December

We finally got our tree all decorated and put where we wanted it.  It took me a long time to wrap lights around every single one of those branches.  Next year I'm going to count how many strands I use.  It's not as full as a fake tree and it definitely does not have fancy, matching ornaments but I would take this tree any day over all those fancy magazine-worthy Christmas trees.  I really loved our tree this year.

Stockton dressed up as Santa one night.  He's just missing a beard!

December was the month that we really enjoyed our fire every day.  With the colder temps outside, it just made it so cozy in the house.  I loved the warmth, the smell (just a faint woodsy smell, not like a campfire), the sound of it crackling, it all made for some really great ambiance for the season.  You will see a lot of pictures of us doing different things by the fire because it became the best spot in the whole house!

We made our Christmas playdough.  I only had green food coloring at first so we started with that.  Brynn didn't want to wait until I got to the store to get red coloring.  Also, I didn't have the gel coloring like I usually use, so it's not very Christmasy green but it worked.

Molly wanted to save her letter to Santa and send it off with Woody, our elf.  She wrote a very nice letter to Santa saying that she would like the game Rush Hour and gel pens but that she had already told grandma that she wanted them so would he please coordinate her presents with grandma?  She also asked for a chess set.

Setting up the train is a Justin and kids thing.  Ivy was especially excited this year to watch it go around the tree.

We took the kids to the creche exhibit in Midway where there were lots and lots of different nativities from different countries around the world.  The most amazing one took up the whole stage, literally, and was the whole city of Jerusalem.  It was amazing and incredibly detailed and we could have stayed and looked at that one for a long time if we wouldn't have had Ivy with us.

Right as we were heading out the door to go to the exhibit, Justin walked in...with a puppy!  He has been wanting one for a while but I've always put him off saying that we'll get one later.  I'm not sure when I would have ever committed to actually getting a dog so he decided to just do it and ask for forgiveness later.  I'm still undecided on whether or not I like having a dog but we have one now so there's not much I can do about it.  The kids were absolutely delighted with the surprise.

The kids came up with two names...Cash or Scout...but ultimately decided on Cash as a tribute to Justin and Molly's mutual love for Johnny Cash and Molly's birthplace of Cache Valley.  Cash is a mini Australian shepherd and I do admit that he's a pretty cute little puppy. The previous owner had told Justin that he liked to be held as a baby.

 There have definitely been some bumps in the road over the last two months with Cash but I am getting used to him.  The puppy stage is hard so I will enjoy him more when he's not a puppy anymore!

Brynn's gymnastics class was performing at the Gingerbread Festival.  Her "routine" consisted of somersaults and headstands but she was excited about it and it was cute to see her on stage with her class.

she is the small one...fourth in from the left

Since we were there, we walked around and saw all the amazing gingerbread houses.  They are put on auction and all the money raised goes to the Children's Justice Center.

this one was Hagrid's hut

this was "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

 Molly had a birthday party to hurry off to so Justin took her and Stockton which meant that Brynn got to decorate a gingerbread cookie for $1.

Once I got some red food coloring we made some red Christmas playdough.  I will have to remember to make sure to use the gel coloring so that it turns out more vibrant!

This is a total blackmail picture and I did not ask Justin to take it.  I was asked to play on a co-ed indoor soccer team and Justin could not get over my "outfit" before heading out for the first game.  I saved my indoor shoes and shinguards and I still had some socks but I had to borrow Justin's shorts, plus I layered with my boots, a hoodie, and my coat.  For some reason Justin thought it was hilarious and had to take a picture.  I've played with the team a hand full of times since then and I don't care what I look like-it is so great to get out and run around and play a sport that I love.  I have been having a great time!

When I got home from my game that night, I found my family eating pizza by the fire.  Justin was in charge of dinner since I was gone and the kids had been wanting a picnic by the fire so that's what they did-no plates or silverware but lots of smiles!

