December: Christmas Jammies!

I think this is the most successful Christmas Jammies photo we've ever had!

 These "Forever Lazy" jammies I got for DMP was the BEST $5 I've ever spent. He is such a good sport and let me even take a picture of him.  He looks like a blue oompah loompa.  He was impressed with the zipper bum flap, though...

Of course we had to leave cookies and milk out for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer!)

December: Christmas Eve Dinner- With Pig Brains!

Our friends, the Rabners, invited us over for Christmas dinner.  They do something really out of the box and special for Christmas every year (last year they roasted a goose!).  This year they ordered a whole pig to roast!  They decided against cooking it in a pit, because they were concerned it wouldn't cook all the way because of their inexperience, so they hacked it apart (seriously- I saw pictures!) and smoked some, roasted some and even cooked the head.  As you can see, it was a huge hit with the kids :)

Baby Lily even volunteered to kiss "Charlotte".  Note- This pic is as far as she got. I think she got close and realized "What am I doing!?!?"

Aside from The Pig, the food was amazing! You can't beat having friends who own a smoker :)  There were also awesome sweet potatoes with pecans (and I don't even LIKE sweet sweet potatoes!) fondue, salad, and Vietnamese spring rolls (our contribution, naturally). Laugh all you want about the spring rolls- they were a huge hit and everyone gobbled them up!

Naturally, given the availability of pig brains, we had to try them (and dare others to try it- including talking one of the elders into it!).  Another friend said it was like sucking a crawdad head and it was supposed to be the best part of the pig.  We smeared a bit on a cracker and it was OK.  The texture was nice and creamy, but the taste was very iron-y and organ-y.  Like liver patte, apparently. DMP went back for seconds (!) and another woman at the party who likes liver had some more, too. So I guess if you like liver (or don't think it is gross...) you will enjoy some pig brain.

I did find out that just after Christmas, my Dad offered to pay the grandkids $5 each to eat a bbq mealworm.  He had to pay out a lot of dough!  I wish I had called him before I ate pig brains for free. I wonder how much that would be worth?!?

Between dinner and dessert (crepes! So yummy and easy for a party!) we played a Rabner Christmas game called the Reindeer Race.  Each person picks a reindeer name and then they "race" against each other to see who can tear through a 2-3 in. strip of newspaper the fastest without going off the edge of the paper (i.e. it has to be torn completely from top to bottom without veering off on a diagonal).  It was surprisingly fun for such a simple concept! I think we'll add it to our Christmas fun in the future!

After the reindeer games we participated in a Philips family tradition: Acting out the Christmas story.  Everyone, including adults, dresses up and participates in the retelling.  It isn't very reverent, but it was a lot of fun.

Baby Lily played the part of Jesus' nanny this year. She is very into her baby dolls and did NOT want Mary to hold, touch, or move baby Jesus. It was so funny!  The best part is that when we were driving home, EJ said "I don't remember in the scriptures where it says Jesus had a nanny...."  Nothing like some good false doctrine with our Christmas!

Here is our fabulous cast of party goers (not pictured: DMP, the narrator).  We had so much fun with our friends and we feel so blessed that we have such great people to celebrate with!

December: Pre-Christmas Dinner & FHE with Friends

We got together with some of our favorite Texas family, the Millers, for a little pre-Christmas FHE dinner.  We both were going to another friend's house to celebrate Christmas eve, so we wanted to get together and share our families Christmas eve traditions before! 

Amanda's family always has a really yummy Mexican soup with hominy and pork called Pozole.  Her grandparents met while they were living in Mexico, so her family has some Mexican traditions.  It was my first time eating hominy and I LOVED it. I'm now looking for other ways to eat it!  The soup was yummy, and you add lime, salsa, lettuce, sour cream and whatever you like to it!

We continued our international-themed Christmas traditions with our Christmas Crackers.  This is one of our favorite things to do on Christmas eve.  Everyone enjoyed "cracking" them!

Bear wasn't too thrilled with the "crack" but he sure liked the prize inside!

When we broke out the paper hats, things got a little crazy (also, best photbomb by Bear, ever!)

We took turns reading the jokes and asking the trivia questions and a good time was had by all!

December: Fire Truck Santa!

In our town, our Fire Department gives Santa a ride around the whole town- sirens and horns honking and Christmas music blaring.  It takes several nights and you don't know exactly *when* fire truck Santa will come down your street. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions! For many nights before he comes to your street, you can hear the sirens and horns on streets nearby. We spent a lot of time on the porch or front yard listening to see if it was getting closer or further away.  The Mom's on our church FB page report when they see/hear him on their streets and everyone has a lot of good old-fashioned Christmas anticipation!

This year we spent a couple of nights outside, listening.  Of course, as luck would have it- he came to our street when DMP was delivering goodies.  As they were driving home, the heard him as he was passing our house! The kids were super-bummed, but Daddy saved the day and hurried to the next street over and parked so the kids could wave and get candy.  Bear wouldn't get out of the car- it was too loud and scary!

The best part of fire truck Santa is that we live quite close to a fire station, so we hear sirens a lot when they go out on calls. Every time, Bear looks up hopefully and says "Fire truck Santa is coming!!!"

