I think we may have started something this year that will become a can't-miss-it tradition in the future. I got an email from the SLC Downtown Alliance advertising that the Broadway movie theater would be hosting a free screening of A Muppet Christmas Carol and serving waffles and wassail. My brother Peter and I decided this sounded like the funnest thing ever and were planning on going. And then our brains turned on. He has a two-year-old and an infant. I have an infant and a four-year-old. It would be cold. We'd have to go early to get tickets. Maybe this would not actually be fun at all. So we decided to put it on ourselves at our own house - after all, I can make both waffles and wassail. Peter has a copy of A Muppet Christmas Carol (perfect for kids because it adds a lot of humor to the spooky stuff) and Troy has a projector that you hook up to a laptop. So I hung up a sheet in our living room. Margaret, one of her girls and my dad all joined us. Seriously, I think we're going to have to do this every year. Yummy waffles (anything is good if you add melted butter to the batter) with plenty of toppings - buttermilk syrup, berries, applesauce, and, for my dad, roasted raspberry chipotle sauce. Not everyone's choice, but he sure loved it. Cuddled up on couches with heaps of pillows and wiggly babies to watch a really great movie, which was broadcast on a screen just to the side of our glowing Christmas tree. FUN!!!
By the way, I have to say that I so love our tree this year. I just love getting those leggy kind of trees that show off all the ornaments so well. I love all the ornaments the kids have made. I love the new ribbon I got at Tai Pan. I LOVE the new garland I got from 10,000 villages - it's a string of folded grass stars, colored red - I need to go get more and hang them all over my house. Last night for family home evening we (Troy) built a fire in our wood stove, put on soft Christmas music, turned out the lights and snuggled up on the couch next to the tree. We made a plan to surprise someone we know with some anonymous gifts (just little things the kids will pick out) and sang some Christmas songs. Moments like those just make the season for me.
Not really. One house was definitely more dignified than the other. I'm hardly to blame for not having the gentle spirit of creativity with me as I slammed together the gingerbread house in our 4th annual house construction party with The Misty and Co. This continues to be a favorite tradition, heading up to Bountiful on a chilly Monday evening in December, eating pizza and salad and then starting the wrestling match between me and my kids as I piece together the house while they simultaneously try to eat it. Come on, guys! At least let me put it together before you start eating the stuff! And why are they so sure they want to eat it? The gingerbread is hard as a rock, probably due to the fact that it's been in a Costco warehouse since July. I know the candy is colorful, but it really is not the tastiest of treats around. And yet, it is made of sugar, so my kids are pre-programmed to do anything they can to get it in their mouths. And also, Bundle was not a happy girl hanging out with the men in the living room while the kids and moms were doing the decorating in the kitchen. So, I did not come up with the best house ever, but it was still fun. And really, as long as the thing is plastered all over with colorful candy and pasty frosting, it ends up looking great. Now, I bought two house kits this year in case I had the energy to put one together for the kids and then one for me to do in my uptight, perfectly symmetrical and color coded way. I did not. But the house kit is just sitting in my kitchen, and I can kind of imagine me doing it all by myself late one night just to satisfy my inner perfectionist. How crazy would that be? Quite, I tell you. Quite.
I just love photographs of babies being enthralled with their very first Christmas Tree. That just warms my heart. Well, as I type this, Miss Bundle is sitting right next to me in her Saucer of Joy. You know, the very large but very helpful "exersaucer." She's babbling away, chewing happily on anything she can grab, trying to get me to look at her and doing a bit of drooling. What a big girl. Last week she turned six months old and what I'm wondering is how come the past six months have blown by in a millisecond while my nine month pregnancy took at least a decade to get through.
I would say that Bundle's big six month accomplishment is to be the best grabber this side of the Mississippi. Heaven help you if there is anything on your person that she wants to put in her mouth, because she will come at you, mouth agape, like a ferocious toothless dive-bomber. Lately I feel like I'm getting gummed to death all day long. And it's worse if you have hair. Anywhere. Poor Troy, his arms are going bald because Bundle is methodically dehairing him one gripfull at a time. Youch! (Wow, spell checker doesn't like my creative use of the English Language here.) Here are some examples of her steely grasp:
You know, as difficult as the past couple of months have been as we've been getting a handle on her reflux and now dealing with head colds and bilateral ear infections and upset tummies due to antibiotics (I'm so not loving this) and in general getting not much sleep, I'm still just in love with this little bug. She's really starting to be a big baby now, with the dadadadada babbles and reaching her arms up for me and playing "how big's the baby?!?" I can't get enough of her. Okay, today when she refused to nap for five hours, (yes, I was counting,) I did actually get enough of her for a while. But for the most part, I feel like I could look at her round little elf-face for hours. She's a keeper, I'll tell ya!
(Check out that belly hanging over down to her knee caps! Love it!)
