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. 

A Very Texas Thanksgiving

On November 20, we headed to Texas! Brian was in New Orleans at a work conference (we won't discuss our three days without him; it wasn't so pretty), so I flew with the two kids all by myself. He met us in Austin that night. I had been worrying about the flight sans Brian for months, so I decided to make quiet books for the flight. I finally finished them Wednesday night around midnight, and then stayed up until almost three getting everything else ready. I said lots and lots of prayers that things would go smoothly and that I wouldn't be able to tell how little sleep I had gotten the night before. I do NOT do well on little sleep. Prayer works. We had a great flight without any trouble and without any tears. And, the flights were empty enough that Rachel could sit in her own seat, which was a HUGE blessing. And she charmed everyone on the plane, including a very helpful flight attendant. 

We arrived in Austin around 6 pm and Ben picked us up from the airport. When we made it to their new house in Austin, Jenny had dinner and ginormous Texas sugar cookies waiting for us. It was awesome!

Brian's flight from New Orleans got delayed an hour, and they lost his bag, but eventually Brian made it to the other Saville's and we began our marvelous time in Texas!

Day 1: The Thinkery in Downtown Austin--It was awesome and we all got in free thanks to the passport program with other museums that we are members of!

 Tyler made and obstacle course:

 Day 2: We got a sitter and went on a double date! We went to see the new Hunger Games movie, got dinner, tried falafal:

 Guessed the movie quote at the ice cream shop:

 And then went home, put kids in bed, and did we play games that night? I don't remember. But it was a blast!

Day 3: Church:

 And enjoying the AMAZING weather:

 Rachel couldn't get enough of the slide:

Day 4: A lazy morning

 And then we headed to Pfluggerville to see Adam, Sarah, Eliza, and their new arrival James. We ordered tacos from Torchy's Tacos (I wish they had one here!). We decided this is the only way a democrat would be so welcome at their table ;)

 And I got to hold a new baby! Two weeks old:

  

 And it was wonderful seeing our good friends again.

Day 5: We went out for a little morning walk and discovered a tree house!

 And then we had lunch and went on a duck tour of Austin. It was awesome!

 When we remember, we try to go see the capitol buildings in the state capitols we visit. It was nice that we got to drive right by this one:

It was fun to drive into the lake. It was amazing!

After the tour, we went to this park to ride the train.

 We tried to grab dinner at a Food Truck court, but apparently not many trucks are open for business on Tuesdays. We had some good old Texas BBQ instead. Did I mention how good the food was in Austin? We ate out a TON because Austin is famous for all their good eats.  We went home and had a dance party for Tucker's birthday. The kids loved it!

Day 6: Since Tucker's birthday ended up being so crazy, we celebrated some more on Wednesday:

 Brian and I ran some errands for Thanksgiving dinner, we had ice cream cake, and I took Ben and Jenny's family pictures, and then we enjoyed some more warm weather. Rachel is obsessed with the moon:

 And the kids finished up their place setting for Thanksgiving's dinner:

 We made preparations for the big feast. Here's Jenny making her Grandma's famous jello salad.

 Brian got to help, but they fired me because I wasn't careful enough with the jello squares.

 Brian and I made our peanut butter pie--and broke the hand mixer. Yeah, we're awesome guests.

Day 7: Thanksgiving! Jenny is a holiday master. She had so many fun crafty things for the kids to do. I thought I was pretty good with things like that, but Jenny blew me out of the water! Here's the pumpkin turkey:

And the gum drop-pineapple turkey:

After the turkey's were all done, we went for a walk to show Ben and Brian the tree house we had discovered. 

 And played in the little park area:

 Then we went back to the house and played some more outside:

 And we made the rest of Thanksgiving dinner. We picked up the turkey from a BBQ place, so it was pretty low key. Finally, it was time to eat: 

 That evening, we headed to Marble Falls to see their walking light tour. It was amazing!

 And we saw Santa:

It was a later night, and Rachel fell asleep on the way home. Apparently so did all the boys in Ben's car--well, except for Ben. He was driving.  

 Day 8: We packed up first thing so it was out of the way. We had a couple of helpers:

 We squeezed in as much sunshine as we could:

Rachel loved Ben and Jenny's backyard. She learned how to say Buckle because of this swing right here. 

We grabbed more Torchy's Tacos on the way to the airport, and then all too soon, we said our goodbyes to Ben and Jenny. We had a fantastic time and wished that they were closer. The first leg of the flight was basically empty. We took up two rows.

  Our flight left Austin at 8 p.m. Michael colored for a little bit and the decided to curl up and go to sleep. We thought Rachel would fall right asleep too. Nope. We wrestled with her for half that first flight before she finally conked out.  But once she did, she was out. We had a stop in Vegas, but the flight from Vegas to Salt Lake was completely booked, so Rachel had to sit on my lap. But she was so out that it was no problem moving her to my lap and making the short flight from Vegas to Salt Lake. We landed just before midnight, so by the time we got our bags and Ethan drove us home, it was about 1 a.m. Rachel went back down and slept until almost 11 the next morning. 

And we were so happy to come back to our house all decorated for Christmas. And we have a new friend to remind us about our Austin Thanksgiving for all the years to come:

Thanks, Ben and Jenny for a wonderful Thanksgiving!