Christmas Exchange

I never really heard what anyone else got for the Christmas sibling exchanges. (Except that Heidi made Holly a Cheese Sandwich Quilt, awesome!) So here are the two we were involved in:

From Mark, Mel & Welly (limit $20.00, I think they cheated)

We all stayed up on new Years Eve competing for the highest scores on every game!

 

Emma has all of her suncatcher creations hanging on our atrium window. She loved it!

 

Hannah thinks the pink ballerina Barbie is great fun!

 

Sabrina doesn’t seem excited here, but she thinks that a pony that “smell lie soda” is the best!

 

Mmmm truffles, I should be the new spokesmodel!

 

Beef Jerky- always so popular! That and summer sausage…

 

We’ve already played Simpsons Clue twice and it’s so much fun!

 

From Erica, Jed, Owen, Davis & Kate (limit: $15.00, theme: music)

A Jingle Bells Book. The perfect read for Christmas!

 

We all loved the Kidz Bop Christmas collection!

 

Lots of music for the kids, and some from my past too!

 

Thanks To Everyone That Gave us Gifts or Holiday Cards!

We are so grateful to have such thoughtful family and friends.

 

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I Am A Copy Cat

I stole this idea from Mel’s cute post with Mammy and Pappy. Hunter and Emma thought it would be so fun to see Uncle Matt and Aunt Ashley dancing together. They are the newest couple in the family, so it’s only fair. So here it is, enjoy!

Don’t send a lame Starring You! eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

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Celebrity Matches

Don’t take your results too seriously. Notice how in the two different pictures I used, there were no overlapping matches!

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Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and the three gifts turned out great!  Here are the kids “trapped” in their rooms so there would be no peeking, another one of our family traditions.  The rule was no waking up Mom and Dad until the sun is up.  I heard excited voices around 6:00 am, but didn’t get the wake up call until 6:30.

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Making a Commitment

This year will be a different one for us on Christmas day. Rob and I have decided to give each of our children just three gifts. This will be symbolic of the gifts brought to baby Jesus by the three wisemen. At this time of year I usually spend a lot of time shopping and preparing for the big holiday. I hope that by simplifying the gifts, I will have more time and energy for building faith and participating in service with my children. It’s so easy to get through the Christmas holiday and realize too late that there were very few opportunities to really celebrate the true meaning of the day. I was hesitant to do it because I worried that the kids would be disappointed on Christmas morning. Especially since this year we will not have any visitors and there will be a lot of the day left to fill with less gift opening to fill it up. I have mentioned it to Hunter and Emma, and they seem surprisingly happy with the idea. I did hear Hunter say to Emma, “They can be better if we have less of them.” Rob and I had decided to do this last week, and then today I went to a meeting at church that really convinced me that this is a good decision for us.

In my enrichment meeting I was reminded of the counsel given by Sister Julie Beck, our Relief Society General President: “We must stand strong and immovable in faith, strong and immovable in family, and strong and immovable in relief… as you focus on essentials (you) will be given the courage to forego the frivolous.” I’m looking forward to a holiday season with a focus on faith, family, and service (relief)!

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Super Readers To The Rescue!

Erica tipped me off that Super Why is Owen’s favorite TV show and I should check it out. My kids love it! Even Hunter and Emma don’t mind watching it. I think they like to see how excited the little girls get. Hannah and Sabrina both think it’s the best show ever. Hannah answers back when the characters ask questions, they both dance along, and Sabrina will bring me the remote and say, “Wuh-Why.” The kids have assigned themselves characters, so in our house Hunter is Super Why, Emma is Wonder Red, Sabrina is Alpha Pig, and Hannah is Princess Presto. The show starts with a common childhood problem like: Wyatt’s baby sister won’t stop crying. Then the kids all get together and go into a fairy tale to see how they can solve the problem. For example with the crying problem they go into Jack & The Beanstalk to see how Jack stops the giant from being so noisy. It’s a blessing and curse having TiVo, because you can save several episodes and play them over and over. I’m not sure what it says about my mothering, but we have had a couple of Super Why marathons where the girls watch it several times a day.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v14y8EQ8TWk&NR=1

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