Holland is here to help me talk about our Christmas festivities.
So the night before um...um...don't write um! Undo it, okay?
One night Mommy and Daddy were having special hot cocoa on the night before the start of the Christmas season. They made a fun advent calendar because we couldn't go up to Utah to have Christmas with our grandparents. So they made it extra special. And it was kind of a present. And it was a surprise for the kids!
On the first day of the Christmas season, we setted up the tree and decorated it. We took a time lapse video. It was extra cool.
One day in the Christmas season, me, Miriam, Ellie, and Darcy had a cuddle time!
The next morning after the night when Mommy and Daddy had special hot cocoa, they said they had a surprise for us. And when we were down, we took a picture. We were so excited! On the first day we did one of the envelopes, we were so excited, we could hardly wait and get our excited thing. On the outside of the envelopes said the date with a gold star. On the inside was the activity that we were going to do. All I remember what some of them were Santa shake, candy cane hunt, snowball fight, December 1st party, dinosaurs drive through, dinner with candles. It was fun!
This was the December 1st party. The kids got new jammies for an early Christmas present.
We read a Christmas story too.
This is a picture of the kids wearing their new jammies. I'll tell you what the color of their jammies were: red and white. Mommy had a red and white night gown when she was a kid.
This is Mommy wearing her red and white nightgown when she was a child!
This my other puzzle, I got for Christmas last year from Grandma. Me and Mommy made it together.
This is the dinosaur drive through. These are some of the dinosaurs. And if you can't see, there is more dinosaurs in the back of the picture! We listened to facts about the dinosaurs as we drove through it.
It was crazy because I rode in the front seat with Daddy while he was driving, and I was terrified when I saw the T-Rex!
So this is a dinosaur. One of the dinosaurs, actually. Here's a fact about the T-Rex: T-Rex's eat meat, which is really bad for humans. But these dinosaurs weren't alive, even the T-Rex.
This is the Giganotosaurus. I hope that's the right spelling.
This is the T-Rex. I was terrified when we got close to it. And here is a fact about it: it escaped! Man, the T-Rex is big!
For every dinosaur they asked us a question and we had to guess the answer. Ellie got the most right so she was the winner of our car. She got a certificate. (Mommy here: this was such a fun, social distanced activity that we could all do safely. It was nice to get out of the house and do something unusual as a family.)
This was our hot cocoa bar night. We got a candy cane, whipped cream, and sprinkles in our hot cocoa.
This night I was reading, and I was using Daddy for a back rest. That's pretty funny!
Miriam was cuddling Darcy girl. And I'll tell you which is which. The littler girl is Darcy. And the bigger girl is Miriam. Darcy is the baby.
Miriam wanted Mommy to take this picture because it looked like she was in a meadow of flowers with a bunny in her hands. That's my sister!
One day we did family pictures plus a hike kind of. It was fun!
I know what this one is! This was when we had a Christmas tree sleep over. Too bad Ellie left because she couldn't sleep. We watched the Grinch from our sleeping bags. It was an advent activity.
This wasn't an advent activity. Me and Mommy built a castle made of magnet tiles! It was fabulous and fun!
That's crazy me! That's me being a super hero, and having a bag, and kitty ears, and my mermaid headband, and socks (finally).
This is when we did ice skating with socks as an advent activity.
This is when Sophie and Oliver came over and watched the Grinch with us. They stayed for two days because their parents went on a trip without them to go to Louisiana for a funeral. (Mommy here: Erica's mom died unexpectedly from Covid-19.)
This is when Sophie and me did school together. It was fun. Giggle, giggle.
I made a picture in school while she was here. And do you know what's crazy that happened here? Sophie lost one tooth!
This is Miriam's yearbook picture that we had to take.
This is my yearbook picture.
This is when we painted salt dough ornaments for the tree. Sophie and Oliver each got to take an ornament home.
This is when we went to the park, and we raced on the grass. It was fun except I only won one race.
We built a fairy house. Two fairy houses.
I got two, right?
This is a picture of Darcy nursing. How cute!
