All is Calm

Life can be a whirlwind running from one activity to the next, one responsibility to the next, one chore to the next. Even when I’m sitting still things are not usually calm. My mind is generally a chaotic cacophony of scheduling, to-do lists, advance planning, etc. It can get pretty noisy in there. But there are moments when I’m blessed with stillness, moments like those spent in the temple or the times during my scripture study when the Spirit is teaching me something profound. Those moments never seem to occur often enough, but I am grateful when they do.

Today was one of those moments of stillness. As I celebrated Christmas with my little flock gathered around me, there was peace and calm both surrounding me and inside my head. Everyone was happy and peaceful, just so grateful for this day we had to be together. There was laughing and joking and joy all around. There was plenty of good food all prepared in advance so there was minimal work for all on this holiday. There wasn’t even any bickering. And for once, my mind was blessedly still, not working on what is next but focusing on this moment. 

As my kids have gotten older, Christmas has become a calmer day all around. There is still plenty of excitement and anticipation and we all still look forward to seeing what Santa brought us, but things are just a bit lower key. Last year we started sharing our wish lists in a shared google doc and it was so helpful that we updated it for this year. Most of us knew what we were getting from everyone, but that didn’t make things any less fun. It was still great to watch all my loved ones open gifts and feign surprise. And knowing that they had received something they were really hoping for completely made up for the lack of secrecy. Of course, there were still a few surprises and that was just as fun as always. 

Last night was a bit of calm as well. Half of my siblings and their families were elsewhere so with only fifteen of us in attendance at my parents’ house, things were much quieter. Malia was the only youngling on hand so acting out the nativity was off the program as well. Instead, we had a musical evening with singing, piano, some trumpet and saxophone and even an ASL translation of “Silent Night.” I really enjoyed the greater peace of the evening and as the littles all continue to grow into bigs, it is something I’d like to continue. Our traditional Christmas Eve religious gifts were given once we got home and everyone got to bed at a fairly decent hour, which was nice.

As I mentioned before, today was calm. Malia was super excited and thrilled about everything, but with everyone else being a bit older, things are less chaotic. For the first time in many years, things were light on the Lego. Malia got a Lego dragon, Matthew was gifted with a Lego Ferrari, Daniel got a Star Wars themed set and I got my first ever big Lego set which was the Chinese spring lantern festival. Lego dumplings! So fun! And yes, even with four of us receiving Lego, it was a light Lego year. 😉 Kevin, Daniel, and Matthew received enough plastic models to last them for years. Malia got a variety of dragon themed items and some new sketch books. Nathan was gifted with a variety of items he will use on his mission as well as several ASL themed items just for grins and giggles. And Kev gave me a gold CTR ring, one I’ve had my eye on for years.

“Silent Night” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. For me, the stillness it invokes is the same stillness that the gospel brings. It is the “be still and know that I am God” kind of a feeling, the one where I’m completely at peace despite the turmoil around me, knowing that the Lord has everything under control. It is no big surprise that the Savior, whose birth “Silent Night” recalls, is the author of this peace. It is because of him that I can have the calm of knowing that all will be right in the end, that God will always prevail, and that if I keep my covenants and stay on the path he has set for me, I will have this stillness and the joy it brings eternally. So as my day of peace winds down, I hope I can carry this calm with me into the new year. We live in a chaotic world and being able to walk through the worldly turmoil without being caught up in it is one of the blessings of the gospel. 

Merry Christmas. May there be peace on earth and peace in our hearts.

