It's Cold Outside

Monday, Dec. 27
Well it just wouldn't be Christmas without a trip to Temple Square to see the lights.  Although we thought about going earlier in the month and even had a plan to go, we actually didn't get there until after Christmas.  We naively thought that after Christmas would be great because everyone else would have already been during the month.  Boy were we wrong.  It's okay though, what's lights at Temple Square without the crowds?  It was cold, cold, cold but when you're with the ones you love in the close vicinity of a temple you feel warm inside. :)

 Half the group.

 Some more of us.

Almost all of us in this one.

And the whole group.

Matt, Nancy and their kids, Allison, JayDee and their kids and Grandma down front.

It's Christmas!!

Hooray! Christmas was here!  I don't know about anyone else out there but December flew by at our house.  My kids even commented how Christmas came so fast this year.  Amazing.  I remember thinking when I was a kid that December was the longest month of my life.  But as always, Christmas arrives and spending it with family is the very best part. 

Christmas Eve
We always find ourselves at Grandma and Grandpa Taggart's house on Christmas Eve. We have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, either read or act out the Nativity, open presents (always pajamas) and then hurry home to bed to wait for Santa.

This year we acted out the Nativity.  With Matt and his family here from Colorado we had a full cast.

 I have never seen sheep so interested in babies.  
They are just mesmerized by Baby Jesus.

And the shepherds were extremely worshipful. 
They never stopped bowing until we told them they should stop.

Here's the whole cast post performance.  We'll go clockwise from the top:

Joshua and Ethan - Shepherds

Emma - Angel

Isaac - Sheep

Hannah and James - Mary and Joseph

Nathan - Sheep

Eden - Baby Jesus

They were so cute.  We laughed (quietly and behind hands) through their whole performance.  It's so much more fun to have kids play out the nativity than adults.  Although we did have one adult in this production, Bryan (Katie's husband) was the donkey.  It's really a rite of passage in our family.  The newest member of the family must take their place as donkey in the nativity. 

Back home, the kids are ready for bed in their new pjs and slippers.

The excitement is killing them. 

Christmas Day

There's a rule around our house, no one can go down stairs to see what Santa brought until everyone is awake and ready.  The kids know this rule and since Ethan is always awake first and is a very good rule follower when he woke up at 6:00AM on the dot, so did everyone else.  JayDee and I were lying in bed when we hear Ethan creep down the ladder of his bunkbed, then there is some rustling as he wakes Isaac up and helps him into his slippers, next he's over in the the girl's room trying to quietly wake Emma up.  The funny thing was Emma was not waking up.  When I looked in to see his tactics he had the covers pulled down and he is leaning way in close to her face and whispering very urgently to wake up.  It was funny.  By now everyone else was up so I wondered to myself why he just didn't yell?  Soon enough they were all awake and we were heading down to see what magic was in store.

This is what we found.

Pillow pets for everyone!

Isaac snuck down the stairs just a minute before everyone else and I thought it was funny that he was sort of apprehensive about that stuffed animal even though he had begged for one along with all the other kids.  
Maybe he was just awestruck.

 Hannah couldn't be happier. . .for now.

 Although Isaac isn't sporting an enormous smile at this moment he is holding exactly what he asked for for Christmas, "lights that you put on trees."  Any time anyone (including 2 Santas) asked him what he wanted for Christmas this was his answer.  We always had to explain that it was chocolate covered sunflower seeds in a container that looked liked Christmas lights.

Here Emma is showing me that she received elf fingernail polish in her 
stocking. Yep, right on the bottle it said ELF polish.  I told her I had no idea that elves made fingernail polish.  She was quite amazed by the whole thing. After rummaging through their stockings they went immediately back to those pillow pets.  Isaac was riding his monkey like a horse and started singing the pillow pet theme song and just like they had planned it, 
all the kids joined in.

As much as I would have loved to stop our morning right here, there were more presents to be had. At our house we keep Christmas rather simple.  In the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas we have taught our children that Jesus received 3 gifts from the wisemen so that's how many they will get.  They get gold - something they want (this is what Santa brings) frankincense - something they need, and muir - a meaningful gift.  As kids, the meaning of each gift is usually lost on them and because they are small usually muir is just something else they want but this system will grow with them and hopefully become very meaningful as they get older.  JayDee and I love it because then our kids can focus more on giving than receiving and we don't fall prey to the gluttony that Christmas can so easily become.  This year each of our kids did get one pretty significant gift.  For some it was their muir for others it was their frankincense but for all it was awesome!

