The Happy of the Holidays

• Opening our big surprise Christmas morning. "It's a Girl!" I was kind of craving another girl, but didn't want to get my hopes up. Then, I started feeling that it was a girl (similar symptoms to Soph's pregnancy) and I did get my hopes up. So excited! The only person who might possibly be even more excited is Soph, who declares that finding out she is getting a sister was her best Christmas gift. She even wrote a book about how excited she is and dedicated it to her new sis.
  
• Last year, a family in our ward invited us to go caroling with them. So, I bundled up the kids and off we went. They had such a great time that as soon as the Christmas season hit, Soph and E-Man asked if we could go caroling again. I made the arrangements to go with the same family. It snowed all that day, and as we went door to door singing that night, all three of my kids never stopped crawling through the snow long enough to get one note in! They still had fun. But, it seems we could have accomplished playing in the snow while staying home.
  
• I loved driving the kids around to see Christmas lights. We saved the annual tour of the Christmas Village houses for a night when Photoguy's brother visited us (he is home for semester break from Boston). That was a treat, getting to tour the lights with one of the kids' favorite uncles.
• Three years ago, Photoguy snagged some tickets to Ballet West's Nutcracker. We took my mom and (then four-year-old) Soph and had a delightful time. I was meaning to get tickets again this year, but put it off, and for once my procrastination paid off in the end. A friend of mine had six tickets and invited Soph and I to go with her and her three daughters. I had one unforgettable night with those four beautiful princesses decked out to the nines (I speak of our daughters, of course). We saw a showing by Imagine Ballet at the Egyptian Theater. It was so professional. Ballet West has nothing on these guys. At the end Soph frowned and said, "Awww, it's over already!" It was more than two hours in length, so she must have really enjoyed herself and has been practicing her ballet moves ever since.
  
• It's always nice to be with family and friends this time of year. We were able to keep our invitations to Christmas parties to a minimum (kind of a relief in my opinion) and really enjoyed those we did attend. Fabulous memories were made at the annual Christmas Eve party at the library, a Christmas party that included reading the story of Christ's birth on Christmas Eve with Photoguy's family, a gorgeous spread of food with my family on Christmas day (so nice to have my whole family there), and a little after-Christmas gathering with two of our favorite families the N's and G's.
  
• As always there were treats galore. I was able to accomplish my holiday baking in small spurts throughout the month thanks to Layne's suggestion to form cookie dough into balls and freeze it (works great!) since I only have a limited amount of energy each day for now. In the end, we had chocolate chip, ginger bends, homemade caramels, and even sugar cookies for the little ones to decorate for Santa. Added to that, there were, of course, the hordes and hordes of treats delivered from neighbors. Yummy, but, I'm very relieved that it is all finally out of the house.
• We are dubbing this the year of the wheels, or, as the kids like to say, "A wheely good Christmas" (they crack themselves up). All three kids received skateboards from Santa, Soph and E-Man got heely's, AiAi got his first bike and about 15,000 hot wheels that he loves to play with. The kids were thoroughly spoiled with so many gifts that it has taken them days to play with them all.
• The Christmas break has been such a wonderful time for our little family to be together. We haven't felt too rushed. The kids have been getting along amazingly well. We've stayed up late and slept in. And, we've enjoyed getting to play our new games, play with our new toys, and to just be.
  
• I've been doing an annual kids' party on New Year's Eve since Soph and E-Man were tiny. But, this year, Photoguy is working late, all of our friends had plans, and I'm feeling highly unmotivated to make a huge spread of food for just the kids and me. Partly because food makes me sick, especially late at night. So, I decided that in lieu of the big party, I'm taking the kids swimming at the Davis Recreation Center. It's open until 9 p.m., which is perfect because we always ring in the New Year with the East Coast at 10 p.m. and call it a night (one of my favorite parts while the kids are still young). The kids are excited because this is such a fun indoor water park and I'm excited because it takes zero planning and preparation on my part so - Wahoo!