Our lights were also a little messed up. One of the lights on the string broke, and unfortunately it was one of the important ones, so it made a whole segment of the string not work. But the replacement bulbs in the package were the blinking ones, so we had one part of the lights blinking while the rest just stayed on. I swore I would never have Christmas tree lights where part blinked and part didn't (before I had kids and responsibilities), but last year I decided I didn't care and we just used them. But this year I wanted a pretty tree with white lights, so I bought new white lights and a roll of silver ribbon, and the end result was so nice! I really enjoyed it.
I try really hard to keep the presents hidden, but our kids think a locked door means, "Come in." I even put a sign up on the door that said, "Do not enter unless you want to ruin your surprises," while I was wrapping presents. Heidi took it very seriously and cried hysterically when Ann Marie pulled off the sign. Kevin thought the sign was hilarious and kept trying to come in.
I know I shouldn't, but I get stressed about Christmas presents. I want everyone to be happy and get something fun that they will enjoy. It took me a while to figure out what to get for everybody. We don't do a lot of Christmas presents because even with only three kids the amount of stuff adds up fast, but I did want each of the kids to get something fun to play with. To add to the complication, Kevin was figuring out the secret of Santa Claus, so I was trying to keep things hidden because I didn't want him to say, "Mom, I saw that under your bed, so it's not from Santa," and ruin it for Heidi. I'm not even sure how much it would ruin things because we don't make a big deal out of Santa, but still.
I love being involved in music during Christmas time. This year I sang Away in a Manger with four other women at a Relief Society activity, and we had such a great experience that we decided to sing again for Sacrament Meeting. We ended up singing an arrangement of The First Noel/Pachelbel's Canon, which was beautiful. I also really enjoyed choir practice and I was really looking forward to singing on Christmas Day.
Then a couple of days before Christmas I started feeling sick, which really put a damper on everything. I love having good food for Christmas, but I wasn't really enjoying food much because my throat was irritated and I was coughing. But I stubbornly persisted in making and eating the treats because it was CHRISTMAS, and I was going to have some TREATS. But then they weren't as enjoyable because I was sick, which made me disappointed. Next time I'm sick on Christmas I'm just going to postpone making the good stuff until I feel better.
I still haven't really figured out what we traditionally eat for Christmas Eve/Christmas dinner. I always make Grammy Jenna's cheeseball and Wassail because they're fantastic and they're traditions from when I was growing up. This year we had egg rolls too because I don't buy them much, so they're a treat. And I found a recipe for fried chicken that I decided to try (it was good--I omitted the hot sauce and added salt). Then I thought if we were having egg rolls that meant we were kind of having a Chinese theme, so I made Chicken Lo Mein (which I liked, Ryan ate some, and the kids didn't touch). So it was a really weird combination of food, but at least it was enjoyable, right?
Kevin monitored the wassail (which was awesome to have for my cough/sore throat).
While I was cooking Christmas Eve dinner, the kids worked on their pictures for our Christmas journal. When we were married, somebody gave us a journal, and two years ago we started a tradition of writing our testimonies of Jesus Christ in it every Christmas.
This little girl has learned to dress herself, and I have a hard time keeping her fully clothed. I also have a hard time keeping up when she changes her clothes by herself five or more times a day.
We got out the pretty table runner and my pretty dishes. (One broke the next day when a child was trying to help put away dishes. :'( )
The kids acted out the nativity while Ryan read from the scriptures. Heidi was Mary, Kevin was Joseph, and Ann Marie was a shepherd (although she wasn't especially cooperative according to Kevin and Heidi's standards). I played appropriate hymns throughout the nativity and attempted to sing.
The kids went to bed after putting out reindeer food on the lawn (oats and glitter--they brought it home from school), and I started stressing more about presents. I hadn't bought any candy for the stockings because I was planning to have fudge and cookies made, but that didn't happen because I had been sick. So then I had the idea of making caramels "from Mrs. Claus." The caramel was very tasty, but for some reason it never got hard enough to cut into squares, so on Christmas when we were eating it we ended up sort of eating blobs of it or dipping apples into it.
Also, the smiley face on the note looked like something from Nightmare before Christmas. :-D
Despite all my stressing and worrying, the kids were delighted with their presents and had a nice Christmas morning.
Ryan and Ann Marie playing with the new Turbo Twisters (remote control cars):
We ended up with a lot of new legos, which the kids play with all the time. Kevin got snap circuits, Heidi got a Barbie, and Ann Marie got a Little People farm. I was so glad the legos ended up being a family gift--I was planning to give them to Heidi, then decided against it and got the Barbie. When they kids all opened up the legos together, Heidi said, "I hate legos." Whew! (She has ended up playing with them just as much as everyone else, though.)
Ryan got me a laminator, and I gave him a circular saw (meaning, we went to Harbor Freight and I told him to go pick the one he wanted). My mom and dad got me a couple of gifts that I love, including a big skillet that I use almost every day.
Then we got ready to go to church. Our ward combined with another ward and had a beautiful music program.
The Thursday before Christmas I was still sick and I was so worried that I wasn't even going to be able to go to church, let alone sing with the choir. That night in my prayers I begged Heavenly Father to help me get better because I wanted so much to sing. I told Him I had complete faith that He could do it. On Christmas I wasn't 100% better, and my voice wasn't where I wanted it to be, but I was well enough to go and sing, so I was very grateful. One of the songs we sang was Oh, Holy Night, which honestly is not my favorite Christmas song (it usually ends up sounding depressing instead of hopeful), but our choir did a nice job, and the soloist had a very sweet voice that really invited the spirit. When we got to the line "He knows our need," I burst into tears. At that moment the Spirit witnessed to me that God knew how much this music had meant to me, and He knew that I needed to be there that day, so He answered my prayer and helped me to heal enough to be able to sing.
This Christmas program was one of the most inspired ones I have ever participated in. There was quite a variety of music styles too. The choir director and another sister sang I Believe in Christ with guitar accompaniment, and I loved it. We often sing the sing with a very grandiose style (which is also fine), but this version had a more light and happy style, which I really enjoyed. We had a piano/cello/violin do the Piano Guys version of O Come Emanuel, which was beautiful.
After church we went back home and just relaxed and spent time together. I think I made potato soup or something for dinner.
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