Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Morning:

Max kept changing what he asked Santa for. He saw 2 of them this year. At first he said a Hanny Manny and then he asked the SkullCandy Santa for a camera.

Action shot! I love these little pop guns. Rachel and I had some when we were little.

Getting excited while the presents are being sorted

This year we each took one of the boys to find a present for their brother and other parent. It was kind of a trick to get them to decided. I don't know how it when with Max. But Zac didn't want to get Max anything that he himself would want. I didn't quiet get that. So it took a while to explain the best way to pick a present for Max.

This year Max gave Zac a motorcycle launcher.

Max got Daddy a black skinny tie.

We watched StarWars last month and the boys really started getting into it. It is fun for them to be into different stuff. They also got light sabers.

Jon gave Emily some SkullCandy Headphones

Zac got Daddy a new watch battery. 

Grandma and Poppa Munk got the boys books that had their voices recorded so they could hear their grandparnets read them a book! It was very cool!

Max thanking Zac for his Tonka Chuck toys

Emily getting Christmas Money!

Zac REALLY excited-I don't know for what...

The traditional bow on the head pic

One of the partnerships Jon has through work, also works with Xbox, so they sent us one for Christmas!

The boys love having somewhere to play and color. This table is meant to be colored on, but it has confused Max some. He colored all over a few things that shouldn't have been. Luckily they cleaned up easy.

 His Buzz Lightyear gear.

This is on Sunday but Zac loved his Iron Man Helmet and Sponge Bob laptop.

Jon's Gift:

Its getting to the point that all Jon's wants/needs are sooo expensive. I debated for a long time what I was going to get him. I pretty much just had one thing to open, so I decided to gag wrap it so it felt like he had more to unwrap.

Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

"Yay, another box..."

Box 4

Box 5

I thought he would've figured it out at this point. Its a box from AT&T...

A new iPhone 4G!

This little thing in that big box.

Of course, no pics of Mom-I'm the one taking them :)  I got a new purse, some shirts, kitchen gadgets, books, makeup and hair stuff.

After we cleaned up we skyped with the Munk grandparents. And I made 2 cheesy potato casseroles and 3 pie crusts. Then we headed out to my parents for dinner, games and more presents.

Zac looks so big in this picture!

I love how the presents are piled on Max. The pic doesn't capture the full effect.

 My family made us a huge checker board. Its a blanket with huge checkers. It was fun to play!

I haven't been very good about taking pictures of what we've been doing. And I can't believe I didn't get pictures of everyone else that night. It was nice to have the whole family there!

Christmas Eve: Dinner and Wrap Up

This year we tried to perfect our Bethlehem Night. We read Luke 2 and watch "Joy to the World". Then we share our testimonies about Christ.

The idea of dressing up as shepherds has been something that we want to do, but we haven't been organized enough to make it happen. Max's shepherd wear did stay on very long.

Then we have food that doesn't need cooking, of a more humble sort, I suppose. With little kids its not so realistic for us to eat the same food that was had in Bethlehem during the time Christ was born. So we made some adjustments. We had fruit, lunch meat, pepperoni, cheeses, peanuts, flat bread, hummus and water. I thought it was pretty good!

Then after we cleaned up, the boys open brown paper gifts. They each get 2: pajamas and church items. This year they each got a church coloring book and a package of picture cards of the temple, and Christ's life.

I had this goal of making the boys pajamas each year. I made really soft pajama pants last year, but I just couldn't motivate myself to do it this year. I did try though. I shopped for fabric, but I couldn't find the kind I wanted or at a price I was willing to pay. So I decided we'd just buy them, it would cost less and there was no time or commitment.  Also, it was hard to shop for fabric when I live 40 mins from the nearest fabric store and all the other December busyness. I wanted a really soft minky type fabric, that was double sided. But I couldn't find any good designs that were double sided. And I wasn't willing to put the time in to line them.

We made chocolate chip cookies. And they got all dressed in their pajamas and ready for bed. Max had his shirt on backwards :)

Haha, I love how Zac is almost strangling Max.

After the boys went to bed, I set to work making breakfast. It took a bit longer than I expected. I made some syrupy apple rolls, that were not as good as the claim was :(  They sit over night in the fridge and then bake them in the morning. Jon and Emily watched the Santa Clause 2. And we all had a Christmas Eve toast before we went to bed.  A while later, with time consuming un-packaging Santa had arrived!
 

