Christmas

 After Thanksgiving there was a huge spike in covid cases from large family gatherings.  So people were really warned to be careful around Christmas.  Our families spent a lot of time trying to decide whether or not to meet together for Christmas.  Since we didn't know if we would have any family parties, we tried to find lots of other fun things to do this Christmas season.

 

One day I made gnomes with the kids.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  So we decided to make some for the Grandmas for Christmas.

We also made gingerbread houses.  Buying the kits is definitely the way to go.  I got each kid a different on and bought some extra candy they could add.  Sophie and Aspen are getting big enough to decorate by themselves.  I think they all turned out super cute.  And Hazel terrorized the house while we made the houses.

Additionally, Gary and his family were coming into town on their way back from Japan to Florida.  We really wanted to do some activities with them while they were here.  One evening we rented a movie theater and watched "Elf".  Isaac was annoyed when we picked that movie because he has never like it much, but for some reason on the big screen it was much better.  And renting theaters is great for tiny toddlers who don't like to sit still through a movie.  It was nice to be able to let Haze run around and not worry about her disturbing a bunch of people.

Another day we went to Gardner Village to see the elves.  It was cold, but fun to walk around a see them.  Most of the Christmas light places were closed due to covid, so this was as close as it would get to seeing the lights at Temple Square.  

After Gardner Village everyone came to our house for dinner.  We were worried about my mom being around so many people without masks, so I set up a special table for them in the living room so they could eat behind closed doors.  We had ham, funeral potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, and other yummy food. 

Then after dinner we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I think it would be fun to do this with really silly gifts, but worried the kids would be sad if they didn't get something good, so we had slightly better gifts.  

Hazel loved trying to pull the ornaments off the tree.

Once again our elf came for the 12 days of Christmas.  One day the kids got some silly glasses.

I tried to take some family Christmas pictures.  This is always a disaster.  If they would just sit still and smile, we could be done in 5 minutes.  But they have to throw fits and cry and complain so it takes forever.  And after a million crappy pictures, these are the best I got.

Then on Christmas morning we woke up and opened gifts as a family.  This is always my favorite part.  I love seeing the kids excitement as they open their gifts.  I was trying to cut back on the number of gifts the kids got again, so I assigned each kid a topic to give their siblings.  Sophie gave everyone a book.  Aspen gave everyone a game.  Luke gave everyone a movie.  And Hazel gave everyone the topic they gave other people.  I think it worked out really well.

Luke got a new (and much needed) bike and some goo-jitsu guys.  He saw some in an ad months before Christmas and remembered it for a long time.  He also wrote Santa a very extensive Christmas list.  Once again the kids dropped their letters to Santa in our neighborhood mailbox and received the most amazing letters in return.  

Aspen got a violin.  She kept saying that's the gift she wanted more than anything else.  So I signed her up to start lessons in January.

Sophie and Aspen also got their own kindles.  Sophie reads soooo many books that this is the perfect book for her so she can just find books and check them out right from home.

Hazel wasn't very interested in opening presens. She got a cute little teddy bear that she carried around for a while.  Isaac made her a cute table and chairs.  And she was most excited about the whole apple she got to wander around eating.

Isaac and I also gave each kid a tiny present that was a clue to our family gift.  They opened it and found out that we were going on a family vacation to Florida in April.  We were going to go to Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Universal Studios.  I can't wait.

After our family gifts and breakfast, we went over to the Gardiner's for more presents and lunch.  We wore our masks most of the time until we ate.  It was the first time we had been inside Grandma and Grandpa's house for a really long time.  I think they were very overwhelmed with the amount of noise and chaos we bring, especially because they hadn't experienced it for so long.

After that we drove up to Ogden.  Barry and Karla were uncomfortable having the whole family at their house, so they assigned each of us a time so we could meet without breaking the 10 person rule the government recommended.  So as soon as we got there we went to play frisbee golf with Lacey and Hannah at Weber State.  It was freezing, but the kids had fun playing for a while.  I basically followed Hazel around the whole time.  

They we opened gifts.  Karla made the girls some little dolls.  They still weren't comfortable with people removing their masks for meals, so we left and went to Lacey's house for a yummy soup dinner.  

It was a different kind of Christmas, but we still had fun and made the most out of it.