Christmas Season wrap up

December was a great month. We had a lovely Christmas season and a great Christmas day. For FHE this week we drove over to Afton VA to visit Hebron church's Bethlehem village with some friends.  It is so impressive to me that this church hosts this event each year.  We paid our taxes, heard the angels sing and found an inn with no room.  We enjoyed visiting and experiencing a live nativity. My favorite part was hearing the angels sing to the shepherds and then seeing the shepherds run to the manger.  Jared and Lydia loved the Roman Jail... either way we all enjoyed ourselves.

Mark and Lydia ready to pay their taxes.  

I somehow deleted most of the pictures I took.  Which was a bummer and really unlike me.

We like to go and check out the lights at the Washington DC temple each year so we drove up on Thursday to check them out.  Mark took Jared and Lydia over to the park again while I was in the temple and I hung out with them in the visitors center while Mark was inside.  It was cold and windy in the afternoon and then when Mark came out and we went to walk around the grounds to enjoy the lights the wind calmed down and the weather was great which was really lucky. My phone died quickly and then Mark's soon after that so we really didn't get any really great pictures of the lights which made me sad but it was also nice to just enjoy the beauty of the lights. My pictures never do beautiful scenes justice anyway so I often wonder why I bother to take pictures but Jared and Lydia love looking at pictures of our adventures so I will keep at it.  We ran into and chatted with the Player's while checking out the lights which was fun.

I've seen lots of friends who live out here post their pictures of the lights and its been fun to see their perspectives, the pretty spots they found and their joy in being their with their families.

Lydia's favorite tree

Jared's favorite

This year we ended up staying the night in DC which was a fun treat for Jared and Lydia.  Mark found a great deal for the hotel and it had a heated pool so Jared and Lydia were thrilled. It was nice to be able to go to the temple and then have time the next day to go into DC.  I had to work Friday night so we didn't stay too long but had a fun morning in the city. We went into DC our first December here and made sure to hit up the most recommended Christmas sights then so this year we tried to find some less known places to go for Christmas lights. The best find was The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  
Some fun facts about it: (thank you wikipedia) 

The shrine is the largest Catholic church in the United States and North America
One of the ten largest churches in the world
The tallest habitable building in Washington, D.C.

While much "younger" than the churches Mark and I were able to visit while living overseas it was really great to go see it with Jared and Lydia.  They were respectful, asked great questions and enjoyed seeing a different type of church. There were over 50 Christmas trees on display and hundreds of poinsettias, it was beautiful. I'm so glad we went. 

We stopped by the Library of Congress which had a large beautiful tree in the lobby and went to the young readers room for the first time which was nice.  We also stopped into the Museum of American History.  Jared has been asking and reading a lot about US History so it was was fun to take him there and let him feed his interest for History. Lydia could have skipped most of the museum but did have fun in the newer kids lab and play center so it was a win overall. We checked out the First Ladies exhibit which I don't think we had before and it was fun. I love how you can always find new things at the Smithsonian's. 

Jared was thrilled when we found the money exhibits. 

Tired kids!  This was minutes before we stopped to eat lunch. Oh well, we didn't really want them sleeping very much on the drive home. It also looks really uncomfortable. Lydia "pushed" Jared off and readjusted herself pretty quickly.

Saturday we went to a fun Christmas Eve brunch with some great people and enjoyed delicious food and visiting.  I love the idea of a Christmas Eve brunch, so fun. Mark's mom's birthday is on Christmas day and every year her parents let her have friends over for brunch for her birthday Christmas morning which I think was such a great way to help her feel rememebred/special on her birthday.  She still holds it to this day each year.  Brunch is great! We didn't stay too long as I needed to get home and bake some cookies for our Christmas Eve festivities.  Christmas Eve night we had friends over for cookie decorating and our nativity sing/read along and had a lovely time. I'm so glad we started this tradition last year and plan to keep it up for many years.  Its such a perfect blending of my family traditions from when I was a child and Mark's. Jared and Lydia opened their gifts from each other that afternoon, (they have been so anxious to open presents!) and we made sure to read "Twas The Night Before Christmas" before bed. Mark and I filled stockings and wrote out Jared and Lydia's scavenger hunt clues (what we do instead of gifts from Santa they love it) then headed to bed by 10:00!

This picture makes me happy. It is for sure one of my new favorite pictures. She is the sweetest. 

