Through My Eyes: Christmas 2008

Well, I suppose I ought to post my Christmas report/pictures before I write about New Years. In the interest of time, and at the expense of originality, I'm just copying the email I sent my family about our Christmas.

Here is my 2008 Christmas report.

We had a fun little Christmas here in Austin. The week before, I made cookies every day and in the evenings the boys went on "secret agent missions" and dropped them off to various people.

The week of Christmas I started making bread wreaths (like the ones you make, mama), and ended up with 12 we wanted to deliver to friends on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to convince my family of the fun and value of caroling, but the boys had a really fun time delivering the bread. They rang the doorbell, ran and hid, and when the person came to the door, they jumped out yelling "Merry Christmas!" (Or in Mosey's case, "Boo!!!"). And we were lucky, every single person was there when we delivered bread to them!

After delivering bread, we went to HEB (grocery store) to shop for our shepherd's dinner. [This is a tradition carried over from my childhood. Every Christmas night, instead of a big traditional Christmas feast, we have a "Shepherd's dinner" in which we eat foods we imagine the shepherds might have eaten on the night Jesus was born. As a kid, we'd shop at Trader Joes, but sadly there is no Trader Joes here in Austin, although I can't imagine why. Austin is SUCH a Trader Joes kind of place. Anyway, the meal usually consists of nuts, dried fruit, various kinds of cheese, flat bread, hummus, special kinds of fruit juice, and, to keep the adult males in the household happy, roast chicken. We eat it on blankets in front of the fireplace with all the lights off in the house besides Christmas tree lights and/or candles. It's delicious, easy to prepare, easy to clean up, and really brings the spirit of Christmas back into the house after the day's festivities. It is one of my most favorite Christmas traditions.]

Once home, we got to work decorating a gingerbread house (from a kit, no time or patience to do the real thing), and the boys, who had their choice of dinner menu for the night, chose Ramen noodles. I did let them get special flavors at HEB, to celebrate the occasion.

We then had a sort of dance party with Ben dancing with the boys to very loud Christmas music (Harry Connick Jr.'s "Wooden Soldiers on Parade," the Polar Express train song, and others).

Once the boys were thoroughly riled up, we did a Christmas program in which Joseph and Brigham each played their Christmas songs they learned, and accompanied the rest of us singing. It was very fun, and my heart was warmed when Joseph wanted Brigham to play "Silent Night" several times so we could sing all the verses. This from the kid who refused to go up with the primary kids on Sunday to sing their primary Christmas songs because he "doesn't like to sing." I don't know what his deal was. But it about made me cry to have him request that we sing all the verses.

Then we read the Christmas story from the Bible, and it was bed time! Ben and I were up very late wrapping presents. We don't leave any out unwrapped, because the way our house is arranged, the boys can see straight into the living room from the upstairs balcony. I loved talking with Abraham and hearing everyone else's voices. [Conference call with my family, speaking with my younger brother on a mission in Switzerland.] And actually I really enjoyed the late night present-wrapping with Ben. We don't get a whole lot of child-free time together.

Christmas morning Joseph was the first one up, but very obediently played Civilization on the computer until his brothers woke up, not until 9:00!!!! Bless you, children! Then it was present opening. We had them take turns opening presents from Ben and I, then had breakfast, then had them open presents from each other.

Another heartwarming moment for me was seeing Joseph's excitement over watching other people unwrap the presents he had purchased. We had the boys each buy a present for one other boy, plus one for mom and dad (Ben and I took them out separately). Well, Joseph was not imbued with the spirit of giving. When I told them I wanted them to each spend about $5 of their own money for a present for their brother, Joseph said, "I'm only going to spend $2! I don't want to spend all my money." I told him he was on thin ice and that I would be more than happy to take back the presents I bought him. Over the several days before Christmas I tried to tell him how exciting it is to see someone else open your present, and that he would be so glad that he took the time (and money) to choose something nice. Then a couple of days before Christmas, when we were shopping for something for Ben, again he tells me he doesn't want to spend his money on presents. So I told him the story of the young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to enter the Kingdom of God. I wasn't sure if any of it sunk in and I was pretty depressed at how I'd let my little boy become so greedy.

