More Holiday High-Lights

This is going to be a long one....

December Highlight #2

Best Gingerbread House EVER!!

That doesn't mean I don't have plenty of room for improvement.  I'm just saying that I really enjoyed carrying out our annual tradition of gingerbread house-building with the Mayfields, especially because I'm discovering that when your youngest child is 4 1/2, you might actually have a chance at being as obsessive as you would like to be while painstakingly creating your house of ginger and bread.  Which then just makes you see how much MORE obsessive you would like to be next year.  It is probably a sign of an illness that as soon as I'm through making a gingerbread house I immediately being anticipating the following Christmas so I can do it again.  CRAZY! 

Stomper took the fondant icing I wasn't using and instantly started sculpting reptiles with it
 

Worst part?  Didn't take a picture of the final product, which we tossed a couple of weeks ago.  

Sigh. It was great, ok?  All perfectly red and white and green!  You should have seen it!  It even had a red fondant portico over the wreath-hung front door.  (Now that I don't have a picture to prove it, you'll never know that it was quite lopsided.  But it was for dang-sure color coordinated.)

Oh well, guess it's just reason to make another one all the sooner next year!  Love you, Mayfields.

Highlight #3

Dancing and Singing

This was a good year for music.  I will keep it short, just want to say that we really enjoyed another fabulous cello concert put together by my splendid sister Margaret.  My kids had a rough December with all the practicing and busy schedules, so we didn't feel that prepared, but in a giant group of kids...well, it was hard to tell!  It was a fun night.  Except for Bundle, who basically spent the entire evening taking the same picture 1,000 times on my phone and doing seat-yoga in her chair.  

Also we enjoyed the MOST WONDERFUL night of singing with our friends the Bucherts.  They have this collection of notebooks just packed with music and momma Becca can play the piano really well, so you eat yummy soup and then gather around the piano and sing your heart out, at least as well as you can, to all sorts of Christmassy music, everything from Up On the Housetop to In the Bleak Midwinter.  So. Much. Fun.

Another very musical night that came at a bit of a cost to our family was the evening that Stomper performed in a play that was an extracurricular activity at school - for two months he spent at least two days a week after school until dinner time practicing this play with about 15 songs in it.  I was actually quite surprised that he chose to take part; not a single one of his gang of friends wanted to be in it.  But he decided to do it, and though there were a few days that he was so exhausted that he talked seriously of quitting, he pushed through.  It made those two months of homework miserable for us and his teacher pretty much needs to wipe December from the books (if only she would!)  but he really had a great time in the long run.  He was befriended by a small gang of sixth grade girls who look at least 5 years older than him.  That may explain the sudden stop in his threats to quit.....  I was glad when it ended honestly but it was fun to see and I was very proud of him for taking part and doing a great job.

Highlight #4

A Visit From the Southern Romneys, During which I Got to Spend A Lot of Time Holding a Cute Cute Baby

December zipped past as it is prone to do, and we didn't think we were going to get a chance to hold one of our favorite traditions, that of Waffles and Wassail, in which we eat waffles, drink no wassail, and watch A Muppet Christmas Carol.  Happily for us, the Southern Romneys decided to brave a trip up north despite snow (Our valley stayed white all December long!!  How I LOVE a white Christmas!) and the difficulties of traveling with a small baby to come see us.  It was the weekend before Christmas, and we made the most of it with zoo trips (duh, of course), sledding, gathering with family, and of course our Muppet movie tradition.  It was such a nice way to spend the weekend before Christmas.  What a pleasure it is to have brothers and sisters I am close to, and for our kids to love their cousins.  I just love it and them.  

The Actual Waffles night - we had a surprise when my sister was able to come with all three of her teenage girls plus one boyfriend plus one roommate - we were packed in but it worked and was even more fun than we expected. 

You can just catch Bundle kicking Bitty down the hill

To Be Continued!!

Just a Bit BEHIND...

