Ringing in the New Year

The day of New Year's Eve started with the kids helping me fill a lot of balloons with treats and toys.  While Timmy napped, Brian helped put them all on the undecorated Christmas tree.  I snapped a picture of Brian in front of it and then Timmy came out from his nap in his room.  I asked him to come get in a picture with Brian, and he came obligingly.  Then I pointed the camera at the boys and said, "Say cheese!" and Timmy just burst into sobs.  He was definitely still waking up or something.  The rest of the night for him was joyous and exciting, even though this picture depicts otherwise.

We had all of Mark's family to our house for lot of pizza, fruit, breadsticks, and goodies followed by a countdown that ended in silly string and balloon popping for the kids.

Even though it didn't help the air quality, we could not resist doing some fireworks this year.  We had a ton left over from July and setting off fireworks in the winter when it gets dark before 6:00 p.m. rather than 9:30 p.m. is so much better for our family.

 The kids (and most of the adults) loved watching them.  Even Brian was brave enough to stay outside for the loud ones and after some major coxing held a few of his own sparklers.

It was a fun party for us.  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.  I like starting a new year.  It always comes with a renewed effort on my part to accomplish new things.  I find that if I make too many New Year's resolutions, I get overwhelmed and none of them ever happen.  So my one new goal this year is to do Scripture or Scripture Story reading with the boys every day.  We have started doing it in the mornings when we wake up.  So far, so good.  We have been reading the Book of Mormon Stories on my phone, which also has the verses from the Book of Mormon right in the stories and I can just click on a few verses each day to read with the stories so they can get used to the Book of Mormon language.  I hope we can keep it up!  Welcome 2014!

Christmas Afternoon and Evening

After restful naps at home, we went to Mark's parent's house for dinner and family fun on Christmas afternoon.  Nai Nai and Ye Ye gave the boys some presents, which included little Lego sets to put together.  They love them so much!

Brian's set can be made into three different things and he is so good at following the instructions and putting it all together by himself.  It is currently a helicopter that goes everywhere with him.

 We had a yummy dinner that included fruit, snacks, goodies, Chinese food and. . .

. . .one of these beauties for each adult present.  It was such a special Christmas dinner.  I have come to really love crab. Even though I love it, a whole one ends up being too much food for me, so Mark and his dad always have a friendly competition going to see who gets my leftovers.

The Hsiao cousins always have a blast playing together and Christmas afternoon was no exception.  We got pictures of all of them, which then turned into general silliness and laughing by the end.  Here are the Hsiao boys.

It was so fun to be with all of Mark's family, especially those you are from out of town.  The night was a great end to a fabulous Christmas day!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning this year was pure magic!  There was something about it this time that really was special.  I don't know if it is the age of the children or just how it all went, but it was perfect.  Brian and Timmy got up at their usual 7:00 a.m. and we had them wait while Mark got a cozy fire going and we had some music playing before they came in to see their presents.  It was heaven for me just to sit there and see it all happen. They got Twilight Turtles for their beds and real sturdy shovels for the yard from Santa.

 Mark gave us all a set of nurf guns, which will be used all the time in this house.  We also got them a marble run set.

Timmy got a little set of shovels and Brian got piano lessons from us.  Brian starts his piano lessons next week.  He is excited and nervous.  We all gave each other small gifts like markers, marbles, and a shirt for Mark.  My big Christmas present was my road bike mentioned in an earlier post.

Mark wins husband/dad of the year in my book, because while I helped the boys set up the marble run, he made us all a delicious breakfast of sausage, eggs, and french toast dips.  Thanks Mark for doing breakfast!

We spent the rest of the morning in our pajamas, relaxing, playing with the presents and enjoying each other's company.  It could not have been a better Christmas morning!

Christmas Eve

For my entire life my favorite tradition for any holiday has been the nativity re-enactment with my family on Christmas Eve.  I think this has been going on since before I was born.  I know there are pictures of me when I was very small dressed as an angel in the barn in our home in Bountiful, and when my parent's moved to Oakley the tradition moved with them up to the barn at the Cannon Ranch.  Over the years the Christmas Eve party has evolved and changed to accommodate the current age of participants etc.  No matter what we do for dinner or party activities, the magic of dressing up as parts from the nativity and heading down to the barn has never lost its appeal for me.  Now the tradition is even more wonderful, because I get to share it with Brian and Timmy.  It will forever be one of my favorite evenings of the entire year.

