And a Very Merry Christmas Was Had By All!

The kids woke up to this on Christmas morning:

So peaceful and pretty!  Not that they appreciated it, as they were stampeding down the steps like this:

Camille is just a blur 😂

Everyone except Bentley kept opening up puzzle pieces that they finally got to assemble-- it turned out to be a trip in February to Great Wolf Lodge!  (We did this back in 2017 when Camille was a baby.  She and Colton had been feeling like they were owed another visit since they can't remember that trip at all...)

Once it was put together, they still had to unscramble the words: 

So naturally it was Bentley who actually figured out what it said!  Ah, well.  They were excited.

I've got one kid indoctrinated to love killer whales as much as I do!!!

Reading the instructions to his new game, "Bears vs. Babies" brought to you by the same geniuses behind Exploding Kittens!

More killer whale love!

Colton loves his new very fuzzy blanket

More Pearls Before Swine for this family!

Probably my favorite picture from the entire day-- he was so hoping for the Lego Hogwarts castle!!!

Meanwhile, Ryder's other grandparents got creative in how they gave him cash:

I complained to Craig that when I brought all those ones to the bank, the teller was going to think I was a stripper, and he shot back, "Not a very good one!"  Zing!

Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Craig, Bentley, or me opening any presents!  But we did, indeed, get presents, too!  I think Bentley's favorite was probably this duck nightlight, mostly because he wasn't expecting it.  He also got some Tyler the Creator swag, which he's excited for since he's going to his concert in March.  I got some lovely earrings that I'm enjoying, a fabulous blanket hoodie, books I'm excited to read, and this Emma M. Lion pin!  Craig was probably most excited for his new AirPods, but was also delighted by this unexpected sandscape toy for his desk and a box full of those packets you throw into a fire to make it change colors.  I also got him a filter to get the microplastics out of his water, but since it was made out of plastic (ironic, that!), we decided not to bother keeping it.  Everyone got a lot of fun stuff!

In a hilarious twist, the last gift that I opened up was a robe, which of course made me think of the amazing SNL skit, "Christmas Robe"  In Craig's defense, I must point out that I actually wanted a new robe, so he is NOT in the doghouse over this!  Unfortunately, there weren't any good quality robes that could ship in time, so he just ordered whatever would arrive fastest and told me to exchange it for what I actually wanted.  So the robe I got was a sad, thin, grey thing that was immediately returned and I'm anxiously awaiting the real deal.  But it was very good for a laugh!

It took us the entire morning to open presents and eat cinnamon rolls.  Once all the presents were finished, the kids wandered off to play their new games and put together their Lego sets and Craig and I got to work in the kitchen.  For Christmas, we basically just repeat everything we made for Thanksgiving, except for the rolls.  So we were busy!  But our Christmas feast turned out marvelous.  Mom and Dad were able to talk to their other daughters while we did dishes in between dinner and dessert.  

A very merry Christmas was had by all!

Oh, Yes, There's a Round Three!

Sunday morning I had to get to church pretty early.  There was choir practice and a small practice with a few ladies I was singing with.  The choir did a lovely arrangement of "Once in Royal David's City" and my group was singing "He is Born, the Divine Christ Child" in both English and French, so that was a lot of fun to practice!  Everything went great and it was a lovely service!

There was time for naps and dinner after church, and then we needed to clean the house because all the youth were gathering here and then going Christmas caroling!  It was nice to bring my Mom along, too, since she loves Christmas caroling.  And my Dad did fine staying home with Colton and Camille!

We had a good turnout for the caroling and it was fun delivering cookies and songs to friends and their neighbors!  My only complaint was that I somehow had a van full of very loud boys, the loudest of whom were all sitting right behind me.  I couldn't even chat with Mom, it was so loud, and by the time we returned home for hot cocoa and more cookies, I had quite the headache.  Oh, well.  A little Tylenol fixed me right up, and I'm glad they were having fun!

(Alec here always has a Coke on him-- someone spraying whipped cream into it cracks me up!)

