Mer-RAY Christmas

i am just cheesy enough to love all the fun ways to play on our last name. 8 1/2 years in and it's not old yet!

our Christmas eve consisted of making 8 dozen elves caps, 8 dozen peanut clusters, and 2 large pans of double delicious cookie bars for caroling. i also cleaned, wrapped, and taught the girls to vacuum in between baking. our plan was to head out caroling as close to 4 as possible, but you know, life. frankie and i delivered a gift to quinn, and dari and i like to talk, soooo... we continued our 2-year-running pizza hut for Christmas eve dinner tradition. i love traditions soooo much, but i strangely don't have a lot. i'm just such a spaz and like to try new things. even things like my recipe books are pretty sparse because i'm always trying new recipes. i don't know, maybe someday we'll find something that works.

anywho, after pizza hut we headed to mccombs to plate cookies (they were running late too) and headed out just after 6. i mapped our route of 12 houses and we were off. first stop, aina's! i had inadvertently let the cat out of the bag when i texted sarah instead of laura, but all's well that ends well cause we didn't really want to walk down in the mud to the aina's door anyway. ;) this is our one and only picture from our caroling fun. it's tough taking pictures when you're busy singing badly as loudly as you can. ;) and the girls pretty much looked like this at every house. there was no singing going on there, even though they knew all the sings and regularly sing them around the house and in our car.

we caroled all around town until 8:30, when we hurried home and opened our Christmas jams. we tried and tried to take a nice family picture.

seriously tried.

time outs were administered. 4, but who's counting.

we talked and lectured and tried some more.

#asgoodasitgets
#wemissbubba
#somedaymeandmy4girlswillallmatch

matt the elf disappeared downstairs as soon as the girls got to bed. sydney stopped by and we had such a fun time visiting. lexi always had/has friends coming and going and, while it was/is annoying sometimes, i also really miss it. most of her friends are fun and friendly and we all joke around and laugh, at her mostly. last night was no exception. and i quote "boys love me! i don't know why, cause i'm psycho." oooooooh to be young again. that girl. after hanging out with the big girls, when i finally took laney to bed, (late nap) we were putting her books away. when i asked her to pick up a book she said, very snottily "okay! stop being cwazy, mom." little sistah needs to check herself before she wrecks herself.

frankie and matt (per the norm) were the first awake. they came down and opened their stockings and waited patiently for the rest of us. addie came to wake me up around 8:30. we raided stockings and finally decided to wake the 2 sleeping beasts - #1 & #5. lexi woke up easier than laney. :/

addie was so excited to get going!

laney reluctantly and grumpily opened her first present, after that she was good.

frankie got roller blades and wore them until we left for the day at 11:30. she loves them!

laney was cute and would say "i love it!" and "it's just what i wanted!" for everything she opened. there was even some hugging of gifts, as in these flippers i bought after summer clearance.

i tend to opt for the if-i'm-buying-it-around-Christmas-i'm-wrapping-it mentality. cue leotards and cuddle duds.

after all the opening, addie noticed there was nothing, other than stockings from santa. then matt and i got to do our routine of "hmmm, what did santa bring last year," to get them downstairs. we are sneaky-sneaky. a new art desk! what a surprise! we hung out and organized art supplies for a long time. mommy loves it! and despite addie saying that santa probably didn't bring them what they wanted because they hadn't told him, i think the girls will grow to love it too. they did love it while we organized, but it's definitely not the most fun gift ever. ps - addie really wants a menorah. little jewish girl.

lexi was there too. resolution - more pictures of the big kids. i think they are mostly over their teen photo dodging, i just need to take my opportunities.

we went to see night at the museum at 12:40. another new thing we tried. not sure i love the movie on Christmas idea though. it was tough getting out of jams so early. and then we got home late and 3/5's of us (lexi stayed to exchang presents with friends) had tummy aches, so we decided to postpone Christmas dinner. for those keeping track, we did that last year too. i do like the idea of not doing a big Christmas dinner (mama wants a fun day too!), just need to figure out what to have instead. we also postponed because instead of prepping yesterday, we made dozens of cookies. it all goes along with my life motto lately, "it's good enough." nothing like lowering standards, right? ;) just keeping it real.

we watched Christmas movies and played with our new toys. we busted out these water beads i've been eying for months.

everyone loved them! they are seriously cool, and therapeutic for children of all ages.