Even though this Fall/holiday season, my most favorite time of year has been a little different for us with me working at night, I am grateful for the fun we had and the memories we made.  We have lovely friends and wonderful kids and more then we could ever need. 

Still having fun

I uploaded some pictures tonight and am really grateful for the life we have.  Jared and Lydia have really been enjoying each others company lately and we have been having fun doing our Christmas traditions and just hanging out at home.  For Home Evening this week we went out to look at lights and give out our award. This is still one of my favorite traditions. Jared and Lydia love that hey get to bring their blankets in the car and wear pajamas.  This year I posted our choice on Facebook and the couple we went with for the very first time (8 years ago in Greeley CO) commented that they went out Monday night too and posted their choice.  It was fun.  This year we headed North towards Barboursville and found some great houses. Lydia and I had gone to play at a friends house there and driven past a house that had tons of old school figurines in the yard so I knew we wanted to check it out at night.  I had also seen an article online about a house that had a long tradition of awesome lights since 1989.  They stopped for the last few years as the family member who loved the lights the most was very sick and then passed away.  This year they decided to put them up again in remembrance. Their lights were awesome.  They set up parking on their land and on Friday and Saturday nights they have free food and hot chocolate and a visiting Santa.  We weren't there for that but we had fun walking around their yard.  On their property they set up a shed and fill it with Santa figurines and they invite you into their basement (there is an outside entrance) to see their collection of angels.  A whole room filled with Angel figurines. It was amazing. I am so glad I saw the article and we drove out there.  The house we picked for the award was just down the street from them.  It was a fun night. 

2016 Best Christmas Lights Winner

It always surprises me how much Jared enjoys doing the activities I plan for preschool.  I adapt them for him, so they are at his level and he really looks forward to them.  Often when we have talk time at night he wants to hear about what we did in preschool. I wonder if he remembers doing activities like this when he was little?  I hope so!  We played reindeer races, decorated a painters tape tree with ornaments, and played jingle bell toss.  We also decorated sugar cone Christmas trees.  Gingerbread houses are nice and really fun but in my personal opinion they are a big expensive headache too!  They rarely stay together and you have to spend a lot of time and money on them.  A few years ago I started doing these trees and I love them.  Super easy and cute too. 

Practicing addition and subtraction

Practicing beginning sounds and coming up with words that began with those sounds. 

Jingle Bell Toss

Sugar cone Christmas trees.  

I found this cute worksheet online that had them count how many "ornaments" of each color they put on the tree.  It was nice to extend the activity some, learning can be fun! 

We went over to the library one day with some friends and made paper bag gingerbread house.  The last few years they have supplied pre-made houses to decorate but this year they went with a craft and Jared and Lydia didn't even seem to mind not doing a candy one.  They had fun supplies on hand and had a fun time.  We also went to a UVA basketball game.  Mark can get really into a game which is always fun to see.  Lydia had fun but would probably not ask to go again at this point but Jared had a great time.  I like going to them and am sure we will go at least once each year. It was fun to watch Jared get really into the game too. We also got together with some really fun people and went Caroling.  I am happy we get to go especially since Mark grew up caroling with one of the families we go with.  It's just so funny that their families hung out frequently in Turlock while they were growing up and now they live 12 minutes away from each other, completely across the country from where they grew up.  It was great to go with the Players, Hong's, and Papin's. All really great families. 

Lydia is super into penguins right now and was thrilled when she saw they had these stickers.  

UVA played Robert Morris and blew them out of the water!  They won by 40 or more points.  It was nice to see them do well but a little more competition would have been nice. 

We've made lots of fun cookies and Mark participated in a cookie exchange at school.  The teacher who arranged it told Mark he could only participate if he brought these mint brownies I made for St Patricks day.  Mark loves them so he was happy to ask if I would do it.  Last Sunday was a little over the top with baking and singing.  Mark participated in a community concert and ended up singing with 2 different choirs.  I made the brownies for the school exchange and then 4 dozen cookies for the concert.  I have been to this concert twice now and while the performers do a very nice job I have decided that it is not really my scene.  I just don't really like their song selections.  I was tempted to stay home and get Jared and Lydia, who was fighting a cold to bed on time but Mark really wanted us to come hear him sing.  We stayed for his first performance and then went home.  We also made Christmas tree waffles which are always a big hit. I mean they have M&M ornaments on them so there is no way they can't be a hit. Mark was happy to participate in the cookie exchange.  It was kind of funny as 2 of his students saw a sign for it in the teachers lounge and asked Mark if they could participate too.  He said sure, and gave them the instructions.  They came and he helped get them a selection of cookies.  What he really liked was that these 2 girls were happy to share their cookies from the exchange with all the students in the class.  They just offered them to all the kids, nobody even had to ask.  It sounded really sweet when Mark told me about it.  They asked if they could do an exchange every month! Its nice to hear stories like this. Mark has had a rough semester with these kids and is looking forward to new classes next semester. 