That skinny baby which is Darcy. The onesie that she has on is from an early Christmas present when Mommy and Daddy told us we were having a baby.
Exactly one year before.
One year later!
This is Miriam with a beautiful picture.
This was my note to Miriam.
When I just saw it again, when I saw what Miriam wrote, I felt bad because of what I wrote. It's okay to tell her it was mean. It's okay, myself.
This is a note from Miriam to Daddy She thought the bathroom looks beautiful. And it still is!
This is me doing a trick (Mommy here: I think all of our girls have done a version of this very trick).
One night we saw a special star alignment. It's called a Christmas star. Jupiter and Saturn were so close in the sky together that they were extra bright compared to the other planets. It's really rare. We hiked up on the foothill to see it and did a little night hike.
This is Daddy, Miriam, Ellie, and me pointing to it.
This is Mommy and Darcy with the star.
Here is an extra photo of it with no one in it, so you can see it.
When we got home we had Santa Shakes.
Santa shakes had peppermint ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles of course.
The next Santa shakes were a different flavor. They were egg nog flavored with whipped cream and nutmeg.
This is Miriam holding Darcy by Mommy's bed. Miriam is leaning against it. Miriam thinks Darcy is cute, I bet.
That's Ellie holding Darcy. Mommy gave the girls haircuts. Darcy is wrapped up with her special blanket that Ellie crocheted for her.
We got a BINGO paper one day and we took a picture of the BINGO papers with us in front of the tree. We did what the Bingo paper said: to light the world we did service things. It was great.
This is the night that we did a candle light dinner for our advent calendar. We had a candlelit dinner because it was the darkest day of the year, the winter solstice.
We baked bread to serve others. We gave it to our neighbors and friends. We gave some to my teacher.
This is a note to Mommy and Daddy. It said, "increteabull (incredible) Mommy and strong Daddy."
This is Mommy's birthday picture. She's 33 years old. Actually 34. This is Mommy's birthday dinner picture. It's coconut shrimp. It was pretty yummy. I remember one night when we ate Mommy's birthday dinner. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Robin Hood. At least I think that's the name. Back to the 34 birthday, we ate creme brulee french toast for breakfast. It was SO good!
This is when Grandma and Grandpa were here and Mommy was going to open her presents. It was exciting for her! It was exciting for me too!
I gave her some chocolate. Before that she opened others' presents. All I remember is that Ellie got her some shirts. Miriam gave Mommy some fancy chocolate ice cream. Before Mommy opened her present I told her it was a phone. Giggle, giggle. Mommy needs a new phone because it is kind of breaking a little! (Mommy: I have had to factory reset it a couple of times. Ugh!)
This was a special present from Daddy--a game! The game name is Parks.
To: the most beautiful, caring, wonderful, amazing, woman in the world! I love you with my whole heart! I want to go all these places with you! Love, John That's the note! Giggle, giggle. No, just one giggle.
Ellie is going to describe this one: I was doing 'heavy, heavy, hang over' on Mommy. I got her a blue sweater. In the background, the three Christmas village houses under the clock were claimed by me, Miriam, and Holland as our favorites. Mine is the far left one. Miriam's is in the middle. Holland's is on the right. I liked mine a lot because it had a balcony and arches on the front porch. The Christmas village on top of the white cabinets was our Sea Shore Christmas Village. The closest one is the light house. On top of the china cabinet was our city area and shops, including the town hall and the clock tower. On top of the organizer was the smaller shops. There was a quilt making shop, and a chocolate making factory which was fun because it had a flat roof that we could set some figurines on.
Still Ellie: I really liked making the banner, although it was hard when I got out the light board to trace the P's and discovered it made it backwards. Whoops!
Ellie: I was very surprised when Mommy picked a caramel gelato cake for her birthday because normally she would pick a chocolate cream pie or something, but it was a happy surprise!
Holland: This is the nativity in our family and grandparents. Okay, so Grandpa is the shepherd. I am one of the sheeps. And there are two stuffed animal sheeps. Daddy is Joseph. Mommy is Mary. Grandma and Ellie are the wise men. Miriam is the angel, and Darcy is Jesus! Cutie pie! For Christmas Eve dinner we had yummy bratwurst roasted veggies and salad and homemade buns.
