These are a few of my favorite things . . .

This time of year is so busy, sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed with shopping lists and to-do lists, and gift lists and everything else that I forget to step back and enjoy the season.

So I've been thinking lately about what I love about this time of year:

The SMELLS
. . . of baking (turkey and hot rolls!) the citrus and pine and cinnamon that I simmer on the stovetop, the peppermint in my hot cocoa

The SIGHTS
. . . of twinkling lights, the festive decorations--trees and poinsettias, ribbons and sparkly ornaments, cozy stockings, a crackling fire in the hearth, gift wrap and bows and candles and Nativity Sets.



The SOUNDS
 . . . of jingle bells, Christmas carols, giggling children, our annual Stake Christmas concert with choir, string orchestra, and handbell choir--it's pretty magical (once the rehearsing is done!)  And Hayden giving me his daily count-down till Christmas report.  One morning I came in to wake him and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Jutht theven dayth till Chrithmath, Mom!"

The TRADITIONS (new and old)

We decorated a gingerbread house this year for our Ward Christmas Party.  Not something we do every year, but a traditional Christmas-time activity.

The kids really got into it and added all kinds of their Star Wars legos and other random toys.

As a result, this beauty won "Most Out-of-This-World" in the Gingerbread House competition.

Also, at the ward party, the kids visited with Santa.

Hayden asked Santa for a flashlight, (that has consistently been his Christmas wish this year.)  Santa was a little surprised, but took it in stride.  Sean asked for a particular Star Wars Lego set.  And then another, and another, and another.  Santa could barely get a word in edge-wise.  I think Sean was just covering his bases--making sure Santa had lots of options to choose from.  Good thing too, because some of the lego sets he asked for were several hundred dollars.  Yowsa!

Sydney didn't get the whole Santa thing, but posed for a picture anyway.  I was really surprised she even went to him, because she takes a long time to warm up to people.

Nativity Reenactments:  This one is Hayden's preschool presentation of the Nativity.  He was a shepherd.

and Giving . . .

This year our ward did a Giving Tree with families from the most impoverished area of Albuquerque.  Many of children came from families with at least one incarcerated parent.  Our family gave to a family that was actually pretty well in tact.  Two parents and three boys, ages 10, 13 and 18.  

They asked for pants, jackets and food.

humbling.

We spent a lot of time shopping for them and wrapping their gifts.  We gave the parents a humongous bin of food and other groceries, and each child a couple of gifts (the requested pants and jackets and also shirts and socks).  And everyone got a stocking full of toiletries and candy, that my children helped to stuff.  

In preparation for sharing our offerings with this family, we read President Monson's story "The Christmas Train,"  and talked about giving and how when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God.  

Then on a Sunday afternoon we were able to go deliver our gifts as a family.  Our children each carried gifts inside the dilapidated trailer where the family lived.  We briefly met the Mom and her boys who spoke very little English.  And it was a very sweet experience.  On the way home we talked about how we felt as we gave to another family who was truly in need.  The kids all agreed:

It felt good.

It felt like Christmas.

SQUIRREL!

So, if you've seen the movie Up you may know what my title refers to.  More often than not, but especially at this time of year, I feel like that dog "Doug" on Up.  Somebody says "squirrel" and I completely forget what I was doing.

Here's an example of a very typical 45 minutes of my day:  Today, I came in from the garage, and passed the silent washer and dryer.  (squirrel #1) At my house, they should pretty much never be silent.  They are running almost constantly.  So their silence reminded me I needed to change the wash.  While I was changing the wash, I discovered my cell phone at the bottom of the washer.  (Squirrel #2.) Oh. That's where it was.  I've been wondering . . .  So I went to call Arthur to tell him where I found my cell phone, in case he wants to rethink getting me an iphone for Christmas.  After all I've just proven that I'm a horrible cell phone owner.  Thank goodness it's a super cheap (and old) flip phone . . .  And then while leaving a message I remember (squirrel #3) that I left groceries out in the car, so I head out to the garage, and while walking through the laundry room, I find the laundry that I didn't finish switching.  I finish switching the laundry, go out to retrieve the groceries, and sit down to write this post, and while I'm writing this post, (squirrel #4) I hear a loud crash upstairs followed by Sydney crying . . .

SQUIRREL!!!!

November Birthdays

We have two birthdays in November.  Dallin turned 11 (officially of legal age to babysit!!!!  yahoo!!!)  And Hayden turned 5.  Hayden has been waiting for his 5th birthday probably since the day after he turned 4.  It's been a long, LONG year!  So since 5 is a "party year" in our family, Hayden got to have a party where he invited friends and we do activities and stuff.  11 is not a "party" year, so that means we just celebrate with a family dinner and cake and ice cream.  Pretty low key.  Dallin did invite a friend over, but there was no games or activities, so hopefully Charles wasn't too disappointed.  :)

Poor  Dallin--I think this is the second year in a row that I've ordered him some BYU apparel and the size that came was adult instead of youth.  So he's still waiting for his replacement shirt . . .

Here he is with his ipod shuffle!  (oooh, the first piece of technology he's owned.)  He was asking for an ipod touch, but I didn't want to go there, so he said he'd be fine with a shuffle, and sure enough he loves it.  He went outside the other day with his shuffle and was raking the leaves to his tunes which are mostly comprised of Weird Al Parodies like White 'n' Nerdy, Eat It, and Party in the CIA.  I, for one, get tired of those songs after the first listen, so I'm pretty excited that he can listen to his hearts' content and I don't have to hear it!  

Happy Birthday Dallin!  We are so blessed to have you in our family.  I love your love of learning, and what a good example you are to your younger siblings.