Oh HI! Yes, I remember this blog.  Let's see, I guess a few things have happened in the PAST MONTH (give or take a couple of weeks...) since I have blogged....things like oh ya'know CHRISTMAS.

How on earth am I ever going to catch up on everything?

Let's face it, there is no way.  So I think I'm just going to do some brief highlights, like this:

December Highlight #1:

The Bear Lake Tree-Hunting Trip

We almost didn't make it on our annual trip this year - what with Thanksgiving being quite late, and the Ward Christmas Party happening, December filled up SO FAST and we were SO BUSY and SO TIRED....(you may be hearing that from me a lot over the next few posts).  We didn't really have a weekend that was completely free.  But we decided to just squash the trip in there and though it made things even more hectic, I wouldn't have missed it.  I love the Burnetts, I love that cabin, I love hunting for trees, I love the whole trip.

So.  Friday night was the ward Christmas party.  Saturday morning was a ward primary party, of which I was partially in charge.  (Seriously, months ago when we were planning the calendar it didn't seem that crazy but I was a loon to have thought so.)  Troy was out of town, and so after the ward party, I packed up the car so that we could leave for Bear Lake straight from the primary party in the morning.  It was a snowy weekend, which made things very Christmassy, but slightly alarming on the drive up.

Pretty much as soon as we got to the cabin we headed out with the Burnetts to go find a tree - Troy's plane was landing that afternoon and he'd be driving up by the evening time.  (He was in our van so the drive was MUCH scarier for him!)   I was anxious to pick out our tree all by myself but I think I did a good job - our tree was tall and lovely.  Yay me.

We had to leave the next day, but as always it was just such an enjoyable weekend and I hope we do this every year till I'm dead.

LOOKIE LOOKIE I actually posted!  If it seems a little rushed, that's because it was.  The family is at this very moment getting into the car to drive to St. George for a weekend with our family and blessing a new baby, adding another items on my list of things that need posting.  I will get there. I'm just so happy I actually posted SOMETHING.

Coming Through to the Other Side

Late, Saturday evening. Sitting by a fire. Listening to quiet music. Watching snow fall on the hill of trees outside.

Guess what - that is actually what is happening right now! It's not just a daydream! This is a very good thing after the completely insane week and weekend I have had, which followed the very insane Thanksgiving holiday. (I think I need to think of a new descriptor, by the way. I keep having busy times and describing them as: crazy, insane, nutty....are you noticing a common thread here?) But really, it was a lot to handle. The only way I stayed on top of things was to revert back to my primal list-making-with-a-purple-pen strategy (I gave it up a few months ago with the arrival of my iphone and its very fabulous list-maker). But for this, I needed my old-school purple pad. I made lists for planning and executing the Church Christmas Party, for the food and craft for the church kids party, for PTA meeting snacks, for packing and cooking for our trip to Bear Lake with the Burnetts....there was something else too but since my purple list, now well crossed-off, is far away from me at this moment, I have no idea what it was. And all of those things happened in a 48 hour period. And Troy was gone. (Feel bad for me already!!) Anyway, I am seriously happy to have that list almost all the way crossed off, and to be at the tail end of this non-stop weekend.

And now I need to share a story. So, like I mentioned just once or twice or seventeen times, I was put in charge of planning this big dinner for our church. I'm pretty good at delegating some things - especially the decorations, which were pulled off beautifully by two young couples along with some helpers. They have a talent for transforming the gym into an enchanting dining hall. I delegated some of the food, though I learned a couple of lessons in that department, namely to expect a few people to cancel on the items they signed up to bring but to not freak out and make a bunch of extra because 5 lbs. of crockpot mashed potatoes feeds more people than you would think. (Even with my cancellations we had potatoes practically flowing out of the kitchen, and that doesn't count the two recipes' worth I made just in case. Lotta potatoes.) I chose an easy main course - tangy beef brisket - I put it in the ovens at church before 9 that morning and it was totally stress free. But I should have had one more. Or not let people serve themselves. We kinda ran out, but not until the very end, so it was okay.

