Christmas 2012

The week of Christmas was a fabulous one for us,...minus the fact that I was sick with an awful, deep cough for the whole month of December.  Gotta love (or HATE) the winter bugs that are ever present and biting hard, eh?  So, getting real, doing all the Christmas preps this year was exhausting and overwhelming to me because of how I was feeling and how much I had to get done.  Lesson learned = start way earlier to prepare, so that I can feel the proper Christmas spirit and truly enjoy the season.  With that being said, though, women are amazing!!!  We sacrifice so much to try to make the holidays magical for our kids.  I have seen so many women smile through and continue on with so many things that are harder than a mean cough, and they simply keep moving forward for the love of their family, for the love...

 of the little ones!  Here our ours, the ones that motivate us to push through.  They got to pick out these adorable outfits, due to the sweet generosity of Jared's boss to be in Arizona.  In an effort to save money, new clothes for Christmas Sunday was just not in the budget.  But with his gift, we were able to doll them up and make them feel special on that special Sunday.  It was fun seeing the girls whittle down their options to finally pick the one that was their own style!

 2012 was the year of the 'King Pig.'  Matt, who would be celebrating Christmas Eve with us, came up with doing the Angry Birds theme.  I loved it and got going on creating this pinata as part of my forever Christmas Eve tradition of the Pinata Pajama hunt, as this was my favorite family tradition growing up!

 Christmas Eve was fun and filled with great food, largely in part to the master chef;o), Matt!  If only you all could taste his salmon!!!  He even fried up some calamari, and it was Mmm Mmm good!  So, when he totally approved of my mom's clam chowder, it was a huge compliment (but it also was a bit expected, since it is FABULOUS...Thanks again for the recipe, Mom!).

 I made some Angry Birds for us to put on the bats to swing at the King Pig.  I liked how they turned out and told everyone about us using them.  Then in the craziness of trying to keep the kids from getting hit in the face with the bat, I totally forgot to use them...ha ha...such is life!  At least we got a picture with Jed being shy because he was told not to touch them, but stole one away as sneakily and as soon as he could; he was determined to have one.  He got his way, like usual;o)

 Here are both of our cuties with their loot:o) in the forefront, and some new, fun friends, the Brownels, sitting in the background.  Hahn's cookies were so good that night!

 

 Finally, here is Jed showing off his pjs and his talent for bouncing, despite not fitting.

 As for Santa, he was lucky this year!  The girls thought it only fair that he should also receive presents.  So, Lexi's was a picture and a door hanger that said "TOSATUYOKP TIONYODR FRMLEXI ILU."  My translation "To Santa,  You can put it on your door.  From, Lexi  I love you!"

 Addie's gifts were also awesome!  I loved how the toilet paper roll reindeer turned out! I think she did a great job with them.  The only time that I did not like them, was when a wave of drama came crashing down concerning Rudolph's nose!!!  Addie had it in her mind that it had to be perfect and special, and every idea that I had was too big, too small, not right, etc., etc., until we came together on having her cut it out from shiny ribbon.  Thank heavens, because I was out of ideas and out of patience!

Christmas came and the smiles made all the work worth it!!!

 

 

 Emmy obviously was bewildered by it all,...

 until Jed's abounding Christmas Spirit rubbed off on her; oh, the Christmas bow might have helped a bit, too!

Our kids have always been so blessed by the generosity of their grandparents; their Christmases would  be so meager if it weren't for them!  We love you all!!! 

 One thing that will make this Christmas especially memorable was the opportunity we had to have the missionaries over.  Jared is the ward mission leader, so when we heard that the missionaries would be allowed to Skype with their families if they found a member that would let them do it in their home,  we wanted them to get to video chat.  So, we had them come over.  They each got to Skype with their families and got to see them and hear them instead of just talking to them over the phone.  Plus, we got free help in the kitchen...ha ha...while one was busy talking, we put the other to work either helping to cook or helping to clean up breakfast.  We had a big breakfast with ableskivers as the highlighted item (THANKS TO THE GILLETTES...you have changed our lives forever by giving us the recipe and the pan for them;o))!  On top of it all, we had a life long question answered...Missionaries look rock on awesome in Brave wigs...teehee hee hee.  Jared sent this pic to his family; they really enjoyed it;o)

So, our last Christmas in Jersey came and went!  Our next one will be in the Southwest rather than the Northeast; WOW, life is a fun and interesting journey!