One of my favorite traditions is to watch the Christmas Devotional and eat caramel popcorn.  The messages and decorations are great but I really, really love the music the best.  The kids probably like the popcorn best.  Their attention wanes after not too long and it usually turns into a wresting match or a dance-off but it's good family time anyway.

A bright splash of yellow on a dreary day.  Brynn and Ivy on their way to church.

Ivy makes the cutest pouty face and I have yet to get it recorded.  It's so adorable and I have a hard time keeping a straight face when she starts in on her pouting.  Justin caught a glimpse of it one night at dinner.

Ivy found a cozy spot to read books one morning.  We pulled that huge fleece snowman blanket out to sit on during the Devotional and it stayed by the fire all month long.  Someday a nice, fluffy rug might get purchased and put there, but the blanket worked great for now!

We had all our shopping done early on in the season (thank you, Amazon Prime!) and we were running out of space in the top of our closet for hiding gifts so we went ahead and let the kids wrap their presents for each other.  This is something they LOVE to do-just look at those happy, smiling, excited faces!  I wondered how Ivy would do but she was so good and left them under the tree for the rest of the season.  And everyone succesfully kept the presents a secret until Christmas morning.

Some pictures I took of Ivy playing with Cash.

Brynn went over to Corbin's to play one afternoon.  Nicole sent me a text that said they were playing church and one of them was the Primary teacher and the other was the student.  This is the picture she sent me and I just love their outfits!

Our truck died one morning while I was sitting waiting for the bus with the kids.  It turned out to be the starter but we were down to one vehicle for about a week.  It was not really a big deal, if I needed a car, I would just drive Justin to work in the morning and pick him up in the evening.  If I was staying home, he would take the car.  That meant that we had a few afternoon walks to get Brynn from the bus.

Brynn is Cash's biggest fan.  She loves to lay on the floor and let him lick her all over and she'll just giggle and giggle.  Yesterday we caught her sharing a sucker with him.

We went to Plain City to see Tessa get baptized and Josie blessed (they did it on the same afternoon, which was awesome for us).  After the baptism and blessing we had lunch at the church.  Here are the grandkids of Lynn and Kay Moyes, oldest to youngest except Josie in the middle.  We've grown to 16 of them and that's most likely where it will stay.

Ben, Chloe, Molly, Abby, Gavin, Tessa, Josie, Grace, Stockton, Grant, Brynn, Spencer, Harper, Seth, Ivy, Lucy

Ivy had lots of fun watching Grandpa's train.  

For all of Stockton's life, he has been afraid of dogs but he has done well with having Cash around.  He didn't pick him up or sit next to him for a couple of days after we got him.  He also doesn't love Cash jumping on him, licking him, or nipping at him.

I found this handprint and footprint angel craft for the kids to do.  Brynn made hers one afternoon and I think it turned out adorable!

Stockton's still young enough that he wanted to make one too.  I love how they turned out and I actually saved them with all the Christmas decorations so that I could pull them out next year and years after that as well.  I'm hoping I can even talk Justin into making some frames for them so I can preserve them a little better and use them as part of our Christmas decor.

We opened our new book on the 12th.  This year we got Bear Stays Up for Christmas.

Stockton wanted a hair cut like Kris Bryant (a baseball player for the Cubs).  He has a mohawk, not on top but down the back.  Justin cut it like that and let him leave it for one week until the following Saturday (he wouldn't let him go to church like that).

Our 13th wedding anniversary was on December 13th.  We had gone out for dinner the previous Saturday when we were in Plain City for Tessa's baptism so we decided to go as a family to see the lights at Temple Square.  It was a mild night which ended up being a good thing because we left the bag with all the hats and gloves at home!  Luckily we still had our coats and we were able to stay warm enough for a couple of hours while we looked at the lights.

And the different nativities.

We took a break for some dinner at the food court in City Creek.  While we were there, we ran into our old ward's young men and young women.  I was never in YW's in that ward but Justin loved seeing some of his old young men and we both enjoyed seeing Bishop Palmer and giving him a big hug.  That ward was awesome!