Quarantine Christmas

As with many things, our Christmas gatherings with extended family looked very different this year. Rather than gather with my family for Christmas Eve dinner and the traditional acting out if the nativity story, we did a masked and socially distanced gathering in my parents’ front yard this afternoon. I haven’t seen my brothers since February and I haven’t seen my sisters since cold weather set in and we couldn’t gather in my parents’ backyard anymore, so it was nice to see at least 40% of their faces and to chat for awhile. We exchanged gifts and while we didn’t read the nativity story right there in the yard, Esther had spearheaded an effort to put together a video that included the reading of the nativity, pictures and videos to accompany the reading, and some musical numbers and gifted it to my parents. One thing I learned just this year is that the tradition of acting out the nativity is one that has been passed down through my mom’s family. When she was small, her extended family (many of whom lived in the same place) gathered together on Christmas Eve and she, her sisters, and her cousins acted out the story. Knowing the history of the tradition helped me understand how important it is to her and the emotional toll paid being required to skip it due to COVID. So kudos to Esther for putting in so much work to make it happen in a non-traditional format.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was a low-key affair with just our little crew and a meal out of the freezer. We have fancy plans for our meals tomorrow, so we decided to do simple this evening. As always, we ended our evening with the religious gifts to our kids. Daniel received a book containing Henry B. Eyring’s published journals, Malia got a card game with words of the prophets, and Nathan and Matthew received their nativity pieces. Nathan actually received his last nativity piece and the Israeli toaster box the set was shipped in. So that’s another shock to my system. In the next year, I’ll have two children who are no longer full-time residents of my house.

Malia was the one who left the milk and cookies for Santa this year. She also left a note for him. I have to admit, I took a peek. In general, I believe in letting my kids have some privacy. I don’t go snooping in their rooms or read things they write unless given permission, but in this case, I couldn’t resist. Don’t judge me. You would have done it too. 😉

 
Even amidst a pandemic, the magic of Christmas is present in our home. Heads filled with excitement and anticipation are leaning towards slumber. Secrets encased in paper and bows wait beneath the tree. Joy has been found in our small gathering. And no matter what is raging in the world outside, the light of the Savior and the joy of celebrating his birth is evident in our lives.

Tradition

In my family, Christmas Eve has always included the kiddos acting out the nativity story while my dad reads from the Bible. It’s something I remember doing when I was growing up. I was usually the angel and had the correct words memorized and everything. As all the grandkids have gotten older, they have outgrown this particular tradition and in the past couple of years, we have questioned whether or not to have it continue. We have opted to keep it going for now because while most of the grandkids no longer have any interest, Malia and Kate are still emotionally invested in the whole exercise. This year we even had some older kid participation and I’m appreciative of their willingness to do so. It allowed Malia and Kate to have an enjoyable time. It was Malia’s turn to be Mary and Matthew acted as Joseph. Kate was the angel and Ella and Evelyn (my niece Sage’s oldest daughter) were shepherds. Sabrina and Drew were wise men and after a quick costume change, Ella rounded out their trio. It was a mostly reverent rendition of the nativity and one of those things that helps us all remember the real reason for the celebration.

Seasonal Eats-Repeat (and a Family Gathering)

We started off our month of activities with Christmas tree pancake stacks and they were so fun that we decided to do a Christmas Eve repeat so the older boys could partake. For some reason I just can’t get a picture of all of them looking normal at the same time. On the flip side, getting universal crazy faces presents no challenge. No matter what they look like, the kids enjoyed the pancakes. They are fun to eat, being bite-sized and all!

Christmas Eve generally means dinner at my folks’ house followed by a dramatic reading of the nativity story. As all the cousins have grown up, there have been fewer and fewer kids who want to participate in the dressing up and acting it out portion of the nativity. We are at the point where it is really just Malia and Rachael’s two girls. With some talking, we did convince Matthew and Drew to be the wise men, but our cast was small this year. Sabrina was Mary with Sam as a very inquisitive baby Jesus.

Kate and Malia were the angels. Malia was a pretty wacky angel, all hyped up with Christmas anticipation, but was reformed just in time for her big moment.

The wise men were a bit more sedate than usual (we were really trying to keep everything appropriately reverent this year) and brought presents of gold, frankincense, myrrh and Fisher-Price (to prevent the baby from taste testing their other offerings).

The Christmas Eve excitement has toned down for the boys as they’ve gotten older, but it’s still running high with Malia. She’s wide awake and trying to convince herself that she can slumber so Santa can work his magic. She has been so high energy all day that I think that once she stops and closes her eyes, sleep will come…

Holiday Hijinx

December is always a busy month. Between the concerts, recitals, Christmas preparations, parties, shopping, crafts, etc. our schedule can get a bit hectic. In addition to that, Matthew and Malia are off track for most of December. I know it would make some parents crazy to have the offspring at home the month before Christmas, but I love it. They love it. We do lots of fun stuff. Here are a few of this year’s highlights.