 

we've been so blessed with another wonderful year and a very merry Christmas. we are so blessed and so grateful that our Savior gave us the most important gift of all. 

Merry Christmas 2014!

fa-la-la-la friday

friday*december 19

and now, some photo stealing. 

johnna subbed for vicki's seminary and the kids had a fun Christmas party on friday. chris texted me when i was at beth's party and asked if i could pick up some food for him to bring and also a gift to take. he also needed egg nog, (thankfully i knew and remembered that one) the griddle, wafflemaker, and pancake batter. it's so fun to poorly plan. :/

the present spend limit was $5, so chris came home with a plunger. actually, he didn't. this is all i've seen of the plunger, i wonder where it went. these kids are pretty amazing! they wake up early every morning and, at least at my house, they don't complain about it hardly ever. they are silly and young, but they are eager to learn and i am pretty impressed. so thankful for the seminary program!

 

friday was matt's day off. he got started on putting together santa's Christmas gift, and i made a trip into town for a rather frustrating micheals visit and a gift card for our sweet pre-k bus driver. i collected a whole $14 dollars for him. it's the thought that counts, right? also, the girls got to wear pj's and watch movies at school. apparently the last day before Christmas break has become pajama day at most schools nationwide. i like it. :)

after school, chris participated in the 2nd annual egg nog challenge for track. each participant drinks a cup of egg nog, runs the track, does 10 burpees, and repeats until he/she throws up. it's great fun. families were invited this year, so addie and i headed out before our girls shopping date. chris lasted about 4 laps. we took some non-vomiting pictures, and, since our runner had already "won," we left. 

first stop - back to michaels to make right the frustrating first trip of the day. second stop - payless for sunday shoes for the lanes. her feet grew overnight and the last two sundays she's been shoeless lanes. third stop - bath and body works for lexi's present. it was so fun to smell all the different wallflowers with this big, opinionated girl. i gave her the coupon (trying to indoctrinate her young) and even let her handle the credit card. she's a very serious shopper.

our fourth and last stop of the evening was target for some odds and ends. it was a sweet night with our sweet girl. 

after egg nogging, chris went to say goodbye to brenna and family. ashby's family went to see the hobbit, so she came to spend the evening with us. cue lots of girlie laughing, running, and silliness. lexi didn't arrive till midnight, so i waited up for her. it's so fun to have the anticipation of people we've missed coming into town and to spend Christmassy time with. it's an exciting new chapter of our lives!

addison road, track meets, and class parties

wednesday*december 17

***disclaimer: frankie set my phone to some weird setting and i was too busy and brain preoccupied to change it for a few days***

kid swap day at the aina's! while the girls played, i google worked, wrapped presents, organized, and cleaned. as always, it was fabulous. i consider myself so lucky to have friends that value the importance of alone time and that also are wonderful to my children. i am always confident and happy to drop them off because i know they will have as wonderful a day as i do. s'wonderful all around.

my day was cut a little short because at 2:30 i had to leave to head up to prince george county for  christian's indoor track meet. this is the third he's gotten to go to (one last year, two this year) and the first i've been able to make it to, (i was in seattle for harvey's memorial last year, and this year he went the same night as matt's work party) so i was pretty excited to go. the traffic was majorly cray-cray, so i called my boo, and he rerouted me away from the beltway. on my detour i spotted this. our addison got a kick out of it.