One thing that I did not delegate in time was the program. I never know (well, I haven't known for the two years I have done this) what to do for a program. Do people want to listen to a performance? Have a silly talent show? Do nothing? Have a sing-along? Karaoke? I don't know! I think I'm trying to make too many people happy at once and end up not being able to decide anything. Plus our in-house musical genius couldn't be there so then I was really stumped. Every day on my list that "plan the program" item remained un-crossed-off and I stressed more and more about it. Finally yesterday afternoon as I was grabbing a couple of things from home I frantically printed off a silly guess-that-carol page (from Pinterest! Where else!) and decided to set that out on the tables and call that good. Actually, I think a lot of people did have fun with it, but...still, kinda lame.

Then, just as dessert was starting to disappear from the buffet table, this wonderful thing happened that I am going to tell you flat out was just a blessing from heaven. A blessing for me, who was stressed and anxious, and a blessing for everyone who was there to enjoy a neighborhood party and feel some Christmas spirit. There is a man who has been a leader in our community and is beloved by everyone. He is tall, kind, gentle, and reaches out to everyone with this infectious warmth. I kind of wish he would adopt me. (I adore his wife as well; she has stepped in many times in my life to help me when my mother has been away. I love this family.) I had asked this man if he would be our M.C. at the party; welcome everyone, say thanks to the decorators, get someone to pray over the food. That is all I asked for. But later he approached me and asked when he should start the program. I sheepishly told him I hadn't planned one and he said, "Oh, I've got one." WHAT????

This man had put together the cutest little program - mostly just a list of questions for which he had prizes, like who can name all of Santa's reindeer and who can sing all the words of whatever song...he made people laugh, he told bad jokes, he had chocolate Santas....he was adorable. And then he got two other dear people to read a short spiritual thought that ended on a beautiful note and that was that. It was PERFECT.

I tried to express to this man what this had meant to me and he lightly brushed it off as no big deal. I would just like to tell you all that it was a VERY BIG DEAL to me and I was very grateful. I don't know which guardian angel of mine whispered to him in the night, "Rachel has nothing for a program! Do something!" But he listened. And I'm grateful. And I feel very not-forgotten by heaven and by dear friends. Best Christmas spirit I have felt in a long time.

My decorator made a movie of our party and you can view it HERE:

(My computer is grumpy about posting videos on my blog...dont' know why!)

Thanksgiving

I am being so naughty right now. I am sitting in a PTA meeting and I'm supposed to be listening and possibly even contributing but instead I snuck in my ipad and I'm doing a little writing. I am just so behind! And I see very little hope of getting a nice long quiet writing stretch any time soon. Today is our ward Christmas party and guess who is in charge. That's right, Mrs. Stupid. (I mean me, who can't say no to anything and is now cooking for 200 people even though my husband is gone all week on a business trip and we also have a Primary Pajama Party in the morning and we are leaving on our annual Bear Lake Christmas Tree Hunt right from the party.....I'm sweating just thinking about it.)

So. I'm sitting in PTA and writing.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was really FUN. And that's all I can remember.

Just kidding - it really was great. It was (you're never going to believe that I'm saying this....) BUSY!! Both of my brothers' wives had babies this fall, and Adam (who lives in Seattle and has no family up there anywhere near) decided to bring his family to our valley to both celebrate Thanksgiving and gather the family for Park's blessing. My other brother Peter was feeling sad to miss our family gathering, and even though his wife Sheri and their new baby Iva weren't ready to travel yet he came up the weekend before Thanksgiving with his two big girls. Peter couldn't stay long but Adam and crew were here for the whole week and I'll just say it was a very full week bookmarked by two very full weekends. Oh yeah, and there was Thanksgiving too, which we spent with Troy's family up in Cache Valley. It was such a lovely day.

You know, I think I remember that I used to really enjoy writing long and thought-filled posts with observations about my experiences and wanderings. Those days seem to be a thing of the past and now I'm just excited that I wrote something down at all. Here's some pictures.