But Christmas morning, BEFORE he opened any of his presents, he grabbed the present he bought for me, and was just beside himself with excitement for me to open it. I'm telling you, that was better than any gift he could have bought me. Anyway, what he bought was pretty darn sweet, too. Target has these candy bins in which they sell Sunkist fruit gems. It's the only place I've ever seen them. I bought some for the boys some time ago, and told them it was my favorite candy. Well, Joseph remembered that, and he bought me a bag of Sunkist fruit gems. Can you say, "Awwwwww?"

He was also very excited to see Brigham open his present, which was a slinky. Brigham had bought himself a slinky at the Target Dollar spot several weeks ago, and then immediately (accidentally) stretched it too far and ruined it. So Joseph, my little Grinch, ended up being a very thoughtful gift giver, and I think he now has a little testimony, at least, of gift-giving. (I had also ordered Brigham a slinky, but happily it hadn't arrived yet, so I didn't spoil Brigham's surprise and Joseph's excitement).

Brigham gave me a Christmas mug (and you bet it was the BEST Christmas mug I ever got), and gave Mosey a stuffed animal, one that Mosey had been admiring at HEB for a few weeks. Mosey LOVES it, and has been carrying it around ever since. Mosey gave me a green spiral notebook, which he was very sure I needed (and I DID!), and gave Joseph a Scooby Doo movie (which was immediately watched upstairs while I gratefully napped for a few minutes).

The boys bought Ben some little shelves to organize his bookshelf in our room, and they each bought him a bag of flour (Ben has been making lots of whole wheat bread recently, isn't that amazing?). They really wanted to buy him a wheat grinder, since he's been using our hand grinder to make the flour (he's trying to figure out how to use our food supply), but I didn't have time to properly research and order what I wanted. Yesterday I finally ordered one for his birthday on Saturday. We've been debating the relative merits of a mixer versus a wheat grinder. I voted for a mixer, but he would rather have a grinder. And he does usually only make one loaf at a time, which isn't too hard without a mixer. Of course, last week he was trying to make loaves of bread for the people who work for him, and as he was strenuously kneading the dough he said, "Oh, I can see now why people want a mixer!"

The other big hits were:

Scooters for Brigham and Joseph (Joseph's been riding his non-stop)

Webkinz animals for Mosey

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego computer game for all of them (remember that game?)

King Arthur castle lego set for Joseph with accompanying knights for all the boys

Balloons for Brigham (he has been asking for balloons for forever, and Santa put a bag of them in his stocking. Who knew that a $1 bag of balloons would end up being his FAVORITE?)

A Microscope from Grandma Frandsen!! (I love this as much as the boys do)

A Wacom tablet for mom (a pen and tablet that works sort of like a mouse, and is very useful for photoshop stuff)

New clothes for Ben and an FM transmitter so he can listen to his MP3 player in the car

And... new couches! We've never bought new couches before, we've only ever gotten them from family members, Craigslist, or Salvation Army, so this was big for us. We got them at Biglots, because the price was definitely right. I hope they hold up, but we just didn't want to spend too much while the boys are still little and hard on furniture.

We got other things too, but those were the big ones. I actually felt pretty good about the number of presents we got, which was nice. (I usually feel like we get too many.)

We had our Shepherd's dinner in the evening and then all collapsed into bed. Or at least I did.

Ben took the day off on Friday, too, and we had another day of playing with new toys and attempting to clean up some of the gigantic mess that Christmas always makes.

So, that was it! The house is now cleaned up, new toys put away, and the boys are enjoying some time off from lessons for a few days. I'll probably start up with some lessons tomorrow, but kind of lead into it gradually.

Joseph on his scooter. He's gotten really good over the past week.

Brigham working on a map of the United States puzzle.

Playing knights on the living room floor.

Mosey and his new stuffed animal Golden (from Brigham) hanging out with Dad

On the day after Christmas, Ben was working on winterizing the pool, and Brigham decided to get in, too! It was pretty cold, but he stayed in for a few minutes.