We were home for Christmas

This really was the best Christmas to date. I LOVED living it through the eyes of my daughters. You guys, they were bouncing off the wall the entire day not knowing which toy to play with or what piece of candy to eat (ok, they didn't have a problem choosing candy, they just wanted it all at once). It was amazing. Josh's parents gave them bikes and they played with those the first half of the day until my parents came and gave them wood blocks that my dad and brother made. They played with those pretty hardcore and then switched off between those and the bikes for the rest of the night. Notice how I didn't mention anything *we* got them? Yeah, that's because they didn't care. I'll admit, we went a little simple with gifts because we knew they were getting awesome things from other people and sure enough, they did and they really didn't care too much about the puzzles, play food, books, movie, v-tech laptops and stuffed animals we got them. They did like the candy though... ;) I'm thinking maybe once the hype of the bikes and blocks wears off they'll notice they got other stuff too? We'll see. Ha! 

The first batch is all black and white because the lighting was THAT terrible. Sophie was (and still is) sick) but she was a trooper and was still so excited about everything. And I realized after looking at these pictures that I probably should have brushed their hair and clipped it back or something. Oh well, latchkey kids it is...

 This was them all morning long.

Sophie not only had her blanket wrapped around her bike, but she stuck her Cracker Jack box in the wheel. Doesn't get anymore "kid" than that, I don't think. 

Like I said, my dad and brother made these blocks for the girls and they loved them. Lillian is curiously good at making towers and she got this one about 3 more block high before she knocked it down. 

Seeing my dad play with the girls was probably my favorite part of the day...

It was also kind of a big year for me because I hosted Christmas dinner. Josh was scheduled to work the graveyard shift on both Christmas Eve and Christmas (yes, I cried multiple times when we found out...last January...) so we had planned for Christmas dinner to be at our house in the few hours that Josh would be awake on Christmas. By a Christmas miracle (aka a very, very, VERY kind gesture from one of Josh's coworkers) he was able to get both days off! We didn't feel like changing the plans at the last minute, so Josh's family spent Christmas Eve at our house (and we had a delicious "Famous Dave's" style meal thanks to my mother inlaw who is a wonderful cook) and then my family came up on Christmas day. I strangely didn't take any pictures on Christmas Eve (probably because it was so dark and we mostly just ate dinner and watched Moonrise Kingdom) but I made up for it the next day. We laughed a lot, teased my little sister a teeny bit (like always) and FaceTimed with my older sister who now lives in Ohio. It was a really, really good Christmas.

And if you're wondering what Josh and I got each other, I got the most delicious smelling perfume, some pants and a beautiful pearl ring. Seriously guys, I've hardly taken it off my finger since I got it! 

 

What did I give Josh? Stupid stuff. A mandolin book, some shirts, the Batman trilogy on BluRay, etc. NOTHING that compares to this ring or that perfume. I really wasn't expecting those two things at all. Joshua Ronald outdid himself this year. Yes, yes he did. It was kind of ridiculous.

Hope your Christmas was magical and that you got to spend it with those you love. Christmas was a million times better than it ever has been now that I have kids who got excited. Seriously, it was the most magical day and I loved every minute of it. 

and now for an outtake...

 

:)

In beauty green will always grow, through summer sun and winter snow.

*Warning: This post got kinda long. I apparently am a sentimental sap when it comes to Christmas trees. You have been warned...

Let's talk about Christmas trees, shall we? The first year we were married, we had no Christmas tree. Why? Well, we got married 6 days before Christmas and got back from honeymooning just in time to celebrate with our families. A Christmas tree would have been silly. You want to know what else is silly? This picture of us just a few days after we were married in front of Josh's parent's tree. Oh my goodness, I look like I'm 11 and Josh's shirt?
 Priceless. 

Our second Christmas, we were terribly poor. Terribly. Our uncle, Larry, had given someone (Josh's sister? Dad? Mom? Somebody?) a gift card to Smith's, but since they had no Smith's in their town, it was passed down to us. I knew what we were going to do with it. Buy our Christmas tree. I think we maybe spent $10 of our own money, but we ended up with the most plush and *almost* too tall tree for our apartment. Our ornaments were from our wedding (clear vases with blue and brown ornaments in them) so it was really sentimental and I loved it. We didn't have a tree topper, so Josh brought out Walter, our FAO Schwarz bear he bought me on our honeymoon and placed him on top. It was perfect.