I started off the Christmas season by being the bringer of the treats for Malia’s class Christmas party on Dec. 1. We made some nut free melted snowman cookies. It was super fun.

For one of the activities in our yearly activity advent, I took Matthew and Malia to paint ceramics at Color Me Mine. When I made the reservation, the girl told me to plan an hour tops for kids of their ages. At the 2 ½ hour mark, I had to tell the kiddos that we needed to hurry and finish so we could get home in time to cook dinner. To say that they enjoyed themselves would be an understatement. They loved it. They both have an eye for detail that I did not realize and took time to paint things in just a certain way. Malia had hers all done when she discovered that they had glitter paint, so she had to repaint several parts to include glitter. And I was jealous that they got to paint and I had to supervise. 😉

Picking up their glazed and fired pieces a few days later was very exciting for them as well. They had to unwrap them before we left the studio. They couldn’t wait until we got home.

We also made cinnamon salt dough ornaments. Matthew and Malia had a great time rolling and cutting the ornaments. My favorite part was the fact that the house smelled fantastic for days!

Matthew crafted a nativity from Lego. Malia was helping, but she got bored pretty quickly and wandered away to do something else.

I got to go to the MoTab Christmas concert with two of my sisters. This is the first time I’ve ever been and it was super fun! On our way we walked past the Macy’s Christmas window displays which are made entirely out of candy. They do them every year ( a tradition they carried over when they bought out ZCMI) and I’ve seen them before but they are always eye catching and amazing.

Malia had a dance recital. She takes tap and ballet and although she says she likes both, she seems to catch on to the tap steps easier. Ballet doesn’t come as easily. It will be interesting to see if her interest in ballet (and dance in general) continues or if it dwindles. She says she likes dance but sometimes we get a negative reaction to the weekly dance lessons. I guess we’ll see how things go. I’m not the kind of mom who will force her daughter to stay in dance lessons just because I enjoyed it so much.

Daniel and Nathan don’t care all that much about most of our advent activities, but they were super stoked (yes, I’m a child of the ‘80s) about the strawberry Santas.  In fact, all the kiddos liked it so much that we bought more berries and did it twice.

As always, Christmas Eve meant dinner with my parents and siblings and the yearly reenactment of the nativity story. I feel like we’ve been very blessed that all or our kids have cousins their age with whom they have become good friends. It has taken Matthew the longest to find that cousin since there are none just his age, but in the past year his cousin Drew (who is a year older) has become his cousin buddy. They both love sports and as they have gotten to know each other better they have become comrads. Matthew looks forward to their time together. They opted to be shepherds this year. Malia and Kate both choose to be angels. Nathan, Jacob and Ella were this year’s wise acres…I mean wise men. And Daniel was a fabulous sport and was willing to be Joseph when none of the younger kids (or older ones) wanted the job.

Daniel had a band Christmas concert. Nathan had a choir Christmas concert, but he didn’t actually sing. By then he had been sick for nearly a month, the doctor had given him a note to stay home from school for the next week and the parents had agreed with said note so Nathan went just long enough to play the piano for the number he was accompanying. He wasn’t happy to be out of school the entire last week before Christmas, but he had been pushing himself, not taking time to rest and recover, which led to his extended illness. We put our metaphorical feet down and made him stop so he could get better. He’s on the way to better now and should be back to normal before too much longer.

So yeah, busy month. Mostly fun stuff though, minus one sick Nathan and two colds for me. I love that my little ones are home with me all month and while rumors and speculation abound right now, I’m hoping our elementary will stay in year-round school so we can continue to have our whirlwind month of fun.

Deck the Halls...

....with boughs of holly

We started off this holiday season by putting up our Christmas decorations. For the first time in many years, not all the fragile ornaments were on the top of the tree! With no more babies or toddlers in the house, we were able to distribute the breakables all over the tree. Malia and her cousin Kate lucked out and got to decorate two Christmas trees each because they helped my parents decorate their tree.

