Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas this year - one of the best yet!!! What a treat it was to have all of my family together! We just savored every moment!

On Christmas Eve, we went to my grandma and aunt's house for lunch. My Aunt Camille is so sweet and did so much work to host us. She had planned a delicious meal and some fun Christmas games. The kids even had a small gift from Santa!

The kids and I with my mom and grandma

Grandma & Lindsey

My aunt Clarese and her husband Rick

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of going to the cemetary, so after we had lunch, we went to the cemetary where my Grandpa Clyde is buried. It's always a peaceful, joyful experience.

My mom, grandma & Aunt Camille

Then, that night, we had the Cowden's and my family over for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. We had a blast!!! These are some seriously fun people to be with!

Lindsey and the candle she got

The hit of the night was this house dress that Matt opened.

Then, his mom Becky got it....and eventually my mom got it. It's lovely!

Emily got a pizza!

And then....the kids got to open one gift - Christmas pajamas from Grandma!!! They are all so cute and the kids have loved sleeping in them. Thank you so much Grandma!

What a great Christmas Eve!

Olsen Christmas Party

Last Sunday, we had our annual Olsen Christmas Party. We love the Olsen families!! We all grew up together and spent most Sunday nights with them. The group has gotten so big, that we have our Christmas party at the ward building now. It was a great evening!! We enjoyed delicious food, a fun talent show, acting out the Nativity, singing songs and a gift exchange. It was great to be together and to visit with all of our wonderful family!

Addie & Kate (Kate was so excited to have Addie's name and couldn't wait to give her the present she picked out).

Candy & Lindsey

My parents - oh, how I love them.

The Talent show included....

singing

dancing

family talent caught on video

violin (and piano) music

This is Jack as a wiseman in the Nativity (most wisemen wore shirts with buffalo on them, right?)

Hannah definitely understood how to get the gifts open

Jon

Jack

School programs

I got off easy this year for school Christmas parties and programs. The school doesn't do an organized class holiday party, and only Lindsey's class had a little program. All three 2nd grade classes sang and recited poems for the parents on Friday. It was so cute!!! My mom was able to go with me and our favorite was "The Russian Dance" from the Nutcracker! Great job Lindsey!

Can you spot Lindsey? She's on the 2nd row, 4th child from the left.

Lindsey & Grandma

Lindsey and her teacher, Miss Keating

Kid Sandwich

The other night, all the kids wanted a turn "wrestling" Jon. Afterwards, they wanted to do a kid sandwich. With all these kids, it's a pretty tall sandwich!

Well, it was all fun and games, until one of the kids didn't watch where they were going and fell on top of Hannah. Unfortunately for Hannah, she was right next to our tiled step. Poor little baby hit her face so hard on the corner and this is how she looked the next day:

Her swollen cheek and scratch have now turned into a black eye and big diagonal bruise across her face. We all feel so bad and have gotten quite a number of looks from people.

Christmas outfits

I love a good reason to buy the kids new Sunday clothes - and Christmas is a good reason! Here are the kids in their holiday outfits:

Oh - they're just all so cute and kissable!!

Garbage picking and Lip Sticking

What must our neighbors think??? Several minutes ago, I was literally standing out by our garbage cans, taking bags out and opening them. Sorting through wrapping paper, Jack's hair from his haircut and old noodles, in search of several "cards" from my wallet (Costco card, credit card, Fresh Value card, etc). You see, Hannah got into my wallet this morning and I could only find about 1/2 of the cards when I went to put the wallet back together. She's been known to throw toys and keys away before, so after I had the kids help me search the house, I resorted to the garbage cans.

They were no where to be found! Then came the offer to the kids....$1 for each card found. Literally within minutes, Kate found the cards - laying right on the floor in front of the computer.

And just for kicks, one more Hannah story.....Jon and I were literally googling "how to remove lip stick from couch cushions" this week. What a monkey!

