Melting snow

Yesterday was so warm and lovely and my children so ridiculously full of energy that we took a little walk before dinner. The kids enjoyed climbing the "snow cliffs" left behind by snow shovels:

A white Christmas!

Getting snow on Christmas Eve was a bit of a surprise. If I hadn't noticed it out the window while singing to Zoë we would have woken up to a white Christmas the next day and it would have been a complete surprise. 

For whatever reason we've had a rather dry winter so far and for almost an entire week before Christmas our forecast has been "heavy snow," right up until it's supposed to start snowing and then the forecast would read "clear." So it never snowed.

There was no snow in the forecast for Christmas Eve and yet, here we are, hugging snowmen...

Boxing Day Wizardry

The South Towne Mall is hosting an official Harry Potter pop-up store through the holidays. My sister Kelli had been working at a booth in the mall right in front of the display and told us that we just had to get down there. Unfortunately, the kids had school right to the bitter end, so we didn't make it to the mall until, well, yesterday. 

It was certainly cool to see the store windows of Hogsmeade. 

Junk food

My brothers both brought me junk food for Christmas, like good brothers should.

Patrick gave me some new Hershey's Gold bars (they're a caramel-creme base with peanuts and pretzels mixed in and they're delicious). When Patrick was explaining them to me I thought they were a chocolate bar with caramel, peanuts, and pretzels mixed in, but there's no chocolate in them at all. Thus the reason he gave me a few to try.

So I opened one and had some and then asked Andrew if he wanted to try some, and he did.

I broke off a square and put it in his mouth, folks.

Inside. His. Mouth.

He happened to be holding Zoë at the time, however, and before he could close his mouth her little hand shot up, snatched the candy and put it in her mouth.

I have never seen her move so quickly! Lightning fingers!

Andrew and I were dying of laughter, while Zoë acted like I had definitely meant to put the chocolate in her mouth in the first place.

"Mmmm! That's good!" she said. "Want more!"

Silly girl.

Talking to Auntie Josie

While my mom was burping him, Auntie Josie and Alexander had the sweetest little chat together on Christmas (Zoë only got between them a few times (and you can see Uncle David explaining a game to Rachel in the background)).

 

On Christmas Day in the Morning

Andrew's family always set up a sheet to hide Christmas morning from prying eyes, so we've done that as well. The girls were all up before us in the morning, just sitting in the dark in the living room (I don't know why they didn't just turn on a light). Eventually Alexander woke me up and while I was nursing him I heard Zoë yelling about something, so I poked Andrew awake and had him check on her. 

Then woke up Benjamin and made the kids clean up a bit before we let them go downstairs. We did a big Christmas train around the living room and then let Zoë lead the way to the Christmas tree.

...On the Feast of Stephen

I haven't quite gone through Christmas pictures yet, but I have already gone through Boxing Day photos (at least some of them and I'm planning on taking more, so perhaps I'm not as on top of things as I think I am today). We took the kids up to Salt Lake today to see a mall display (more on that later) and while we were up there we decided we'd better drop by to visit Grandpa Frank.

We tried calling before we dropped by but he didn't answer the phone, so we just sort of showed up unannounced. He graciously invited us inside and took the kids over to his Christmas train. He said he hasn't set up a tree since Grandma Sharon passed away. She was always the one to decorate the tree; he always set up his Christmas train around it. So now there's only the train, but at least it's something special and festive.

The kids were mesmerized, of course.

It's Christmas Eve...

I really rather like it when Christmas/Eve falls on a Sunday. Perhaps one day I will join in my family's newish tradition of attending midnight mass, but that will have to wait until I no longer have a bunch of wee ones at home because, let me tell you, Benjamin cannot do anticipation. The safest place for him was tucked into bed for the night. He was so off the wall the entire day.

But, we got to go to church, so that was nice, if you enjoy taking totally hyped up five-year-olds to church, which, uh...ahem. I actually got to miss most of his antics because I sang with the choir and we sat up on the stand the entire time. I enlisted my sister Josie to come sit with my kids because I assumed Andrew would be out in the hallway with an incredibly grumpy two-year-old for the bulk of sacrament meeting (because that's where those two usually are).

I took Alexander up on the stand with me, to eliminate him from the mix. I'm sure he was much happier sleeping soundly in my arms than he would have been sitting with his siblings, being poked, prodded, and pulled upon the entire hour.

Zoë sang Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer at the top of her lungs during the sacrament hymn, so that was great. And I know Andrew took her out at least once before I went up on the stand, but from what I could see the kids were actually pretty good. Perhaps it was having Auntie Josie there (she downloaded a colouring app on her phone), perhaps it was the novelty of the Book of Mormon quiet book Grandma gave the kids for Christmas, perhaps it was simply a Christmas Eve miracle.

It was actually rather special to get to hold my sweet little boy, wrapped in swaddling clothes, while singing about a different babe wrapped in swaddling clothes so many years before.

Auntie Josie took a few pictures of our family after church. I think this was the best one:

Christmas poems by Miriam

First, an acrostic poem that she made at school as a Christmas present for us. She actually made Christmas present for everyone and left them anonymously under the tree (every gift said, "To so-and-so, from anonymous"), but we all knew who the giver was.

A visit with Santa and chocolate tales

We meant to take the children to the Riverwoods yesterday so they could see Santa, but that ended up not working because we didn't end up finishing with dinner until 8:00 (which is when Santa turns in for the night). Some nights are like that. We made it out there, today, however, which was good because it was the last day to visit with Santa. It was also, perhaps, less than good because I think Santa was tired of seeing little kids after all of November and twenty-three days of December (he was not incredibly jolly) 

You'd think we could have managed to squeeze in a visit before the very last day, but no. We waited until the bitter end. Andrew insists he works better under pressure, so.

Anyway, here's Andrew with the four oldest kids at the entrance (or at least one of the entrances):