So this is the rice pudding, finding almond contest picture. I won the contest because I found the almond. I found it but kept losing it in my cup. I couldn't eat the rest of mine though. (Mommy here: I made a nicer version of rice pudding that was a cheesecake rice pudding, but had to settle for storebought raspberry jam. All the adults seemed to love it anyway. Mom and Dad ate it all up!)
I am holding the almond on my spoon. All the kids seemed delighted except Darcy. She's like, "What??"
This is us going downstairs on Christmas Day. We couldn't look down the stairs because Mommy and Daddy wanted our presents to be a surprise. I was so, SO excited! And I bet the girls were too!
I like this picture. Me and Ellie got new bikes! And pajamas. Darcy seems delighted too in this picture. And Miriam and Ellie, and Me.
I like all those presents behind us. Ellie was surprised because the biggest present wasn't for her. It was for Darcy! What was in it was a Bumbo with a tray.
I don't know what to write here. Giggle, giggle.
Awww...Darcy had a little present thing, which means she was a present for us. A bow!
Darcy is in her bumbo present.
David and Patti gave us a BYU shirts. Darcy seemed to like her BYU shirt. For Christmas Breakfast we had eggs, waffles, sausage, and fruit.
Ellie gave me a Dr. Seuss collection, Six by Seuss. I also got some Magformers, a puzzle, a watercolor book, a sticker book. Miriam got a sticker book too. Ellie got a watercolor book too. Ellie and Miriam got shelves and lights for their bunk bed! Miriam got Walkie Talkies. It was funny because they accidentally talked to each other on the police channel. Giggle, giggle.
I gave Miriam some oil pastels. Miriam gave Ellie a watch. Ellie gave Darcy her old watch and she loves it! Mommy got some shirts, a Magnolia cookbook, an apron from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (she's good at cooking and kitchens). Daddy got a hardware organizer, flexible drill bit, grill scraper, maple syrup, and nacho cheese sauce.
This was Christmas dinner--delicious! We had potatoes, fancy maple pork roast, confetti corn, orange rolls. I told you there was some rolls. (Mommy has been helping remember all the good food.)
A couple of days later we went on a drive through light show for our advent. It was so, so, so, so fun! There was music with the lights.
We wore some glasses that helped us see candy canes.
Everyone fit in the van. Grandpa kept scaring me. Stinker.
I don't know what to write for this one.
One night for the advent we had a family concert and performed all of our songs from MCO and piano for the grandparents. I sang "Must Be Santa" "I love MCO" and "Edelweiss."
Grandpa and Grandma Pearson gave us a cool 3D that was a castle. It was Elsa's castle in Frozen 1. Frozen 2 is better than Frozen 1 though.
This advent activity was to make snowman pancakes. This one was the prettiest. It was fun and delicious.
No chocolate on Ellie's.
I got whipped cream on mine.
Why is Grandpa sleeping with a stuffed animal?! Giggle, giggle, giggle.
This was a gift from our neighbor Paula. It is a waxed amaryllis. It bloomed beautiful red flowers. I adore them.
This was one of the advent activities--the New Year's Eve party. It was to do a bunch of things. Having banana splits. Making a magnatile castle.
This is a game of Hand and Foot. It's good--Mommy and Miriam like it. It's kind of weird for me cause its talking kind of about our bodies for the name of it.
This is the advent calendar with us. We were pointing at the ones we liked the best. When the envelopes were all opened. A hundred thumbs up on this tradition. After all two plus two equals four.
This is a picture of our Thanksgiving chain. It was extra nice cause um... um... giggle giggle. There was marker and we drew cute pictures!
This is cuddle time with me and Miriam!
Awww! Cute Darcy! Darcy is drooling on her toe. There is the Christmas tree in the background.
Awww...Darcy is sleeping on a walk. We went on lots of walks and hikes with Grandpa.
