Christmas prep

This year, we were pretty on top of presents and actual Christmas preparations.  I made our Christmas cards in early November.

I make calendars for my family and Christopher's family, but siblings were very late getting their pictures to me, so I just took it easy on those.  

Somehow, I made my own chaos.  

First, I decided that rather than buy presents for Tyler's teachers, I would make them.  He has ten teachers and aides, so this wasn't a small decision.  They often wear utility belts to carry the radios and pencils and everything else they need, so I thought I would make them.  Honestly, it was an easy project, until you multiplied it by 10, but I did make it.

At this point, it was crunch time for something I hadn't been able to figure out since almost a year ago.  I found red and gold curtains in a clearance bin at Wal-Mart for $1 each.  Naturally, I knew they had to be formal dresses for the girls.  (I know this is not normal.)  At first I wanted to make Easter dresses, but the colors are very Christmas-y, so I put it off.  Meanwhile I collected more fabric.  A gold shimmery sheer was on clearance at Jo-Anns, and a friend gave me a neat red diamond-gathered red from her stash. 

I was having a tough time figuring out how to make the colors work though!  I knew that Kaitlyn's needed to be made from a pattern my mom got for me- Simplicity 2463.  She love dresses that "go all the way to the floor", and this pattern was a princess dress all the way.  Jasmine's pattern was a free one I got online- the Party Dress.  I knew that, since I didn't have an endless supply of either fabric, one dress needed to be gold with red accents and the other red with gold accents.  I had a panic attack when I saw how much the red overpowers the gold on Kaitlyn's dress, but thanks to a quick call to my mom, we were able to sort it out.

I know that sewing is silly, in many respects.  I could buy fancy dresses for . . . $20?  $10 on a great sale?  So yes, I know that the fabric costing less than $10 for everything doesn't make it a great deal, because it took about two days non-stop.  But there is something about a handmade gift that means more.  Even as young as these girls are, they have been treasuring these dresses more than any others in their closet, and part of that is that they saw me working on them so much, I think.  I taught Jasmine the names of the colors, and she was so proud to point out which parts were red and which were gold.  And she constantly asks for her red dress to wear.  Kaitlyn wore it to two weeks of church in a row, and countless times in between.

Well, it was 9 pm Saturday night when I finished Kaitlyn's.  Then I quickly put together a bow tie for Tyler to match.  If there was more time, perhaps he would have gotten a vest, but bow ties are nice and quick.

And when I handed it to Tyler, Christopher said "where's my tie?"  I warned him that if I made him a matching tie, he would have to be in the "matching clothes" picture after Church the next day, but he persisted.  "I want to match Tyler!"

At which point I realized that I would be the only person not matching if I didn't think quickly.  Since I was the one putting in the work, that seemed wrong.  

Whew!  I made it!  I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw this picture.  My kids even all smiled nicely for me!  

Once I got past that day, Christmas preparations were a breeze.  On Christmas Eve day, I even made a to-do list in crayon for the kids to follow along with all the treats to make and such.  Their favorite was the Gingerbread houses, of course.

Tiny ones are always SO elated when you give them free reign.  They get so tired of people helping them, and they don't care if it looks perfect.  They just want to know they did it!  I don't let her do things all by herself very much, but in this case, Daddy helped for a while, and then she was off on her own.

Mostly she squeezed out the frosting and then ate all the candy.  But she was really happy about it!

Kaitlyn was very focused on her little village, though.

And Tyler has his own creative direction to go in.

 In many ways, gingerbread cookies are still the way to go, I think.  They are easier for the kids to decorate, since you don't have to worry about them collapsing, and then you can just eat them afterward.  But tradition is what it is!

Which of course meant that we were headed over to Grandma Skarda's for the biggest party of the year.

The kids got really into their parts in the Nativity play.

Jasmine didn't want to keep the donkey costume on, but I bet she will get into it next year.

Then we had the talent portion of the night, since Grandma didn't want to leave out the kids who don't play instruments.

Kaitlyn demonstrated her crab walk.

And Tyler showed off an interpretive ninja dance of some kind, which was actually kind of hilariously awesome.

Then we got to the music.  Kaitlyn played Christmas Bells are Ringing . . .

. . . Christopher and I played a "O Holy Night" piano and Euphonium duet we worked on, and then it was the annual horn concert.  

Given how much all of them practice, it is partly for laughs.

And then Santa came!  

Other kids jokingly asked Santa for candy or gum for Christmas, but Tyler carefully explained that he needed an iPad, because the other one is dead.

Kaitlyn told me afterwards that she was pretty sure he wasn't the real Santa. "Oh, really?"

