Chaos and Cupcakes

I am so sad that Christmas is over already.  It was an absolutely wonderful Christmas- my favorite ever!  The timing of the school holiday was perfect.  We had a few days before the holiday to get the house scrubbed and bake goodies and finish any last-minute shopping.  Then on Christmas Eve, my mom, dad, 2 brothers, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law came over for dinner.  We ate ham, cheesy potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing, brussel sprouts, chocolate pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and Dutch apple pie.  Then we opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift of pajamas and the kids opened their 2008 ornaments and put them on the tree.  After my family went home, we re-enacted the story of Jesus’ birth with our Little People Nativity set.  Then we attempted to watch Fred Claus thinking it was more of a family movie than it was.  The kids weren’t into it, so we put them to bed and then finished watching it later.

On Christmas Day, we didn’t open presents until around 8 a.m.  It took quite a while for all of us to open presents.  By the time we were all done, we were hungry for our cinnamon rolls!  We just relaxed the rest of the day and played with our new stuff and ate.  We had lots of dips and appetizers and treats that we snacked on all day.

We got more than enough toys to tide us over until next Christmas, or at least till our birthdays!

But more than the presents and food and decorations and fun, I’m grateful for my family and for the Savior.

When I went to go choose the photos I wanted to put in this post, I couldn’t decide from the many cute photos Jared took.  So instead, here is the link to our Christmas photo gallery.

11 days until Christmas!  I am very excited for Christmas.  I have been coming up with some new traditions this year that I am very excited about.  There have been many years where we have been away from home during the holidays and so haven’t been able to cement many traditions.  However, we decided a couple of years ago that we would always spend Christmas at home, as with so many kids it is much easier and more fun to be at home on Christmas.  Last year I had just had Parker and was not feeling up to doing all that I wanted to do.  So I have been really excited about this year and carrying on traditions we have already started and starting some new ones.  These are a few of our traditions:

- A Lego advent calendar.  This is something Jared started with the kids last year and they loved it.  All of our kids are huge Lego fans, as is Jared, and so this is something that is very fun for them.

- Making gingerbread houses.  My kids don’t think it is the holiday season until they have made gingerbread houses.  It is a messy project, but they enjoy it immensely.

- A big Christmas Eve dinner, cinnamon rolls Christmas morning, and then grazing on appetizers and goodies throughout Christmas day.  Last year we switched meals around and had our snacks on Christmas Eve and our big meal on Christmas as we were already doing a meal on Christmas Eve with Jared’s family.

- Re-enacting the story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve.  We did this growing up and it was such fun for us kids, as well as a great way to re-enforce what Christmas is really about.  Last year we did this with all of the Ottley cousins and the kids had such fun.  This year we are adding a new element to this tradition.  We ordered the Little People Nativity Collection.  We will re-enact the Savior’s birth using this set.  I also wanted to have a nativity set that the kids could play with without me worrying about them breaking it and this set is perfect for that!

- On Christmas Eve, everyone gets to open one present from Mom and Dad (including Mom and Dad).  It is always a new pair of pajamas.  This way everyone has cute, new pj’s for Christmas morning pictures.

- Everyone gets a new ornament each year.  This way when the kids leave home, they will have lots of ornaments and memories to add to their own Christmas trees.

- Putting out cookies and milk for Santa.  He works so hard that he deserves some treats!

- Each person’s presents are wrapped in a different wrapping paper specific to that person.  For example, this year I am wrapping all of the presents we are giving to Olivia in a cute Dora the Explorer Christmas wrapping paper.  Then, of course, Santa uses a special wrapping paper for the 1 big gift he brings to each of us.

- When I was a child, my family’s tradition was that we lined up on Christmas morning by age and as we came down the stairs to open presents we sang Christmas carols.  This is something I am carrying on with our family.

So there are some of our traditions.  What are some of yours?

My  Breaking Dawn review is still generating some wonderful discussion.  To date, it has gotten over 11,000 views and over 60 comments.  Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on the book!  Now I need to get off my heinie and review all the books I’ve planned to write about for several months now!

Today my baby turns 1! I honestly have no clue where the time went. It is so hard to believe he is actually a year old.

I’m not going to write out Parker’s birth story like I have been doing on the other kids’ birthdays because it is already here on my blog.  All I will say about it is that I am so thankful that my sweet, precious baby is here with us today celebrating his birthday.  I am so thankful for modern miracles.

Parker is an absolute sweetheart.  He is a cuddly, happy, smart, sweet boy.  He lights up the room with his smile and his big, blue eyes.  He loves to play with the kids and just adores his siblings.  He also adores his puppy and cracks up when Gizmo comes up to him to play.  He is a tiny boy, only 14 pounds, but is a voracious eater.  He eats and eats all day long and loves all kinds of food.  He doesn’t eat baby food anymore as he loves to feed himself whatever we are eating.  I tried weaning him in October but he wasn’t ready.  But he is ready now and so we are weaning.  He takes a bottle and a sippy cup really well so it shouldn’t be difficult.  (UPDATE:  Guess he is not so ready after all.  He still wants to nurse.)  He is a very fast crawler although now he prefers to pull up and cruise rather than crawl.  He can stand up for a bit on his own but he isn’t quite walking yet.  He can walk holding on to one of our fingers but I think he just doesn’t quite have the muscle or strength to do it on his own just yet.  It will be really soon though, and I am not ready for that!

We all love and adore our baby.  He is such a joy and a blessing.  He completes our family and I am so grateful for him.  Happy first birthday, Parker!  I love you!

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