i finally made it to the track meet and, holy moly, it was also majorly cray-cray! there was so much going on! long jumps, triple jumps, shot putting, running, it was nuts! i found christian, waved, and waited for his turn to long jump. i sat there with my awesome camera (thanks dad!) and my lists, receipts, and phone. while i waited i planned and calculated and researched. i was cleaning my glasses when i looked up and christian was gearing up to run! ahhhh! i missed snapping his first jump (shhhh) but i caught the rest. of course, i didn't have a clue how he did, and even if i did know how far he'd jumped, i still have no frame of reference for whether that's good or not. this is our families first foray into track, so i know nothing. i knew nothing about cheer either though and i turned into a nice, respectable cheer mom, so i got this. turns out the boy came in solidly in the middle, 16th out of 32. spoiler alert: he came in smack dab in the middle for all three events. not too bad. :)

he ran the 300 and also did the triple jump. thankfully his events were all pretty quick and then i was free to go. i grabbed him some subway and headed on my merry way to the andrews air force base commissary. i had lots of shopping for frankies class christmas party, plus some family stuff. i had never been there before, so it was fun to check out. :) and really any alone time is pret-ty nice.

while chris was running and i was watching, addie went caroling with her daisy scouts and then matt took the girls to go get laney. 

#divideandconquer

thursday*december 18

thursday was busy prepping for her party. i decided to have parents send in money and get the supplies myself this time. all morning i worked coloring sugar (it's better for the birds when making reindeer food), mixing snow paint (glue and shaving cream), and loading the jolly green. the schoeny's came over for a little while too. it's funny having boys around when we're so used to girls. :)

we headed to the school (later than i planned) at 1:45. frankie has a great class and there were lots of parents there to help set up. i divided the kids into 4 groups and had them rotate through each station. fyi - 4 and 5-year-olds are not good at remembering which group they've been in. they made reindeer food, ice cream cone Christmas trees, snowmen, and grinch fruit kabobs. in between activities i played christmas songs and they danced and wrestled on the carpet. it was fun and crazy and busy. during the craziness i did manage to sneak out to the cafeteria to see my fav 1st grader busily making her gingerbread house.

she's always so happy to see us and delaney is especially always a hit. addie was already pretty much done by the time we got there. i wish their parties weren't always on the same day, but we do the best we can.

we also presented frankie's teachers with their gift card books. i had found a cute idea to make gift card scrapbooks for the teachers to personalize the generic gift card, which i think is one of the best gifts for teachers. i cut cardstock and sent two copies home with each child to draw a picture of what each of their teachers would be doing over Christmas vacation, along with the corresponding gift card. so frankie drew a picture of each one going to the movies with her corresponding daughter (the girls come to help in their class every day after middle school). it turned out really cutely and they got lots of different gift cards (target x3, starbucks, dunkin donuts, amc, and red robin). they loved their books! all in all, it was a great day! and gorgeous skies too.

even though i was pooped that night, i made my spinach dip, chopped my veg, and headed over to neighbor beth's ladies Christmas party. she came with me to super saturday, so i felt kind of obligated. it was really fun and there were a ton of lg ladies there, so i'm glad i went. i ended up leaving with what i brought to the gift exchange, a phenomenon that's happened to me twice in my life. i choose to see that as i like to give things that i would really like to get, and that's a good thing, right? ps - there were at least 3 other veggie trays, and only about 4 desserts total. another cray-cray moment.

 

supah fun and busy december continues.

Sibling Christmas-Village-Temple Lights

note the play on words in the title. so clever, i am.

and working backwards. like a moonwalk, if you will.

today was a pajama day. woke up in the same jams i'll be heading to bed in. frankie was the only fancy one that got dressed (yellow and white striped leggings, pink and grey shirt). we've been running around so much lately and it was so nice to stay home all day and organize. as of right now everything is wrapped and ready. i think we need a few more friend gifts, but we're sitting pretty right now. :) we had several fun visitors dropping off fun and yummy treats. each time the doorbell rings, 3 excited little girls and their excitedly embarrassed (i stayed in my pink robe all day too) mama run to the door. we have such wonderful friends. 

for fhe we talked about the symbols of Christmas and watched the Christmas classics, including frosty, rudolph, and santa claus is coming to town. they may be classics but they are kind of bo-ring.

yesterday we savored our 2nd to last week of 1pm church. i made muddy buddies for my class and we packed subs for dinner to take to the temple. lexi came to town friday night, but her friend ami has been in the hospital with kidney stones, so she's been spending lots of time there. we made it to the temple just after 6, along with about a million other people. i waited in line for show tickets (bells) but they only had 8pm available. i got them, just in case we were still there at that time, but then during an extended bathroom visit, (long lines) we missed our showtime. i looked at my phone and was shocked to see it was 8:10! oopsie.

anyways, the lights were beautiful and it was freezing!

we walked all around the visitors center and the girls played.

we took profile shadow pictures.

franks.

ads.

