Christmas in Georgia

December 23rd-30th
Bonaire, GA

We spent Christmas this year in Bonaire, GA with my sister Jen and her family.  My parents, Melanie, Reed, and Nathan all came too.  It was a solid two day drive for us each way, and I was amazed at how well the kids traveled.  Bennett was an angel each day until the last 30 minutes when he'd just had enough, but 30 minutes out of 11 hours isn't bad when you are 10 months old and strapped in a rear facing carseat!

Hangin' out at the hotel in Arkansas

We had so much fun at Aunt Jen's house.  We decorated sugar cookies, played games, rode bikes, went caroling, saw Frozen at the theater, and the youngest boys had a rousing game of tackle football. 

snuggling with Grandpa

Christmas Eve

Nativity Reinactment

My mother made these costumes for the grandkids and I am in love with them.  

Hence, a lot of pictures.

A diva angel

a couple of wise men--astounded by the appearance of the star in the East

Making forts for watching Santa in the morning!

my brothers.  love them.

Christmas Morning

For Christmas this year, Santa brought the kids something special.   Instead of new toys, he brought them Chocolate Frogs and Every Flavor Beans with a letter explaining that his gift this year was a trip to Harry Potter Land during spring break!  Our kids have been longing to go there since it opened!   And they are so excited to go with their Georgia cousins!!

 

Sydney got her Frozen dolls.  Dallin had her name for Christmas and got her Anna and Cristoff.  Arthur and I got her Elsa.  And she plays with them all every day!

Bennett's first Christmas.

Christmas Feast

(I stole some pictures from your blog, Jen!)

Going . . .

going . . .

gone.  

The holidays can really wear you out.

Sean got an origami book for Christmas.  Turns out it was REALLY hard origami and unfortunately he wasn't super excited about figuring it out.  

But Aunt Mel was!

Origami!

Later in the week, we took an excursion to Lane's Orchard (or something like that) where we played at a fun park, climbed on tractors, and enjoyed delicious peach ice cream and cobbler! 

 

And one of my favorite things about our trip was a girl's trip to the Antique Mall with Mom and Jen.  We wandered around for a couple of hours just looking and laughing and loving being together.  We saw a booth that had a bunch of old hand cuffs, balls and chains, and locks and keys from famous old prisons.  This one had a tag that it was used in Alcatraz on death row.  Arthur thinks it's not real.  But I choose to believe.  I couldn't think of anywhere to use it in my home decor, and since it was pretty morbid, I settled for a picture.  However, I ended up bringing home an old iron (aka "a rusty hunk of junk" according to Dallin,) for $12 and an old window for just $10.  Arthur balked when I said we were bringing it home, but he fit it in the car beautifully and it now sits on my fireplace mantle.  I put my iron on a shelf in my laundry room.  And I think of Jen in Georgia whenever I look at my antique mall treasures!

We had such a fun time being with lots of family out at Jen's place.  It was sad to leave at the end of the week, but I'm so glad we have a fun adventure to look forward to in April together!

December

Trying to catch up . . .
Here's December in a nutshell:

Do you wanna Build a Snowman?

It's important to make a snowman if it snows during the night.  You might be late for school, but the snowman is important, because if you live in Albuquerque, the snow will probably be melted by the time you get home, and there's just no sayin' when the next snow will be.  

And since you're already late for school, you may as well take a minute to thaw out and enjoy some hot cocoa with toast.

Carols & Cocoa

Something new I tried this year that ended up being super fun.  I almost didn't plan it because Arthur was out of town the only available Monday night, but then I just went for it after all.  I invited a few families to come over for family home evening and sing Christmas carols.  The kids wore pajamas, and we sang group carols, and listened to some of the kids play the piano or other instruments. And some of the families had special carols to share with the group as well.  It also happened to be Jared Staten's 17th birthday, so we sang him a few birthday songs.  After the caroling we enjoyed a hot chocolate bar with plenty of add-ins to choose from.  Definitely a tradition I will keep.

Dallin, Daphne and I playing "The First Noel" as a trio

hot chocolate bar!

River of Lights

We've lived in ABQ for 10 years and this was our first time going to River of Lights.  And that's because Dallin's show choir was caroling there, and I was driving.  I left Bennett with the Murray's when I picked up their son (also in show choir) but took my other four to walk around with me while Dallin caroled.  

River of Lights is at the Botanical Gardens--during the holidays they have thousands of light sculptures and you just walk through the gardens enjoying live music and twinkling lights.  It was beautiful!  I've heard horror stories about the hoards of people there, but the particular night we went was a week night so it wasn't overly crowded (which I think would have killed the experience for me, so I was glad for the weeknight excursion!)

We stopped to listen to Five Star's performance, which was great, but I couldn't see Dallin.  This is the best shot I could get of him.  He's behind the little blondie on the right.

Another highlight of December was that Dallin was ordained a deacon and passed the sacrament for the first time.  Obviously no pictures of that.  It's pretty cool to see him at church fulfilling his Priesthood duty.

We hosted a neighborhood get-together, which was sparsely attended, but I'm glad we did it anyway.  It's good to reach out to your neighbors even if they aren't overly interested in reaching back.  You never know when someday they might need a hand and they'll be glad yours was extended.

Of course there's always the gift wrapping, trips to the post office, planning and preparing gifts, baking, writing and sending out christmas letters.  Arthur and I were kind of playing Christmas-newsletter-chicken, waiting for the other person to step up and take it on.  But when Arthur pointed out that he wrote it last year, I reluctantly accepted my turn.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

One Sunday afternoon I read this to the kids.  I remember my mom reading this to me, so I ordered a copy on Amazon and read it to them in one sitting while they lay on the floor snuggled in blankets.  They loved it!  Just like I did when I was a kid.  "Hey!  Unto you a child is born!"