The evening started with a delicious dinner that has taken on a Mexican flare ever since my parent's mission in Mexico.  The star was the Mexican meat Mark barbecued for us.

After dinner it was time for the nativity.  Brian and Timmy were shepherds this year for the outside part and then Brian changed to a wise man later up at the house.

Back up at the house, King Herod (Uncle Richard) was as fantastic as ever.  My favorite part this year was the singing.  All of my family sings so well and having Uncle Richard (a former member of the Tabernacle Choir) and Aunt Ann (who has an amazing soprano voice) made singing all the songs such a joy!

The wise men did a great job with their parts as well.

After the nativity it was pinata time.

My memories with my cousins on Christmas Eve are precious to me, and I hope they will be for Brian and Timmy as well.

Some December Happenings

Christmas Season Joys

Our beautiful fake Christmas tree my mom gave us from Mexico has finally bit the dust.  The lights are unfix-able, so we decided it would be a good year to experience a real Christmas tree with the kids before we buy another fake one.  We had fun picking out a nice tree at the tree lot, even though it was so cold that evening. The smell of walking through a Christmas tree lot is one of my favorite things in the world. 

  The kids really enjoyed decorating it and I just let them do the whole thing, then that I night I spaced out the decorations more evenly.

One of our favorite December activities was a new one this year.  I made a little advent calendar out of a muffin tin with little treats inside and a paper that had scriptures, questions and songs to sing each day.  Then the boys would place a nativity piece onto our new magnet nativity board.  They were so happy each morning first thing to open the daily advent.  They even listened intently as I read the scriptures so they could answer the questions I had for them.  I loved it.  It helped us start out each morning on a great note and they learned the story of Christ's birth right from the scriptures.  I am hoping this was the little push I needed to get us moving on morning devotionals for the rest of the year, not just during December!  The devotional/nativity advent wil definitely be a tradition every year.

Brian decorated a candy house at school and a gingerbread man at a friend's party.

The boys also continued painting the nativity we started last year.  We still didn't finish all the pieces, but we will be happy to do it again next year!

Sickness and Injury

December was a wonderful month with lots of joy and Christmas spirit.  However, we did have some moments of difficulty.  The last week of school before winter break, both boys came down with a stomach bug.  They both threw up a lot and they both missed their school programs and parties.  Right after the stomach thing went away they got really bad colds/coughs that turned into sinus infections.  Or maybe it was all the same virus, I don't know.  We're still trying to recover.  

I did find it interesting to observe how each child deals with sickness so differently.  Brian wants/needs lots and lots of attention when he is sick.  We wants me to make him comfortable on the couch and ask him all the time if he needs something.  He wants me to sit by him and comfort him always.  Timmy doesn't want me to touch him.  He wants to have a cup of ice water with him at all times along with a throw up bowl, and he does not like me to tuck him in and make him comfortable.  Instead, he likes to wander around the house and lounge around on the floor of all places.  I try to get him to rest on the couch or the bed, but it never works.  He always ends up doing something like this.

I felt so bad for both boys. I don't enjoy seeing my kids sick.  I'm glad it wasn't any more serious than it was though. 

I escaped from any physical difficulty this month.  Mark did not.  He got a milder form of the boys' sickness and he injured his shoulder.  He was so nice to go to ward choir practice one Sunday morning to give the men's section some much needed help for the Christmas program.  The practice was just up the street, so he took his newly built single speed commuter bike that he has been working on. (This is often my view in the living room.  We need a room just for bike projects.)

Anyway, on his way home from choir, he went down on some ice. He doesn't even know what happened, he said one second he was riding home and the next he was hitting the ground hard without any anticipation of a fall.  He separated his shoulder and got some massive bruises on his hip.  The shoulder is recovering slowly.  He can't wait to be back to his old self again.  He's had to miss out on sports and biking through December.

For now, everyone is recovering just in time for school and work to start for the new year.  Being sick and injured always makes us grateful for our bodies and general good health, because life is so much harder when our bodies aren't working properly.