Our third Christmas was the first with the twins. We were still pretty poor (but not as terribly poor) but we didn't have a lot of space. Our new apartment had been taken over by baby stuff and for one reason or another, we settled on this tiny tree and used one of the girls hats they were given in the NICU as a topper. Also, I'm not sure why there were no wedding ornaments? I think maybe I added them later along with the white icicles? I really don't remember.

Last year was our fourth Christmas together. We went Christmas tree shopping with our neighbors and came home with this bad boy. By this time, we also had invested in a tree topper and had to use a little table and the bench from our kitchen table as a barrier to protect the tree from two little trouble makers.

  

This year, we did something entirely different. Instead of going to some parking lot for our tree, Josh decided he wanted a fresh tree. One that we could actually cut down ourselves. We found a tree farm in Alpine and zipped on over right before they closed to pick out and cut down the perfect tree.  

       

 

  

 

 

  

 

 It was really, really fun. I was a *bit* stressed while we were there just because two toddlers running in opposite directions between rows and rows of evergreens is chaotic. They could fit into nooks and crannies where I couldn't and I was convinced we were going to lose them. Don't worry though, as I was told by one of the workers, it's all "fenced in". Umm...you think I care, buddy? There are THOUSANDS of trees here and dozens and dozens of families. Sure it's cool you have a fence, but that provided minimal reassurance. 

Anyway, we ended up finding a tree unlike our previous three. We didn't realize exactly how tall it was because compared to surrounding trees, it was actually on the shorter side. We chopped it down (i.e. someone came and did it for us. I kind of wish they would have let us do it...) and loaded it in the truck.

  
(although I should make a point that we SHOULD have realized how tall it was. The stick Josh has? It's 8' long...)



 
I love how tall it is. I love that we have vaulted ceilings in our living room to allow us such a tree. I love that it looks like a tree you'd find in the mountains. Imperfect, with big gaps between the branches. I love how our collection of wedding ornaments only covered a 1/4 of it. I love that it's the first thing you see when you walk into our home. I have fallen in love with it and get sad when I think about how temporary having it in my home is. I love the way the girls admire and talk about the "Chrisnis tree". I'm hoping it makes it way past Christmas since it was still growing in the ground not even two weeks ago. Josh said his Grandma had a tree that was freshly cut and it lasted until Easter. EASTER! (which by the way falls on my birthday this next year and I think it would be awesome to still have a tree up)

I love Christmas and I love having a live tree. Definitely worth the effort to have that fresh pine smell in our house all month long.

One More Sleep 'Till Christmas Day

 

  

 

Pinterest has such lovely things. 

Merry Christmas, to you and yours. I can't wait to see my girls rip open their gifts. I can't wait to go to church and sing Christmas carols. I can't wait to spend time with family. I can't wait for Christmas. I feel like such a little kid, but it truly is my favorite day of the year.

Now please excuse me while I go put on The Muppet Christmas Carol for the 6th time this month. I'm not even kidding...

 

When I was little, I used to watch this every Christmas Eve and sing this song to myself as I fell asleep.

I love it. So, so much. 

p.s. Click on the picture to take you back to the pinned source. I didn't want to mess with hyperlink formatting on Christmas Eve, so that's what you get. :)

Decking our halls

Here's something I've learned in the last week. It takes more stuff to deck the halls of a house than to deck the halls of an apartment. We've put everything we've got out, but I definitely think we need more. I have an aunt who literally has every foot of her house covered in Christmas decor starting the day after Thanksgiving. She's got 3 or 4 trees every year, dozens of stuffed animals, wooden trees, Norwegian trolls, Santa/Mrs. Claus, reindeer, etc, etc. She wraps up her pictures frames with Christmas wrapping paper, she takes books off the shelves in order to have enough room. She lines her kitchen cabinets with Christmas dishes.... it's amazing. My goal is to one day have even half as much stuff as she does, but until then, we've got our own little, growing collection. I haven't taken pictures of most of it, but here's some of it. 

 

We decided to stick our tree on a table this year so the girls would be less tempted. As you can tell by the bottom branch, the table didn't really work. The girls still tug away. Josh had the idea to block it off with our kitchen table bench and that worked until Sophie decided to nose dive over it. All I can say is that this is going to be a long month...  I really do love our tree though. The ornaments are from our wedding and this is the first year that we've actually had a legitimate tree topper. The second year we were married (the first married Christmas we had we didn't have a tree since we got married six days before Christmas) we threw on a teddy bear that we bought on our honeymoon and last year, we stuck on one of the little hats we got in the NICU. So this year, I was happy to get a star. The tree seems complete. :)

 I've been wanting to get a Nativity set for a couple of years now and I finally got the perfect one. The Little People Nativity is not only great because my girls can play with it, but the people look like they could be members of our family. I mean, check out the angel! 