Ward Christmas Party/Visit with Santa

Sean asked for an iPod touch, Hayden asked for an iPad mini, and Sydney asked for a Frozen doll.  Santa laughed at Sean and Hayden and gave each of the children a candy cane.  Sydney walked over to me dejectedly and cried, "Santa not give me a Frozen doll!!!"  She'd been anticipating all December long her talk with Santa and thought he'd be giving it to her right then.  After all, I kept saying, "why don't you ask Santa to bring you a Frozen doll for Christmas?"  Poor little thing.  After all, she wasn't asking for an iPad mini!  Not to worry, though, she wasn't disappointed on Christmas Day.

Violining at a Rest Home

Dallin and Daphne's violin teacher set up a little Christmas performance at a rest home here in town.  They played several Christmas carols, and while they played, Bennett and I made friends with a lovely little lady named Louise.  She was so sweet, and LOVED Bennett.  She wanted to hold him and he played with her wheelchair and the zipper on her sweater and her boney hands until he could be contained no longer and had to be put down.  It was very fun to talk to her, and I keep meaning to take the kids back to visit her again.  The performance was also very nice.  The kids played well and looked wonderful in their Sunday best.

Those were our December highlights.  I'll have another post coming soon about Christmas in Georgia.

A Child is Born

December 6 & 7, 2013
(I'm writing in January, but trying to date these catch-up posts close to when they actually happened.)

We began the month of December with our Stake's annual "A Child is Born" event.  My part in this event is the concert.  This year we did selections from "Messiah."  I prepared the choir, and handed over the conducting of the actual concert to Brother Jim Thompson, who asked me to sing a couple of the soprano solos, which I was happy to do.  (Since I've been the Stake Choir director for 8 years, I don't get to actually sing in these concerts very often.)  I began to prepare my solos in September, but couldn't practice very much because I was experiencing severe allergies that left my voice hoarse.  In October, my voice was still having trouble, and finally in November I went to see an ENT.  After scoping me they determined that there weren't any nodules, but my vocal chords were swollen--I got on some medication to reduce the swelling and the nasal drainage in the back of my throat.

I also got a priesthood blessing from Arthur.  In the blessing, he said that my voice would be fine to sing the solos and I would be pleased with my performance.  I was assured by that blessing because I think we are all our worst critic, and if I could be pleased with my performance, it would be pretty good.  I grew nervous, however, as the weeks went by with little improvement to my vocal quality, and therefore not very much practicing.

When the day of the performance arrived, I was in tears because my voice still wasn't where I'd wish it to be.  But I tried to have faith in my priesthood blessing and just prayed and prayed.  And that night when it came time for me to sing, my voice was clear and agile and I was pleased with my performance.  The second night, I was nervous because I thought my performance might be a little  disappointing in comparison with the first performance.  But the second night was even better!  And several of the choir members told me they thought so too!  I couldn't believe it.

So here's my witness that prayer works and the Priesthood power is real.  Heavenly Father gave me a voice to sing praise to His Son those two nights when I hadn't had a voice for months.  I have continued to have problems with my voice being hoarse for the rest of December and into January with sicknesses and allergies and who knows what else.  But for those two nights, he gave me an angel's voice.  And I am grateful.

Me (and Bennett) before Friday night's performance.

November Quotes

Sydney: (quoting Tangled) "Ahhh, the Snuck-ehling Duck-ehling."

Sydney:  Mom, can we go to Chick-Fil-A?  

(Sydney asks me this question every time I pick her up from preschool.  This is an extremely dangerous question, because I am particularly susceptible to the Chick-Fil-A temptation.  And especially if it's just Sydney and me to pay for  . . .)

At Hayden's parent/teacher conference, Miss Phillips told me a cute story about Hayden.  She said the new school counselor is legally blind and came to talk the class one day.  The children were asking her questions.  One asked her if she could go to a doctor to get her eyes fixed.  She told them her eyes couldn't be fixed by a doctor.  Then Hayden raised his hand and said, "Don't worry.  When you get resurrected, your eyes will see perfect."

Sean:  Can I have screen time?

Me:  Have you read your scriptures yet?

Sean:  Yes, I read them. 

Me:  What did you read about today? 

Sean:  Oh, just some battles and whatnot.  The Lamanites are having a big battle.  Kinda reminds me about Star Wars.  How the Empire decided to strike first instead of waiting for the other guys to attack.

(Hey, whatever it takes to stay engaged, right?)

Sydney:  Can the Carter's come to our house tonight?

Me:  No, they are coming to watch you tomorrow.

Sydney:  When we go home, we will sleep and sleep and sleep and then tomorrow, the Carter's will come visit!  I like the Carters because they are just so happy.

Hayden's response to the Bishop's question during tithing settlement:   Heavenly Father opens up the windows in heaven and pours out a bunch of blessings on us.  

(that boy has been paying attention in primary!)

During a scary part in a Harry Potter movie,  Sydney said while covering her face, "Hurry, everybody--don't look!"

Hayden:  I totally don't have the priesthood yet!

Hayden is really excited about Dallin's recent ordination to the priesthood.  He has been going around telling anyone who will listen, "Hey, Dallin is in the priesthood now.  Dallin is in the Aaronic priesthood."

At Stake Conference, Sean ran into our former Bishop in the bathroom.  Bishop told him he was looking' good in his suit and he'd better be careful because all the girls would start chasing him.  Sean gave him a terrified look, while Hayden piped up from the stall, "That thoundth good!"  

Later during the meeting, Hayden whispered to me, "Mom, can I have a thuit?  They thell thuitth for little guyth.  I thaw a tiny little guy in a thuit right over there."  (It wasn't until after the meeting that I found out the motivation behind Hayden's sudden interest in wearing a suit.)