And then there was the tiny stinker.  Jasmine told me, in no uncertain terms, that she was not going to go to Santa.  I got angry grunts any time I mentioned that I was willing to carry her, or whatever else I thought would help.  But then after ten minutes of this, Daddy walks up and asks if she wants to see Santa.  "Yup!" she said happily, holding her hands up to be picked up.

Stinker.

Then we unwrapped the Christmas jammies, changed, and headed home!  

SO behind

I am so behind on here!  I actually started this post a month ago.  In fact, the tab has been open on my screen ever since, just hoping I would finish it.  But the part I had written got more and more out of date, and I guess I just got busy and gave up.

And today, when I decided it was high time I caught up, I went through all of my pictures and calendar and found a long list of things that go back months.

Here goes!

*In October (yes, I have to reach that far back), we took the kids to the BYU Homecoming parade. We barely made it as the parade started, but the kids loved it.  Honestly, candy per minute, it can't be beat, even by Trick or Treating.  Every float throws out candy by the handful.  And it turns out that if your kids bring buckets for their candy, the college students all try and throw the candy in the bucket as a game and your kids get more than anyone else.

After that, we took the kids on a hike at Cascade Springs.

No one could guess where we had been that morning, I tell ya.

Someday I hope to have more than one child that knows how to look at a camera.  Someday.

*My sewing table has been booked for months!  Tyler's school did a huge Gala fundraiser the first week of November.  Rather than beg random businesses to give donations, I decided I would rather sew things to donate myself.  At first I commited to sewing an Elsa dress, but after I got a few hours into my fifth (!) Elsa dress, I just couldn't do it.  Everywhere I looked there were Elsa dresses on every shelf for Halloween, and to be honest every parent I knew was a bit over the movie by that point.  I'm fine with putting in the effort if people will appreciate it, but I realized that if I put in all that time and no one bid on that thing, I was going to be fuming.

So instead, I quickly made a few tiny things that . . . no one really bid on.

I made an Elsa purse and a Little Mermaid purse, and a Toy Story crayon fold up.  I don't think what they sold it for covered the materials cost.

*Once I got that off of my sewing table, it was on to ballet.  I added some tops to the snowflake costumes, and learned the hard way that dance costumes must always be out of stretchy fabric, no matter how cute the snowflake fabric looks.  ("Are you making and Elsa costume?" the Jo-Anns lady asks as she cut it for me.  "No, a snowflake ballerina this time."  "Oh, thank heavens!" she replied.  "Something different!"  I couldn't agree more.)

Every picture I have of Kaitlyn is of her looking intently at her teacher in the wings.

After the snowflakes got their yoke and scarves, I turned to the more fun project.  Kaitlyn's teacher couldn't find a Clara costume anywhere near her price range, so I got to make it from scratch.  It was so much fun to add all the pretty lace and ribbons!

I wish I had a better picture, but the ones that the photographer that night took aren't back yet.  I also wish I had a picture of Abby's face when she first saw it, because it was adorable how much she loved her dress.  That makes it worth it!

*Kaitlyn also had a piano recital.  Her teacher gave her a really easy song to play, so when Kaitlyn had it memorized quickly, I told her that perhaps she could play it upside down.  Then the challenge was on, and sure enough, she was thrilled to surprise her teacher at the group practice with her new trick.

Of course, I realized halfway through her performance that I was holding the camera instead of recording it, so she had to do it one more time afterward so I could get it on video.  She didn't mind that one bit though!  She has been showing off her new trick to anyone who will watch.

*Kaitlyn's grade put on a "First Grade Sing" where the performed all of their Christmas songs.  I can't wait until they rebuild her school and we have a bigger gym or an auditorium for this, because that tiny gym was packed to the rafters with families and chaos.  Kaitln loved it anyway! (Middle row, far right in the picture.)

Kaitlyn also came home very excited one day, and told me all about how if they got to the school at 6:30 in the morning, she could be on TV!  The morning news crew was making a trip around various elementary schools, I guess.  I tried to talk her out of it, but in the end, we got up at the crack of dawn and headed down there.

She admitted afterward that is probably wasn't worth it.  She mostly stood there, mildly scared of it all, and watched them.

*Tyler and I got to go see "A Christmas Carol" play one day, and then Tyler's school had a big Christmas party at a nearby trampoline park right before break.  What an awesome party! It was a total miracle, but Daddy even managed to come.  Normally he is working all day about 30 miles away, but that day he had something just after the party not that far away, so he was able to just head out early and play with us.

And there is nothing our kids love more than goofing off with Daddy.  I'm never as good at that sort of thing, but Christopher gets in these places and is like a big, giant kid himself.  It is honestly one of my favorite things to watch!

Slack-lining is harder than I thought.  At least, I assumed that since it is so popular, it must somehow be easier than I would have guessed, but I don't think any of us made it too far.

Not that any of us cared too much.  It was just fun.