And our night was awesome!  We're not always great at getting to Salt Lake during the busy Christmas season so I was glad we were able to make it work this year.

Ivy thinking she's a big girl and balancing on the rocking horse!

She also went through a stage where she wanted to do the dishes all the time. Everyone knows how much help an almost two-year-old is.  At least the floor gets clean under the sink!

Ivy and Daddy, December 15.

Molly's teacher had challenged the kids to bring in supplies for the Wasatch County food pantry.  I took the kids to Lee's before school and let them each pick out a couple of items that Molly could donate for our family.  I don't remember the final amount of items donated, but Molly sure was excited about it and I was grateful to her teacher for giving them a chance to serve the community.  I got this picture off of the school website.

Molly is in the second row (first row of standing kids), second in from the left.

The 2nd grade put on a great Christmas program this year..."A Cowboy Christmas."  Stockton had been learning the songs for a couple of months and he, along with the rest of the grade, knew all the words and put on an awesome show.  Stockton was in the very front row (on the bottom) so it was hard to see him but I ended up standing the whole time so I could watch my favorite, handsome 2nd grader.

My mom and dad had come up to watch Stockton's program and then they stayed over in a hotel so they could watch Brynn do her gymnastics the next morning.  Her coach/teacher had told me they were going to do a showcase performance and show everything they had been learning.  They didn't.  It was just a regular class but it turned out okay because they got to see her do way more than they would have had they been able to make it up for the gingerbread festival.  They were baby-sitting Bryce and Erin's kids so they ended up bringing Abby and Spencer and making other arrangements for Ben and Grace.  We had pizza, Abby helped us elf some of our ward members (Grandpa drove, Grandma stayed home with Spencer and Ivy, Justin was at the Star Wars premier for work), and then we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol and ate popcorn.  We don't get a lot of visitors besides grandparents so we always love when cousins come to visit!

Spencer, Stockton, Brynn, Grandma, Abby, Molly, Ivy, Grandpa

After they had gone to their hotel for the night, the kids decided that they wanted to sleep out under the tree so I got them all situated and settled for the night.  This is a tradition I hope they never grow out of!

Just a couple of hours after my parents left, we got some other visitors...Camille brought her three boys up to play and to meet Cash.  We had a fabulous day just relaxing and visiting with them.

Camille and Brynn

Brynn and Riley

We did get out and enjoy some snow.

Stockton and Cam

Brynn, Ivy, Riley

Riley, Ivy, Brynn

Brynn, Ivy, Molly

The kids really, really miss the awesome sledding hill that was just across the street from our Spanish Fork house but I guess this will do in a pinch!

Riley and Brynn worked on this Christmas drawing together...I just love it and I love them!  They are the cutest little cousin-buddies and I'm so glad my kids have cousins surrounding them that they love.

Here are some pictures of our "Christmas Karoake" night.  None of the kids would sing so Justin and I sang "Baby It's Cold Outside."  Molly was our photographer.

Hello Stockton!

Ivy loves apple juice.  I haven't usually given my kids juice but she isn't really a milk drinker and I was worried that she wasn't getting enough fluids so I started giving her half apple juice/half water in her sippy cuppy.  Well, she is hooked and now it's all she wants.  I give her apple juice in the morning and sometimes half a cup after her nap but other than that it's water or milk.  She calls it "apple goose."

Ivy also loves Dr. Pepper whenever daddy will share.

 I got to help in Brynn's class party.  It was a Polar Express pajama party and I was in charge of a game.  I found a cute little game called roll a reindeer.  They had to roll a die and build their reindeer depending on which numbers they rolled.  I thought it turned out super fun-it held the kids interest and took up the full amount of time.  And I love being in Brynn's class with her and watching her interact with her classmates.

I don't know all her classmates, but that is Taylee Baird, her very best friend this year

 I only have one piano student these days (Easton) but I still wanted to do a Christmas recital like I used to.  So I gave Easton a couple of Christmas songs as well as Molly and Stockton and for his lesson before Christmas we played Bingo and the kids played their songs for each other.  We invited Corbin and I had taught Brynn a very simple Jingle Bells so she could participate.  Bingo, M&M's, and dollar store prizes...doesn't take much to get these kids excited!

