Simply. Having. A. Wonderful. Christmas. Time

Despite loads of good intentions that I would get all my Christmas gifting/sewing done early, the night before we were set to head up to Idaho (December 23), I was up super late stressing and sewing. But, hey, I finished sewing before Christmas Eve, so that's something. This year, I decided that even though Michael was with me when I bought fabric for our Christmas jammies, I would still try to keep them secret from him, which meant I only worked on them when he was at preschool or in bed. And since other things tend to take priority during the few hours of preschool each week (like shopping), and I tend to be done with life by the time the kids are in bed, that meant a few late nights when the deadline came demanding those late nights. In the middle of the Christmas prep, we were still trying to get things done in the basement, even after our original deadline for finishing the playroom was Christmas was dismissed. (By the way, we still have a LONG way to go on that room, but it's slowly getting there.)

On Christmas Eve, we tiredly got up, finished packing, and loaded up the car full of our clothes, kids, but mostly presents. Unfortunately, since we were so tired, we ended up snapping more and getting frustrated with each other. Oh yeah, and I decided that the bathrooms HAD to be cleaned before we went to Idaho. I had hoped to be on the road by 10, but I'm pretty sure it ended up being between noon and 1 before we hit the road, and by then, I was such a grump! The stress had really gotten to me, and my tired self couldn't cope. (I also realized that's why my parents often seemed a little grumpy on Christmas Eve when I was a kid). So, when we grabbed lunch at a fast food place, I told Brian to order just the two of us ice cream. Something about trying to eat ice cream without our kids noticing released a ton of tension, and by the time we hit the Idaho border, I was in good spirits again. After delegating the Christmas Eve Live Nativity script to Taryn, I had no more pressing deadlines, and started to relax---and it felt SO good! I'd been running constantly since--well, probably October! And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one that was tired:

The car ride was, thankfully, uneventful. We picked the last good day to go to Idaho--a snowstorm hit during the night that night.

We got to my mom's and unloaded all our presents, adding to the already enormous stack! We shared our Christmas Eve tradition of opening jammies with my parents, siblings, and nephew; I didn't want anyone feeling left out. I was originally going to make jammies for Ethan, since he was living with us, so I bought Utah State flannel to do it. Then, when I went to cut them out, I realized that Ethan doesn't really like pajama pants, so I decided to make them for Cal instead. We bought Ethan USU basketball shorts, and my dad BYU sweats (he's not much of a pajama guy either), and jammies for Taryn's family and my mom. And this year, I threw in slippers to our jammies. Michael and Brian were pretty excited about the slippers.  

After the kids got changed into their jammies (and my brothers--that made me feel pretty good), we headed over to my Grandparents' house for the traditional Christmas Eve program. This year, we decided to read Christmas children's books, sing songs in between, and then do a live nativity with a script taken straight from the scriptures. Taryn cast Rachel as Mary and Michael as Joseph, and my cousins were angels and shepherds. 

 The best part was when my grandpa read, "And the days were accomplished that she should be delivered," Rachel said, "Uh oh," and dropped something onto the ground. It was hilarious!

 After the program, we feasted on Grandma's pastry---my favorite part of Christmas Eve.

 SOOOOO good! She makes cherry and huckleberry. Cherry is my favorite.

 There were other goodies there too, but the pastry is the one that stands out.

We went home and put our kids to bed. By then, it was kind of late, so we didn't end up getting a family picture with all of us in our Christmas jammies. But, I did get Michael to pose in front of one of the piles of presents.

There were more under the tree and along another wall. It was ridiculous! And awesome.

Michael and Rachel slept in my dad's screen-printing room, and Brian and I shared a room with my two brothers. That night, it was pretty awesome. We watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--well, they watched and I conked out. Still, it reminded me of Christmases from our childhood, and that was pretty fun. Taryn and David slept in the other room with their little boy.

