Christmas 2015

We had an interesting Christmas. I sometimes feel bad because I don't do a lot for our family for Christmas. Some years I am more ambitious than others. But this year we did less. A week before Christmas I came down with a sore throat (swollen lymph nodes, really) that lingered for three weeks, so that limited how much I could do because I wasn't feeling well. Plus Ryan has been busy trying to get job applications turned in and get his presentation for the AAS conference ready, so he's been going to his office every day to work when normally he would spend more time at home over the break.

It's hard to be away from family for Christmas, and we've stayed here for all eight Christmases we've lived here. For some reason this time was hard. Maybe it was partly that we haven't visited any family since 2014 when we went to Utah, so it's been a year and a half. So in lieu of being with family I made my mom's wassail and drank a lot of it (which was helpful for my sore throat too). We also made Grammy Jenna's cheese ball twice.

On Christmas Eve we reenacted the nativity and sang Christmas carols. The kids also drew pictures for the Christmas journal (a tradition we started last year, the idea being that we can write our testimonies of Christ in it every year). I was feeling really frazzled from being sick and busy with the kids and missing my family, so I was looking towards these two traditions with a get-it-over-with attitude, but on Christmas Eve I drove past a nearby Catholic church and saw all the cars of people going to mass, and I realized that I actually did want to make our Christ-centered traditions significant, so we put more effort into the nativity and the Christmas journal and it was really special.

We tend to delay putting up the Christmas tree until later because it's stressful to deal with the kids playing with it, and this year we have a toddler again, so we weren't in a hurry to put up the Christmas tree. We finally got out the tree and lights a week before Christmas. The next morning we discovered that Kevin had been playing with the lights and he pulled one out, which meant that the first segment of lights didn't work, so the tree came in the bedroom for a day. Ryan tried to replace the broken lights and discovered that the wrong replacement lights had been put in the box, which meant that the first segment blinked while the rest didn't. My parents had several years where the lights were like that and I swore I would never have my lights like that, but at this point I have more pressing issues and I realized I didn't really care if the lights weren't the same, so we dealt with it. This was the tree's last year anyway because it was getting really scraggly (we may have made several comments about Charlie Brown's Christmas tree). Then we didn't put any ornaments on until I finally felt bad enough about it that I put them on the tree on Christmas Eve. I only got around to getting a couple of the nativity sets out, so that was kind of sad.

It took a bit of thinking to decide what to get the kids for Christmas. We already have lots of great toys that the kids play with. They each ended up getting a toy from Santa and a toy from Mom and Dad, and they got lots of books. I think I chose well because the kids have been playing with all the toys a lot. Kevin got a Marble Run set, Heidi got a doctor set, and Ann Marie got a pink teddy bear and a doll. Ann Marie carries her presents everywhere and cries real tears when she can't take them out of the house or hold them at mealtimes, so I consider that a big victory. It's been so fun. We also got some CitiBlocs from Ryan's sister Tiffany, and we've all been building with those a lot. Ryan got me a victorio strainer (so now I can finally make applesauce and tomato soup!) and a set of Rubbermaid containers, and I got him the Nausicaa Valley of the Wind boxed set. We got a lot of other nice things from family.

A couple of months ago one of my friend shared a documentary about how a lot of cocoa is produced and harvested by slaves, and Hershey's, Nestle, and Mars haven't done much to avoid using slave-produced cocoa in their products. They interviewed a man whose six-year-old son (the same age as Kevin) had been kidnapped and enslaved and still hasn't been found, and when I saw that scene I knew that I couldn't support those companies until they make sure all their chocolate is Fair Trade. I knew that I would have to change some Christmas traditions to keep that commitment because we usually have Reese's and other chocolate in our stockings for Christmas. But I found out that Aldi and Trader Joe's chocolate is fair trade (apparently Costco's chocolate chips are too), which meant that I can buy their chocolate and make my own chocolate treats. First I made Marshmallow Fudge with mint extract (it was delicious, but it never got very hard). Then I made homemade Take 5 bars based on this recipe. I used caramels instead of Rolos, but next time I'm going to make my own caramel because the caramels got too hard after being melted. I'm also going to try making a "Good as Reeses" peanut mixture next time I make Take 5 bars instead of doing the recipe's peanut butter mixture. Then for New Years I made Oreo truffles using Trader Joe's Jo-Jos, which are a lot like Oreos and about the same price (I think I actually like the Jo-Jos better). The Jo-Jo truffles are really easy: You just crush a whole package of Jo-Jos in a ziploc bag, then mix them with cream cheese in a mixer. Then you shape the mixture into balls, let them harden in the freezer, then dip them in melted chocolate. So amazing. We brought those when we went to our neighbors the Dunns' house to play games (Forbidden Desert, which was really fun) on New Year's Eve.

I realized that I can make do without my favorite candy bars. It was more work, but I was able to make a lot of chocolate treats that I liked just as much as my favorite candy bars. I probably shouldn't make this many next Christmas, though, because I ate way too much chocolate!

