Skirting the Issue

For the first several years of our marriage we had a cheapo fake tree from WalMart.  Nothing fancy, but it got the job done.  Then I broke it doing some yoga.  You might have heard this story.  The next year we were gone for Christmas, so we had no tree (this was a very sad sad mistake).  And last year, we had a real tree.   Fun, but sticky, messy, and too much effort.

This year I ordered a lovely and nice artificial tree.  Pre-lit.  Pre-dreams fulfilled.

So, I decided it was finally time for a real tree skirt--no more fleece blanket wrapped around the base.  Have you ever seen how ridiculously expensive those things are?!  And I think a lot of them look tacky and/or gaudy.

Fortunately, after a quick search online, I found one I could make that I was really excited about.  Double fortunately, my mom was still in town and could help with her expertise advice and skills.  We whipped it up pretty quickly thanks to these.

Then came the fun part.

Editor's Note:  I forgot that I had not yet showered, gotten dressed, or done a single thing to improve my appearance.  I was overly excited to finish my project.

This part involved a lot of gold paint.

And a couple awesome faces like this.

Careful, careful.

Bryce's turn.

More awesomeness in my face.  And hair.

A little stressful.

This one was fun, but the most stressful.

Because he had no idea what we were doing.  And he doesn't like being messy.

Did I mention we needed lots and lots of paint?

Did I mention he hates being messy?

Lots of gold paint is lots of messy.

But we made it work anyway.

And here's the final product!

Final for this year, anyway.  The fun part is that we get to do this every year.  And we get to watch their tiny little hands grow.  Totally simple, but it makes me very happy.  Thanks, Mom!

Well, It Did Look A Lot Like Christmas

It was a good thing we set the tree up because the next day, it snowed!

So, we got the tree all spiffed up and Christmas-y inside

And then the kids went and played in the winter fluff outside.

The only sledding photo I got before I got too cold.

Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have a fenced in backyard, with a little hill?

Then my mom took care of the kids while HH and I went out and ran some much needed errands.  And almost got in three, or four, car accidents from the slippery snow.

And this is not especially Christmas-y, but for a couple of days, Trey decided he was obsessed with broccoli.  If anyone else ate it, he would scream, "MINE!!!" and reach frantically for the bowl.  I was so excited to have such a healthy eater on my hands, but after a couple days he decided he wouldn't touch broccoli with a 10-foot pole.

At least he had a couple nutritious days.

Moving On To Christmas

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, we left super early to make the return trip in one looooooong day.  Only this time, we brought back a little extra cargo.

In the form of my mom.

Let me tell you--it's really nice have an extra set of grown up hands when you return from a trip.  Unpacking and getting the house in shipshape again was so much easier!  Not to mention, more enjoyable.

Which made it possible for us to set up the Christmas tree shortly after we returned home.

And if you've got a tree, you probably better open some presents.

My mom had brought some gifts to be opened on December 1st.  Unfortunately, that was a crazy day for us and we were never all home together.  So, these gifts were opened a day, or two later.

Trey was so excited to show me his gift, he bumped it into the camera.  Leaving a smudge that would interfere with the camera's ability to focus, which would in turn, interfere with a video we tried to make for Blake's younger brother who is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It's all about the ripple effects, people.

This was the gift the kids have enjoyed every day since.

Kayli never takes advantage of the fact that she is the oldest and tallest.

Eventually, she let us all see it and we found a Little People Nativity inside.  So cute.  Treyton especially loves all of the animals--all "puppies", of course.  And I find them all over the house by the end of each day.

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

And then the kids asked Grandma to read their bedtime story.

Which she did every night.

I enjoy reading with my kids.  But a break every now and then is nice, too.

Forced Bonding

On Sunday, we all headed up to attend my little sister's church so that we could listen to her Sunday School lesson.  It was on "God Is Love".  And she did fantastic!

After church we headed over to her apartment to eat lunch and celebrate my niece's birthday.  Unfortunately, we forgot the camera in the car, so we have no photos of this.  But it was a great time!  My niece turned four and she is absolutely darling.  She was most excited about the pink frosting Grandma used on her cake.

I love four-year olds.

