We decorated cute rice krispie houses thanks to Kendra, aka the best neighbor.
We baked and decorated sugar cookies. Which always sounds so fun and fabulous in my mind; the children and I happily baking together in a warm fuzzy kitchen with love and laughter abounding... It ends up being a fine balance or squabble between who dumped what ingredient into the mixer, children smearing dough everywhere and licking every cotton picking thing. But our picture makes it look happy! The kids had a good time and that is what matters of course, but baking is much more enjoyable with one child at a time.
I tried to make lunch a bit more fun and festive with Christmas tree quesadillas and tree broccoli.
We went on our annual ornament choosing date. Last year we went one on one with the kids and we should have done that again this year. I was feeling ambitious I guess taking the whole family into Hobby Lobby, land of the breakable everything, with three touchy children. It ended with Phil taking Rhett back out into the van where he finished his tantrum while Max and Kate and I shopped. Again, it always sounds better in my mind.
Rhett chose a robot. In reality they always gravitate towards some horrible kitschy something or other and we gently coerce them to choose something that reflects their interests during the year.
Max and a cute dinosaur and Kate with Hello Kitty. Truly her obsession this year. And if they had a Spiderman then Max would have been all over that.
The kids and I went to the temple and saw the beautiful lights.
Fun story: Phil was in Tucson for the month of December working at the hospital doing a psychiatry rotation. He would come home on the weekends. The night we went to the temple lights was a Wednesday, I went for mutual and hauled the kids with me since Phil was gone. Anyway, on the way home from the lights Phil called and asked how things were going. I gave him the rundown of our day/night and we chatted as I drove home and then said goodnight. I unloaded the kids from the van once we got home and we set up in the kitchen having a snack before bed, some of our sugar cookies. The kids were at the kitchen island, I was in the corner by the stove and sink handing out cookies. I saw Rhett and Max turn towards the hall and smile. I thought that was weird and started to turn the corner to see what they were grinning at. Phil roared at me and scared me so bad! I screamed, Kate screamed and started crying and the boys all laughed. He had been home the whole time we were talking on the phone and then when he heard us pull into the garage he hid in the boys' closet. He went so far as to park his car down the street so I wouldn't see it. Max had even gone into his room while he was hiding in the closet. Creeper! :)
Here are the boys reunited and below is what I wrote on Instagram with the above picture:
"This strange man was hiding in the boys' closet while we were at the temple. He popped out while we were in the kitchen and scared the crap out of Kate and me. She cried and I screamed. Silly daddy drove up from Tucson to scare/surprise us only to turn around and drive back in the morning, work at the hospital and then drive back home after his shift to spend a long weekend with us. Love him!".
I thought he was crazy for driving back and forth so many times but he didn't mind and actually said he knew it would be the last time he could suprise/scare us so he took advantage.
The Apache Junction Library had a free event to meet Santa and make a craft. They had a legit Santa too! He was so nice and the kids ran right up to him and gave him big hugs. No tears, no fear.
Christmas Eve was the annual Rapier party and our kids had a blast! There is always a delicious Mexican potluck and this year we out in the backyard, the weather was perfect. The kids played Christmas Bingo and got a present, we did the pinata, they ran around chasing after cousins and just had a really nice time. We stayed for 5 hours! This year for the nativity re-enactment they did puppets and our family was assigned to be an angel and two shepherds. Phil and I are mighty proud of our cute paper bag puppets.
It was a very nice season and we felt that we celebrated just the right amount, we didn't feel pulled in every direction but we had a good time.
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