 Ethan got a bow and arrow.  

He can shoot from farther away than this but I had to get the bales of hay in.

 

He's working on becoming the next Robin Hood.

 Emma got a gift certificate to get her ears pierced.

Here's her before picture.

And her after.

Hannah and Isaac unwrapped these clues to find their gifts.

They're not too hard but remember these guys are 5 and 3.

This is what they found.

Gotta take these babies for a spin.

I guess that's one good thing about having no snow for Christmas.

All around it was a great Christmas.  After things settled down at our house we went over to Grandma's for more presents, she's always good for fulfilling another want, but that's what grandparents are for. We've had all kinds of fun and the kids have loved spending time with their cousins that they don't get to see very often.  Now that it's over I'm kind of sad.  Christmas is so anticipated and yet over so quickly.  Good thing it comes around every year.

December Happenings

December is upon us.  I have never felt busier in all my days.  More of that busyness has to do with my calling in Primary than Christmas and for some reason that is a weird realization for me.  So much to do it seems.  But what would Christmas be like without a little frazzle?  

Our month started out with a song.  Ethan decided this year (completely of his own accord) to join his elementary school choir.  If you can, try to imagine Ethan's dad, who grew up in Cache Valley where boys are boys and if you're awesome enough you're a cowboy and you have your own herd of cows, you drive a truck and you wouldn't be caught dead down the choir hall in the school let alone in choir.  So you can imagine how this went down when Ethan voiced his interest in singing in a choir.  Luckily, Ethan has a totally awesome mom who thinks singing is great and doesn't sway boys to the "dark side" and who totally has Ethan's back.  And if Mom's on your side you win every time, so choir it was.  

Dec. 1, Ethan had his first performance with his choir at the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake.  I've always wanted to go to the festival but have never taken the opportunity, so this was a fun night for me all around.  It was just Ethan and I and lucky for us Grandma Taggart was volunteering that night at the festival so there was a little more support for Ethan.  Now don't start thinking that JayDee was sour from losing the choir battle that he wouldn't even come to his son's performance, that's not it at all, we just decided that we didn't  want to take everyone because if there is one thing JayDee hates worse than choir it's a crowd.  Anyway, Ethan's choir was fantastic! And after we walked around and had a look at everyone's hard work. Can I just say AMAZING!!  I seriously have never seen trees like these and half the time I didn't even think you could make ornaments out of the things some people made ornaments out of.  Here's a smattering of some of our favorites.

 Here's Ethan in his choir shirt next to his favorite gingerbread house.

My personal favorite!

So clever. . .and who doesn't love Toy Story?

 This is the tree topper.

 

 And the mid-section of the tree.

I never got a good shot of the whole tree but I just loved it.

 Also loved this guy.  There were a couple of trees with this 

same idea but none of them measured up to him.

 Now if I owned a Rumbi Island Grill I would totally buy this one. AWESOME!  

That's 4 trees all together, flocked blue with just the tips white and bent over like 

the white caps on a wave. Then decorated to the hilt with all kinds of ocean life.  

Seriously, who thinks up this stuff?

Now this one just made me laugh.

Barbie's Winter Wonderland Ball

 Up close, all the Barbies and Kens paired up and dancing. 

I would have killed for this set up when I was little. :)

We had a great time.  I may just have to force JayDee to come with us next year.

We've had Christmas themed Family Home Evenings all month.  One Monday we talked about the symbols of Christmas and how they all tied back to the Savior and then went a picked out our biggest symbol of Christmas, the tree! Another week we read a story called, I Believe in Santa Claus, which compares Santa to the Savior. Don't worry it's not sacrilegious it's actually really nice.  After that we made sugar cookies. . .lots and lots of cookies. . .so many cookies there were still some hanging around the next Monday.  I couldn't give them away because they were from a boxed mix and really not that good but the kids had a great time rolling and cutting.  All I kept thinking was this is why I never make sugar cookies.  When it was JayDee's turn for the lesson he read the kids that Christmas classic that we all know and love. . .The Christmas Orange.  To my surprise none of my kids had heard it before.  And the activity following this story?  Well how about pass the orange?  Where you have to pass the orange from one person to the next without using your hands or dropping it.  This turned out to be quite a humorous activity. 

In case you're wondering, kids necks are really not big enough to hold oranges.

This activity would have worked better with clementines. :)

Later in the month Ethan had another choir concert at the school which was attended by the whole family. (Reason #2 that everyone didn't come to the Festival of Trees)  And even though this picture stinks I told Ethan I'd post it.