Monday was my usual shopping day, except I got to bring my parents along (and they were very nice about buying me stuff!), which made it much easier to deal with all the crowds.  I will say, Costco was handling things beautifully, and we didn't even wait in line when we were checking out!  While I was busy with that, my kids were busy being completely weird:

They called themselves the Wizards of Weird, and that might actually be an understatement!

And then Tuesday was Christmas Eve!!!  The day was spent wrapping presents, brining the turkey, and making anything that could be made a day early-- pies, jell-o salad, mashed potatoes...  All that good stuff.  We were busy all day!  But I still found time to sneak away with my Dad and Kendra to get burgers at Jack Brown's, so that was pretty awesome!  (Bentley was supposed to come, but he was sleeping off a migraine, poor kid.)

Bentley and Kendra kept busy being Screen-agers (which probably triggered his migraine, come to think of it...)

But my younger kids played board games and watched Christmas movies!

We picked up our pizza and then drove all over town looking at Christmas lights, ate quickly, and then settled down by the piano for lots of singing!

Kendra also got in on the French braiding while Grandma was around!

Gotta love some carols on the French horn!

Why is Camille being held upside down for this?

And then we read Luke 2 and opened our Christmas jammies!!!

I'd had fun picking out all the t-shirts.  They read: Deck the Halls (Not Your Family), Very Merry, Not Today Santa, Gnome for the Holidays (<-- this is especially funny because Ryder LOVES gnomes!), My Favorite Color is Christmas Lights (also very apropos for Craig!), I'm Dreaming of a Great White Christmas (<-- yes, Colton loves sharks), and Merry Christmas Y'all!

And I remembered to get a picture with Grandma and Grandpa!

Kind of hard to believe that this was calmer than most of the rest of December!

Round Two of Christmas Madness!

For one of our Tuesday night activities, I decided that we would attend UVA's Messiah Sing-In, truly one of my favorite holiday traditions.  Unfortunately, most of the youth opted not to come, a fact which disappointed me greatly.  (It's hard for me to not take it personally when people don't love the things that I love, you know?  In all fairness, most of them were preparing for finals and it was a very late night.  But STILL-- the Hallelujah Chorus!!!!)  But the youth who DID come had a wonderful time, as did I.  So it was still a success in my book!  (In my defense, the UVA Sing-in is always held on a Tuesday, which is when we have our activities.  Last year I missed it, so I vowed that this year I wouldn't let that happen.  Next year I'll probably just cancel the Tuesday night activity and tell people that anyone who wants to join me is welcome!)

Ember, Kendra, and me.  The men and boys were all seated in the tenor section (much to Craig's chagrin, since he's a bass!)

UVA is fun!

The following Saturday was the stake's Joy to the World concert, another thing I love.  I'd been trying to attend choir practice for it, but that was challenging since it's a half hour away at the airport road building and on a Sunday night, which was frequently when Bentley was calling.  But I went whenever I could, and the music we were singing was quite lovely.  It turned out my friend Janelle was going to be performing in an octet, so I was excited to hear her (she is a middle school band teacher and also plays French horn).  And THEN, I found out that my favorite performers, the Jones Family singers, were ALSO going to be singing, so then I was stoked.  (I'd heard they wouldn't be there and was so disappointed, so when it turned out they could come after all, it was just the best.)  And they were as amazing as always and made me cry, I love gospel music so much.

Somewhere in there, we also found time to go to the Cville Band's Christmas concert.  This is a free concert at the Paramount, but you had to line up early to get seats.  We'd had Stake Conference in the morning, followed by choir practice, and then Kendra and I went straight from rehearsal to the Paramount.  Kendra managed to snatch seats for all of us on the balcony, and Craig and Camille joined us there.  Janelle plays with them, too, so it was fun seeing her at both concerts!  (She was one of my FiA workout buddies, and I was sad to not be seeing her much when I quit, but fortunately I usually run into her at the all-district band concerts and we managed to get together for lunch during Thanksgiving!) 

Another big Christmas thing that happened was Bentley came home from BYU!!!  Craig and I were so excited to have him back that we BOTH went to the airport to pick him up!!!

So happy!