We should have discussed appropriate waking up times, but I honestly didn't think it would be a problem. Michael woke up at 4 a.m. and then he woke his sister up and got her all riled up. Yeah, after trying to get them to go back to sleep, we gave up the fight and let them get up and look at what Santa brought them. With all our noise, my parents woke up and joined us. But, we weren't sure when to get Taryn up, and we worried about what Aaron would be like if he got woken up. So, we waited. Finally, I put my tired self back to bed. When Taryn and David woke up, the brothers and I woke up and we opened presents. David felt bad because he was pretty sure he woke my kids up when he let his dog out. Oh well!  

We had dinner at my Grandma's house that afternoon. It's a good thing they were only around the corner from my parents because it had snowed a good 6 inches the night before and the wind blew it across the road. We were worried about my brother Cal driving back to Utah in that weather, but he made it home safely. After dinner, we went back to my parents' house, and Rachel and I took a nap together. It was amazing. After that, there was probably more treats, and maybe a movie. 

The next day, Taryn, Mom, and I headed to the DMV, because that's what you do on the day after Christmas. Just kidding. It was my mom's birthday, and she needed to renew her license. Then, we went on a hunt for snow boots and snow pants. We went to Rigby and then to several stores in Idaho Falls. Taryn was unsuccessful, but I found both. We ordered pizza and headed back to Mom's, much later than we anticipated. After eating pizza, we got snow gear on and headed out to go sledding. 

 My parents watched from the warmth of the suburban.

 The hill was a little pathetic at first, but we still had a ton of fun.

Surprisingly, Rachel made it longer than Michael. It was so fun sledding with her because you could hear her just giggling the whole way down. 

 After hiking up the hill a few times while dragging a child in the sled, we decided to make use of the suburban sitting right there watching and made them play ski lift for a few runs. It was pretty funny, and made the whole thing much more enjoyable. The second to last run, Rachel was done. I think she got a little too much powder in her face. So, we passed her over to my parents and went for a final run.

We went home and ate Chili. There may have been a movie. By this point, we figured out that Michael and Rachel needed to fall asleep in separate rooms, and then we'd move Michael to his bed after they'd both been asleep for a while. But that didn't stop them from waking each other up bright and early in the morning.

On Saturday, we went out to lunch, and then Taryn and David headed home. Brian and I took my Mom and Ethan to see Into the Woods for her birthday while Dad took the kids home. And after Into the Woods, Brian and I got new phones and switched back to Verizon. We were tired of the subpar reception with T-Mobile. There may have been another movie that night. I can't remember.

On Sunday, we woke up to even more snow. My parents' 89-year-old neighbor dug out her driveway with his snowblower. The kids thought it was pretty entertaining. He plowed my mom's driveway and front walk.

 We went to church, and it was good seeing so many old friends. We debated back and forth about whether we should stay another day or not because of the roads, and after checking a few traffic cameras, we decided it wouldn't be too bad. The worst section was in Utah, and it wasn't too bad.

My poor exhausted kids didn't last long before they were both snoring in the back seat.

Michael slept for 2 and a half hours. He had a little too much fun at Grandpa's house. 

 We were so happy to be home, and we were happy that the roads were good. We got the kids in bed and unloaded the car, and who cares after that. We had a very wonderful and merry Christmas, and we're so glad we braved the Idaho Winter Road Lottery to go see my folks for Christmas.

Merry Christmas to All and Happy Birthday to Some

On December 21, the Utah Chapter of the Savillian Clan gathered for our annual Christmas Party/December Birthday Party. It was the day before Julie's 60th, so we made her hide in her room so that we could throw her a "surprise party". We decorated the room with balloons and and a banner. Then we let her come out. 

Boy was she surprised! 

 After the surprise, we had a fabulous feast of ham and funeral potatoes. And Lea's amazing pear salad. And rolls. And probably other things.

Oh, and we had some bubbly: 

 Non-alcoholic, of course.

 Then, we took Julie downstairs for the REAL surprise: Lea had orchestrated a HUGE heart-attack. She contacted as many of Julie's friends and family as she could and had them all send in a story or note, and then I helped by printing them on hearts. The boys helped hang them on the walls downstairs. It was a sweet surprise.

It was hard thinking of just one little story of my amazing mother-in-law. She said it was the best (and only acceptable) surprise for her 60th. Later, I put them in a scrapbook album for her so she can look back and read all the nice notes Lea collected.