After the party, my older sister and her family had to return home, so the rest of us went back to my parents' home.  We made preparations for our own departure coming bright and early the following morning, and then had some time left over to play some more.

Uncle Weston decided it was time to force some bonding between two cousins.  Apparently, no one told him that children this age don't really play together, but more side-by-side.

Wouldn't this make any toddler happy?

And increase his desire to play with his attacker cousin?

Fortunately, he's picked up on some adept escape moves from watching Bryce and Kayli at TaeKwonDo.

(Speaking of, some day I hope to get a video of him doing his own version of TKD.  His little "hiya!" is THE cutest thing ever!)

But then, he appeared to just give in.

Insert random photo of Grandma reading a favorite bedtime story, Squash Pie.

Previously, it looked as though our hero had succumbed to his fate.  Secretly, Treyton had just been biding his time to get even with the mastermind behind it all.

And when scores were even, he smoothed things over by giving Weston a lovely massage.

The Lip Syncs

Many years ago, my older sister asked each of us to prepare a Christmas lip sync for us to perform for each other when we were all together at Christmas.  It was a rip roaring success and thus, we have continued it with whoever happens to be together at Christmas time almost every year since.

This year, since the majority of us would be together for Thanksgiving only, it got bumped up.

This year she got her whole family (well, minus the baby--he must have been asleep?) involved.  That blue tote is actually a chimney that Santa is stuck in.  Lest you be confused.

I can't remember the name of the song, but they did such a cute job.  It was really fun to watch.  And way to go for being the only people to actually practice beforehand!!!

Meg and Wes did a Sandra Boynton song about a missing shoe.  The little boys were super excited by the puppets.

We hadn't really done much preparation, but our kids didn't want to be left out of the performing, so they broke out the violins.

He has really horrible form, but isn't his tiny violin adorable?!

Then we took a break and put all the kids to bed.

Blake and I did "Stereo Hearts".  You can see that Blake was really feeling it from the get go.

And I pulled out all my inner gangsta.

I've got moves.

Blake got confused for a bit and thought we were doing "Walk Like An Egyptian".

I hit some struggles along the way.  Or, I was repulsed by Blake's monkey face.  I'm not sure which.

But decided to just persevere and carry on.

Blake realized he should have used the potty beforehand.

But, followed my example, and persevered as well.

This might look like I'm pointing the way to the gun show, but if you're a true "Stereo Hearts" fan, you know what part of the song this is.  I'm pointing to my old school, fifty-pound boom box, yo.

More awesome moves.

But they were a tough crowd to please.

So, my parents took a shot.  I never got the name of theirs, but it had something to do with "thrill me".  My dad seems to like to pretend to be very old, no matter what song they lip sync, so this time he actually pantomimed a walker.

Note to all:  When old folks break out the checker board at the request of "thrill me", it's funny.  Very very funny.  Make sure to laugh.  Out loud.

And then there was passion.  And we all averted our eyes.

Everyone present having taken a turn, some of us thought the event was over.  But others felt it had passed to quickly and wanted an encore.

So, we requested that Amy revisit her original lip sync, "Santa, Baby".  Only this time, Santa was played by her husband instead of my dad (she wasn't married back when this began) and she was missing the seductive black velvet dress.  And even though it's been a few years since that first rendition, Amy proved that she's still got it!

And I'll tell you what, Santa looked pretty darn pleased with himself throughout!

Then my mom did "Tip Toe Through the Tulips".  If you think she looks weird, check out this link.

And then there was a request for some Kate Bush done by yours truly.

Again, if you're not familiar with Kate Bush, please see here.

Finally, I cracked them.

Actually, I think we'd all been laughing pretty hard the entire night.  I just didn't think to take pictures of it, as Blake did.

Megan and Weston closed the night down with some Vita's Opera.

This is Meg's impersonation of this freaky Russian guy.

And this is Weston's impersonation of the same guy.  You have to watch the video to see why their impersonations differ so drastically.

And note that at this point my dad seems to be questioning the wisdom of letting this man into our family.

And then we were are laughing as heartily as Meg.  Way to go Wes.  You really can hit those high notes.

And we're glad we let you in.

Until next year's lip sync...