Ivy wanted to make our Christmas playdough right at the beginning of the month. She requested not only green and red playdough but white as well. We have never done white so that was new. She played all afternoon. The playdough didn't come out all that much this year so I'm not sure we'll do it next year, especially with all the kids being in school all day. We'll see. I've always thought it would be fun to make for a family of little kids, but then I never know who is okay with playdough and who isn't.
For Ivy's date with Justin, she picked to get Mod Pizza and go to the earring store. Justin tried to talk her into getting her ears pierced but she was not ready. She picked a whole bunch of clip-ons though! She also loved her pizza-she had her entire kids pizza eaten before Justin had finished half of his adult-sized pizza! She has a healthy appetite.
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| one pair of earrings |
Letters to Santa. Brynn wrote her letter first. She asked for film for her camera, makeup, and a surprise.
Stockton didn't write a letter to Santa this year, probably because of a conversation he had with Justin early in the season, if you know what I mean. But he did give me a list. (We talked about telling him when he got to middle school and Justin was the one to do it. He took it okay but I noticed that his eyes were red that night after he showered. He said he had just got soap in his eyes but later admitted to me that he was crying about the whole conversation. Gosh, talk about taking away his childhood. It about broke my heart...but, he is in middle school now and we didn't want him to be teased.)
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| Tech decks, speed tracking baseball, nerf guns, skate tool, helmets/pads, vans clothes, skate game for nintendo |
Ivy did hers. She asked for face paint and two surprises.
Molly skipped this activity.
We were assigned to clean the church the first Saturday in December. It was easy because most of church is un-used these days. We took a basketball and stayed after to play in the gym for a while.
Christmas Devotional + caramel popcorn. We were having trouble getting service on our big TV downstairs so ended up in our room, for the second year in a row. Maybe next year we'll get to go back to the family room. I also tried a new recipe that we liked a lot better than the old one that hadn't been turning out for me.
Devotional shenanigans that make me laugh:
Ivy found the best spot to read one night. My little girls always sit here after a bath to let their hair dry.
Justin likes to wrap the sibling presents as soon as they are all purchased and delivered. The kids are never not okay with this plan. It is always a Justin project which is totally okay with me. One by one, the kid who they are wrapping for has to come downstairs and hang out with me. Then they get one shake before they put it under the tree until Christmas morning. They have a lot of fun and get really excited about what each other is getting.
That night was also the night to open our new Christmas book. This year's book was called "Pick a Pine Tree." I thought it was fitting because it is one of our favorite traditions. In the past few years, it's been harder and harder to read our books at night because of our busy schedule but this year Justin read more than usual. Ivy made sure to remind him every night and I think he only missed a couple of nights, even if it was just read to Ivy.
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| it was Ivy's turn to open this year |
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| this is just too cute not to include here |
Ivy got out all the stuffed animals from her and Brynn's rooms, got out the hair bows, put a bow on each stuffed animal, and lined them all up against the couch. I was cleaning up bows and stuffed animals for the rest of the week! This is the picture she wanted me to take. There is also a picture of something she drew, although I don't know what it was or when she drew it.
It was an off-year for a Moyes Christmas Eve. Two years ago, we solved this problem by having a party at our house and thought we would do this every other year. This year, we adjusted just a little to be "covid-safe." We still met at our house but we bundled up, had a huge bonfire, and played night games outside. My mom and I had both made a big crockpot of soup and my sisters helped with breadsticks and fruit. (We had the food inside but mostly ate outside.) We had 5-gallon bucket of hot chocolate outside. I had bought 50 glowstick bracelets at the dollar store. The cousins exchanged their gifts and we gave my parents the gifts we had bought together. It turned out to be such a fun night-I think we might do this again, even when covid is done. I am so glad my family adjusts well and gets along so well.
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| Bryce, Jeff, Molly, Justin |
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| Ivy, Lucy, Josie |
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| Justin, Molly, Ben, Gavin, Abby, Grandpa, Grace, Chloe |
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| Stockton got Tech Decks and Jazz socks |
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| Ivy got a bead-bracelet maker |
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| Brynn got a unicorn purse and lip gloss. Great photo-bomb by Uncle Bryce |
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| Molly got a Pura-Vida bracelet and candy |
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| playing our duet for Grandma |
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| Ivy insisted on this headband because the model on the computer was wearing it. |
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| 17 years! |
We got a good laugh when Brynn made a cucumber tower at dinner one night. You can see that her actual dinner was fairly measly that night since I had made shrimp curry, which she won't eat. So she got rice with sauce and her cucumbers and veggies with ranch.
Molly and Stockton had their holiday percussion concert. They played lots of fun Christmas songs with the band. Stockton even got a solo on the snare drum at one point!