 After Julie read all her hearts, we went upstairs and opened presents. Rachel got her first Nana-made pillowcase. She loved it!

 Michael got REAL legos, not just Duplos.

 Rachel also got this cute red-headed doll. She loves it! Here she is making Papa give it kisses.

 Michael also got "The Book With No Pictures." He loved having Nana read it, and it was instantly a favorite.

 I was spoiled with another star-ish quilt in some of my favorite colors:

 We all got a recordable storybook of Nana and Papa reading "I'll Love You Forever", one of Brian's favorites from when he was a kid. The kids love it, and it is awesome to be able to have Nana and Papa read to them when they aren't around.

After presents, we frosted and ate cookies.

Rachel was a little cookie monster. She ate one, and immediately wanted another. "Coooooookie, Coooooookie!" And she couldn't be fooled by a frosting-less sugar cookie. She knew where the frosting was and would just take the cookie over to the frosting and demand to have it frosted.

 And then we had birthday cake/cookie to celebrate Lea and Julie's December birthdays. (Lea doesn't like chocolate, so she got a candle in a cookie instead).

A word about the December birthdays in my life. I want to apologize for dropping the ball on you every year. Once Thanksgiving is over, I hit Christmas mode, and it's hard to remember that their are birthdays in December, people who deserve so much more than the little that I have to give them that month. My nieces and nephews. My sister-in-law and my brother-in-laws. My Mom. Brian's mom. But the night of this party, I especially was thinking of Lea and my Mother-on-law, and I was wishing that we could somehow have two parties that month.

 Lea is always there for me. She comes to my house for dinner and jumps right in, helping where she can. And Julie is an AMAZING mother-in-law. She always makes me feel so important. If I ever mention to Julie (or Kirt) that I like something, I somehow end up getting it. I'm not really sure how; it kind of blows me away! I'm constantly amazed by how much love and service these two give me--me, a person who shares no blood with them at all! Yet with each passing year, Julie feels like a second mom, and Lea feels like one of my sisters. For my birthday, they brought dinner to my house, and cleaned it all up when we were done eating! They both spoil me SO much. I will forever be grateful that they were born. They both give so selflessly and never expect anything back. I feel like the little I give them will never compensate for all they give me. And when I think of how they have helped shape my husband into who he is, tears of gratitude well up in my eyes. They say you can't choose your family, but you can choose your in-laws, and I'm SO glad that I inadvertently chose them the day I chose Brian. Happy late late birthday to you both!

(And I did get to take Lea out to lunch the next day, sans kids, and it was so fabulous. We got to talk for a few hours, and than rushed back to the madness known as the few days before Christmas. And we made plans to start a Christmas tradition together next year.)

Family Ornament Pictures

We have a yearly tradition of buying and filling a photo frame ornament with that year engraved on it somewhere. We're getting quite the collection! It's fun to see how things have changed from Christmas to Christmas. 

This year, my studio lights made their big performance debut in our annual Christmas Ornament Photo Shoot, and I have to say, I absolutely love having them. Michael was my lighting tester:

 And we made Ethan join us, even though he said, "I won't be here on Christmas." "Yes, but I want to remember that you were living with us this year." He was a good sport, and even put on his suit for me. We all got set, I pushed the timer, ran to my spot, and then went to check. This is what I found:

 Yes, everyone looks amazing, except for Michael's face. I should have just went with this, because it is classic Michael right now. But, it's the digital age, and we tried again:

 We used this one. But, just for fun, we had to take some silly shots:

So, for fun, here are our past ornament pictures:

 2009: Our first Christmas as the Saville family (versus the engaged couple that we were the year before) This was taken at our ward Christmas party. 

 2010: Our second Christmas, and our last Christmas in Wymount. Our friend Adam took our picture. 

 2011: Our first Christmas in our new house. It's also the only year (so far) that the tree was in that corner. And, amazingly, Adam happened to be visiting so we had him take the picture again. We thought it might be a new tradition.