'Tis the season to be jolly…

We kept ourselves busy all month with parties, games, activities, etc. We attended our ward Christmas party in which Daniel and Matthew were shepherds in the lamest nativity reenactment I’ve ever seen. All the characters just walked in circles around the stage over and over while Kevin read the nativity story from the scriptures. Daniel in particular thought it was super dumb and I don’t blame him. The party was a big success for Malia though. She got to run around with her friends and got to talk to Santa. She was super excited about the whole thing (even though she does not look excited in the picture) and was not ready to leave when the party was over.

We also went to Kev’s extended family gathering and Daniel and Nathan impressed everyone with their musical skills. This evening we gathered with my family and after dinner the little kids participated in a less-lame-but-probably-a-bit-more-sacrilegious nativity reenactment. There were fewer participants than in the past as all the cousins Nathan’s age decided they were too old for such things. However, Nathan did step in to help Malia gain the appropriate altitude for her role as the angel. Matthew and Drew were the silliest wise men ever.

Matthew and Malia were off-track all month, so we did our activity advent to keep them entertained. We made cookies, read stories, played games and did a variety of crafts. We tried to do the things the big boys were interested in on the weekends so they could participate as well.

We even sent a Christmas card and wrote a family newsletter!

Don we now our gay apparel…

My niece Sarah got married on Dec. 17 and she asked the little cousins to be flower girls so I spent much time (and only used a few swear words ;-) ) sewing a super full, totally spin-worthy dress that Malia loved. The whole wedding had an Audrey Hepburn feel and the style of the dress was a perfect fit.

Troll the ancient Yuletide carol…

I missed Daniel’s concert in the fall because Malia was sick, but we both got to attend his Christmas concert. I was very impressed! In spite of having three different directors in three years, the band program at the high school is going strong and I was really impressed with how good they are. Daniel is in the jazz band (which only has 16 kids in it including the pianist and the percussionist) and the wind symphony (which is the audition only band). Having missed the fall concert, I did not realize how few of the other sophomore bandies we know are in those two groups. It made me one proud mama. 😊

Nathan also had a Christmas concert. It is a pleasure for him to be in a choir composed of people who want to be there rather than being in one full of kids who are in choir because they hate it less than band or art. Having some desire to be there means the kids actually look like they are having fun and the choir director always chooses some super fun songs. As the closing number of the concert, all the choirs sang a song together. They sang in a completely darkened auditorium and as they sang battery operated candles lit up all around the room and up the aisles. It was a really lovely effect and a great touch for a holiday themed event.

Malia didn’t have a concert, but she did have her very first dance recital. She tap tapped and tippy toed to some Christmas music and while she said she did a great job on her tap number, she forgot her ballet number and told me so after the fact. She loved wearing the sparkly (glitter shedding) costume and had a great time. I do need to tell her to smile while she dances though so she doesn’t look so grim.

The recital was also a big night for Nathan. He is on stage crew at the middle school this year and the dance studio rented the auditorium for the evening. Unfortunately, the stage crew kids could not get into the school when they needed to and as a result, there were some technical difficulties during the recital because they had no time to do the pre-show checks that they normally do and the previous rental group had changed a bunch of things in the booth and on the stage. He was pretty stressed out. But Kev bought him a shake on the way home by way of emotional therapy and he was able to shake it off pretty well. And as a random note, Nathan is going to be cleaning up glitter for a very long time.

So it has been a busy season for us. But we’ve had a lot of fun and we’ve definitely sung some fa la la’s!

Healthy(ish) Holiday

We have an unfortunate track record when it comes to being sick on Christmas. It seems like we have someone sick about half the time. So having everyone healthy all month (except for a whole lot of headaches on my part) has been great! We’ve been out and about, crafting, cooking, shopping…pretty much a normal December.

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my parent’s house and the kids acted out the nativity. Malia really, really, really wanted to be Mary this year. She even took Baby (whom she has recently rechristened Washcloth-I have absolutely no idea why) to be the baby Jesus so we wouldn’t have to use a monkey like we have had to do in years past. It’s actually good that she took Baby since my Mom told she had called our house to have us bring a baby doll and we were already gone.

One of the crafts I did with Matthew and Malia this year was making an ornament with a thumbprint reindeer on it. For some reason, Matthew decided he wanted to leave one for Donner and Malia jumped on the band wagon and made one for Rudolph. So there were ornaments left alongside the cookies and carrots we usually leave for Santa and the reindeer. There was some tracking Santa via the NORAD Santa tracker and then everyone was off to bed.