This is seven layer dip! It is a New Year's Eve tradition.
Countdown envelopes to the New Year.
Banana Splits--That's for sure!
On Mommy's and Daddy's anniversary we went up a hill to hike.
Mommy and Daddy's 14th anniversary because of 14 fingers.
Each time we go hiking, Darcy makes a wet spot on the carrier. That's a cute face on Darcy.
Another Darcy one! Darcy is playing with her Christmas present from Ellie. It is her old watch that Darcy now plays with. Ellie cut off the metal part so it's okay for her to play with. Darcy loves it and likes its colors.
This was Ellie's Christmas puzzle from Grandma. It's hard to make. We lost some puzzle pieces, but found them in the couch in the other room. That's kind of a ridiculous spot because we didn't make the puzzles in the living room.
This was fun to go through the whole holiday season with Holland to see how she remembered it. It was a particularly good holiday season this year because of the novelty of doing the advent calendar, staying in Arizona for Christmas, and having my parents come here.
Like Holland explained, we decided to do an advent calendar as a kind of gift of togetherness. The idea was to do a fun thing right after dinner every day during the holidays. It turned out awesome. I was surprised how not burned out I was on a daily activity by the end. Some of them were very simple (hug by the Christmas tree), some bigger (Gingerbread house making), some sugary (Santa Shakes), and some more expensive (the drive though activities). I think John and I almost enjoyed it more than the kids. It helped that we chose some things that we would be doing anyway (Christmas decorating and Christmas Eve party). I think it also helped that things were a little lower key this year because of covid-19.
We didn't have a Christmas concert to physically attend, but we sure enjoyed the virtual one MCO put on. It was broadcast on YouTube and had several showings. Afterwards they ended up just putting up the videos that we can stream at any time. We really enjoyed watching these videos. It was kind of the soundtrack of our December. We watched it so much, and then the songs were in our head for the rest of the time. My sweet parents watched every single showing. And even invited my aunt to watch it with them. We weren't comfortable with them going to the main AZ filming because of the crowd and covid. We had the option to send in little clips of the songs that we filmed ourselves, but it was only one per kid. They told us exactly what song and when during the song to film. I wish they could have gone to thr real filming, but there was such a spike in covid cases in AZ, that it seemed unreasonably reckless to go around a bunch of people and sing without masks on. We loved how the whole recording turned out, but the best part was hearing the kids sing the whole concert as we were watching it. They're such good little singers! Our girls were in Feliz Navidad (E & M) and Must Be Santa (H). This online concert actually used the audio from the CD that the girls helped record last November when we went to Disneyland. So Eliza and Miriam actually helped record the audio for Joy to the World and Must be Santa.
Also during December, we didn't have school parties to go to but we did end up watching our friends' kids while they went to the funeral. An aside here, this was the saddest story. My best friend, Erica, has the craziest growing up story. Her biological parents were criminals. Her mom ended up abandoning her and her sisters. Her dad ended up getting put in prison. She and her sisters got taken in by a teacher at their school and eventually adopted. She has since reconciled at least a little bit with her biological parents. Although that relationship is not easy for sure. Out of the blue in December, her biological mom died of covid-19. Erica didn't even know her mom had it. Nathan did say that she'd posted on Facebook though. Apparently she had gone to the hospital and there were no beds. This was in Louisiana. She was in the hospital waiting room the whole day and eventually she was sent via ambulance to another hospital where they potentially had a bed for her. She died on the way to the other hospital. I can't imagine the shock of losing a parent like that. Erica wanted to go to the funeral, but covid made that hard. She and Nathan ended up going and taking Brielle for a very quick trip to go to the funeral. I had their older two kids. We made a fun couple of days doing a variety of activities.