 2012: We decide that taking pictures after church is a good time since we all look our best. This is the first year of the tripod/timer method.

2013: Rachel makes her debut in our ornament picture, and I made Ethan join in also.

2014: Just in case you forgot what it looked like :)

The Blur known as December

It seemed like we hit the ground running the second we stepped off the plane from Austin---so much to do and so little time from making photo books and calendars for Christmas to planning our ward Christmas party to working on our basement, not to mention the everyday stuff. I'm not sure where December went--it went by so quickly!

I spent a lot of nights formatting calendars and then reformatting them because I didn't like my original layouts once the pictures were dropped in. I had pressing deadlines that stressed me out. 

As soon as the photo projects were finished, we had our ward Christmas party that Brian and I were assigned to head up. We decided from the get go that we wanted to keep things very simple--to think smarter not harder; we only had two other couples helping us, and I didn't want them to hate me by the time the party was over. I feel like we accomplished that (the simplicity part), but it was still stressful. The night before the party, I posted this on Facebook:

It occurred to me the other night that I've had this feeling before, many many times. But because I'm not in classes or studying, it took a while to recognize. I feel like it is finals week for me! I feel all this stress and deadlines. I feel justified in late night snacking while I've been up later than usual working on various projects. I've felt so overwhelmed that I've just done nothing instead of working on something. I have to remind myself to take on one thing at a time. I've even caught the typical finals week cold that I always go back in college. I suppose Bishop Christopher Burton was right: we were so busy as college kids, but it certainly hasn't stopped being busy once we graduated. The difference is that I'm the one picking the projects and the deadlines and I thrive on deadlines and stress. This isn't to complain, just to laugh about that same feeling coming to me outside of college days.

Also, a huge burden will be lifted after tonight's Ward Christmas Party is over since we're in charge of it. If you're in my neighborhood/ward, please come  It's going to be awesome! Okay, done procrastinating. Back to work.

The night before, we tried to pick up some last minute things for the party. One of those things was plastic table cloths. There had been plenty all month, and I should have bought them earlier, because we live in Utah, and I'm not the only one who had the idea of using Walmart's plastic tablecloths for ward parties because I went to two different Walmarts and they were both OUT of them in red and green. White wasn't even available. And at the second Walmart, I almost broke down in a puddle on the floor. And then I got a brilliant idea that I know didn't come from me, it was too inspired and my brain was too mushy to come up with such a great idea. Why not use wrapping paper? I trekked to the holiday section and found the widest rolls they had. I tried to visualize how wide those banquet tables were, and decided that they would work, despite Brian not being sure and a fellow ward member (who was also at Walmart that night) not being sure. So I bought 15-16 rolls and prayed it would really work. 

The next morning, we went to the church to set up for the party, and the wrapping paper was perfect! In fact, it turned out even better than the plastic table cloths would have. We set up the tables to form two big Us, and put round tables behind them so that there would be plenty of seating. Real pine boughs went on the tables as centerpieces, which looked amazing with the red wrapping paper. And we put some of our bulb/ball ornaments that we had leftover on top of the boughs. The U's opened up to a bronze Santa Clause made to look like he was kneeling over baby Jesus, since our theme was "What Shall We Give?" and was based on giving gifts to the Savior by serving others. We set up rooms around the church as service booths. We had a warm clothing drive, missionary writing booth, 3 humanitarian booths, ornament making booths for the kids, and sugar cookie frosting room (after dinner was served, of course). We had the food catered, and there was TONS of it. The food got there late, but everyone got some, there was plenty of seating, and everyone was really willing to help clean the whole thing up when we were done. It wasn't the grand event I would have liked to thrown, but it was a simple event that I feel like we were supposed to throw. We felt very inspired about this whole thing, and I was grateful to have this reminder constantly on my mind about what Christmas is REALLY about. And it says something about how busy I was with this party that I didn't take a single picture of it. But this is kind of what it looked like from above:

After the ward party was over, my attention turned to finishing up getting our gifts for the kiddos and making Christmas jammies, which, despite having purchased the fabric back in October, I didn't finish until the night before we headed to Idaho. 