He got home late Wednesday night-- his siblings were all very disappointed that they wouldn't get to see him until the next day, but since he was staying in Camille's room, she woke up enough when he went to bed that she managed to give him a very sleepy hug.  Even Bentley, my prickly son, thought that was pretty sweet.  

I enjoyed getting to hang out with him for a couple days while everyone else was still in school.  We had lunch at Torchy's and he helped me take the Honda into the shop since a light had come on when I was driving home from the band concert.  (It needed a new alternator.  Grrr.)  He also had a dentist appointment where it was fun trying to explain his upcoming mission (and related paperwork) to them!  And he slept quite a bit, trying to get caught up after the rush of finals!

Friday night, my parents flew into town!  I picked them up and before I could even get their luggage out of the trunk, Br. Gaskin arrived as our official stake representative.  And then I got to watch as Craig, my Dad, and Br. Gaskin ordained Bentley to the office of an elder, which was a very sweet experience!  Bentley's Utah stake leadership was on stand-by to record his ordination so he'd be able to go to the temple the next morning.  We were lucky that it wasn't quite so late in Utah!

We tried not to stay up too late hanging out talking, but we are not very good at that in my family!  So it was a late night, made even worse by the fact that we had to get out the door the next morning at 5:30am in order to arrive at the temple by 7am.  {Groan.}  But it was really cool, we got to all go through the temple with Bentley!  My original thinking had been to maybe do this the day after Christmas, but when we realized that meant Donna would miss out (she and Tom were going to Houston for Christmas), we figured out that there was exactly ONE window where all of Bentley's (LDS) grandparents could be in the temple with him, and that window was first thing in the morning on Saturday.  So that's what we did!

Tired, but happy!  The cold is waking us up!

There were a few other people from the ward who also joined us-- the Steeds (who very kindly met Donna at her hotel and made sure she found her way to the temple), the Huffs, and Steve Morgan & Amy Patchett.  The Herrings were also planning to be there, but had a medical emergency that prevented them from coming (that's a whole 'nother story full of miracles which I am happy to tell you about some other time, but I probably will not be blogging about!).  There were a few other people I wish we had thought to invite, but it was a very hectic time for us.  We did the best we could!

 

The temple was lovely, as always, and I was so glad we could all be there together!

Now it's light out and we have Donna with us, too!

Bentley should be turning in his mission papers in the next few weeks, so there should be some big news in about a month or so...?  I'll definitely keep you posted!

Once we were done at the temple, I hurried home with my parents-- I needed a nap and some food.  And for good measure, I also had my Mom French braid my hair!  I had my TOSVA Christmas concerts to get ready for!  Craig, Bentley, and Donna went to the Distribution Center and bought a bunch of clothes for Bentley, picked up Tom from his hotel room, and stopped by the hospital to visit and minister to the Herrings.  They also snagged some food at Taco Bell for Bentley, who was on the verge of starvation at that point.  (Who loses weight as a freshman????)

I was very worried about having enough energy for my concerts on so little sleep.  I actually had given up my early morning exercise routine for the week, figuring I needed to "bank" as much sleep as I could ahead of time.  (Is that a thing?  Banking sleep?  I'm not sure it is, but it definitely SHOULD be!)  So I was very thankful that both concerts went really well.  They were BOTH sold out, which I don't think has ever happened in the twenty years that TOSVA has been doing this, so that was pretty exciting.  And of course it was fun having my family all there for the afternoon one!

That's me, right by the Christmas tree!

And there's the whole choir, waiting to begin.  I think we're up to 90 people now?

Afterwards, they all got dinner at Citizen Burger Bar, which was handy because it is directly across the street from the Paramount.  How Craig managed to get a table for so many people is beyond me-- he's a miracle worker (especially considering they don't take reservations!)!  I hurried over and said Hi to everyone, then ran back to the theater to change out of my concert dress and got dinner with my friend Leah.  I felt bad ditching my family like that, but I was pretty sure that trying to eat such a slow, heavy meal with ten other people would have been too stressful before the second concert.  (Also, they could barely fit in that booth, adding me in would have been impossible!)  Leah and I enjoyed a quiet and much lighter dinner at Tilman's, which was lovely.  And the second concert went beautifully, too.  I did get quite sleepy right before the intermission, but I held it together.  (A few of the other singers complained that they should NOT have had a glass of wine with dinner because they were suffering the same problem!  Good thing I don't drink, I might have conked right out standing there!)