Christmas Eve: Gingerbread House

The day before Christmas Eve, my neighbor and friend, Sharalyn, decided we should make gingerbread houses. She started everything going and invited me over.  She found a printable stencil online and recipe. I loved making stained glass windows with hard candy.

 I had some sugar cookie dough left over from earlier in the week so we made the rest of that too.

The boys had fun frosting their own cookie.

We ran out of time to decorate. So on Christmas Eve afternoon, I assembled the house and everyone else decorated it while we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  My friend had a GREAT royal icing recipe. It was thick and soft and it worked perfectly and easily.

We had so much left over Halloween candy (I missed the donation date), that I didn't buy any candy to decorate the house. It was great! And it required a little more creativity, it was fun.

The Front. Dum-dums, candy necklace pieces, and bubble tape were the lamp posts, made by Jon.

 I love the skittles on the roof. It was the most traditional part of the decorating. Emily made bushes out of gumballs and jawbreakers, the chimney out of a tootsie roll log, and grass out of green jolly ranchers.

 Jon made a "snowman" out of lollipops with the sticks cut off, firewood out of almond joys, and a friendly life size slug out of billy bob gummy teeth, and candy sticks for antennae.

The boys put "gravestones" in the backyard with the candy watch/bracelet faces. And white mystery nerds were snow. Max also wanted to put that red candy on the back and a window out of candy sticks.

It was honestly the best looking gingerbread house we've made. Graham Crackers can't compare to real gingerbread! But of course, it was just for the activity-it didn't get eaten.

Christmas Eve: Snow Fort

With Jon's work being so busy, he hasn't had much time to play in the snow with the boys. On Christmas Eve Jon and the boys spent all morning outside. They (Jon) made a snow fort around the picnic table.

 The boys just played around, while Daddy did all the work!

 I don't have pics, but they had a big snow ball fight. Then snacks and hot cocoa in the fort. Jon also pulled the boys around on a sled in the huge back yard.

Then we headed to Provo for a couple last minute errands and to pick up Emily, Jon's sister. She spent the weekend with us.

A Weather Post

The "train of storms" coming from around Hawaii and hitting California, have also been making their way around here!

This is SATURDAY MORNING:

 Jon went skiing that morning before we headed to Provo to finish shopping. The sweet lady across the street came over and said, your hubby's always gone when its time to shovel. And she brought her snowblower over to finish the job. I was so thankful!!

SUNDAY NIGHT:
Then it started raining mid-day on Saturday. It rained and rained and rained and rained. This is what the yard looked like on Sunday night. All that snow was melted by the rain.

MONDAY MORNING:
Then is snowed over night and I shoveled again on Monday. It was still snowing, and about a half inch accumulated by the time I finished. This pic is after I finished shoveling.

TUESDAY MORNING:
Then is snowed more over Monday night. This is what this morning, Tuesday, looked like.

Jon shoveled half the driveway before he left for work. (Its kind of hard to tell, but it is a long drive way.) He shoveled the right side. I found out later that he was going to do the rest when he got home. And he feels really bad that I shoveled the other side of the driveway. But it needed to be done, and if it continued to snow it would be that much harder to shovel later. So I just did it.

It was pretty hard. The snow was heavy. There was too much snow to push the shovel through. It was more than a foot of snow. I had to just scoop each shovel amount. It took 4-5 overflowing scoops to get across half the drive way. But luckily it only snowed a few more inches after Jon left for work. That side was so much easier. I didn't shovel the sidewalk, the lady across the street said she would do it with her snow blower, so I hope she does. Its not done yet.

I made this into a little sledding hill. The boys had a good time, even Max! Hopefully, he'll like it better than last year.

It is garbage day. The garbage man left the trash can on this mound of snow. I could barely reach the handles without getting in the snow.

Snowed up to the bottoms of the swings.

Snow on the picnic table

It took me like an hour to finish. And I wanted to quit so bad. I've never shoveled this much snow. My muscles are so tired! I should learn the correct posture for shoveling so it will be a full body workout. The boys loved to pull out their bikes and pull toys and play in the driveway and snow.