Christmas: Ward Party

I can't possibly share in one blog post how much these people mean to me! I love, love, love our Ward- the Lewisville 1st is amazing (P.S.- In our church our congregations are called "wards").  I have learned so much, made such good friends and have really felt like they are my TX family.  I know these aren't great pics of them, but I *DID* get on a chair and hollered for them to smile and wave, but they were too interested in the FOOD.  We do food really, really well in this ward!

Check out the smoked turkey- so good (and the gravy from a smoked turkey? Awesome) and a couple of sweet potato dishes.

These two ladies are my example for what I want to be like if I'm blessed to make it to my 80's. Jo, on the right, is learning to play piano, and I see her at the gym.  Connie (left) is fantastic and funny and both of them took shooting lessons together and do other things to have fun!

Here is our family. Bear didn't want to be in the picture. We got our festive attire at the Dollar store. Except DMP- he is a humbug.  Also, I know I'm chubby (what!?!? you are all thinking it). I'm working on it :)

Bear was in love with his tie. It has a button you press and it plays "Jingle Bells" in that annoying high-pitched beep.  His hat is his sisters, but I think he is rocking it.

Bear partying with BFF Mikey.  He and the other teens grabbed Bear and I pretty much didn't see him all evening. I'd call that a success!  Also, there is a Dad in our ward who does balloon art, so we got him to do ballons for the party and it was a total success. The kids had a blast, he taught some of the youth how to do it and it was really fun!

The Ward party even included a visit from SANTA!  The kids all got to take turns telling him what they wanted, Our YW designed and painted the backdrop.

We love our ward so much. It is great to party with them and we are so, so blessed that we moved where we did so we can be a part of the amazing LV1!

Oh Christmas Tree!

 We were running out of room on our little tree, so this year we have a big new tree to hold all of our special ornaments.  We all had so much fun decorating the tree and "remembering" all the ornaments. It may not look like much, but it is special to us!

Rosie and the kitties like it a little, too (notice the lack of decoration on the very bottom branches?)

Second Christmas

The kids were spoiled to have Second Christmas when I got back from my visit to UT. Grandma and Grandpa K sent me home with a huge suitcase filled with mostly stuff for them. (Don't worry, DMP got new headphones, which he loves, and I got a TON of Real Salt- we are salt snobs and I can't buy it anywhere around here anymore!)

The kids took turns opening their gifts while Grandma and Grandpa joined in via Skype. Ain't technology neat?

Bear got loaded up with all things Thomas- two DVD's, a book and a lunchbox.  EJ got books, Shrinky Dinks and a mini desk aquarium.  Birdy got some clothes for her Hannah doll shrinky dinks and other fun stuff that I can't remember.

We also got to enjoy some real British sweets thanks to Aunt Kate and Uncle Matt. These kids LOVE Kindereggs.  They even liked those yucky UFO things.  I kept the double-decker bar to myself (I might have shared a bite with DMP...)

The best thing I brought home was this super-soft, ultra-fuzzy blanket. It has been named the "Grandma Hug" blanket, since Grandma told me to tell the kids that when they are wrapped in it, it's like she's hugging them. Say it with me- awww!  I can't tell you how much family strife this one blanket has caused- everyone wants to use it all the time.  Also, I just want to point out that this is the first picture in FOREVER where Bear isn't making the Cheese-face.

Santa Came!

 I guess the kids were good enough because Santa came and brought presents to all of them!  (Also, that looks like a ton of presents, but it isn't, really- we just spread them out so they look impressive- it's all part of the Christmas magic!)

Bear got exactly what he wanted from Santa- a blue present and candy canes!  He was even happy that the blue present had duplo blocks inside for him to play with! (Also, note the basketball in his hand. We couldn't get him to put it down the whole time we were unwrapping...)

Santa came through on EJ's wish for her own bow and arrow!

Birdy got her very own Our Generation doll that she named Hannah.

Mom and Dad got Nerf guns. A mighty battle ensued and I may or may not have used one of my kids as a human shield in order to gather more ammo. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

The easel the girls got was quickly re-purposed for target practice of all kinds. DMP also created a cardboard box shooting gallery in the garage playroom. Fun, cold times!

Birdy got another wish for a real tea set that she can drink out of. We had a little pre-breakfast (herb) tea party with Hannah and Bear.

Bear got a Thomas set where the trains run all by themselves! He and DMP have had so much fun making elaborate tracks for them for weeks now! Thanks Shellie Rabner for selling us the hand-me-down trains!

We got the best Christmas suprise- SNOW!  I wish we would have taken a pic later in the day- it really came down. We probably had an inch or so, which is a big deal in TX. The funny part is that we didn't even wear jackets the night before when we left to look at the Christmas lights!

This pic was taken about a week after Christmas, but EJ is thrilled with her new knitting loom set. Our friend Allie came and gave us lessons on how to make things. She has already made a hat for Birdy's Hannah doll with plans for many more knitted gifts to come!

We had the Elders over for Christmas day. It was fun- we had biscuits and gravy, because one of them has a family tradition of eating that on Christmas Day.  It was really good. We topped dinner off with even more chocolate fondue.