At around 4:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, a roasting pan fell out of the dish drainer and clattered into the sink. Apparently it woke up both Nathan and Matthew and they were so excited that neither one went back to sleep. When I woke up at 6 a.m., everyone else was already up and waiting for me. I was a bit slow getting started because I had woken up with a migraine. It made for a less than ideal morning. Nevertheless, the show must go on.

Malia got a new Hello Kitty 2 wheel bicycle from Santa. She was totally excited and rode that thing back and forth across the living room all day. It was only a couple of pedals to get from one end of the room to the other, but she was not to be deterred. She also got a pretend mixer for her kitchen, Anna and Elsa dolls, a stuffed Hello Kitty (dressed in BYU garb, of course) from Matthew, a super soft Hello Kitty blanket from Daniel and a play shopping cart full of pretend groceries from Nathan. Her experience gift this year will be seeing “Beauty and the Beast” at Hale Center Theater.

Matthew, who has gotten in trouble about sixteen million times for throwing balls in the house, got a sturdy indoor basketball hoop and an arcade style basketball/football game from Santa, an assortment of books on his reading level, a BYU umbrella from Daniel, a football playbook from Nathan, and the Hulkbuster Lego set from Malia. His experience gifts this year are the Monster Truck Jam, a King Singers concert and another year of the Cosmo Club (a kids’ club that gives us four football tickets, four basketball tickets, and free entrance for the child into any other sport for a grand total of $50).

Nathan got Scooby Doo Lego, a Scooby Doo DVD and Spiderman bed sheets from Santa. He also got the sheet music for Peanuts from Daniel, the sheet music for Muppets Most Wanted and a book of hymn arrangements for piano from Matthew and Malia, and some books. His experience gifts this year are another trip to the Desert Star Theater, a King Singers concert, one day at Fan-X (his pass came free when we purchased Daniel’s multi-day pass) and tickets to Newsies! He is super-duper excited. (So am I :-))

Santa gave Daniel Doctor Who Lego, Doctor Who season 9 blu-rays, a new neck strap for his sax and a very serious origami book he has been wanting. Daniel also received a metronome/tuner from Nathan, a CD of five Doctor Who video games from Matthew, some Star Wars mini models from Malia, and a couple more books. His experiences this year will be three days at Fan-X, a King Singers concert and a trip to the Desert Star Theater.

The boys and I all pooled our funds and got a hobby size air compressor and airbrush for Kevin. He also got the Complete Far Side books and an assortment of movies he has been wanting.

I received a few kitchen utensils to replace worn or broken ones as well as a new temple dress. Malia got me a bobbin winder (I actually picked it but she chose the color and wrapped it up.), Matthew got me a Microplane Zester that I’ve had my eye on for years, Nathan got me a dough hook attachment for my bosch and Daniel gave me…a giant eyeball.

Let me give you some context. Years ago when Nathan was three or four, we were trying to teach him the concept of keeping a gift a secret. I told him that if anyone asked him what he got for them, he should say he got them something completely different like a giant eyeball. Yes, I know my brain works in random and mysterious ways. But that is what came to mind. Anyway, he completely grasped the concept and for years when anyone asked him what a gift was, he always said, “A giant eyeball!” After a while, it just became one of those family jokes. We all use it now. And when Daniel made me a Christmas card offering to do three random chores just for me, he drew a giant eyeball on the front.

After we had breakfast, opened our presents and I had some migraine meds and my first nap, we headed over to my parents’ house to give Esther her Christmas present. Her gift was my big project this year. I was totally proud of myself because I did a lot of the quilting freehand and it actually turned out pretty well. She likes monkeys. Can you tell?

After our jaunt to see the fam, we had lunch and I had my second nap. The migraine was mostly gone by then but I had a wicked hangover for the rest of the day. Kevin’s parents joined us for the afternoon and dinner. They brought another faux Lego temple, a few shirts and books for the boys, a super soft stuffed puppy for Malia and a new set of mixing bowls for me.

Overall, it was a nice day except for the migraine (and that definitely could have been a whole lot worse).