just a few miles from our home to get one. It had recently snowed, and the weather was wonderful, so it was a nice day for an excursion. 

It didn't take long before Josh found a a few good ones straight up the mountainside. 

Scoping out the choices

He called all of the boys over to decide between two good choices, and they ultimately chose this one:  

And then the downhill sliding/snowball throwing started between all the boys. 

Micah ready with snowball in hand

Kanyon's got his snowball to fire back!

Ammon after just throwing a snowball uphill at Jonah

Snowball fight!

Micah bum-sliding down the hill

Kanyon and Ammon rolling down the hill

Jonah sliding down face-first

Getting the large tree down off the mountain was quite the task. First Josh slid down while holding it, then as he got closer to the bottom, he hefted it up and over his shoulder and carried it the rest of the way as he walked. I love this series of pictures of Josh bringing down the tree!

I especially love this photo, for no particular reason!

We liked how this tree had pine cones still on it! I didn't realize how large the tree was until after we got it home and took it out of the truck; they always look smaller on the mountain than they do in the house! This picture of it sitting in front of the house reminds me of that quote from the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation: "Dad, that tree won't fit in our back yard!" "It's not going in the yard, Russ, it's going in the living room!"

The next day, Josh cut off the bottom branches and set it up in the living room for us. I didn't have the energy or desire to decorate it, so I put up the lighted reindeer next to it and hoped that everyone thought it was good enough! Nobody did, however!

The next day, we came home from school to find that Josh had put the blue lights on the tree, and had moved the reindeer up on the roof. The boys excitedly got to work decorating it all by themselves. I was so glad!

I bought some new pink ornaments this year, which I thought would go well with the blue lights. The boys decorated the tree in pink, blue, silver, and gold. They did a great job, and I was so happy with the results!

Painful Performances & Tender Mercies

It is now the end of January, and still not a week has passed that a student, or parent, or community member has told me how much they miss me teaching music at the elementary school. And I miss it tremendously, too. The first time the elementary students had a musical concert this year was in December, and I was made very aware then of what is happening to the school's music program; it is nowhere near the level of what it was when I was in charge. It makes my heart physically hurt to see and hear about how the children don't love and enjoy music like they did before. 

The Christmas concert was a disaster, and I can admit that without bias, because every other parent in attendance that I've talked to said the same thing. It was held in December at the end of the school day in conjunction with the school's regular monthly assembly in our school gym (which is not a full-sized gym), and the musical program consisted of every grade singing one Christmas song in between the items on the assembly agenda. So not only was the gym already packed with our entire studentbody, but parents, grandparents, and family members for all the students also tried to cram in the small space, too. There simply wasn't enough room for everyone, so there were adults standing in the halls, in the foyer, and outside peeking through the one window. The assembly lasted for over an hour, and it was hot, and the kids were restless, and the parents were upset. There should've been a music assembly on its own, not in conjunction with all the regular monthly awards, too. It took FOREVER to get through the program! It didn't even end until after school was supposed to be out! It was extremely painful for me to watch, because this has never been the way that I directed musical programs in the past; I always had themes, and made the focus on the individual students in each grade, and they were fun and special shows that both the performers and the audience enjoyed.

In the assembly, the second grade sang about Hanukkah. Kanyon read a few words before the song started about what the dreidel is.   

This was the view of the performers from the very back of the crowded space.

Kanyon reading about the dreidel.

The 2nd graders each held up small dreidels as they sang.

The 5th graders were the very last performers, and they didn't start singing until 4:00, which is when school is supposed to get out! They sang "Jingle Bell Rock".

A view of all the 5th graders

Jonah is in the second row with the green hoodie.
Micah is in the 3rd row wearing an orange shirt. 

During one part of the song, the kids all put on sunglasses and pretended
to play air guitars. They liked that part the best!

Thankfully, there were a few highlights that happened that day to make it more bearable for me: the kindergarteners that I help all day were such cute performers! The morning class sang their songs in our classroom before their parents picked them up at the end of class, and the afternoon class were the first performers in the afternoon assembly and then were excused to go back to our classroom because there wasn't enough room for us to be in the gym. Mrs. Mark had taught all the students to sing "Silent Night" with sign language, and that was their first song before they did a snowman song that Mrs. Platt had taught them. 

