December was hectic and busy, busy, busy, but we had a great Christmas!
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| We must have made the "nice" list this year! |
First of all, you remember that in November we had Brandon come home from his mission and Ryan leave for his. That kind of kept me too busy to help anyone with their Christmas projects until we were well into December. And by December 8 I still thought we had three weeks left, but no! We only had two weeks to finish everything up. Part of this was because I was planning to go to Ephraim to pick up Jason and Adreanna on Saturday December 22 so they could spend the holiday with us. (Yay!) And I wanted all the projects, and preferably the shopping and wrapping all to be done before then. Well, that didn't quite work out. The best laid plans, and all that.
Here's what ended up happening (timeline-wise): Jessica and I worked on her project early on; hers was the first one to be wrapped and placed under the tree. (Kaylie had already finished her project, and Rachel was working diligently on hers by herself—up until the last possible minute.)
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| Proof that my kids do their own sewing projects... |
I was planning on Bruce being home on Friday, the 21st, but he surprised me and got here a day early! I was working in the sewing room, when in my peripheral vision I saw someone come up next to me. It wasn't Jessica, and it didn't seem to be Michael...I looked up and it was Bruce! "You're here!" I exclaimed. And then there was lots of hugging and kissing, and I didn't really want to get back to working on my projects any more. That was a fantastic Christmas surprise!
I had planned to finish all the shopping with Bruce on Friday. So he and I did shop, but we didn't really finish. :-/
Late in the afternoon of the 22nd Jason and Adreanna had a family party in Santaquin, so we were still planning to drive out there and get them, just later in the day than I would have liked for six hours of traveling. Especially since we had tickets for the entire family to go see Kaylie perform in A Christmas Carol at Vernal Theater Live! (Kaylie played the part of Scrooge's old girlfriend.) But Ryan had called us Friday night; he and his mission president decided that, because of the severe anxiety Ryan was going through, it would be better if Ryan came home. He called on the 21st to let us know that. Then on Saturday morning we got another call: Ryan's flight would arrive in Salt Lake City at 4:47 p.m. that evening!
So now we had to figure out how to get Jason and Adreanna from their party in Santaquin—three hours away from us—and Ryan who would be another two hours away from Santaquin, and then back to Vernal, which is three hours from Salt Lake. Fortunately Adreanna's grandparents who live in Duchesne were able to take J and A to their house after their party. That left Bruce and me free to go pick up Ryan, and then get J and A on the way back to Vernal. Whew! Now, that sounds all simple and neatly done, but I will tell you that I was having a total freak-out, panic attack Saturday morning. But the stress went away by the time we got to Salt Lake. And we made back it to Vernal with Jason, Adreanna, and Ryan in tow, with no problems (although all of us missed A Christmas Carol).
On Sunday morning we all went to church together, and Bruce got all of our family to go sing with the ward choir. (The choir was performing a song that our family has known for years.) That was pretty cool. And we spent a nice Sunday together. I hid out in my room to wrap presents a lot, but I got to spend time with the family, too.
Monday morning I got up early and really and truly finished the Christmas shopping. On Christmas Eve Day. Kids were hiding out in corners of the house finishing up and wrapping their projects. But by dinner time I think we were all done. The gifts were wrapped, and most of them were under the tree. We had a nice dinner, played games, watched some Christmas videos, sang together, and went to bed late—but still earlier than in years past.
Then the three youngest girls let us sleep until 7:00 on Christmas morning! This would have been better if I hadn't woken up (is that how you say that?) at 5:30, but Bruce and the older kids appreciated it. Everyone got some nice things, but the homemade gifts are always the highlight. So here they are:
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| Lindsey wrote Michael a letter, and made him a dragon egg in a jar. She also made some Celtic knot designed chocolates, but there's no pictures of those. |
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| Ryan made Jason a couple of walking caps. Sort of. You remember that he wasn't here for most of December... I may have helped with these a lot. But Ryan did finish them up himself. |
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| Jessica made Adreanna a... I don't know what you call this. It's a hooded, snuggle blanket, with a foot-warming pocket. |
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| Rachel sculpted a mermaid in clay, for Lindsey |
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| front and back close-ups Now we need to find/make some kind of display stand for her. |
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| Adreanna made a pun for Brandon, and a nice painting of a Hungarian rancher. The pun is a CTR ring with a stick of butter on it. Let's see if I can explain this... If you put together the first letters of the words for "choose the right" in Hungarian—those initials would spell the word for "butter" in Hungarian. Brandon laughed as soon as he opened it. |
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| Jason made a journal/sketchbook for Ryan. He stitched the pages in signatures, marbled the end-papers himself, and bound it. |
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| Brandon made Kaylie a hooded wrap; it's reversible, with a black and white herringbone weave on the inside. She has worn it every day since she got it. |
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| Kaylie made a library book shelf for Rachel in her woodworking class last trimester. (She literally put her blood, sweat and tears into it because she skimmed her finger with the table saw while she was making it.) She also made some chokers—Rachel's preferred style of jewelry. |
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| And Michael made a blanket for Jessica, with the Tardis appliqued on the corner. (Jessica is a big Dr. Who fan.) |
The homemade gifts are always the highlight of our Christmases; the kids love this tradition!
Jason and Adreanna, and Bruce all got to spend the rest of the week with us, so it was a party all week. I "partied" by sleeping a lot. When I was awake (OK, I really was awake more than asleep!) we played games, watched movies, and just hung out together all week. The only thing we didn't do, which maybe we should have, was have the kids draw names for next Christmas. ;-)
Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas! And I hope you all did too.
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