Looks just like Lillian.

The only other decor picture I have is of our Charlie Brown tree. We got it a few years ago and I absolutely looooove it. 

 

Love it. 

Yesterday, we hung lights on our house and Josh found a few random string of lights. The girls are obsessed with Christmas lights, so we plugged in a strand and let them have at it. Possibly not the safest thing, buuuuut... they're still breathing. :)

 Don't mind the one sock, naked Sophie.

Sorry Lillian, but I love this picture SO much.

 Any photoshoot with my girls wouldn't be complete without a good fight... 

Christmas decorations not pictures. Our stockings/stocking holders. The Christmas village. Random Santa bell thing that hangs on doorknobs. Present mirror/window clings, Random wooden "Welcome" sighn with Santa, a snowman and a bird. Snowflake cookie jar. And of course, my dancing turkey that sings, "Deck The Halls" he's been featured on this blog multiple times though, so I don't feel bad not getting a picture. 

We also went to Temple Square on Monday night. I didn't take too many pictures, because I always do and it never really changes (see here and here for pictures from the past few years). But here's our newest family pic.

Sophie obviously wasn't interested in looking at the camera...

 So that's that. A random Christmasy post of things that all happened in November. Really though, winter is so bleak that it NEEDS to be celebrated for more than just one month. And sorry, but if you don't agree, you are simply wrong. ;)

Turkey

Did I ever write about the singing turkey we have? If I did, it would have been way back when the babies were still tiny. You see, I have this Christmas turkey that gobbles and sings "Deck The Halls" in a man voice. I think it's great. I bought in my freshman year when I literally had less than $20 to my name. My roommates thought I was crazy (and I probably was) but I fall hard for tacky Christmas decorations (shh...don't tell my sister, the interior designer...). When the babies were little, they loved it. LOVE it. If ever they were crying, I could push the 'on' button on the turkey's chest and the babies would instantly calm down and be in a Christmasy trance. I was so glad that they shared the same love as I did for this stupid toy.

Well....that's not the case anymore. I found the turkey yesterday as I was unpacking. I didn't think twice about showing the girls and they liked it...at first. As soon as I turned the music on, Sophie panicked. Really, really panicked. She scurried right up to my lap with tears running down her cheeks (yes, the tears were almost instant) and screamed a scream I don't think I've ever heard before.

Oops.

Lillian, the lover of music, wasn't too phased by the singing turkey and in fact, started bouncing along to the music. I held Sophie and brought the turned off turkey close to her, but she still wouldn't have it. She knew what it was capable of doing. I then stuck it in the corner and the girls continued to play. Every few minutes, Sophie would stop, flip her head around and stare down the turkey to make sure that it wasn't coming after her. 

Poor thing will be traumatized for the rest of her life.  

And look! I found a video on youtube with the same turkey. I could have recorded one with our actual turkey, but I'm too lazy and this is the exact same one. 

Hilarious, right?

December wrap up {picture overload}

Instead of writing in detail about what we did, I'll show you. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Sophie was entranced by the lights. I don't think I've ever seen her so wide-eyed.

(and she's always wide-eyed, so that tells you something.)

We put up our Christmas tree that wasn't much taller than the babies.

We went to a Christmas party at the McKinley's. Max loved his new girlfriends....

And I LOVE his one shoe. This kid kills me!

Brittany and Josh's gingerbread house

Katie and Reed's house

Jess and Steve's house

Jessie and Danny's hosue

I love these girls. Born within two weeks of each other, married within two years and Jessie's cooking up the 4th member of the 2nd generation.
It's a girl and I'm thrilled.
The three little ladies will only be about 9 months apart.

I went out to lunch with the old high school crowd. Sarah is temporarily back from her mission so we hit up the Cheesecake Factory. It was just the reunion my tired mind needed.
Presh indeed.

And we went to the Festival of Trees. It hit a little close to home for me this year because all the money goes to Primary Children's Hospital. They had several stories and pictures about the babies/kids the trees were raising money for and seeing pictures of babies hooked up to monitors and wires brought back the 4 days in the NICU for us. I realize that 4 days is nothing compared to what some families have to go through, but even 4 days was too long for me.

This time, Lillian was entranced by the lights. Sophie slept like a log.

And that was pretty much our December {pre-Christmas} in a nutshell.
A very large nutshell.