The morning students singing Silent Night with sign language. 

The afternoon class singing Silent Night using sign language.

Also, another special moment of the day was when one of the morning students gave me this Christmas bouquet of flowers. It was so beautiful!!! I really appreciated her thoughtfulness, and the timing of it was perfect!

But the best part of the day, and a true tender mercy, was when I got to perform with my friend Amanda that night at the Stake High Council's Christmas party. We'd been asked a month before to be the entertainment for the party, and had worked together on creating a fun, short, musical program. It was a delight for me to use my creative and musical directing skills again. I really enjoyed coming up with the theme, and the program details. For weeks we discussed ideas, and practiced songs, and worked on the line-up. We decided to do a "Name that Christmas Movie" by singing 6 songs, and saying quotes from 6 other movies, for a total of 12 different Christmas Movies. When school got out that afternoon, instead of feeling depressed and upset about what had happened that day, I was so full of excitement and anticipation over what was going to happen that night! It was a true tender mercy from God that we'd been asked to be the performers on the exact night of the first school music assembly. I felt privileged and honored that someone valued my musical skills enough to ask me to be the musical entertainment, and I felt like Heavenly Father was letting me know to keep using my musical talents to enrich the lives of others, and to not withdraw, which is so typical of me when I get upset (and what would've happened after school that day had I not had this to look forward to). When we arrived at the Sessions' home that night where the dinner party was, everything was decorated so beautifully!!! I was overjoyed to be a part of the festivities that night!

After dinner, Amanda and I prepared to perform for the guests still seated at the tables. Our segment lasted about 15 minutes. For each of the 6 songs we sang, we used props a/o costume accessories, and we had SO much fun!!! I think we were a bit over the top at times, and kind of shocked the older audience, but I don't regret it one bit!

We started off by quoting some lines from Miracle on 34th Street, and then we sang "Baby, it's Cold Outside". During the song, I put on a hat and scarf, and then she handed me a wine goblet, and took back off my hat and scarf. It took a little bit for the audience to guess where this song came from, but finally, after some help from Amanda and I, the Stake President said "Elf?" and his wife was like "Was that YOU that just said that?!". It was quite comical!

Our next quote was from Muppet Christmas Carol, and then we put on aprons and held trays with little mugs and sang "Hot, Hot, Hot! Hot Chocolate" a cappella. They had shocked faces at first, but then they realized we were singing a g-rated song from the movie Polar Express!

The next quote was a famous one from It's a Wonderful Life: "Look, Daddy. Teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings". Then we strung some wii guitar hero guitars around our necks, and sang "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" and rocked out as we sang! This was super fun to sing, and one of the high councilors even videoed it and put it on facebook! By this point, the audience was starting to get the hang of it, and somebody even shouted out the movie it was from before we were even done singing: "Home Alone!".

Our next quote was from the clay-mation classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. After that, we put on Santa hats, linked our arms around each other, and stood still as we sang "Deck the Hars with Bors of Horry" a cappella from A Christmas Story.

The next quote was from A Charlie Brown Christmas. The audience aced every single quote, which amazed me! We tried to get a variety of Christmas movies spanning multiple generations to hopefully appeal to everyone in the audience, but at one point, one of the older gentlemen called out "Can you do a western? I don't know ANY of these Christmas ones!". We put on lei necklaces next, and swayed as we sang "Mele Malikimaka" from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

The last quote was "It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes, or bags" which a super obvious one from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Then we ended the show by wearing our feather boas, and singing and dancing to the song "Sisters" that we'd won Salmon Idol with. It fit perfectly into the program since it's from the movie White Christmas!  The funny thing was, as soon as we were done singing, one of the ladies in the audience said "Now can you do the song that you did at Salmon Idol, because I missed it?". And I was like "We just did".

I'm grateful for rare opportunities like this to perform--it's one of my passions and I enjoy it immensely! Especially when I get to do it with my friend Amanda because we have so much fun together! And having the chance to do it that night after having a painful day, was such a true blessing!