With kids things always seem to happen so fast and it's hard to get good pictures and enjoy the moments too, but here's what I got:

Ward Party

Our ward had a Christmas party. Ryan got sick and couldn't stand up, let alone go to a ward party, but I had signed up to bring orange glazed carrots and a dessert and the way the emails about food were phrased it sounded like people would go hungry if my carrots didn't show up, so I went to a ward party with three kids by myself. I read the recipe wrong and the carrots didn't turn out quite right, then somehow the glaze that didn't get thick got spilled all over my pants and I had to change, then we had to drive to the church in traffic, so we were late to the party, but it wasn't a big deal. It turned out that there was way more than enough food and my contribution wasn't really needed, but the kids were actually good and I didn't have to make dinner, so that was nice. Kevin and Heidi are at a stage now where they can go off and play with friends and I don't have to worry that they'll be off in Mexico if I can't find them for fifteen seconds, so that has made things easier. Ann Marie didn't get to leave her stroller, but she was a pretty good sport about it all things considered, and she ate a pretty good dinner.

The Primary children sang some songs.

I bet your ward doesn't have a youth band/orchestra like mine does. We had a piano, a baritone, violins, a saxophone, a bass clarinet, and a cello. They played several songs and did a lovely job.

I wasn't planning to stay afterwards and help, but when Kevin saw people cleaning up he said he wanted to help, which I decided was a desire worth encouraging. He was actually really helpful and worked really hard. I really appreciate that Kevin likes to be a helper.

The next day was the ward choir's Christmas program, and fortunately Ryan was feeling better, so the kids were taken care of while I played the piano with the choir. It was a really special program and I really felt the spirit, especially playing John Rutter's Rejoice and Be Merry (which is also very fun to play on the piano). "So blessed forever be Jesus our King, who brought us salvation. His praises we'll sing, his praises we'll sing!" What a blessing it has been to praise my Savior each year with our choir. Because of his gift we have so many reasons to rejoice.

Duke Gardens

The day after Thanksgiving was another beautiful day, so we decided to go to Duke Gardens and then see the Duke Chapel. Everyone and their dog was there, so apparently not everyone spends Black Friday in stores.

I thought this staircase with the wooden railing was pretty.

Heidi kept begging to be carried and claimed she was tired. She always thinks she's tired.

Thanksgiving 2016

This year we had Thanksgiving at the Lantz family's house with the Lantz family and the Warburton family. We have kids of similar ages and this year our four-year-old girls have been in the preschool coop together, so we've all become good friends and we had a really nice time.

I made Lion House rolls. I put a lot of work into making them pretty and buttery since it was Thanksgiving, and I think it was one of our best batches ever. I found this video that showed how to shape them the way they do in the Lion House and it worked well.

Ryan took Kevin and Heidi out to clean the car in the morning while I was working on rolls, and Ann Marie was devastated that she didn't get to come, but she was thrilled when I let her help me with the roll dough. She was pretty good at adding cups of flour, actually.

I made a double batch and this was all that was left when we came home (and then the kids finished them off!).

All she wanted for Thanksgiving was Jamie's Jello salad. (That's a big bite of whipped cream!)

It was a beautiful day, and after dinner pretty much all of us went outside. The kids played in the leaves and had fun taking turns raking.

Then we had pie. Ryan made homemade whipped cream because we're purists. I made a peach pie (which turned out weird) and a razzle-dazzle pie (basically the apple pie recipe but with a couple of bags of frozen mixed berries instead of apples) that was great. Emily brought some yummy pumpkin pies.

library

The library has some new sculptures and I finally took the kids back to see them.

Ward Service project

Once when we were at a ward activity out on the grassy field behind the Institute building here in Chapel Hill, we discovered an old basketball court going wild behind the foliage (the Institute building used to be a country club complete with a swimming pool and bar, then it was used for several years for church before the stake center was built). You couldn't see the basketball court because of all the vines and bushes growing in front of it. Ryan and Kevin and several people in our ward worked very hard at the ward service project in November to clear everything away, and now you can see the basketball court. I'm excited to see the amphitheater they're planning to put there. I was very proud of Kevin for being willing to be such a good helper. Ryan got to use his machete (which he bought and actually used when he was on his mission in Argentina).

The girls and I had planned to help make hygiene kits inside, but the kits were all done by the time we got there, so we helped with the other project, which was decorating lunch bags. Apparently a local church hands out sack lunches to homeless people and they like to decorate them. It sounds simple, but it was kind of hard. It's hard to come up with a motivational quote or picture for someone who is homeless. Most of the quotes that I find inspiring just aren't especially helpful or encouraging for someone who doesn't have a house. I tried writing jokes, but I could only think of three. Oh, well.

We finished off with lunch. It was fun to spend time with friends in the ward.

Firestation fun

On November 11 Heidi's preschool group had a field trip to the fire station, and since it was a no school day Kevin got to come too.

What a grump.

After the firestation we went to a nearby park and got to play with lots of friends who were also out of school.

Kevin spent a lot of time in the creek with his friends in their "nature club." At one point I found him barefoot with his jeans rolled all the way up to his thighs.