And then I skipped the after-concert party and went straight home to my family and enjoyed getting to hang out with everyone!  I had missed Craig giving his parents their Christmas presents, which they opted to open immediately rather than lug to Houston (can't say that I blame them for that):

(Avert your eyes if you're still upset by the most recent election!)

With Bentley's ordination, the temple, and the concerts all done, I felt like I could calm down and breathe again.  Getting all my ducks in a row for all that was surprisingly complicated and stressful!  But I could not have been happier with how it all went!

And Then It Was Christmas Time!

As soon as Thanksgiving was over we were officially in Holiday Mode!  Craig was out on the roof with the kids putting up lights, which led to this rather startling sight:

Why is there a small child outside my second-story window?

They LOVE being out on the roof with Daddy:

Nothing to see here, folks!

And then the next day, Saturday, our favorite tree farm was open for business and Kendra found this beauty:

As usually happens, it looked WAY bigger once it was all set up inside our living room!  A little shorter than last year's tree, but way fatter!  It was AWESOME.  Kendra dubbed it Phat Jo.  It was a very happy tree.

And then, later that afternoon, I got an early Christmas gift from Natalie:

Volume 8 in The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion!!!  I love this series so much.  If you haven't read them yet, you really need to!!!

I pretty much just stayed in bed reading the rest of the day, while Craig and the kids continued to decorate and watch Christmas movies while they did so.  (There was definitely more tv-watching than decorating, we learned!)

Also, Camille got together with a bunch of friends to make little squishy toys:

The following weekend was our ward Christmas party.  Amy Gaskin has been in charge of all the parties and she does an AMAZING job with all of them.  I've been so impressed!  For this party, she planned a little skit where people would re-create pictures that had to do with various past Christmases.  It was so cute and everyone did great!  There was also a Santa's Workshop with crafts for kids and they could visit Santa.

Here's Ryder (along with Sawyer and Daniel) being candy cane dancers (this was during the dress rehearsal)

(It was so nice to have a nice backdrop instead of the usual cinderblock walls and accordion curtains!)

Dressed up for "Mele Kalikimaka"

Samuel the Lamanite (with Colton and Gideon as two of the wicked Nephites!)

Colton is one of the shepherds and Ryder is the middle wise man!

So that was a huge success!  The following week was busy with some less-Christmasy, but still important to note, stuff:

Kendra (and Ella!) got to go to court where a judge officially handed over their driver's licenses to them!  (Thanks to Covid, Bentley got to skip this strange, Virginia step towards adulthood)

I found time to make a quick trip to the temple, partly to be at the temple (fastest initiatory session I've ever done!) and also to buy garments for Bentley before he went to the temple!

Craig, Kendra, Ryder, and Colton all helped out at the Toy Lift and had the best time doing it!  Camille can hardly wait until she's old enough to join them!  (The lady who runs it basically lets the kids eat candy the entire time they're helping out, so they really do love it!)

Here's Kendra hard at work

And Colton, too!

Colton and Craig occasionally wore matching clothes!  

And Ryder and Colton had their band concerts!

Ryder with his trombone

And there's Colton with his saxophone!

Kendra also had a band concert, but this one turned out to to be something of a bait-and-switch.  Basically, the middle and high school orchestras were playing, and then for a couple of the songs, they had the high school band join them.  So we were there for an hour and a half to see Kendra play two songs.  I was kind of irritated by this, even if Kendra's songs were excellent.  I should have brought a book!!!

But there's Kendra, right in the middle of the back row!

And Craig and I went to a white elephant gift exchange all the way up in Elkton!  It was a bit of a drive, but I do love this awesome pillow I got out of it:

😂

And finally, here's this cute picture of Kendra and Camille in front of the Christmas tree:

I like that they're kind of matchy, without being too matchy, you know?

And that was just the first part of the month!