Jingle Bell Rock

Emily, Lindsey & Kate have all enjoyed taking dance classes from Murray Community Dance. Kate's in a preschool class and loves going! I think she loves the feel of the leotard and tutu, as she usually wears her dance outfit the whole day. Her age was too young to be in the Christmas show.

Emily and Lindsey had never taken dance before, so they are in a beginning tap/ballet class together. This last weekend was the big Christmas show and it was great! In Columbus, all the dance shows were on Sunday, so it was a treat that this was on a Saturday. They did a tap routine to "Jingle Bell Rock" and both did a great job. We had been practicing at home each day and the girls did fabulous. There were over 200 dancers (plus they had another night of dances for the remaining 200 dancers in the program). My parents came and then we got frozen yogurt afterwards. Thanks Lindsey & Emily for the great night!

Sweet grandpa keeping Hannah content with songs being sung in her ear

All the dancers on the stage for the finale

A job well done!!!

(Side note: Yes, Lindsey's makeup looks a bit much. She begged for more, but I told her I had already put too much on. Jon asked me if I had used a makeup gun (reference to a Simpson's episode) to put it on.

A Visit to Santa

One of our favorite things at Christmas time is to visit Santa. Last week, the kids and I went over the mall to see him. They all told Santa one thing that they wanted and were so cute about it. Hannah was happy to sit safely in Emily's lap, but I did have to get the typical crying toddler shot afterwards.

We then went and visited our niece, Breanne, who works at Pretzelmaker. As we were getting our coats back on, I realized that Hannah only had one shoe on. So, the picture below, if her first and last picture with her new Sunday shoes. They weren't to be found - despite my efforts to retrack all our steps through the mall.

Family Service

When we packed all our things this summer, I found a folder that had stories for each day of December. So, we have read those to the kids at bedtime and it's been really great. The very first story was about a mother who was getting frustrated at all the teasing and fighting that was going on (wow - that sounds familiar!). She decided that each week, the family would draw names of one another and then for that week, they were to do secret service things for that person. When they did something kind, they could put a piece of hay/straw into a cradle, so that by Christmas, there would be enough straw for a soft bed for Baby Jesus.

Our kids loved that story and wanted to do the same thing. So, Monday night for Family Home Evening, we played a Christmas game and then pulled names. The next morning, there were little bits of service everywhere. After the kids had gone to school, I went into our bedroom and this is what I found:

Jack has Jon's name and this was the only thing he could think of doing. He laid out his scrubs & socks on the floor. A little later, he went back and put Jon's bag right next to it. It was such a cute site and cracked us up. He later told Jon that was the only thing he could think of to do. Hopefully the little secret acts of service will continue!

Festival of Trees

I used to love the Festival of Trees as a little girl and hadn't been for years and years!! For those that aren't from Salt Lake, it's an annual fund raiser for Primary Children's Hospital. Businesses and individuals decorate and donate hundreds of trees. Buyers bid on and pay for these beautiful trees and all the money goes to the Children's Hospital. They display the trees for a few days before they are delivered to the buyers.

The other night, Jon was at work, and I decided to take the kids (knowing that I would meet Becky and Candy there). The worst part was finding parking - holy cow! I think everyone arrived at 7:00 p.m! We found a spot and started walking up and down the aisles. There were some fantastic trees! The Grinch tree

Jazz tree

The BYU tree

And my personal favorite...the "I Love Lucy" tree

There were a few trees that hadn't sold yet, including a Tinker Bell tree and the kids begged me to buy it. Not for $350 (although that seemed cheap after we saw the $3500 Star Wars tree still for sale)! Kate was upset that I told her no and I think purposely walked away from us. I noticed her gone about 30 seconds later and Becky and Candy quickly searched for her and found her. This was her look when Candy brought her back. Kate HATES being lost, so it was ironic that she did it to herself.

At one point, Hannah decided it was funner to push the stroller than ride in it.

We had a great time and we loved being with Becky and Candy! My kids just laugh and laugh with their two fun aunts.

Candy, Me and Becky