December Part 2 - Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, & Boxing Day

Christmas Eve we spent with Joe's younger brother Dan, and his family, and Joe's mom. Brek, of course, loved the cousin time! (In fact, to the lack of his poor manners and the fact that he is 4 and barely has any even tho I try, the moment we arrived at Joe's mom's house after a long day of driving, he walked in and said, "Where are my cousins!?" No "Hi Grandma!" or "We're here Grandma" or "I missed you Grandma." Just asking for the cousins. Thankfully he had some wonderful time with Grandma Jensen to make up for it.)

Anyway, back to Christmas Eve. Here's Brek and Madison playing with cars. They especially got giggly when they would crash them in to each other, which I also thought was hilarious.

And once Matthew warmed up to us, he enjoyed going and sitting on the track and getting in the way as the cars went around. He thought he was pretty funny.

Once Dan was home from work, we got started on our festivities. Dan & Michelle had planned a "Bethlehem Dinner" with grapes, cheeses, crackers, mini-hotdogs, a veggie tray, and sparkling grape juice. We were originally going to eat it on the floor, but with the grape juice and nice carpet, we decided against that. Brek dressed up as Joseph and Madison dressed up as Mary and we all ate together. It was super cute and so much fun! I thought it was a great idea of creating a kid-friendly (and still adult-enjoyable) dinner for such a special evening.

After dinner we did craft time. I found this idea on Pinterest, and loved it because it was something all of the kids could do on their own if they wanted to. And it was simple enough that it wasn't too much work for me to get ready.

Madison was pretty funny to watch because at her mom's request, she tried to be thoughtful and meticulous about putting the pieces of tissue paper on the contact paper. But then she lost interest so she just took a handful of the tissue paper, dropped it on the contact paper and quickly spread it around until all the sticky parts were covered. She's one of those "craft projects are interesting but spending a lot of time on it isnt' my cup of tea." Such a cutie!

Brek took a bit more time on his project. And Matthew decided he wanted to make one too, so Grandma Jensen helped.

James wasn't feeling too well, but it was fun that he joined in.

The finished projects:

This one is Brek's:

Matthew cuddling with Grandma Jensen

Next up for the evening was cutting our sugar cookies:

Dan had a fun gift-passing game ready for us as well, which I guess their Grandma Jensen had started as some sort of tradition when they were kids. It was fun, and even little Matthew loved passing the gifts around the circle as Dan read "The Night Before Christmas."

The last thing we had planned was reading the Nativity story (and the kids were going to act our the story.) But Brek and Madison decided they had a little play to do first. They passed the little microphone back and forth. I don't remember what they were saying, but we had a hard time keeping our laughter down. Brek thinks he kept talking about how the play was going to start soon. They are cute kids!

Our nativity play ended up with puppets and dressed up figures, and Brek changing between being Joseph and a wise man, and then Mary becoming a wise man too.

Our nativity play didn't result in quite the gentle spirit and calm of the evening that we had hoped for, so we ended up watching the short nativity movie on lds.org as our ACTUAL final activity and the kids were very calm and quiet and enjoyed it.

Our movie watchers

We had such a wonderful time with Dan & Michelle's family! It was the only time during our Christmas vacation that we got to be with them, so we are grateful that we got to spend the evening together.

Back at Grandma Jensen's house, we all opened up one present and then went to bed. Here are the boys all ready to open their Christmas Eve presents:

Brek got pjs! (We were hoping to find Baymas pjs for him, but got Lightning McQueen instead.) Brek was thrilled!

All the presents out and under the tree, ready for Christmas morning:

Stockings and presents from Santa. (Joe's Christmas Eve present was that I finished his stocking.)

An up-close shot of Brek's delivery from Santa:

I was super excited about our Christmas morning plans: We had decided that we definitely wanted to do more on Christmas to acknowledge that we were celebrating Christ's birth so we had talked about the things we do to celebrate our birthdays. Joe's suggestion had been a birthday cake, but I figured that there are already plenty of sweets around Christmas that we probably didn't need any more. Brek's suggestion was breakfast in bed. We both loved the idea, but were unsure if Joe's mom would be on board with the idea, and weren't exactly sure about the logistics of it, but we decided to try and move forward with it.
Once Brek was up, we all got up and went into the kitchen and made breakfast together. We had smoothies, pancakes, bacon, and sausage. Brek enlisted Grandma Jensen in re-reading "The Magic Curtain" again (as we had read it Christmas Eve before bedtime, per Jensen family tradition.)

Then we all went back upstairs to the room where Brek was sleeping, and sat together on the bed and the floor and ate breakfast together. We re-read the scripture account of Christ's birth, and per Brek's request, we also watched the nativity video again. (I think he watched that video about 10 times during our trip. He loved the spirit that he felt when he watched it, and it was so sweet to see him want to keep the focus on Jesus through the wonderful Christmas season.)

Finally, we convinced Brek that it was time to go see what Santa brought and open presents. I seriously was more anxious and excited about it than he was. We started with his stocking first

Here he is showing his Baymax action figure:

He got the whole set:

Then he opened the presents from Santa. Here he is giving loves to his Baymax toy. Horray! (Santa had a really, REALLY hard time finding one of these.)

