Holidays 2012

Thanksgiving 2012 was spent with Paul's side of the family this year.  We had a delicious dinner and great visiting at Aunt Carmen's house.  This nice little set-up was right by the big people table so I was actually able to sit with the adults this year instead of in the kitchen catering to my childrens' needs.  Thanks Aunt Carmen!

A week after Thanksgiving we set out to get a big Christmas tree.  We were thinking maybe 13 feet but we ended up with an 18 footer!  The lady at the tree farm said we took the prize, its the biggest tree ever taken from their farm.  We had a heck of a time carrying it up the hill to the car.  We had plenty of people on the road point to our car and laugh at the huge tree on the top.  I guess we do look a bit like the Griswolds!  It was a chore getting the tree in the house.  We had to take a section of the front porch railing down so we could shove it straight through the front door and into the living room.  Once there, Paul got under the tree and I used a 2x4 to help push it up to standing.  It was big!  Bigger than we needed and we will never go that big again, but it was fun to try once.  Here it is on Christmas morning all decorated with gifts underneath:

And here is how Paul took it down on the 27th:

 

Christmas eve we had our family program which was a bit different this year since Drew was able to play a few songs on the piano for us.  I loved it!  I love having the piano in the house and Drew is competent at it so it was a fun addition this year.  The kids acted out the nativity scene while Paul read from the scriptures and we sang songs.  Poor Breezy had a double ear infection she went to the doctor for that morning and her meds hadn't kicked in very well yet so she was pretty miserable all day.  Thankfully she was functioning Christmas morning.

 

 

Drew, Mason, and Darcy all got Lego projects from Santa this year.  Drew was ecstatic when she saw hers, Mason was OK with his though he really wanted the Black Beard pirate ship (but the Black Pearl was on clearance and Santa went with it instead), Darcy opened hers and said with a stricken look on her face, "but I asked Santa for a Dream Light."  Good thing mom bought Dream Lights for all 4 kids so Darcy was eventually happy.  Bree got a Little People princess castle and a necklace and bracelets she wears constantly.  As hard as I try to dissuade her, I think she is going to be a girly-girl.  Everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of new fun stuff to play with.  At least I hope that's how they felt.  Later that day we drove to my parents' house and had dinner with my side of the family.  We had a slumber party at Aunt Sammy's, where Mason promptly lost his brand new watch, and we had lunch with Paul's family on the 26th.  We came home, I tried my hardest not to take down Christmas that evening, and by about noon on the 27th I was about to go insane so I took everything down.  I think my family would like it if I left Christmas decorations up just a bit longer but the mess and chaos of it all just drives me crazy and I have to get rid of it.  Sorry guys.

New Year's Eve day we were treated to snow!  I don't remember it being in the forecast but we weren't complaining!  Darcy liked hanging out on the trampoline.  Drew and Mason built a wall to hide behind while they threw snowballs at me, and Bree was having fun just walking around.  That evening we all stayed up till 9pm to watch the ball drop in Times Square on CNN and then 5 of us went to bed.  I woke up to fireworks at midnight but was so tired I fell right back to sleep.  Happy New Year!  New Year's Day I, of course, watched a lot of football and ate lots of Chex Mix and drank lots of Dr. Pepper.  I was in my happy place.  So goodbye 2012, you were a decent year for our family, and here's to 2013 and the hopes that we will be blessed with health and happiness!