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.

November

November was a pretty great month for our family. Brek officially participated in his first Primary Program at church. (Primary is for all kids ages 3-12). (And, last year when Brek was still in nursery (ages 1.5-3) he got to join the bigger kids and sing a couple songs, but this year he was up on the stand the whole time, sang the songs, and had a speaking part.)

He took his tie off and wore it on his head, tossed it around a bit, and fought when dad tried to take it away. He picked his nose and ate it. He said his lines quietly, but clearly. And he held notes out WAY longer than anyone else, requiring Daddy to give him his own, special cut-off. It was cute and endearing and funny and precious.

One day, Brek and I were wrestling. I declared that I won. And Brek responded, "I'm four!"

Other "highlights" included our microwave blowing up and the furnace going out one night. When the microwave died, Brek suggested we just ask Santa for a new one. Thankfully we were able to purchase a used one from some friends. When the heat went out, honestly, we didn't notice at first. But once we did figure it out, it felt like quite the ordeal to get things working again. Here's a picture of our thermostat, and it had actually started to warm up at that point. I think the lowest the house got was 50 degrees. I ended up being late to work waiting for the guy to come and fix it. Thankfully we have a space heater, so we set that up in our bedroom and tried to contain Brek there (which didn't work.) So grateful for heat!

Another fun story from the month: One morning, just as I hopped in the shower, my body wasn't even all the wet yet (thankfully) Brek came into the bathroom and said that someone was here at the house, and that he opened the door for them. *Great* So I hurriedly dried off and put my pjs back on, and came out to 2 sheriff officers standing in my front room. *Trying not to panic* They were responding to a report from our back alley neighbors that someone in a purple car came into our yard and sneakily carried something away. So, thinking that they had broken into our garage or something, the neighbor called the cops. Turned out, it was just the tree-trimmers from the day before who had left their chainsaw in the backyard (un-covered and in a PERFECT place for my 4-year-old to play with), and then came to retrieve it for that day's job, or so I assumed.

Apparently when Brek answered the door, he also told the sheriff that neither his mom or dad was home. 

(And a side story to that, which is the reason for the tree-trimmers anyway, was that the big tree in our backyard started to fall and was leaning on the power lines going through our back yard. The tree-trimmers had to come out 3 different times to get the job done right. And still, they broke the back fence and hit the neighbor's house as well.)

We spent one weekend up in Chadron visiting some family friends and receiving a much-needed piano lesson. On our drive up, Brek was telling us about a fight he was in at daycare that day. As we started asking him about the details, he told us that he was playing "Elsa" and was "zapping" but his friend Grady wanted him to stop and pushed him. 

It was wonderful to get away even just for a night. And I really learned a lot and all the advice from Jim has really helped. Brek had a blast playing with Jim's youngest Westley, or as Brek says it, "Wrestley," who is 7. Brek said it was the greatest sleepover ever! They started getting ready for bed around 7pm, but were up well past midnight. After we came home, Brek told me that he wanted to join Wrestley's family. He did say that Joe & I could join Wrestley's family too.

Two days before Thanksgiving, as we were anticipating my parents' arrival that evening, and shortly after I got to work, I got a phone call from daycare that Brek had thrown up (which he has never done before). So I got to go get him and bring him home. And after arriving home, he of course had no interest in resting and wanted to eat, and thereafter never acted sick at all. And then I got sick, and ended up with an ear infection. Otherwise, Thanksgiving was wonderful!

It was great to have my parents visit for a couple days. It of course snowed, but we survived several trips into town despite the weather. We carried on our Thanksgiving tradition of making fancy turkey panini sandwiches. This year I also made homemade stuffing (which I slightly ruined by misreading the amount of spices to add) and we made pies. Joe made homemade pumpkin pie which was DELICIOUS as well as my family's tradition of chocolate peanut butter pie. It was low-key, not a ton of kitchen/cooking time, and just good time with family. We played games each night too. It was a really wonderful Thanksgiving!

Joe making his homemade pie crust

 

My mom taking her Thanksgiving Day nap

Joe & Brek playing "Pass the Pigs"

Posing for pictures with Grandma and Papa

Brek's favorite part was the pie. Scratch that. Brek's favorite part was the whipped cream on top of his pie.

Brek made this really cute turkey at daycare.

Here he is having a converstaion with the turkey:

Here are our 2 yummy pies:

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandma and Papa took us into town to see "Big Hero 6." We all LOVED it! And Brek has been on a pretty big "Baymax" kick ever since. We were sad for Grandma and Papa to have to leave the next day, but we were grateful knowing that we would see them just a few weeks later at Christmastime.

After my parents left, we decided to decorate for Christmas. Last January, Joe's mom gave us her old Christmas tree. So this was our first year ever having our own Christmas tree. Brek enjoyed helping to put it together and then adding the lights and ornaments.

Gotta love Brek's "creepy eyes" before he hung up his Brek bear that I made last year. (My family had these ornaments growing up.)

A little less creepy

The last element of our November was that Joe participated in "No Shave November." He decided that he wanted to know what it was like to have a beard. People kept asking me how I felt about it, which was kinda strange. I guess I really didn't care. It wasn't the most fun to kiss, (as my dad can tell you!) but I wasn't against him trying it out. I actually thought he looked pretty good, and it was kinda fun to play with it. But Joe didn't like it. He didn't like how long it took for it to actually look good since his hair is so light and hard to see. But mostly he didn't like how much it itched. I started making fun of him during band because he would be conducting with one hand and scratching his face with the other. He was very excited for the month to end so he could shave it off.

During one of our family conversations, Brek said, "Mommy, our family needs to have another little kid so that I have someone to play with."

"Well, you should know that even if we had another kid, she would be a baby, and she'd be too small for you to play with."

(pause)

"Well, maybe we could just *borrow* a kid from another family..."