Joe and Brek reading the book about dinosaurs that Santa brought:

Playing the fishing game that Santa brought:

Santa also brought "Baymax wrapping paper!" which in reality was a Baymax poster.

Then we moved on to the presents under the tree from family. My sister got him a Spiderman punching bag and boxing gloves.

Brek got lots of games and activities from us. One of the activities that we wrapped up for Brek to open was all of our swimming gear. So the day after Christmas, we went over to the Provo Rec Center and went swimming. Brek was disappointed that the big slides weren't open, but we still had a fun time!

The rest of Christmas Day was filled with playing and relaxing. I'm pretty sure we all took naps. Brek and Grandma Jensen went out in the snow (that came that night) and built a snowman. Grandma Jensen of course made Christmas dinner, so several of Joe's siblings stopped by in the evening. Brek had fun seeing cousins and playing. Joe & I got to go deliver dinner to Joe's sister Janelle and her family, who all weren't feeling well. It was a fun and happy day!

On Boxing Day, Joe was invited to go play at the Locust Salon (which is the house of our brother-in-law's brother, who also happens to be a former professor.) Joe was able to borrow a tuba from a friend, and of course enjoys getting to play.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christ-filled Christmas!

December Part 1-Pre-Christmas

I really enjoyed our month of December and the Christmas season. (Last year I was very GRINCH, so this was a nice change.) Brek, of course, was super excited about Christmas. All month long he talked about "giving gifts to Jesus" and we loved that. He also wanted to wrap everything under the sun to give to people.

We had a Christmas party at Church early in the month, and I've got to say, our Santa that came is pretty real looking. Brek has had some major Santa phobias in the past, so we talked a lot about who Santa was and why it is exciting to meet him and what will happen, etc. Brek kept telling us that he wasn't going to be afraid this year. But right before it was his turn, the few women standing at the door, who were really just trying to amp up the excitement, in fact, re-instated his fear and panic. Needless to say, I then had a screaming child I was trying to comfort and calm down in the corner. We watched for a while, and tho he still had no interest in going over to talk to Santa, he was finally convinced when he realized he wouldn't be getting what he wanted if he didn't actually tell Santa his gift request. Brek asked Santa for a Baymax toy. And Santa told him that he liked Brek's hat.

As we were leaving to go home, we saw Santa and his wife leaving as well. Brek was quite disappointed that he didn't fly in with his reindeer, so we explained that the reindeer needed lots of rest before Christmas Eve. Brek also informed us that he wasn't the real Santa, but a Santa helper. I am not sure where he got that idea or information, but it sparked some interesting conversation on the drive home about who Santa is. Brek mostly settled on that Santa loves Jesus very much and he brings us presents on Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday because Santa also loves us. 

A few weeks before Christmas, my sister and her family stayed the night at our house on their journey from Chicago to Utah/California. We got to meet my new nephew Bennett and see my adorable nieces. The time was too short, but we had plans to see them again just after Christmas, so it was alright. The only picture I took was of Brek trying to hold Bennett, which as you can see, wasn't the perfect picture we wanted.

Still, gotta love the memories. Brek got to have a "sleepover" with his cousins, and the girls did really well interacting with my high-energy son. He LOVES his cousins! They did lots of jumping on the trampoline.

One Sunday during our "skype" chat with my parents, Brek told my dad, "Wow Grandpa! You're really smart! You must be in kindergarten!"

Joe and Brek shared a conversation that went like this:
Joe-We give presents to people to show them we love them.
Brek-Right. Like we give presents to Jesus.
J-What kinds of presents would you give to Jesus?
B-Be obedient. Be nice to people.
J-That's great!
B-And also to play with Him.
J-Yeah ... Wait. Play with Jesus?
B-Uh huh ... But how do I get up there? ... an airplane?

Our school concert went well. We ended up with a snow day the day of the Elementary Christmas program, and the only day left to move it was earlier in the day of the high school concert night. It made for a very long evening, but all the students did well. My piano playing wasn't too shabby either, if I do say so myself. (It's always a relief when it's not a personal disaster.) We did have the cord come out of the piano mid-song with one of the elementary groups. But we all survived. Joe got to play a tuba solo of "White Christmas" while the high school girls sang backups. That was fun too. Brek was a hoot afterwards, barking orders to all the band kids about putting away instruments and chairs. At one point he was pushing the heavy percussion cart down the hallway back to the band room, with the "help" of another student who could also barely see over the top. And like I said, Brek would see a band kid and tell them to go get such-and-such piece of equipment and then telling the next kid what they should do and then shouting, "WILL SOMEONE OPEN THE DOOR!" Looks like his leadership skills are off to a great start!

Anyway, stay tuned for actual Christmas festivities and the after-parties.

Christmas Vacation 2013

We were really blessed to get to spend Christmas in California with my entire family. It was the first Christmas that all of my siblings and all of our kids, and my parents were together since 2009, and boy has our family changed since then!

