Shakespear Shuffle

First Christmas

We went to Texas for Christmas this year so we had to have our own Christmas earlier in the month - it was really early on the 13th of December.  As a result we didn't have as much time to do all of our advent activities but the ones we did do were fun.

One night we made snowmen pizzas & watched all of our traditional cartoon movies.  I must say it was a little strange peaking at the pizza in the oven with his big grin on his face!

  

Of course we had the traditional gingerbread house constructing.  This was the first year we did graham crackers & homemade frosting & had everyone do their own.  It worked out really well.  Everyone needed help & there were only two of us to help so Emma just decided to make hers flat & called it her gingerbread garden.  I loved that!

Trying to figure out the tango - maybe for future church dances?!

 

 

  

 

One of our most favorite activities we do is our shepherd's night.  We don't act out the nativity scene but we do dress up as shepherds, make sheep, talk about what it would be like to live the life of a shepherd, eat shepherd's pie, talk about wolves & how they are similar to Satan/devil & how our Savior is our Shepherd & other analogies etc.  We have to end the night as Daddy playing the wolf part & everyone protecting their paper & cotton ball sheep.

We also always do snowflakes but I liked the idea of painting them instead of cutting them this year for something different & they turned out pretty well.

 

 

Justy & Emma are still working hard on their Kindergarten workbooks.  They have both started to read simple 3 & 4 letter words that avoid silent E's (or any other silent letter), ING, SH, CH, OUGH & all of the other lovely & confusing letter arrangements in our English language.  I must say I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of going through this process with TWO children at the same time.

Dallen helping me use our new 11 cup food processor - thanks Mum!

  

We also always do a homemade ornament.  I really liked the way these turned out :)

  

The zoolights were AMAZING!  And sooooooo frigidly cold too.  We would have lasted longer if it had been a teensy bit warmer.  It's a good thing I grabbed hats, gloves & scarves at the last second just in case.  Hopefully we can go every year - everything was so pretty.

We made treats for our friends & delivered them.  The little boys loved helping smash up the bananas for banana bread.  

Dipping yummy things in chocolate!

One afternoon we were all at the table doing homework or coloring or sewing & it was fun to all be together chatting.  I loved it.

Polar Express night!

A new way of playing Uno...it looks like they blended Uno with Twister

Christmas Eve was a fun day of being wrapped like burritos, playing games, & acting out the Nativity.  We had a great performance by one wise man, Mary, Joseph, two shepherds, one sheep & an angel.  That morning we had an early present waiting for them at the breakfast table - they each got their own box of Fruit Loops!  Oh my goodness the amount of excitement in the room was off the charts!  I think it was the best reactions of the whole weekend :)  Jeremy & I made our overnight cinnamon rolls & stuffed stockings & watched a cheesy made for TV Christmas movie.

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Christmas morning came & everyone slept in until 7:30 - awesomeness!  The kids were so grateful & had so much fun with their little stocking gifts that I wish we had just stopped there :)  It was a Christmas of weapons & Lego's that's for sure with a few ponies & kittens thrown in.  I was thinking how different the aftermath of Christmas would look if we had 4 girls & 1 boy.  So different!  My favorite presents all day were my necklaces & bracelets that my two big boys made for me all by themselves.  And Hyrum drew & colored a picture of Costa Rica for Jeremy to hang in his office.  He kept it a secret & was beyond excited to have Daddy open it.  It was so sweet!  I was so proud of them for catching the giving bug.

  

 

  

Justy & Emma were invited to a princess/pirate birthday party that afternoon & had a blast dressing up & going to the party.  We watched Elf all together that evening & it was a big hit.

 

 

The boys had their spectacular school Christmas concert a couple days before we left for Texas & they did awesome. All the classes have turns at singing, playing instruments & dancing.   Hyrum's piano teacher is the wife of our music teacher at school so she had her students play Christmas music as prelude to the concert.  Hyrum practiced for hours & hours & nailed Silent Night & Jingle Bells.  It was so exciting Dallen had to fall asleep to cope :)