 I waited almost until the last minute but was successful in making all my traditional Christmas cookies and getting them delivered.  I love my cute cookies.  I grew up making these with my mom every year.  There was no question what was going to be the neighbor gift every year it was always cookies.  Now these aren't just your run of the mill sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes and iced with too much icing, no sir, I'd dare say they border on gourmet! The best news of all . . . they are simple.  They make a dazzling display on a plate and people think you spent days making them but the truth is I take one day, make them all and deliver them that night.  I should have taken a picture of my kitchen, that was a sight, but I didn't think to get out the camera until almost all 30 plates were loaded.  Yep, 30!  I slave all day making mountains of treats and usually my own poor little kids don't get any.  This year I decided to make a round 2 because my kids are worth it!

 Wouldn't you just love finding this plate of festiveness on your front porch?

I like to call it "Christmas joy on a plate!"  They're a joy to make and a joy to give.

I hope they bring Christmas joy too!

Miracles

You know, the gospel never ceases to amaze me.  I sat in the Bountiful Temple Tuesday night with all my family (save one brother who lives in Colorado) to support the baby of our family, my little brother Chase, as he went through the temple for the first time.  It meant more to us than maybe the run of the mill Mormon family there to see a young man go through before his mission.  Our Chase is almost 24 years old and has overcome some pretty terrible demons.  These past years have been difficult ones. As many people know, watching your loved ones struggle is not easy.  For me, the struggle never seemed to end and to be completely honest I pretty much gave up hope.  I knew it wasn't impossible to overcome I just thought "He doesn't really want to change.  He doesn't care enough."  I have never been happier to be completely wrong! And I am taught once again not to judge,  you never know the inner workings of a soul.

In June of this year I was surprised to get a phone call from my dad asking if I was available at about 7pm that night to come to their church.  I, of course, asked him why I would want to come to his church that night and he said, so I could be there to witness Chase's ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood.  I was shocked!  I had no idea that Chase was even close to such a milestone.  Needless to say, I and my whole family were there.  I thought I couldn't be happier that day.  And since I am laying out all my shame here today I will tell you a little incident that happened that night.  So we are sitting in the High Council room of my parents' Stake Center with another family whose son was receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood before leaving on his mission .  The Stake High Council representative was there and he started talking to the assembled group about these two young men.  In the course of his ramblings he asked the group "Who will write to these young men on their missions?"  My sister exuberantly raised her hand, my kids tentatively raised their hands ( I think they were confused because as far as they knew Chase wasn't serving a mission) and I did not raise my hand.  I definitely didn't think Chase was going on a mission. Well again, I couldn't have been happier to be wrong.  I found out later that night that Chase had told my mom earlier that day that he wanted to go to the temple as soon as possible and that he had been saving for a mission.  Who knew?!

It took until October to get everything in order and then finally the papers were in.  It took only one and a half weeks and then I got another phone call.  Chase called me.  Chase never calls me.  He asked if I was busy right then.  I said no and then added, "Wait, did you get your mission call?!"  He said he did and I said we'll be right over.  Ethan was super excited because all this was happening on his birthday! After some more waiting at Mom and Dad's house for everyone to assemble and to get the Skype to work so my brother in Colorado could be a part of it (a miracle in its own way), Chase opened the call.  With his hands shaking he read he had been called to serve in the Milan, Italy mission.  Well if you know me or my family at all you can imagine how this went down.  There was screaming, a lot of screaming, and jumping up and down and hugging and crying.  It was wonderful! Then Chase proceeded to read the rest of the letter. When he got near the end, President Monson was thanking him for his willingness to serve and his worthiness to serve.  As Chase read these words he couldn't hold back his tears.  He normally is a very unemotional person but there was no denying that he was worthy.  He knew that he had finally done it!  All his hard work, all the humility, all the pain was worth it and he could read those words with confidence. Another beautiful moment I will never forget.  

The atonement is such an amazing miracle. To see it save the life of someone you love is completely humbling.  I know that there is no sin too small or too large that can't be covered by the sacrifice of our Savior but there just seems to be a greater magnitude when it heals someone who has suffered so long. My heart is just so full of gratitude that I have a Father who loves me so much and loves my family so much that he provided a way for us to be successful in this life.  What a miracle!  All these feelings culminated as we attended the temple together.  I just hope that in the very near future my entire family can be there together.  That would be the best miracle of all!