I still feel so bad that Erica lost her mom. I think this was one of the factors that led them to taking a job in Utah right after this. I know that we'll stay friends, but I am still so sad that we won't be neighbors or in the same ward (or even state!) anymore. I am losing my best friend, Holland is losing her best friend, John is losing his friend that he carpools with, Darcy is losing the baby she was going to grow up being playmates with and doing preschool with. I just feel so much loss even though we'll definitely stay friends. It just won't be the same. Erica is just that person that I feel comfortable with. She's my person (aside from John and the kids) that I turn to in happy and sad times. I feel like we want the same amount/kind of friendship, which just makes things easy and nice. She understands my insecurities and worries and gives good advice and validates when I need it. She has that valuable balance of being able to be real about the rough stuff in life without complaining all the time. I knew they were considering this job over Christmas break, but they made it seem unlikely that they would take it. They stopped by New year's day evening with donuts and chocolate to tell us the bad news. Man, that was the worst! I cried for about 36 hours. I guess the bright side of this is that the pandemic has accustomed us to connecting digitally, even if it isn't as good as being in person.
We did not anticipate my parents coming down for Christmas. My mom's health has been getting worse, especially with the stress of dealing with my grandparents' estate. Even though theoretically everything is pretty straight forward, there is still a lot of communication breakdowns and hard feelings. The stress of this situation is actually physically affecting my mom. My siblings told me that on days that she's stressed out about things, her disease is much worse. Kayla even mentioned that she's starting to have trouble swallowing which could lead to pneumonia which could lead to end of life. This is obviously very concerning to us. My siblings are doing what they can to take on the burden of settling real estate. Unfortunately, that's been a challenge for them because my parents still want control sometimes, and they change their mind. It's been pretty frustrating for them. I'm not really in a position to help with that stuff because I am the youngest and I live a state away.
I told my mom a long time ago that we would not be coming up for Christmas. We had just gone up for my grandma's funeral and the drive was really hard with Darcy. Not to mention we couldn't even really see family because of covid. Well a couple weeks ago before Christmas my mom called me on the phone to ask if there were any way that they could come here for Christmas. I think normally I probably would have just said no because of the unreasonable risk, but because of my mom's failing health I really didn't want to say no to her. I talked to Kayla and we came up with some parameters of what they could do if they wanted to come here for Christmas. For example get a covid test, stay quarantined from everyone for 10 days (this was by far the biggest problem), and wear an extra sturdy mask on the flight down here. They followed these parameters just okay, but probably as well as they could. I was pretty nervous when they actually got down here and I saw what they were like, I'm pretty surprised we didn't get covid to be honest. They almost didn't make it down here because my mom got sick on their initial flight and they got kicked off. But two days later they ended up flying down, but she was really nervous she was going to get sick again. She was really upset because she was sick because of her Parkinson's disease not because of an infectious disease, but of course the airline people don't know that and with the pandemic they are going to kick anyone off the flight that seems really sick. But they made it!
Mom had to do a lot of resting for the first couple of days. Dad seemed so happy to come down to the sunshine where he could take a daily walk. They joined in for our holiday festivities, advent calendar, and just general fun. My mom gave the kids puzzles and we spent a good amount of time doing puzzles over the break. The Paris puzzle was a lot harder than it seemed like at first. There just wasn't very much variation in colors or building architecture. Our family, especially the kids, joined my dad on his daily walk. It inspired is to continue to go on walks, bike rides, and even hiking after he left. I'll definitely be posting more about that later.
Also, during this time I turned 34. This means I am officially past early 30s and now are at mid 30s. It doesn't bother me too much, mainly because it doesn't feel like life has changed all that much. Because I had a birthday though, that means shortly after we had an anniversary! Fourteen Years! That means that we reached spending half of our marriage in Arizona. What a wonderful life we have been blessed with. During the last few weeks I have had the thought running through my head that each day is a gift. I particularly think that about Darcy is growing up so quick. Each day she gets a day older and is growing and learning so much. I love my life with John. Sure there are days where I lose my patience and get upset. Often there is overwhelming stress about things that aren't as big of a deal as they seem in the moment. But more often by far are the days that I feel immeasurably blessed. This year we decided to celebrate our anniversary by booking a vacation rental in Sedona. We have that booked for April, and I am super thrilled about it. Sedona is a popular getaway for lots of people in Phoenix and I can't believe we haven't gone yet. I am excited!
