Christmas Week

Sarah was driving me crazy Christmas Eve night. She had this hair-brained idea that she was going to stay up late and catch Santa. She thinks this every year. Every year I tell her she can stay up as late as she wants but she has to be lying in her bed with the lights off. Past years she's out within 30 minutes. This year I went down to check on her after 45 minutes and she was sitting up in bed with the light on! I got after her pretty good because I just wanted to go to bed! An hour after that she was still awake. I didn't want to watch any more episodes of the Goodwife; I just wanted to put my presents under the tree and go to bed. So after another 30 minutes I shut the door to the basement and got to work. "If she stumbles upon mom and dad setting out presents and it ruins all the Santa magic for herself, that's what she gets." She didn't come up nor said anything about it the next morning so I guess she was finally asleep.

Henry woke us up after 7, per the rule. He admitted he'd been downstairs twice during the night. I remember doing the same thing as a kid, even unwrapping then rewrapping a present.

The kids checking out their stockings waiting for Justin. Justin likes to make them wait.

Surveying the loot that surrounds her.

 This is a pack of football cards but Henry can't figure that out.

 Dad will show you.

Erica is really excited about her thermals when we told her they were to wear under her snowpants for playing in the snow.

 Sarah was most excited for the new headphones they each got for the car DVD player.

 Henry got 32 little football helmets, one for each of the NFL teams. He knew them all by name. See Justin's proud face?

 It's hard to surprise someone who shares your bank and Amazon accounts. But I managed to order an inflatable mattress Justin wanted without him knowing.

 This is the gingerbread house Sarah made at Jaida's grandma's house on Friday. We needed the counter space Christmas morning so we took a picture of it and threw it away.

My parents came over on their morning rounds and the kids showed them all their favorite stuff. They changed into their baselayers and wore them all. day. long.

After James's morning nap we went to Justin's parents' for lunch and gave them their presents and they had some things for us too.

James loved whatever this is.

We had to strip him down to clean him up so he had to open presents in his onesie. He didn't care.

Justin's favorite and biggest present was this ginormous cutting board to cut his ginormous fish (or was it elk quarters?).

Henry's favorite gift was this ace bandage I got for him. He likes wrapping up his limbs for no reason.

We had a list of things we wanted to do during the break and we got to most of them. I managed to keep the Christmas decorations up until Thursday but then I could take no more. I left the tree up without ornaments but everything else came down.We played lots of games, saw Coco, I made a cooking video with my mom (link to that later), Justin and I did sealings at the temple. We managed to go bowling and to Chick-fil-a as consolation activities since the kids came down with fevers and colds and were too sick to go to Logan as planned.

 Poor thing was not feeling well at all but was a great sport.

 Man I'm a terrible bowler. I bet you have to go more than every 2 years to get good.

Saturday night Justin and I went to Bombay House to celebrate his birthday the next day. It was delicious as always and we even managed to order three dishes we had never had before instead of the dishes we are obsessed with. One I did not like, the other two were great but not the best.

Later that night while we were prepping his birthday dinner, I grabbed two oranges out of this box.

 And found this inside. I can't tell you how much it warms my heart. I've seen James playing at this box numerous times and have even helped him get a spoon out of it once. I had no idea he's been putting so much stuff in there. These are the things I'll miss when my kids are all big.

 Sunday was Justin's birthday. This was the day's headline.

 Or so he said.

 Everything he said he wanted he needed to pick out himself so it was a little tricky buying him gifts. He got socks he sent me to Costco for and a plastic egg carton Henry and I spotted while walking really slowly down the camping aisle at Walmart. It was only $1.88 so he still has plenty of money to pick out his own gifts but he still got a good birthday surprise. Win win.

 The kids made this cute birthday sign. This is like right after church but you wouldn't know it with Erica wearing a backpack or Henry dressed as Tom Brady.

A fun dad. A great dad.

Hard working.  A good put-to-bed-er. Strong.

Brave, helpful, happy. Nice. A good breakfast maker. He reads me stories. 

 Then we ate dinner (that he made) at his parents' house and then my brother and sister and their families and my mom came over to sing to him. I made him a cheesecake which I had never done. It turned out so good. The recipe is linked here. (The first one I made on Friday night turned out terrible. I won't link the recipe but I'm looking at you, Dorie Greenspan.)

 We sang to him in our ugliest voices which he loves so much. Then at 8 we all went home so we could put the baby to bed. We were going to stay up and play games but at 10 we drank Martinelli's with the New Yorkers and went to bed.

And that wraps up 2017! What will 2018 bring?