(lanes politely declined)

we took selfies and waited in long lines to see the crèches. worth it.

matt's got the girls hooked on a funny spanish song, so frankie sang it to a missionary sister from mexico, and then they high-fived. :)

we ran into elder farley, (elder anderson's son) so we got a picture together to make aj jealous. and don't mind frankie.

we stayed till we realized we'd missed our 8:00 concert and then decided we should head home. we'd brought the laptop, so on the way up and part of the way back the girls watched mr peabody and sherman, and then 2/3 of them slept (that laney!) the rest of the way. we made good time and had everyone in bed by 10, including mom and dad. 'twas a beautiful night!

lexi got home late friday night. she and meghan were on the same flight, and since we just saw her, and i had to head back to the airport on saturday, we let lisa and gang pick her up for us. saturday was our only day to be all together so we decided to hold our sibling Christmas morning. we made a big breakfast (cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage, bacon, and hashbrowns), listened to Christmas music (addie and frankie love the wilson sisters classic "hey santa," while delaney is partial to her song "the first noel" as performed by miss carrie underwood) and opened the sibling gifts.

i had the idea this year that instead of everyone getting everyone small gifts, they could draw names and get only one sibling a nicer gift. and ps - i know it's not all about the presents, but i love giving presents and i want my kids to love giving too. i'm hoping this will help to foster that. the assignments went like this:

alexis - delaney

chris - frankie

addie - alexis

frankie - chris

delaney - addie

addie and i had a girls shopping night where we smelled every b&b works wallflower and she carefully picked her favorite scents for lexi and her lucky roomies (hope they like wallflowers!). l&c combined forces to get f&d a nice big lego set (which we all ((matt and i)) put together on saturday and they love). franks helped pick bubba some compression shorts for track. and lanes picked addie an elsa doll and a pack of paper (the paper made all her dreams come true - seriously, she'd wished on an eyelash).

it was a lovely and quiet day. we kept the Christmas music playing and i made lasagnas for the ward Christmas party.

at 2:30 we headed over to the Christmas village. our first stop was to see santa. the girls have already visited with santa several times this year, but i only had about 20 hours where all 5 would be together and i really wanted a picture with all of the children. since we got there right as they opened, there was no line.

delaney most decidedly does not like jolly old saint nicholas this year. we had to bribe her with gum just to get her to let christian hold her. she and santa have matching expressions. whoever heard of a santa that doesn't smile?!

"I.hate.santa." ~ delaney

Christmas Village is a new event at the fairgrounds and it reminded me so much of the country Christmas festivals we went to in california! it was so cute!

our next stop was to the "sledding." there's addie, bubba, and frankie up on the right side. laney was having none of it.

brave girl addie!

and chris and frankie.

so precious!

as soon as laney saw them come down, she decided she wanted to go. i'm a sucka for my baby, so we walked up to the front of the line and i explained that the 2-year-old had changed her mind, and up we went. that hill is higher than it looks and delaney echoed my thoughts as she said "scawy,scawy, scawy!" over and over again.

we walked around and checked out some of the vendors (lots of fun and unique ones) and the "ice skating." what are you gonna do with limited resources, right?

da' gang.

at 4 chris and i had to head to the airport. don't knock my hat, it was soooo cold.

we had a lovely ride to the airport. the boy was talkative and sweet and even told me he loved me back before he got on his flight. those sweet words are few and far between with this one right now, so that was super special. on my quiet ride home i finished listening to "cloud atlas." very interesting book and i wish the movie wasn't rated r. :/

meanwhile lexi picked up a salsa's shift, and the rest of the crew went to the ward christmas party. each family made a snowman and it was a cute and different party. or so i heard, since this is the second year in a row i've missed. :(

sweet sister rose (missionary couple) always takes lots of pictures at ward events, and as i was going through the ones she posted, i spied frankie helping the older girls. or observing. or bothering. ;) she's a friendly lady.

