Justin helped Ivy with her Legos when she woke up the day after Christmas. A new pair of Christmas pajamas (hand-me-down) but still going strong on Christmas Eve hair since I didn't do anything with it the day before.
Stockton and Brynn went outside to try out their new snowshoes. They didn't last too long but we did get out later that week for longer.
The kids were needing to get out and I wanted to do something together before Justin had to go back to work the next day so we took the kids to see the lights at Jordanelle. Maybe slightly less magical after Santa has visited but still exciting. The Festival of Lights is still our favorite drive-through light display (lots of good memories going there) but we just might do this one again. We also found the house in Heber that has the light display that coordinates with music and watched that for a bit before heading home.
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| Grace, Brynn, Tessa, Chloe, Abby, me, Erin M., mom, Erin W., Ali, Molly |
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| Ali, me, Erin M., Erin W. |
For my mom's Christmas gift, we gave her a girls temple and lunch date so we did that the following morning. I had never been to the Ogden Temple for a session since its open house so that was neat to see. And being in the temple with my sisters and mom was awesome and probably something we will do every year for Christmas-my mom would rather have that more than anything. We went to lunch at Kneaders and then I got the girls and we headed home. Brynn was tired after her late night of partying and slept for a good chunk of the drive.
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| Erin W., Erin M., me, mom, Ali |
The Sunday following Christmas is when the kids wear their new clothes from Grandma. This was our last week at 12:00 church and Ivy's last week as a Sunbeam.
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| Stockton will only wear white shirts so he got pants and a new tie. If you can't tell, his tie is a Jazz tie. |
I do like to keep the kids somewhat busy over the break-meaning something small every day to look forward to-but it didn't seem like we had as many days this year. On Monday, Molly worked her last shift as an elf so I took the other kids to the pool while she was doing that. Stockton initially wasn't too excited to go but had fun once we got there. He is a kid that will play with whoever is available since he's not great at entertaining himself. They played for a couple of hours while I watched and then we headed home.
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| Ivy jumping in. She is a fish. |
New Years Eve. Molly was invited to a party and decided she'd rather stay with us. That made me pretty happy! (Although it was a girl she doesn't know that well and she was unsure who would be there. She probably would have left us had the right person invited her. Still, I'll take it.) As per tradition, I took the kids to the store and had them pick out their dinner item. Our menu this year was: chips + queso (Justin), coconut shrimp (me), sushi (Molly), chips + dip (Stockton-like regular potato chips and french onion dip), french toast sticks (Brynn), and spaghetti (Ivy). I don't usually go to a lot of trouble to make something but all Ivy wanted was spaghetti so I caved for her. And then it was worth it because she ate at least three helpings that night and several more over the next few days until it was gone. The kids also requested Shirley Temple drinks-the third year in a row-so I'd call that a tradition!
I put the kids' names in two different jars-a jar for games and a jar for movies. Whoever had their name drawn got to pick the game/movie. We played Life (Brynn was surprisingly adept at being the banker and beat me handily), Enchanted Forest, Lego Harry Potter, and One Night Ultimate Werewolf (a Christmas gift from Brett that is better with a bigger crowd). We watched Cars, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and a couple episodes of The Mandalorian. Brynn didn't get to pick a movie so she got to the next time we had a movie night. We rang in the New Year at midnight-all kids were still awake!
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| Brynn's score |
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| my score |
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| Happy New Year! |
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