Monday Memories

Every Christmas Eve, for many years, Ben and I would sit down and make a plan. The object being to spend the night camped out in the family room waiting for Christmas morning. I don't think we were ever trying to catch Santa Claus. I think we always knew that mom and dad were the real givers.  Anyway the first obstacle to get over was getting past ANNA. DUH DUH DUH! Anna and I shared a room and a bed and Ben and David shared a room. David always went out like a light so it was easy for Ben to sneak out of bed and army crawl his way into my room, around the bed, and slide between the doll bed (a very uncomfortable folding bed used for dolls) and our bed and tap me on the shoulder. If Anna heard so much as a cracked knuckle she would be wide awake and scolding Ben to get out of our room. Sometimes we would go through this many time before Anna was sound asleep and we could proceed with our plans, and sometimes Anna's heart would be softened and she would let us do our thing. The hall light was usually left on and we lay on the floor peeking through the door that was left open a crack and we would wait until Mom and Dad had gone to bed. One time we snuck upstairs and hid in the laundry room, looking under the door, and waiting for our parents to go up to their room.. Then we would sneak down the hall, barley breathing, and ooo and ahh at the presents under the tree and feel our full stockings. I don't know how we could stand it, but we never took our stockings down, or ate the candy until everyone was up. It was somehow against the unwritten rule. This plan was the most successful one, but often we tried more daring variations. We would try to make mom and dad believe that we were going to bed early (yeah right!) and we would hide behind the Christmas tree so we could actually witness the filling of the stockings. This never worked because it was impossible to stay quiet and still with all those pine needles poking you. Plus Ben would always have to sneeze and then the jig was up. Once we tried hiding behind the couch. Again it was impossible to be quiet and still long enough to actually see what our parents were up to. I thing we even tried hiding behind the piano once. No good. We were always caught and sent to bed. So we went back to the trusty "wait till they're in bed" plan. It was so hard to wait until a decent hour to wake everyone up! We would chop kindling and bring in a lot of wood the day before.so we could build a silent fire and wait until at least five and then sound the alarm! It's funny how exciting and magical Christmas felt, even when the presents were wrapped and under the tree days before hand. Even when we knew that Santa was really just Mom and Dad. 

May's Chrismas Concert

 Here's a great shot of May and LoraBelle at the Christmas concert. They are best friends/cousins.

Then, whoever was in charge made a great choice and put May front and center. Do you see how everyone around her is just awed by her presence? The boy on the left is singing "Ah sweet mystery of life at last I've found thee!" and the boy on the right is shyly fingering the seam in the stage trying desperately to think of something clever to say... Okay, maybe I'm just seeing things, but isn't she just the cutest kindergartner ever?

Whether you agree or not, she did a great job and we are proud of our little May. 

Thanksgiving

We traveled to Provo and really enjoyed Thanksgiving with Ben and Amy. We had so much fun and food that we really didn't take too many pictures, but we got some really cute videos of the kids.

      

Here are some highlights:

Playing Bang with the fam

Seeing Lynnette and Kelly

LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Temple Square lights

"The Savior of the World"

All the kids being so funny and sweet

Swimming

My very first Black Friday shopping trip. It wasn't as bad as I thought is would be.

Thomas staying up all night. Sorry!

We had such a great time and all the food was sooo yummy! Thanks Ben and Amy!

 

Do you remember?

Do you remember when you were a kid and you would sit staring out the window groaning about being bored and your mom would give you a bunch of fun ideas and you would have an excuse why you didn't want to do any of them and then she would give you a bunch of chores that needed to be done and your boredom was magically cured? Yeah. I wish that still worked. The chores must be done, and most of the fun is geared toward or involves towing three kids along. I wanna be a kid again! Oh yeah... today is supposed to be my thankful day. Today I'm thankful for, and missing, my carefree childhood, and I'm glad I can give a carefree childhood to my kids. The End.