Christmas Day





















I am always grateful when the kids sleep in Christmas morning. Phillip woke up the kids around 6:30 with delighted whoops that echoed up through the vents. Soon our bedroom was a hive of stocking gifts being opened. I also put Grandma Baerwaldt's gift bags near the kid's doors as extra entertainment. We enjoyed stocking time, especially the yummy candy. Evelyn was delighted with the Elsa nail stickers and lip gloss.

I used toy boxes and a blanket to barricade the living-room from prying eyes. We lined up the kids and let them run to see what Santa left. The kids noticed Santa left footprints this year. He ate the cookies and even made a smiley face out of broccoli scraps. We listened to Amelia read Santa's letter before opening any gifts. Then the race began. Evelyn crooned over her new pink playhouse. She was in love. Santa brought her an Ariel hair styling set. She had some grumpy faces as she tried to pry the toys out of it's packaging.  Santa got each child a new watch! Phillip loves his ice dino and ninja watch. Everett got his Power Ranger Zword, was quite disappointed the remote was not functioning. I returned it to Santa and got a new one two days later...the new toy also has a broken remote. Poor kid! Amelia loves her Magic Sketch. We let the kids open gifts until the tree skirt was empty. Justin cooked up sausage and toasted pop tarts for breakfast. Evelyn set up a tea party for the kids with orange juice and breakfast food.

We rushed to get everyone dressed and ready for church at 10 am. We made it with time to spare, odd for me. After sitting in our pew I noticed Everett was wearing pants two sizes too small, so small I could not button or zip them at all. So he wore his pants freestyle. Evelyn had applied blue/purple eye shadow toddler style on her eyes. She looked like we beat her up! Thus attired and decorated our family entertained the audience.  Justin wrote the following account: "Our family was asked to sing "The Nativity" from pg. 52 of children's song book for Sacrament Meeting today. We nailed the first verse. During the second verse we put our stamp on it. Evelyn was finally able to reach the microphone and growl into it. While pulling her away and prying her hand off the mic, Jenni inadvertently induced some feedback into mic setting off that horrible squeal. During the third verse, Everett seeing the smiles from the congregation and small giggles decided it was his turn. He randomly leaned over into the microphone and blurted "blaaah" into the mic. He looked like he was going to back for a second round so I grabbed him by the neck and straightened him up until he started to whine. Here are some wardrobe notes. We didn't notice Everett's pants were too small until we were already at church. So he went up to sing with his pants unbuttoned and unzipped. Evelyn got play makeup for Christmas (not my idea). She painted her face before church with green and blue eye shadow so she looked a lady of the night who had possibly been punched in the eye." The rest of the program was very inspiring and lovely. Our choir sang several songs. We heard a talk and the testimony of our Bishop. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than going to church. It made this Christmas so special. Once at home we changed back into PJs. For lunch Justin and I introduced the kids to Swiss fondue. It was not well-received. Gross! Bleck! Ewwww! At least they enjoyed the finger foods plain or with Ranch dressing (gross) or Blue Cheese. We had steak, shrimp, bread, apples, carrots, broccoli, and olives to dip in cheese. The rest of the day the kids went from new present to present playing with and discovering the items. We played Yeti in my Spaghetti several times. I busted out my new ring light, made the kids pose for me. Phillip absolutely loves the millennial Falcon RC Grandpa Call got him. We played several rounds of PieFace. Everett kept getting the lucky number and whipped cream in his face. He got creamed 5 or 6 times, the other kids got creamed once maybe twice. The bopping balls were a huge hit. The animal hooded blankets so fun. Amelia scored with lots of unicorns: shirt, blanket, outfit, pillow, and books.

Right after church and fondue I took a short "nap." All the kids visited me to see how I was napping. Then the predicted ice storm swooped in with a vengeance. A crack of thunder, lightening, wind, and sleet pounded the north windows. It was quite the freak storm. Quite a bit of snow came down but the wind was so fierce it drifted all the snow or pushed it out of town. We were quite disappointed the snow did not cover the sledding hill this time around.

Justin roasted a delicious Prime Rib for dinner, rubbed with garlic, salt, and rosemary. I made mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and salad for side dishes. We basked in the chaos of post Christmas apocalypse with boxes, paper, toys, and stuff lurking on every surface possible. The basking is still present. Maybe I will get it all cleaned up before school goes back...realistically, not! Maybe after school resumes. I did attack the laundry 4 days later than usual. The normally impressive piles were super impressive this cycle.

We also dealt with lots of post-Christmas meltdowns. Emotions were high as kids guarded their special items, shared at times, played well, then ended playing with fights. Ya know, no rosey glasses here. It was pretty normal! Always crazy.

Josie busted out her first tooth Christmas night. I was up with her 3 times this week as she was restless. Poor baby was awake from 2-5 am several times this past week. She was up again last night so the next tooth must be cutting as well. Yay! She has a tooth.

Evelyn reminded me of Old Madam Mim this week. Her hair was so ratty and tangled, her face a crusty collection of grossness. At one point she had all her hair in her face, she parted her hair exactly like Madam Mim...said BOO with her crusty cheeks spread in a smile. Seriously. I am still laughing.


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