 

 and now i'm 3 days closer to being caught up.

Breaks on again

December has been busy and merry and fun. Now it's Christmas break and I'm hoping to have more free time (ha). 

Every day things happen that I think - oh, I want to remember this forever! Like when Frankie sings that Rudolph will go down in history like Jordan Washington or when Addie and the "saints and mangers sing." In short, I miss blogging. Here's to more of it!

12*21*14 *Washington DC Temple lights

breaks over

we had a lovely 5 day break, but now it is over. the alarm clock would have gone off at 5:45, but little lady lanes cried in the wee hours, and matt couldn't get back to sleep. then, neither could i. 4:40 it is!

the girls have been on a mommy/sissy high heel wearing kick. and frankie's been such a fancy poser lately! ps - i hate that 'v' they make with their fingers on their eye. oh the joys of raising teens and toddlers at the same time! :/

working and owning it! ps - we have daily spills in those bad boys and even once down the stairs (frankie)

i was blessed with parents that love to travel and they have passed that gene on to me. so i understand that this map is probably not accurate, but i counted states i have a distinct memory of or have been to as an adult. i'm thinking a new england, northern tour, and trip to dollyworld are in order, stat! ps - i like to document silly quizzes i take on fb from time to time. sue me.

our bedtime ritual lately has been me laying on my tummy on the floor, matt rubbing my feet or back, and the little girls alternating from sitting on my back and doing my hair, walking on my back, playing with legos at the table, and climbing in and out of bed. sometimes in heels. - ps - those jams are 18 months. my little laney!

lego lover. ps - christmas will bring another set!

addie illustrated frozen and then requested a picture of it. i let her take my phone down to document. ps - i broke out the whiteboards a couple weeks ago and they are in love! pps - frankie is on a 4 day restriction from markers because she always leaves the caps off.

alexis has had a few suitors that believed strongly that bigger is better. addie came into our room to say hello one morning with this giant on her head. lovely. ps - there is also a giant round lion monstrosity that i may or may not have told alexis i didn't ever want to see again this weekend.

poor matt didn't feel well all weekend, so he didn't get to enjoy our family aggravation game. addie was hooked! laney is learning how to roll... i taught her to blow on the die for luck, but then she did this cute thing where she blew and then let the die roll or "blow" out of her hand. ps - i won.

matt stayed home from church to have another day to recuperate. he sent me this with the caption "watching night at the museum is resting, right?" we're on a natm kick, which is fortuitous because the new one comes out next month. the daddy/laney time resulted in lanes not getting a nap, falling asleep at 6, waking up at 8, and playing/whining till almost midnight. ps - she's lucky she's cute.

my little crafter was in heaven as we broke out some christmas crafts. even this morning she's told me several times how much she enjoyed crafting last night. ps - i am hoping they love the craft table santa is bringing them!

i had ulterior motives to the crafting, i really just wanted to keep the girls occupied for awhile. i had a rockin headache and was also super into my book heaven is here. i've read nie's blog since shortly after her accident (addie was a baby) and it was fun to read some of the behind the post stories. it's a great perspective on how very blessed i am too. i think i have pretty good perspective anyway, i was a single mom for a lot of years, but reminders are always a good thing. chris had gone to brenna's gradma's for dinner and lexi went with friends. ps - this book was in a box of things matt brought home from after brother russell passed away, so it was a total surprise score for me.

laney woke up (from her mid-evening nap at 8) crank-to-the-e. all selfie attempts were futile. ps - she was cuddly, so all was not lost.

christian teases and tries these little girls (and then wonders why they don't always like him). check out that stink eye! oh, these kids! ps - she warmed up to him when he gave her gum. (yes, we give our 2-year-old gum, it's an awesome parenting move)

 

one more day with the collegiate and everyone else is back to school. looking forward to christmas break!