Ah, Christmas Time

1. I think this year is the busiest I have ever felt at Christmas.  But it was a good busy.  We did a 12 Days of Christmas for someone, and I packed a lot of chocolate making into a very few days since I discovered the hard way that humidity kills candy making, thus the one or two non-rainy days were spent non-stop cooking. It was literally 100% humidity on the rainy days. I had to make up for last year when I didn't make any chocolates or anything at all, because I was so nauseous from being pregnant.  And I sent out a lot of Christmas cards.  I love getting Christmas cards and so I always send out mine in hopes that people continue the tradition.  I think it's dying out in my generation. So sad.
2. I also hosted book club at my house and made a delicious Ferrero Rocher cake for it.  Here's a link to the recipe.  It was good!  (This is not a picture of my cake-but it looked fairly similar albeit not as nice.)

3.  The ward Christmas party was AMAZING.  It was brinner (breakfast for dinner) and the kids wore their pjs, and a professional chef in our ward along with a couple other amazing volunteers cooked made-to-order omelets with the options of cheese, mushrooms, peppers, bacon, ham, and onions for everyone.  There was also pancakes, hash browns, bacon and ham to your hearts content.  And a hot chocolate bar and orange juice.  I made carmel rolls for it (we were asked to bring pastries for desert.) It was decorated adorable too. 

4.  For my birthday, I had an adult-only dinner party at my house.  First time in my life for something like that.  Ana helped me so much that day.  Seriously, I would not have been ready without her.  It was a very nice birthday present! And I made cheese fondue and my wonderful friends brought a bunch of stuff to dip in and then we had chocolate fondue for dessert.  So good!  I love cheese.  Almost as much as chocolate.  Then we played some games and they teased me about whether I needed my piano moved.  Ruff.  :)  The kids watched movies on Elena's bed on a little tv with VHS player that someone gave to us two days before and I picked up a bunch of VHS tapes at Goodwill that they hadn't seen to choose from and a big tin of popcorn.  It worked great! We never heard a peep from the kids.  

5. I GOT A SEWING MACHINE FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!  It's a Viking Topaz 25 that can do embroidery.  I'm still in awe that I have such a nice machine.  I picked it out the Friday before with Leo.  Leo wasn't exactly happy about spending more on a sewing machine than what his car is worth, but he was gracious about it, and then he went home and bought a smart phone. And then he couldn't sleep that night worrying about money.  Poor man. I slept fine, dreaming about sewing.  :)  

 6. Christmas Eve we spent with our friends, the Sheleys.  It was really fun and we had a big crowd of kids to do the nativity.  They are super nice and the food (soup and bread) was delicious.  Nicolas was trying to climb in the manager despite being a wiseman. And Sebastian, one of the sheperds, stormed off because he was so insulted that they were using a "fake baby" instead of baby Jubal.  It was kind of funny, although annoying as well, luckily nobody noticed him much.  Just Elena was sad to be the only shepherdess.

7. After, we came home and opened Christmas pajamas and the kids headed for bed.  However in the rush and bustle of things we forgot till the night before that we needed to go get our trampoline from our friends' house, so Ana and Leo went and got the trampoline taken down in the dark.  Truston helped too, which I feel so embarrassed about him spending Christmas Eve helping us.  Anyway, we didn't get it set up, but the kids were super excited the next morning and that's what we did most of Christmas afternoon.  I spent the time wrapping presents that I had left till the last minute.

8. Christmas morning was lovely.  The kids all loved their presents and we followed the example of Andrea and Kayli's families this year and had the kids make presents for each other, and that ended up being some of their favorite gifts.  I got the second part of my shopping spree--and Elna 664 serger.  Sah-weet.

 Ana's gift to Sebastian (Wild Kratt's bat outfit.)

Jubal's gift for Nicolas (3 superhero masks.)

 Nicolas's gift to Ana (a pallet board sign--Leo did the wood part and me the sign part--next year I need to rethink how young of kids we're including in the gift exchange).

 Sebastian's gift to Isabel (bath fizzes.)  He had the best time making these.  He kept repeating over and over, Isabel is going to LOVE this and he kept put water on the crumbs to test the fizziness.

 Isabel made Elena a snow globe with a picture of her inside.  And Elena made Nicolas the cutest rattle almost entirely by herself.  Like these.

But we haven't seen it since Christmas morning.

 The kids dancing around for joy at what Santa delivered.

 And the art kits from their abuelitos was a smashing success.

 Elena and Isabel got a Easy Bake Oven and sewing machine from Leo and me.  Elena is very excited to learn to sew.

And the little boys got Kid K'Nex and Spiderman and Batman sheets for their new bunk beds.  Jubal got a moose, which actually Nicolas adores and carries around and tries to ride.  And Ana is going to AFY for her present. 

And that was our Christmas.  Merry Christmas everyone!

9. Friday night another family invited Leo and I over for an adult game night, which was super fun, and they fed us root beer floats.  Love it! I stink at games by the way.  Seriously, worst player there, however Leo is really good, and hopefully that made up for it.

10. Ana went to a stake dance tonight.  She said when I asked, "It was fun."