It is always so rewarding when Jared and Lydia can just enjoy playing with each other.  They read together,  pretend to be reindeer who can turn into killer whales (Jared is really into killer whales right now) pulling Santa's sleigh (running down the halls and sliding in their pajamas), building forts (making a big mess), playing preschool or library and just enjoying each other.  They are creative and awesome kids and I love seeing them together and hearing what they come up with. 

Jared has also been very into history/geography lately so I got some books at the library. Here he is explaining things to Lydia before school one morning.  Mark's Mom tells a story of how Mark's brother David would get Mark out of his crib early in the morning and lay next to him on the floor and read the sports section to him as a baby.  Mark loved to look at atlas's when he was growing up so its fun to see Jared interested in them. He is always asking us to tell him about historic events which is fun for us since we are big fans of history. 

Fun story: I got these stools and rolling cart from a sweet family who is moving soon.  I am not sure what I will do with them, I just really liked them.  In the meantime, Lydia has completely taken them as her own.  Here she is writing some thank you notes after church and later in the day she and Jared filled the cart up with library books and wheeled it around the house.  I often find the stools randomly placed around the house as she has moved them all over the place.  I am pretty sure she would love to have them in her room! I sent this picture to the family and she commented that Lydia was problem a future teacher.  She does often say she wants to teach preschool and work at Kohls sounds pretty familiar.  Funny girl.  We will see where she ends up! 

Just one more week till Christmas!  The presents are all wrapped and we have just a few more things we want to attend.  Mark was very kind and wrapped 2/3 of the presents. He wrapped then I added the bows.  It was nice to do it together. We are planning on attending the Bethlehem Village tomorrow night and driving up to the temple Thursday, staying the night then going into DC Friday probably to the American History Museum. Christmas Eve, friends are coming over to decorate cookies and sing songs and I am looking forward to it.  What a fun Christmas season it has been!  We have our struggles but we truly live a blessed life and I am incredibly grateful.

December means

Toy lift, gingerbread houses, library books, Christmas cards, and fun Christmas themed games.  It means a whole lot more but lets just start with that.

When we first got here I learned about the toy lift and thought it was a great way to start getting in the holiday spirit.  We also noticed that our library had a book tree much like a giving tree and thought that would be a great addition too.  It always throws me off as they are both the first week in December so I have to pay attention to dates and events something that has been much harder the past 2 months with working at Kohls.  Not being aware of whats going on in the community is still a hard adjustment for me as planning outings like that for our family is one of my favorite things to do. It was like second nature, I always knew what community events were coming up but it has really scaled back this Fall.  Part of it is just that I never know what days I will be working (sometimes they are really slow with the schedule) so I didn't bother seeing what was going on and part of it is just not having as much free time.  It has worked out fine but I am looking forward to a more set schedule. *

Buying the toys for the toy lift was rather frustrating sadly.  Before we went into the store we talked about why we were there but as we walked down aisles it turned into a lot of I want this instead of maybe a kid would like this.  They absolutely understood what and why we were doing it but really struggled to keep that as their focus. And I totally get it, it's Christmas!  They have presents on their mind but I had hoped this store trip could be a little less about them.  Dropping off the toys was great but it was a struggle to get there!  We dropped off the library book and then headed over to the toy lift.

Lydia now wants Shopkins for Christmas which I get, miniature things are cute! We are typically pretty slow on trends, I think these have been popular for at least 6 months if not a year now. 