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| Combined with the orchestra. Both of my kids are in the back-Stockton in the lime green jacket and Molly a few kids to the right, in a green shirt. |
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| Molly cannot wait for percussion to be over |
As a child, I enjoyed oranges sprinkled with powdered sugar. It's the way my mom ate oranges growing up and that's how she served them to us. These days, our family prefers clementines or cuties but I had bought a big box of oranges when they were on sale and thought I would introduce the snack to my girls who like oranges. Molly thought it was weird and wouldn't even try it. Ivy said she would try it, ate a section, said she liked it, and then didn't eat anymore. So probably a no-go for the future. 
Here's a picture of Molly doing her job as an elf. I told her she had to get at least one picture and to take it with a friend if she was embarrassed to do one of just her. She loves this job!
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| Molly and Samantha Steiner |
For our Christmas cookie plate, we made Christmas cornflake wreaths, peppermint brownies, and brown sugar caramel cookies. We filled up several paper plates and went out to do our elfing or jingling. (Some of my kids call it elfing and some call it jingling.) Ivy says this is her favorite tradition and talked about it all month long. Even Molly hung around a little longer on a Friday night to do this with us before hanging out with friends.
Brynn was invited that night to a new girl's house. We hadn't been letting the kids hang out with friends since before Thanksgiving because we didn't want to miss out on being with family for the holidays but we made an exception this night because she was a new girl and we wanted her to feel welcome. It looks like they had a great time, by looking at these photos.
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| I don't know all of these girls but most of them have been in Brynn's class since 1st grade. They are a cute bunch. |
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| they did a $5 gift exchange |
Molly had been wanting to get rid of her green wall as part of her room remodel but she didn't necessarily want to just paint it another color. She thought for a while that she would paint a mountain mural on the wall but she gradually decided that might be a bit of a hard project. Plan B was to put up some weathered wooden planks. She paid for half of them and she helped with every bit of the project. It actually only took them few hours-and it turned out really great! It was quite the transformation and Molly was so happy with the end result. I only took pictures of the middle of the project-I need to go down and take an updated, finished shot. One of these days I will. She is still deciding on what kind of artwork she wants on that wall.
While Justin and Molly were working on their project in the basement, Stockton was working on his own little projects-of course with cardboard. He has a huge collection that he keeps on his top bunk. He made the cutest handmade gifts for grandparents-one was a manger with a scripture from Luke 2 and the other was an angel with a different scripture from Luke 2. He really is the sweetest boy sometimes.
I made Christmas crepes that night. It wasn't necessary but I thought, since I did it last year, I'd try to find a time to do it this year. Saturday has gradually become our breakfast-for-dinner night because I can make a huge batch of something (pancakes, waffles, crepes) and then have enough for the entire week of early morning breakfasts. The girls and Stockton ate this while Justin, Molly, and I got Thai curry take-out.
The kids had asked me a million times when we were going to do our Bethlehem Dinner but I like to do that closer to the actual day of Christmas. So we did it the Sunday evening before Christmas. Ivy and Brynn got dressed up as Mary and an angel with Molly's help. Stockton and Molly sort of put something together for the two of them. We had our traditional Bethlehem Dinner fare while watching nativity vidoes-and surprisingly getting so full! The kids attempted to act out the nativity but it wasn't too successful.
The kids slept under the tree after we got everything cleaned up from our Bethlehem Dinner. We told them they could pull out the mattresses but they would have to put the back before 10 am the next morning. They were willing to meet that condition. I will be honest-it took a lot of work to get them all happy with their spots and all situated but finally, finally they were tucked in. This picture looks so peaceful and makes me glad they still want to do this, despite the drama that is involved sometimes.
The kids had a super long Christmas Break. Their last day was the 18th, a whole week before Christmas which meant I had to keep them busy for all those days before Christmas. Monday was Christmas craft day. Brynn and Ivy had picked specific crafts but I hadn't taken the time to get all the supplies. So I declared it paper plate craft year. I had several options for them to make and let them go to town. On Monday Ivy made a rudolph and a Christmas tree, Brynn made a wreath, and Stockton made a Santa face.
I told them I would leave the craft supplies out for two days and then we were going to clean them up. They both made crafts the next day as well. Brynn made a Rudolph while Ivy made a wreath in the morning and then after lunch they both made angels. Stockton was done after one craft and Molly had worked on the train both days.
I've mentioned that I have the kids work on their goals for their chores. When they go to school, they just have to work on one of the goal categories (intellectual, physical, social, spiritual) that day. When they don't have school, they have to do something from all four categories. This has worked for our family and seems less overwhelming for their mom, wink wink. Physical is a little tricky during the winter and my little girls almost always revert to some Go Noodle videos on YouTube. They especially love "Run the Red Carpet."
The 23rd, or Christmas Eve-Eve, is always our day to decorate cookies for Santa. Nothing new this year. They each pick their favorite to leave out for Santa the following night.
After dinner that night, we drove around Heber to look at lights. I had a candy cane for everyone to suck on while we hunted for good lights and we listened to Christmas music while we drove. Molly wasn't feeling well so we cut it to an hour, came home and got everyone to bed.
I don't have any pictures of Christmas Eve day but it consisted of watching all the movies we hadn't watched yet and making all the food for that night and the following day.
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