Oh, and the dry-wallers finally finished the two rooms they were supposed to finish before Thanksgiving. So, we made lots of trips to home depot, bought lots of paint, and primed the playroom. The playroom is going to get its own post when/if we ever finish it. 

And the kids lived a normal existence while all this was going on: 

I tried braiding Rachel's hair a few times:

 catching a picture of her little braid/pony tail combo was almost as hard as the actual braiding:

Rachel practiced her Saturdays Warrior moves: 

 Michael became an excellent bed-maker:

 Rachel became a bubble-bath Diva:

 We saw some of Santa's reindeer at Thanksgiving Point:

 We tried to take advantage of holiday festivities while we shopped at Home Depot:

 Michael continued being a stellar big brother by helping his little sister in many ways, including getting dressed:

 Preschool continued successfully, except it never occurred to me to get a little something for Michael's teacher for Christmas until she sent a mass text thanking the parents for the many wonderful gifts. Oops. What can I say, I'm he's my first kid.

We had wonderful Christmases as well, but they were so fabulous that they get their own posts, coming soon.

Record Breakers

While we were in Austin, Brian forwarded me an email asking for volunteers for the World's Largest Nativity and Music Video. The volunteers would be angels in the video. I thought, "Why not?" and signed the kids and I up.  It turned out to be more stressful and less fun (since it was just me and the kids), but I still got to participate, and I certainly don't regret it. 

So, on December 1, Michael, Rachel, and I officially helped break a Guinness World Record for the largest live nativity.

 And in the process, we almost got trampled by this camel:

 Seriously, Michael had been standing a little bit closer when the camel decided to stand up and start walking backwards. I pulled him away as fast as I could. I've been stepped on by a horse before, and it broke my arm. I imagine that a camel would hurt just as bad if not worse, especially if you're 5 (versus my 8). Michael was mad at me for grabbing him and moving him. He didn't know that he had almost died.

Just before breaking the record, the kids started to lose it. I ran out of snacks, and Rachel went down hill in a hurry. I was wearing this funky bell costume with no arm holes, so I couldn't pick Rachel up and carry all our stuff. Rachel was just crying and crying until this sweet BYU student came and asked her if she needed a hug. It says something about Rachel's distress that Rachel let the girl pick her up and give her a hug. The girl helped us get through the next half hour, but during the actual record breaking, she disappeared to talk with a friend. By then, I figured out how to lift Rachel up (I think it got cold enough for me to wear my coat again), but Michael was upset because there were several taller people in front of him, and he couldn't see what was going on. He broke down, and I tried to explain how I couldn't lift him and how we couldn't move. Finally, I asked a woman in front of me if she wouldn't mind lifting my 5-year-old up so he could see. She readily lifted him, and things got a little better. After the official Guiness presentation was made, Michael was excited about seeing the animals. That's when we almost got trampled.

As part of the Nativity, they shot a music video featuring David Archuleta and the Piano Guys.

and I helped make this light dot nativity. I'm pointing at my spot.

You'll find the "dot nativity" at the very end of the video. And now you know which dot I am :)

 After the camel scare, I had to practice for our dot nativity thing. We found our spot, and Rachel kept crying. She was so miserable! The sun was going down, and it was getting cold. Another nice woman took pity on Rachel and gave us some fruit snacks. Everyone was so kind and sympathetic.  And every time I would say something about being crazy enough to drag my kids to this thing, they would all tell me how amazing I was to get them involved in something like this. Finally, just after 5, Brian came and picked up the kids after he got off work. Michael was sad that he didn't get to shine a flashlight and wear the bell hoop light costume, but I think he was happy to go get warm and get some food. 

After the kids left, it was pretty lonely. Spirits stayed high despite the cold and wind. They hooked a camera to these balloons to get the aerial shot of our dot nativity. It was pretty crazy to watch. We had to pause filming a few times because the wind was blowing too hard. 

Finally, they got enough footage to be satisfied. I watched some filming, took this paparazzi shot of Alex Boye: 

grabbed a muffin, and decided to call it. And when I saw the music video all finished, I must admit I was a little proud to be a part of it.