That's kind of dumb title, I know, but I can't keep titling my blog posts "Another Lesson Learned." I feel like I'm learning LOTS of lessons these days. My latest educational venture has been in the world of cookie making. As I may have mentioned in the past, Sunday afternoons get a little LONG for me. I was thinking of what we could do to fill up an empty afternoon and I thought to myself, "Hey! Candy Cane sugar cookies! Fun!" I mean, how hard can it be to mix up some sugar cookie dough, color half of it red, roll it out, cut it in strips, twist the strips together, and bake them up like candy canes? Well, I tell you. It's very hard. Something went terribly wrong in the "roll it out, cut it in strips and twist the strips together" department. Those were the ugliest cookies I've ever seen. Happily, the kids had a great time playing with the dough that was left over after I gave up, and as it turns out, even ugly cookies are delicious!
p.s. If you MUST know why the kids aren't wearing shirts, it's because they had just been playing Tarzan. Running around in their undies with their blankies tied in intricate fashions around their nether regions. That was funny. I did convince them to put on pants (and wash their hands) before handling the dough.
You'll never believe it, but this phrase, as of last night, is now one of the most commonly uttered things in our house. I myself am a little surprised.
I think I started my new favorite Christmas Tradition last night. On the good advice of my friend Melissa (thank you thank you!) I have begun the tradition of "The Elf on the Shelf." I guess this is a book you can buy that comes with a little elf and it costs like 30 bucks or something. I just took myself down to Tai Pan and picked out a cute little guy for $6. Then, starting December 1st, the elf gets to hang out on a shelf (or, in our case, in the treat basket on top of the fridge today) and keep an eye on the kids all day. He reports back to Santa at night, thus appearing on a different shelf each morning. Rules? Kids can't touch but they can talk to him all they want.
Last night, being Monday, we had a quick family home evening after we held the season's first viewing of Rudolf. I wasn't sure how warmly the kids would take to this idea of a little dolly perched someplace in our house for a whole month and me using him as bribery for good behavior. Stupid me. I pulled out our elf, and started telling the kids that he is a real Santa's helper and everything. Their eyes grew wide with amazement and awe. They had all sorts of questions about him (wish I had thought through some answers sooner - answering those things on the fly is a bit of a task...) and we picked his name, Cornelius (in honor of Yukon Cornelius, of course). The kids have been nothing short of hilarious, talking to him, telling on each other to him, and believing in his purpose with great gusto. This is so fun. Last night Troy had to actually leave the room to go and laugh, while I was left to try to smother my snickers as the kids faithfully reported to Cornelius all of their good deeds, all of their Christmas hopes and dreams. They wish him good evening and good morning, they ask his opinion on important matters, and Stomper even apologized to him after being a stinker to me. Huh. I'm trying to figure out how to get Cornelius to stick around for a while...
Many thanks need to go out to my in-laws for putting together a great Thanksgiving dinner for us. With the whole family being near by, we get a pretty big group together for our meal, and it's not easy to find a place for all of us to gather. It seems that the general population around here has figured out how nice it is to hold Thanksgiving dinner at a church, and so the local churches were all booked up and we were unable to find a location for our dinner this year. Luckily there is a building near by Morris and Carol that has a big Relief Society room with its own little kitchenette. (Are you kidding me? If went to church there, I'd store ham and Swiss sandwiches in the fridge and sneak them out during the lesson!) I wasn't sure we'd be too comfortable in a little room, but it turned out great. Plenty of space, a much more cozy atmosphere than the gym. That' s partly because my mother-in-law brought lovely Christmas music and nice table decorations and everything. There was a spare room for the kids to go nuts in (a definite requirement when you have 11 kids ages 0 - 15). And of course everyone brought really scrumptious food. My favorite? Kathleen's yams, in which she accidentally doubled the butter. Can't go wrong there! Anyway, it was a total success. Thanks!
Sam and Kathleen's baby girl turned two on Thanksgiving, so we decided we could have a birthday pie for her. She is such a dolly, so cute.
I believe it was back in April that I cheerfully blogged about Stomper's new addiction to the song "Axel F." Oh, I thought it was so funny that he loved this song so much after seeing the President play it for the aliens in "Monsters vs. Aliens." Yeah, well, it's not funny any more. He has learned how to open itunes, find the song, and put it on infinite repeat. Ahhhhhhhhh! I checked on itunes the other day, clicked on "most played." The 2nd most played song is "Let My Love Open the Door" by the Who at 88 times. Guess I like that song... Anyway, the top most played song is of course Axel F at a whopping 385 times. I guess that was money well spent, considering it cost us one buck to buy it. But I had to quietly come put my arm around Stomper's shoulders this evening and calmly whisper, "I can't listen to Axel F any more today."
Oh how I love going out to the movies with the gals. One gal, two gals, a gaggle 'o gals, any number will do. Even if I have to prop up my eyelids a bit the next day, I just love it. Becky, were you TRYING to make a silly face (like you'd ever do something like that...) or did we just catch you at a bad moment? Sorry, I'm posting the picture anyway! Cheers to girls' night!