"Well we're suburban owners"

We've been driving this mini-van for 7 years. SEVEN YEARS. I think that's a record for us! Josh seems to want different vehicles every 5 years, or sometimes even less. It's been a good car for us: very reliable with minimal issues, and we've especially loved the stow-and-go storage it offers. But we were never fans of the automatic doors--and now that the boys are getting older, we don't need sliding doors anymore.

We've been thinking about getting a new family vehicle for at least 2 years now, but I kept putting it off. I thought that we should drive the van until it died, but Josh disagreed--he thought we should trade it in while there was still any value to it. He's been checking out suburbans for a while, and has been wanting one, but I wasn't interested in a big suburban. I remember riding in suburbans when I was a kid, and I hated that you always had to push up the middle row seat in order to get to the back seat. I remember them being large and bulky, and I wasn't interested in getting one. I kept trying to convince Josh to wait it out and not get a different vehicle, and he kept trying to convince me that a suburban was the right vehicle to get for our growing boys.

When we went to Utah over Thanksgiving Break, we went and test drove a couple suburbans. One was in Logan, and we went there together on Black Friday. The suburban was listed at an affordable low price, because there was some paint damage on the exterior. I drove it and actually liked it: it didn't feel larger than the van to drive, and I was thinking I might actually be convinced to get one. Then we went in to talk numbers, and the dealership was only going to offer us a $500 trade in for the van. Josh had booked it, and it low-booked at $3,000, so we laughed at them and told them no way! I was thinking maybe that would convince Josh that we needed to keep the van until it died after all, because obviously we weren't going to get anywhere near what it was worth, but he thought another dealership would give us a better trade-in.

So that night, he took me to a dealership in Layton to drive another suburban that he found online for a great price. We didn't like this suburban as much as the first one, and as we were test driving it, we decided we weren't interested in purchasing it. The heated seats didn't work right, and the transmission shifting didn't feel smooth. One bonus, however, was that this suburban had a sun roof, and I've never driven a car with one before. I was so excited when I saw it and couldn't wait to open it and stick my head out as we drove. I pushed the button that slides it open, and unfortunately, the mechanism made a weird noise when it was completely open. No matter how much I tried different options, it wouldn't shut.  I've never broken a car while driving before!!! I thought it was a hilarious situation, but Josh thought otherwise: he was irritated with me (it wasn't my fault it broke, though!). It was embarrassing to return back to the lot and tell the salesman that the car was broken and the sunroof wouldn't close! He still tried to sell it to us, though, and he offered us the same trade-in value as the other dealership: $500. We politely declined and left. I was hoping that after being told the same thing by 2 dealerships that Josh would be convinced that I was right, and to just keep the van. 

See those power lines over Josh's head?
I was laughing so hard at this point, but test-driving
a vehicle with a broken sun roof on a
cold December evening didn't make him very happy!!

However, I was wrong. The Monday after Thanksgiving, he drove down to Rexburg to test drive another suburban while I was at work, and in the middle of the day, I got a text from him that said "Well were suburban owners". And I wasn't even surprised. It's not the first time Josh has gotten a car without me seeing it (or in one prior case, even knowing about it!), but it was the first time I've ever been texted that it's happened in my absence! He didn't trade in the van, though. Instead, he drove the van home, cleaned it up really nice, fixed a few small things, and listed it for sale for $2500. Within a week, it was sold (for just a little less than the asking price). I went with Josh to pick up our new suburban (which, by the way, is even older than the van!) a few days later on the way home from my Grandma Rose's funeral. I dropped him off at the dealership where it was, and he drove it home as I drove the rest of the way in the silver box car.

Ultimately, Josh won this battle; it didn't take long for me to warm up to the fact that we are now suburban owners. In fact, I am quite fond of it. We took it to Utah over Christmas break, and we all fit comfortably inside with all our bags, ski/snowboard equipment, and gifts. We like the leather seats (although I sincerely wished it had heated ones), we like that it includes a DVD player (after we figured out how the sound comes through the radio), and I like that it's not too tall to get in/out of. Also, Josh doesn't have to worry about the vehicle affecting his manly ego anymore, since driving a suburban is much cooler than driving a mini van (Ammon likes it for the same reason)!