MoTab and David A

Last weekend we were able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, in SLC. David Archuleta was the guest singer. It was a pretty good time. We went with Rachel and Jeremy, they had just gotten into town a couple days before. It was good to get to do a double date with them. We sure miss them now that they live in Phoenix.

Our seats were in the Tabernacle, since there was such a high demand for tickets this year. We wanted to have plenty of time to eat before the show and still get to our seats so they wouldn't be given away to standby. But with an unexpected work issue that came up, we weren't going to have enough time to eat. Gratefully, Jon drove through Wendy's so I could get something to hold me over. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to go to downtown SLC on a busy cold night, with traffic and pedestrians all over, and hard to find parking where you have walk blocks to the building. But Jon was able to help me loosen up and just enjoy. It was a great performance.

Jon putting out fires at work. 

I never watched American Idol the year David was on, so I didn't really see him perform. But he was amazing. I was so surprise at how much I enjoyed listening and watching him.  It was a good show.  There were also 6 ladies sitting on the row behind us, that had come from all over the country just to see David. They were between the ages of 30 and 65.

The ladies on the row behind us

They had all met on blogs. One lady had a map and had all the ladies sign their name on the location they were from. As well as find other ladies they met online in different seats in the tabernacle. They had seen the show the night before too. This was their second time. While David was singing "Silent Night" and hit the high note, one of the ladies behind us gasped, and was sobbing....interesting.. but nonetheless, it was very moving to listen to the music.

Saving seats for Rachel and Jeremy. I think it took them 2 hours to get to SLC from Provo. The traffic was so bad. She says Phoenix has tons more people and traffic, but at least it moves.

Rachel and Jeremy

After the performance we went to Red Rock Brewery for dinner. Good food. Then we got home about 11:30. I think that was the longest we'd ever hired a babysitter. She was here for 7.5 hours.

Personal Reflections

The last 2 weeks I've been writing in my personal, hardback, spiral, handwritten journal. I don't write in it very regularly. My first entry in this book was 2 days before Zac was born. Then the next time was when Zac was 6 months. Since then, I've written it in here and there. In it, I've written routines I'd like to follow, basic to do lists, how I can be better, goals, New Years resolutions, things I want to learn or accomplish in life, timelines, things I stress about, etc. I basically write it in when I am in a reflective mood (when I give myself time to be), when I am worried or stressed, or when I'm trying to make changes in life.

I've been overwhelmed lately, with changes I am trying to make, stresses of life, and the things that I don't get accomplished each day. So I decided, in order to better see the things I do finish, the blessings I do have, and the things I do accomplish I would write in my journal at the end of each day. I have been recording the Lord's tender mercies, blessings and accomplishments.

Some of them include, the starter in car not being broken, Jon hitting revenue goals at work, finding lip gloss in my purse after I've left the house without it, a friend calling, mopping the floor, filing papers, Zac passing off his sight words and being such a good helper, a beautifully warm sunny day and a Pepsi, not missing Jon too much as he is busy with work, going to the gym, recovering from being lost while teaching my RS lesson, Max taking more regular naps, an amazing Oreo shake, successful new dinner recipes, actually making dinner, finding a great sale on a gift, my brother willing to go out of his way to help me, answered prayers in only the way the Lord knows how, and lots more.

It has really helped me to focus on the positive and think of how blessed I am. I have been more patient, less weepy, in a better mood, and more capable of handling burdens these last 2 weeks. I am working to change my general pessimism-its hard.

Something else I've been trying to do is focus on my kids.  I hear stories of other people's kids who say the funniest things. I hadn't noticed my kids getting to the stage yet, or I wasn't open to seeing it. I've been trying to pay attention more. Today on the way home from church, Max had a reindeer treat and in his little voice he said, "he has a tiny nose!" instead of shiny! It was the cutest thing.  And while saying his personal prayers tonight, Zac said, "we are grateful for Jesus' babe". I adore my little boys.

And the other day while I was making sugar cookie dough after the boys were in bed, I opened the draw to find this:

It made me so happy to know that I have two darling little boys asleep upstairs, and that I am their Mommy.  The more time that passes, the more I realize how much I need to cherish today and embrace the trials of it too. It makes for better tomorrows.