Corbin, Brynn, Molly, Stockton, Easton

I told Molly that we had to clean out her closet and bedroom before Christmas came as she would be cluttering it up with new presents.  She is a collector and it was getting bad and really starting to drive me crazy.  So we took advantage of one of our vacation days and tackled it while Ivy was napping.  It took a couple hours but we got her closet and all her drawers in tip-top shape and she was actually able to part with a lot of stuff-a whole garbage bag full!

I had planned on getting to Stockton's and Brynn's as well but they weren't as bad and we ran out of time to do them before Christmas.

Also during our break we had a friend party.  Each kid invited one friend and we also had Easton, Corbin, and Kennedy from our street come.  Molly invited Sloane Ellingford from our ward, Stockton invited Ben Lawson from his class, and Brynn invited Addy Starks from our ward.  They had planned and set everything out in different stations for it.  We had the Christmas playdough, popcorn with jelly beans, roll a reindeer (leftover from Brynn's class party), doughnut snowmen, Christmas Spot-It, Christmas books, Christmas coloring pages, Christmas charades, and I also kept a Christmas movie going while they played.  All the kids made a doughnut snowman, played charades, and colored a little but mostly they just played and ran around the house for a few hours.

Addy and Brynn

Sloane and Molly

Ben and Stockton

 Back in November our Relief Society had an activity where people came and shared some of their favorite holiday traditions.  One girl talked about their Bethlehem dinner that they have once a year and I really thought that sounded like a neat idea.  I looked around online and found some ideas but decided to keep it simple and we were able to do our Bethlehem dinner the Friday before Christmas.  Dressing up was completely optional but the kids decided they wanted to and they came up with the costumes on their own.  We basically just spread a blanket out by the fire and ate our food by firelight.  We ate cashews, grapes, olives, dried mangoes, cheese, summer sausage, popcorn shrimp (for fish), and rustic rosemary bread dipped in vinegar and oil.  Since we were right by the computer I pulled up mormon.org and we watched nativity videos.  Sometimes when you try new things and have high hopes for them, they can kind of be disappointing but this wasn't-everyone really liked it and I think I will keep trying to do this in years to come.  Hopefully as the kids get older we can get into some more spiritual discussions about Christ's birth...this year it was mostly about making sure Ivy didn't step on someone's food!

 

When I was growing up, we always did the 12 Days of Christmas to a family close to us and it is probably one of my favorite memories.  I have wanted to do it with my family but I didn't think we could actually pull it off since we are not usually at home every single night leading up to Christmas.  So I decided that during the month of December that we would "elf a neighbor" every Friday night.  Brynn and I would make cookies during the afternoon and then after dinner we would drive to the houses the kids chose (they each chose one family each week), leave the cookies on their doorstep, knock and run away.  We giggled lots and lots and I know they need a little bit of work on their sneaking but it was tons of fun and the kids loved it.

Ivy was so proud of the picture she made in nursery the previous Sunday!

It was also fun to make the Christmas cookies...I always find myself wanting to make different Christmas cookies the last few days leading up to Christmas but we would never eat that many cookies in such a short amount of time.  So I got to make the fun cookies, we shared them with friends, and we still had a few leftover but throughout the month rather than all in the same week!

I have sent Christmas cards once in my life-back when Molly was a baby and we were living in Logan.  I just did it because everyone else did but then I stopped because I didn't see the point since I was basically just sending them to my family who I saw all the time anyway.  Plus I started my blog shortly after that and they could see anything we were doing there.  Fast forward nine years, three kids, and four moves and we decided to do cards again.  Through the years we have met and made lots of dear friends and thought it was more justified.  So this was our card for 2016 that I just printed a Walmart (simple, cheap, and easy!):

 Merry Christmas from the Goodrich's!