26 December 2010

Merry Christmas! We've had a lovely holiday weekend. Christmas on Saturday is just about perfect-- we've had plenty of time for stories, games, walks, puzzles and visiting friends. Brandan canceled all his meetings for the entire week and we enjoyed the extra family time very much.

We spent an evening earlier in the week decorating sugar cookies. 

The finished cookies were very colorful. Brandan's Australian cousins sent us some cookie cutters so we had some kangaroo and kookaburra cookies mixed in with the more typical reindeer and snowman shapes.

Helen was so happy to be reunited with her doggie this week. She left him in Utah last month, but he made it safely back home in a package mailed by Maggie. 

Our Christmas celebration kicked off with dinner on Christmas Eve. We felt like the Whos as we feast, feast, feast, FEAST!

After dinner we acted out the Nativity story. This year Sophie was Mary, Abe was Joseph (his beard was drawn on with yellow face paint), Helen was the angel, Gibson was a wise man. Brandan narrated the story and Brandan and Becky were innkeepers, shepherds and wise men. We all sang. 

We added a musical portion to our evening this year. Helen and Abe both started music lessons this year so they played music on the violin and the ukelele. Sophie and Brandan played songs on the piano. Not to be left out, Gibson played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on drums. We ended the evening by getting ready for bed and piling up pillows and blankets so we could all sleep next to the Christmas tree. 

Brandan surprised Becky with a walnut footstool. Brandan inlaid the stool with hundreds of precisely shaped ingots which completely cover 5 sides of the stool. Hopefully, the photo gives you some idea of the design. The footstool has wonderful texture and heft. 

Abe finished his 3-D soccer ball puzzle before breakfast on Christmas morning. We thought it would take a little longer than that.

Once again Sophie asked for, and received, a wedge of blue cheese for Christmas. Here she is spreading blue cheese on her waffles Christmas morning. She says it's a delicious combination. 

Packaging is still a great toy. The kids spent hours cutting up boxes and wrappings to make mazes for their tiny robotic bugs to navigate.

For our final photo, we can't resist posting a picture of Sophie and Helen in their delightfully old-fashioned nightgowns. Matching, too.

19 December 2010

Another reason Sophie is our favorite babysitter: creative play. Becky came home Saturday to find 4 giggly kids playing Star Wars with light sabers made out of legos. They took turns being Yoda, Obi-Wan, Annikin and Darth Maul. Some of their giggling came from pretending to be Darth Christmas.

As fun as the lego light sabers were, the kids found out pretty quickly that you can't actually duel with one. Conveniently, they found some empty wrapping paper tubes to color and play with.

Brandan took the kids home teaching with him tonight. He visits some wonderful people. Brandan and the kids came home with twice the goodies they left with, including these flashing reindeer antlers. In the photo Helen is also showing off her double light saber.

12 December 2010

Our week has been filled with beautiful Christmas music, both recorded and live. Abe's guitar teacher invited Abe to play a duet with him at the December meeting of the Guitar Society. They played "Angels We Have Heard on High." Christmas carols sound wonderful on a guitar-- such a warm, intimate sound.

More Christmas music -- this time Sophie playing "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" at the mall. 

On Wednesday, Abe got bumped in the face with a tether ball at recess and his very loose front tooth flew out of his mouth. Abe went to the school office to clean up the blood. His buddy, Ashton, found the tooth on the playground and Abe brought it home in a special tooth pouch. The principal said that she's seen a lot of teeth lost (and swallowed) at school, but this is the first one she can remember being found. 

Gibson went to the dentist this week and came home with a new toothbrush. We're pretty sure the dentist didn't give him the toothbrush so he could detail his Jeep, but that's exactly what Gibson used it for. He used his own spit so you can be sure the Jeep is clean.

5 December 2010

We started out the week decorating for Christmas. Our kids are old enough now that their help is real help and they have fun ideas of how to decorate.

Gibson likes playing with the nativity. He pretends the angel is Buzz Lightyear. 

Helen made a paper chain at school with 25 paper loops. Each day in December she is supposed to pull off a loop to keep track of the days until Christmas. Most days she has forgotten to do it. However, she never, ever forgets to eat a chocolate every day out of our Christmas advent calendar. 

Friday was College Bound Day at school. This year our kids supported the University of Utah. We asked Abe how it felt to be the only one at school (besides Helen) wearing red. Not bad, he said, he could be friends with the Ducks and the Beavers. 

We'd been lucky for many years not to have the light in our stairwell burn out. We certainly don't have a ladder tall enough to reach it. The lightbulb finally expired -- maybe leaving it on the entire time we were on vacation had something to do with it. Brandan perched our ladder on top of the ottoman and was able to change the lightbulb. He cleaned the window and dusted while he was up there. Hopefully it will be several more years before he climbs up again.