Sunday Jared and Lydia helped me get our Christmas cards ready.  As we worked on them Jared commented that he was like a machine and he could do this all day, he was actually disappointed when we were done.  Me too buddy, me too.  Such order.  He had a nice little assembly line going on.  Lydia did not love it like Jared did but was very helpful.  I seem to be getting lazier as the years go by.  I started sending them with a nice Christmas letter then it became highlights, then a paragraph and this year all I sent was the card.  I'm glad we got them out and love getting them in the mail. Mark had a long weekend and we didn't see him much.  He was gone for stake meetings and such from 1:50 - 9:30 Saturday and then from 9:00 - 4:00 Sunday.  Sunday was largely due to Choir practices. He has a performance coming up on Sunday (The Joy to the World Christmas concert our church hosts with quite a few other musical groups from the community) and was just asked to sing with another choir performing at the same concert. I can't imagine being a super musically inclined individual in the month of December.  So much going on so people like me can enjoy their talents  Speaking of music, I am really enjoying my piano lessons.  I love that I can sit down at our very own piano and look at songs (basic as a song can be) and play it.  And people recognize it! Sadly it is going to get harder as I am supposed to focus on rhythm and tempo this week but I will keep at it. I find myself sitting down to practice and then playing the songs (mostly Christmas) over and over as I want to get it right and I genuinely enjoy it when I do recognize notes and play them right.  I am grateful for my family's support and patience.

 

Monday we headed over to the Gingerbread village display with some friends. It was actually a really nice day so we stopped and played at a park downtown that I had never been too and then walked over to the display.  I am always nervous about parking downtown and was so happy when I found a spot right at the park.  It seemed like there were less houses this year but we found our favorites and enjoyed checking it out and playing with friends.  Lydia and I stopped by a friend's house before we picked Jared up from school and had a fun visit. I have wanted to get to know this family better for quite some time and hope we can meet up again soon! ( Jessie!)

 Festive foods and theme activities are coming out too.

I personally do not like lunch and do not enjoy making Jared's lunch for school.  I just don't feel like there are that many healthy things I can send for him and have him eat it.  I know he is getting fruits and vegetables from out smoothies and our food is fine at home but I would love to just throw an apple, orange or even banana in his lunch but he won't eat them.  It has been a bit of a joke lately as I have been lamenting making his lunch, Lydia always says how easy it will be to make her lunch next year, I could just put fruit in there and she would be delighted.  Thinking about making 2 kids lunches (way easier than say 4...) makes me sad. But I do love a festive treat! And even though Jared does not love PB and J sandwiches ( I still make him have them) he does like them more when they are cut out with Christmas cookie cutters.  I love to do this with pancakes and french toast too.

Rudolph donuts! 

I feel like I am doing a better job adapting preschool activities for Jared and spending more time with him in general after school. I still want him to just play when he gets home but I can certainly find at least one activity we can do together.  He is always excited when I ask if he wants to do the art project or science experiment we did in preschool so I am really trying to make that happen.

Things like, gingerbread man relays, Christmas bow sorting, candy cane/cookie dissolving, and Christmas memory.

Jared loves running so this was right up his ally, it was so simple, just running to get a gingerbread man from one side, high-fiving your teammate so they can go then repeat. 

Christmas bow sorting. I had them guess which size there was the most of then estimate the number of bows in each size.  Super simple but enjoyed.  When we do "talk time" at night Jared almost always asks me to tell him about our preschool day.  He has said more than once he would be happy to stay at home and by my assistant. 

This year I mixed it up with different flavored candy canes. I saw a box of mini assorted candy canes and thought they would be great for this experiment.  We did a little taste testing as well which was greatly enjoyed. I did not really like any of the flavors, (Blueberry, fruit punch and I don't know what the pink and purple stripe one was Berry?) I am a purist when it comes to candy canes but do't really even like them that much. 

We also dissolved these super crunchy Santa cookies which was quick fun experiment.   

Next week we are planing on handing out our Christmas lights award and the week after heading out to the Bethlehem Village in Afton.  We also need to find a date to go to the temple lights.  The month is filling up and going fast! Last week is the last week of school before Christmas break and I really need to do some Christmas shopping, I am slow this year, we do not have a single present wrapped and under the tree.  That is the goal for the next few days.

*Work is going pretty well. I am thinking they finally truly believed me that I could not work more than 3 days a week. I turned in another availability schedule listing T,W, and Friday as the days I could work and last week and this week they scheduled me for those days.  I was starting to feel really annoying because every week I would be scheduled for 5 days and then go in and make them change it so I am hopeful that can be done with. Then I could plan more things to do too. One somewhat helpful somewhat not thing is that I am now aware of all the sales they have and therefore feel like I should take advantage of them but need to stop and ask myself is this a need or just me buying something because I know there is a sale? Overall its going well and is helpful.