Christmas 2021

 This year for Christmas, I really wanted to do more fun activities to celebrate the season.  I love Halloween because there are so many fun fall activities: caramel apple making, costume making, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, parties, and it culminates with trick-or-treating where the kids run around with their friends.  The whole holiday season is fun, with very low expectations at the end.  I really enjoy the Christmas activities, but sometimes get discouraged that the actual holiday is all about getting presents.  So I wanted to spend more time doing the fun, family activities.

Each year, the kids get to have their very own Christmas treen in their room.  I think it is magical for them to fall asleep to the Christmas lights of their own tree.

                                                   

I also made the kids some fun Grinch shirts with my silhouette.

              

This year we went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving point.  Isaac's work was giving out free tickets to the employees, so we were able to take the family there.  Sophie even invited her friend, Makenzie. The lights are really cool, and there's a really nice section with statues of Christ that you can walk through.

We went to see the elves at Gardner Village with Lacey's family.

We went ice skating at the Herimann ribbon one night.

We also went downtown to the Planetarium at the Gateway.  The Salt Lake Temple is under construction, and the lights at temple square aren't what they normally are, so we decided to see a show at the Planetarium to make the trip downtown worth it.  The kids always think riding the train is fun.

                                                                   

We made gingerbread houses.  The pre-built ones from Costco are the way to go.

                                               

We also went to the Christkindlmarkt at This is the Place.  I thought this would be fun for Isaac to go to, since he served his mission in Germany.  But it was really crowded.  There are all sorts of little shed that people sell things out of, but there were so many people it was hard to get into any of them.  And I thought Isaac would really enjoy the food, but the lines were really long and the kids were whining about trying weird foods.  Plus, everything was outside, so the food got cold really quickly.  It was really cold that night and we had lots of very cold children by the time we left.  I think it could be fun to come another time, but I would probably do a few things differently.

           

We went to the Ogden Christmas Village with Isaac's family.  They seem to think that's the greatest thing ever, but I think it's just ok.

                                 

                  

         

We also went to see Santa through Travis Sorenson's work event. This is seriously the best way to see Santa because the line is always short, the kids get hot chocolate and donuts, and it's free.

We also rented a theater to invite a bunch of our neighbors and friends to come watch Elf.  We had a great turn out and it was a ton of fun.  I never liked that movie much until watching it on the big screen again, and now I think it's a must every Christmas.

Isaac made his annual German dinner and we invited the Frandsen's over.  And for Christmas Eve dinner, I made a fancy steak dinner.  Then we read our new Christmas book and the story of Christ's birth. 

               

               

   

On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened presents as a family.  Isaac gave me some new pots and pans.  I gave him a new mountain bike.  Sophie got some books and a trail camera for the cabin.  Aspen got a Gabb watch.  Luke got a Harry Potter train.  And Hazel got a kitchen and strider bike.

Then we went to Grandma Sugar's house for presents and lunch (and pickles and egg nog).  And then finished off the day in Ogden with Isaac's family.  Christmas is always busy, but a good day seeing how excited the kids are for everything.

Halloween 2021

 For Halloween this year, we mostly re-used out costumes from 2020 since we were quarantined from Covid and couldn't wear them to school, trick or treating, or have a family party.  Hazel grew too much to fit into her black cat costume, so she wore a witch costume, and I changed to the mummy.

Isaac was a vampire with his red contacts.  Sophie was a ghost.  I really like this costume.  I found the perfect fabric for it at Walmart in the cheap fabric section.  Aspen was a spider.  Luke was a werewolf.  His costume was a little small, but we stuffed him in there anyway. 

The night of Halloween we went trick-or treating.  Hazel loved it!

We also went to Frightmares at Lagoon this Halloween season.  It was actually a lot of fun, and nice to be there when it isn't super hot.

We carved pumpkins.  It has been so great to have the shop in the basement for things like this.  It makes it so nice to not have to worry about making a giant mess everywhere.

I held my annual family Halloween party.  Lacey and Justin were people from Stranger Things.  James was a pirate, Avery a black cat.  I don't remember what Erica was supposed to be, and Charlie was a pumpkin.  Jamie and Steve were the people from Jurassic Park, and Milo was a dinosaur.

Gabe and Hannah were the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown since Hannah will be having her baby shortly.  My parents were Mary Poppins and Burt.

Kevin was an underwater guy.  Barry and Karla were Cruella DaVille and one Borris.

And Luke was just being a silly little dude.

Attempt to Catch Up

 As you can see, I have not kept up with my blog for many years.  A few years ago, our external hard drive, where I stored all our photos, crashed.  Fortunately, we had everything backed up on a cloud.  But we then began the process of evaluating other photo storage options, and all our photos were no longer organized very effectively.  So after thousands of photos needing to be categorized, a lot of time has gone by.  I had intentions of catching back up many times, but was so far behind that it was very intimidating.  But now that Hazel has started kindergarten, I hope to have a little more uninterrupted time on my hands to write and continue sorting through pictures.  So here we go....

Tumblers

 My friend, Heather, started making tumbler cups a while ago.  She gave me a cool Harry Potter one for my birthday once.  I used that cup every day for years, and when I would look at it, I would think that I should start making them.  So one day, I decided I was bored and needed a new hobby.  So I watched a few YouTube videos about making tumblers, ordered all the stuff, and gave it a go.  I started making them around Thanksgiving 2021.  Over the next year, I made one for most of my friend's birthdays.  I really enjoy making them and it is a good hobby as a mom because I can get one started in about 30 minutes and then have to wait 8+ hours before the next step.  But each hands-on step only takes about 30 minutes, so I can squeeze it in to my schedule.  But now I have given them to almost everyone I know, so it might be time to come up with a new hobby.  Here are some of the ones I've made.