the best christmas eve I've ever had

I was a little worried about Christmas Eve this year since we didnt have the buhler's with us.  It seems like they've always been with us since Anna was born!  We also didn't have the tradition of going to my Grandma Elaine's house for dinner - anytime we are in SLC we do that since my family has been going there since before I can remember.  But it really turned out to be the best Christmas Eve I have ever had.  We kept it supremely simple and focused on what the girls want most: our love and attention.

Rich had to work 1/2 the day, so we started out the day as usual (the girls coming in to snuggle with us) and then I took Josie out for a good run.  We had oatmeal for breakfast.  We read books, played, practiced the piano, cleaned up the house, anna did preschool, did 2 loads of laundry, we made a tart for tomorrow night, biked to the park with josie and let her run around a bunch (julia fell asleep since she got up at 5:30).  It was my goal to NOT yell at my kids ONCE today and to try and say YES to them as much as possible.  I also tried to play with them more than I usually do.

then we came home and had pesto pasta for lunch.  Rich came home around 11.  We went to the rec center and swam for a couple hours.  It was supposed to be a surprise, but Anna overheard rich and I talking about it (she says) and she read it on a list I made that happened to be sitting on my computer while she did preschool.  Dang 4 year old that reads good.  After swimming, and getting dried off with one towel (i left the rest at home!), we went to sprouts and bought food for an inauthentic time-of-Christ dinner (olives, crusty olive bread, fish, cheese, slices of meat, grapes, dates, figs).  We ate our minimal-cook dinner, while playing a game and it took a long time.  I'm still stuffed and we ate at 4.  we gave josie the fish skin and she seemed happy.

 julia was in heaven.  single food items.  meat, cheese, nuts, bread.  happy girl.  In the store we were walking past the meat isle.  Julia pulled rich down to her level and whispered in his ear "get me some meat daddy" or something like that.  So we let her choose the meat and cheese.

 anna was in heaven.  new things to try.  she chose some olives from an olive bar, figs (above), dates

 julia ate so many nuts it was insane.  she is one serious little chipmunk - just look at those cheeks!

 olives, yellow tomatoes in foreground (surprisingly good for out of season)

After that we cleaned up, then anna wanted to direct us in the nativity.  She wasn't quiet sure what to do, so rich read from the bible and we played along.  Julia was being difficult and kept stealing baby jesus.  That made anna mad.  So then I had to sit out with Julia while Anna and daddy took care of the rest.  My tiger stuffed animal collection filled in for baby jesus and the donkey.

 mary, joseph and baby tiger jesus  (we had a real baby, julia's "tiny baby" but she couldn't handle him being handled by anyone but her)

After that we did our second to last present for the month (we've been doing 25 days of christ and learning and reading about Jesus' life each day in December).  We read about the atonement and sang "he sent his son" the primary song.  Anna really likes that one.  The present tonight was a cheesey 80 minute movie about Jesus from a Christian store.  The girls liked it.

We put them to bed at 7:15 and they fell right to sleep!  MIRACLE!  We are going swimming every Christmas eve!

it's the most wonderful (and busy) time of the year

 Dorothy sent us a package with lots of nuts in it.  We ate them all.  I think I gained a few pounds!

 Julia loved them most, but could not figure out how to open them.  I would find this combination all over the house until the nuts were gone.

 I bought shutters for the front windows.  they are expensive and i love them.

I worked from 8am to 12pm on friday.  Rachel watched the girls.  Rich has been out of town since monday.  Remi had a birthday party on friday afternoon.  The girls loved playing a christmas version of duck duck goose (christmas christmas reindeer).

 He had a chocolate transformers cake.

 we really love him.  we got him a radio with a mike (because he loves to sing along to stuff)

 friday night amy's kids came over for a sleepover.  we went to look at christmas lights.  we walked around my neighborhood, the kids enjoyed it alot.  Especially Gavin who got to walk Josie the dog.   it is my christmas gift to amy - that she can have a night away from her kids at christmas so she can enjoy them more over the holiday.

 we read about jesus healing the bling man and the present was these silly sunglasses.

 i really love this picture.

 gavin enjoyed playing with josie.  i enjoyed that someone else was playing with josie.

 amber made most of breakfast.

 here we are!  i hope i don't ever have 6 kids!  yikes!

 we went for several walks.  to the library, to the store, to the park.

 amber and anna.  amber is always so sweet to help with the younger kids.

 we made gingerbread houses.  out of grahm crackers of course.

 anna and julia look so much alike lately, its crazy.  look, they both have the same mug shot.,

 jane (3)

 gavin (9)

 amber (8)

 anna's house.  it was awesome and she did it all by herself (i helped with a few ideas...but she did it!)

 evan's airplane.  very creative.  i love the gummi passengers.

 ambers shack.

 gavins war fortress.

 anna's house.

 jane

 julia

 evan

 we went to this park with a big hill.  we call it fish park, it's on 9800 S.  The kids ran around a lot, up and down the hill.  It was a good thing to do after making gingerbread houses.

 they tied josie up while they played.  what good pet takers.

 we went to the library for pokemon club.  here is gavin preparing for a pokemon battle.  unfortunately he couldnt' get his deck together before we had to leave.

 jane and julia.  not fighting (;

 evan bored at the library - baby stuff.

 then we read for a good 1/2 hour.

 checking in on gaving again.

we ended the day with a movie (which is what they actually wanted to do the whole time - i just kept putting it off).  amber and anna colored and listened to a CD on tape instead of watching a movie and julia took a nice long (seriously like 1 hour) bath (after she peed her pants).

it was a good time!  only 2 pee pee'd pants (both my girls), 2 broken things (josie's leash and a mason jar), 1 minor injury (julia stepped on broken mason jar glass), 6 happy kids and 1 happy aunt (so happy because I only have 2....not 4 children).