We had originally planned to meet up in Utah and spend the holiday there, but after lots of stress (and definitely with the guidance of Heavenly Father) we ended up in California at my parent's home. I am especially grateful for dear family friends that have rented their home to my parents for this past year, which was large enough for us to all be there. My sister-in-law Eliana's parents were also there with us, visiting from Brazil.

Brek and I flew out about a week early, which gave us more time with Grandma, Papa, and Uncle David. Joe flew in over the weekend, which is also when my sister Tracy and her family arrived. Cousins slept over almost every single night, and they all played together really well. It was fun to see the 3 three-year-olds learn to be compliant, but also to be individuals and leaders among each other.

I didn't grab pictures of my visits with friends, but I felt very blessed to be able to see most of them during my visit. I got to see my childhood friend Betsy, catch up with my "twin" Sara, and see my "little sister" Jessica, along with her mom, and my dear friend Kay.

Brek & I got to go up and see Cody and Colby's Christmas band concert and spent the night at their home. We got to eat In N Out a couple times too. :) A few days after Christmas, all 20 of us went and saw the movie Frozen. I LOVED it! We were able to have family pictures taken too, (which I'll post later.) I'm very grateful for all my parents did to make it a wonderful holiday season, and especially for everything they did to get our little family out there.

Now for the pictures:

Colby being silly and "sleeping" with the giraffe.

My mom planned for all the kids to decorate Christmas trees. I thought this was simple, fun, and tasty. The kids seemed to enjoy it too.

And now the finished projects:

Colby

Anna

Cody made a smiley face.

Adelynne

Heather

Brek

Katie

Amy

Aurora

She gets 2 pictures because she's just so darn cute, and was so dang proud of herself!

The mommys made them too.

My beautiful sister Tracy

Christmas Eve was patterned much like the ones of my childhood. My dad, my brother Mark, my brother-in-law Dustin, and Joe all took turns reading portions of the scripture story of the Savior's birth. Cody was Joseph. Adelynne was Mary. Amy and Katie were angels. Colby and Heather were shepherds. Anna, Brek, and Aurora were wise men. We sang Christmas carols. It really was a beautiful experience. I had been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit, but this part of the night brought tears to my eyes and really touched my heart.

We also did a talent show, just like when I was a kid. It was fun to hear my nieces and nephews sing, play instruments, including the piano, and dance. My sister played violin (this is when all our babies danced.) Mark, my eldest brother, sang, and also played trombone with his sons.

Then we did presents, one by one. I'd say Brek takes after the Jensen genes and is a natural "gift appreciator." And that was fun, and kept him busy while older cousins opened their gifts. He got legos from Grandma and Papa, and Uncle David too.

Here's all his Santa presents ready for being opened on Christmas morning.

3

Pretty sure he's ready to be awake.

His most beloved gift was a game from Aunt Tracy's family - Looping Louie. Here he's playing with Adelynne, Colby, and Heather.

 

Playing legos with Daddy with on-looking Katie 

The 3 "babies" watching the ipad

After a wonderful *almost* 2 weeks, we headed to Utah to spend time with Joe's family. We made it in time for the Jensen family holiday dinner/party, tho we were a little late. It was fun to see everyone in one large gathering. The following evening, Brek & I hung out with all the other women in the family for a "tea party." Joe hung out with the guys.

With getting to spend a whole week in Utah, we decided we wanted to spend a few hours with each of his siblings' families, one-on-one. Now that we live far away and only get to visit twice a year, we wanted Brek to get to interact with his cousins and get to know them better, which is hard to do at a huge family gathering (tho we love those too).

The first individual family we spent time with was Peter and Marisa, and their 5 children. While dinner finished making, Brek enlisted Jonathan and James in playing "marching band."

After dinner, we got all of the kids to play "Looping Louie" with us. The older girls didn't think it would be fun, but we ended up all taking turns playing for over 30 minutes.

Playing with James, Sara, and Jonathan

Joe, Peter, and Marisa on the couch

I didn't get any pictures of New Year's Eve at Dan & Michelle's house. Brek had tons of fun playing with Madison and little James, who are his cousins closest to him in age. And since they were all little kids, we could make it an early night.

On New Year's Day, we went up to Dave and Carol's house. These are Brek's oldest cousins, but I loved that they were still willing to play Looping Louie with him.

Andrew, Nick, and Ryan

They had several gingerbread houses on the counter, and were sweet enough to let Brek decorate his own. So this is Brek's:

He is like his mommy, and enjoyed eating it almost as quickly as he ate it. (Daddy is of the opinion that gingerbread houses are not for eating.)

Dave and Joe playing laser chess.

After dinner, we played their African drums. Brek was in heaven

 Mike and Janelle were able to come over to Joe's mom's house one evening, and Brek had fun playing with their 3 girls-Kate, Lizzie, and Sabrina. Once again, we pulled out Looping Louie. (I told you it was his favorite Christmas gift. He played it with EVERYONE!)

Love his "cheesy" face!

We had a wonderful visit in Utah with Joe's family, and loved the time with each person and family. We really appreciate Joe's mom for hosting and all that she did for us. Brek loved his time with her, and even got a few special outings just with Grandma Jensen.

We had a wonderful holiday season, especially with the blessing of being with family!

Hope yours was great too!