For Hayden's Birthday, he wanted to have an awesome party theme.  We thought about it for awhile and I got on pinterest and saw about 100 ideas for boys birthdays that were completely over the top, more than I could handle.  Seriously, some of these parties were for babies, and the parents hired party planners and interior decorators and just looking at the pictures made me start to hyperventilate.  Then I thought, well, those parents were planning a birthday party for their friends, not their child, because I've never met a 2 year old who remembered his birthday party, or who would appreciate the decorations or even the food that they had at some of those parties.

So I stopped looking at those pictures online and Hayden and I came up with a "Camping" theme.  We set up a tent in the family room, played capture the flag, a bear-cave version of musical chairs, and went fishing for flashlights, whistles and magnifying glasses purchased through Oriental Trading company.  (If your child was at Hayden's party, I'd just like to apologize about those whistles.  Those things were so annoying, and when I find a forgotten whistle on the floor, I trash it as fast as I can!)

Here is his birthday cake:  He wanted a tent on it, so those graham crackers made the tent, and then I made a candy river (it was supposed to be blue, but turned green instead . . .  I guess that's more accurate anyway)  And a candy fire that looked pretty cool.  Much cooler in person, I promise.

And in the party favor bags, we put these "S'mores for later" for each of the kids to take home.  And yes, I got this idea on Pinterest, so I guess my party ideas search wasn't completely in vain.  

I thought we'd try to have the kids all roast their hotdogs for dinner, but pretty quickly scrapped that plan.  So they just ate BBQ'd hotdogs that were roasted, but not by them.  :)  

The Girls

The Boys

Poor Hayden had an unfortunate run-in with the counter-top the day before and you can see a pretty nasty goose egg in the middle of his forehead in these pictures.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, it went through all the colors:  red, purple, blue, green and yellow.  When it got to yellow Hayden informed me that that was the last color.  He was right.  :)

Opening presents in the tent.  

Hayden was so excited about his party, that it actually really stressed me out.   I didn't want him to be disappointed!  But I think he had a great time with his friends, and now he has to wait three years before his next "party" year.  By the time everyone went home, I was looking around at my trashed house and feeling really glad that I do not do parties for each of my kids every year.  

I think it would kill me.

Happy Birthday, dear Hayden.  We sure love your spunky personality and your enthusiasm for life and anticipation of the next big event!  

November Quotes

We got kind of busy this month, and I didn't keep track of their cute quotes very well.  But here are a few, mostly from Hayden . . . 

Hayden:  When I fell down, it broke all my love feelings, so now I don't love anyone anymore.

Daphne:  (day after the election)  I can't believe our country wants him to be in charge again!  

(amen, girl.)

When taking out our garden at the end of this season, Hayden and I found a couple of giant, gross tomato worms.  They were so big, the thought of stepping on them really grossed me out.  So Hayden said, "Want me to frying pan them?"

Hayden:  So Mom, whose tummy were you in?

Me:  Nona's.  She's my mom--did you know that?

Hayden:  hmm.  So how was it in Nona's tummy?

Dallin & Daphne participated in a little weekend show choir camp with the El Dorado High School Show Choir this month.  As part of the performance, a few of the girls from the Show Choir did a number from the recent musical they'd put on.  They were wearing cute little red flapper dresses, and Hayden watched with rapt attention as they performed.  When they finished, he burst into enthusiastic applause. I knew they made a big impression on him when the next morning, he said, "Remember those girls last night Mom?  They did a really good job!"

Daphne saw an Christmas Tree ad that said something like "Shop your tree!"  

She said, "We don't shop--We CHOP!"

One Sunday in primary a little boy raised his hand to announce that his mom just had a baby boy.  Hayden raised his hand and said, "Well my mom is growing a baby RIGHT NOW!"

Hayden's birthday is on November 30th.  The very LAST day of the 11th month of the year.  Everyone else in the family has birthdays before him, and he feels very unjustly served.  One day he said to me, "Mom!  Why did God make me born in NOVEMBER?!?"  And about a week before his birthday, he called me from the cell phone and left this message on our home phone:  

"Hello, this is Hayden Gariety.  I'm just wondering, WHEN is my birthday?  

I'm tired of waiting."

Christmas Trees

Friday, November 23
Annual Tree Hunt
Jemez Mountains, NM

Instead of getting pepper-sprayed at Walmart on Black Friday, we sleep in and then drive up to the mountains to get our Christmas Tree.  This year we had Melanie, Jade, Emma and Mike and Amber come out for Thanksgiving, so we had a fun group here for our Black Friday Tree Hunting tradition.

Here are pictures from our excursion this year.  We missed Julianne who stayed home with her brand-new baby, but Eric made up for it by bringing her back the most ginormous tree.  You could only see a pair of legs as he walked down the mountain with his Rockerfeller-worthy specimen.

Enjoying some lunch

Sydney hitching a ride on Aunt Emma, while we searched for our tree

Mel & Jade

Emma found a perfect little tree for her apartment

And Mike and Amber brought one home too.  

And here's ours.

Hurray for Christmas Trees!

This picture doesn't do Eric's tree justice.  You'll have to look on Julianne's blog to see how big it is. 

(hint, hint, Julianne, you might want to post a picture of your lovely tree on your blog.)

And no tree hunting excursion would be complete without bringing out the shotguns.  Eric even brought his bow.  I stayed in the car with Sydney and Caleb who would gasp each time they heard a shot and "hide" in the car and say, "ooh, scary!"  

Emma is quite the shot. She should be a super spy or something.

And Dallin getting some practice on his BB gun.

background issue solved

Okay, I ended up just starting from scratch and getting rid of my old template.  Now I don't have any background, but I like it better than that annoying background I had before.  so whatever.  I don't have time to mess with it anymore.