The tiny one goes like an Energizer Bunny when she sees a trampoline!  I got her a little 3' one in the house over the summer, and she adores that thing.  So when we got to this place, she was basically doing this for 2 hours straight.

And the best part was that we all got to see Santa!  He was SO wonderful with the kids.  He had a wonderful costume and a real beard, and apparently volunteered his time to come and see all the kids at Tyler's special little school.  They emailed us all beforehand that he was prepped on how autistic kids might react to sitting on Santa's lap, and not to worry.

Tyler was so excited that he just climbed on up, closed his eyes, and hugged him as tightly as he could.  As a reflex, I apologized - Tyler honestly has hugged random workers in Target before, so I'm used to apologizing as strangers look around to see what kid is hugging them and why - but Santa just smiled.  "You never need to apologize for that," he said gently, as he hugged back with all of his might.

What a wonderful Santa.

Tyler, by this point, knew exactly what he wanted for Christmas.  He had become obsessed with the old Kindle I passed on to the kids a year or two ago, and was playing Plants vs. Zombies every chance he got.  He plays "Zombie's brains", or Plants Vs. Zombies, every chance he gets.  In fact, the other day, I had to stop the radio on the drive to school in the morning to listen because he was singing to himself as he played.  He was making up words as he went - "Do not let the Zombies eat your only brains!"- to the tune of "Follow the Prophet".  And when I went to his Thanksgiving celebration at school, I found Tyler's tag among all the "I'm grateful for food" or family, or other typical things.

Slowly, charging that Kindle became a harder task, though.  We had to wiggle the cord juuuust right . . . and then, one day, it wouldn't charge no matter how we plugged it in.  Tyler had a week of denial, and then quite a bit of mourning.

So when Santa asked what he wanted, he said "a new black iPad", since that's what he called the old tablet.

Kaitlyn had some ideas early on, but I told her that Santa knows her really well, and they had a lesson on needs and wants at school.  Bless her heart, she told Santa that all she wanted for Christmas was a surprise and "Christmas Joy", which she told me meant she wanted a happy Christmas.

Jasmine might not have known how Christmas worked, but she sure liked Santa and his cool bells.

She loves Jingle Bells.  (Sometime she seems to think it is a song about Tinkerbell.)

I took this video after Christmas, but it makes me laugh.

Whew!  I think I made it to week of Christmas!

The Halloween I'm kinda glad is over

We started off great.

Tyler's school hosted a "Fall Festival" the Saturday before Halloween.  The lady in charge actually went ALL out- tons of games, bounce houses, food, a photographer, you name it.   But when I heard her mention a week before that they had rented a cotton candy machine, I told her to skip that!

This is seriously my husband's happy place.  He LOVES spinning cotton candy, and especially converting new people to how awesome the Jolly Ranchers are in cotton candy form.  It was nice to feel like we contributed, too, because a lot of work went into that day.

Oh, and Christopher is Mario for the sole reason that Tyler told him to be.

Daddy's favorite thing to do when he gets home is play Mario Bros. Wii with Tyler.  Green is for Tyler, so naturally Tyler is Luigi and Daddy is Mario.  When I asked Tyler if he wanted to be Luigi, he was thrilled.  I debated on sewing him a costume for a few minutes, but realized that Luigi is wearing overalls and overalls are useful.  Luigi's hat came as a pair with the Mario hat, so I figured they could wear them while playing sometime.

But the day the hats arrived, Tyler changed into his green shirt and overalls as fast as he could and gave Daddy his hat.  He happened to be wearing a red shirt that day, which Tyler congratulated him on.  "Daddy, you have a red hat - check!  You have a red shirt- check!  Now you need . . .  a blue thing!"

Daddy had marching orders.  So that became my shopping orders, and soon we had a matching pair.  I love how much Christopher truly enjoys making that little guy happy.

At that point, I decided to make this a no-sew Halloween!  Practically a first for me.  Jasmine and Kaitlyn had plenty of dress-ups to choose from, after all.

This little lady went with her Anna costume for the party.

I know that "selfies" are all the rage right now, but I have to tell you I have no idea how people do that.  Every time I try to take a picture of myself it is terrible.  Or at least awkward looking.  I need lessons.

Now, Kaitlyn's choice surprised me.  She has entire rack of Princess and mermaids to choose from, but was thrilled to invent her own ghost costume out of a weird dance slip from a garage sale, and other random white stuff she could find.

At first I was a tad miffed she didn't choose to wear her Elsa dress, but then I realized just how many Elsas there were this year.  Someone told me there were 34 at the school parade.  So maybe going her own direction wasn't too bad.  She has been on  Ghostbusters kick lately, and really enjoyed being chased by any Ghostbusters she found at school.

Anyway, after the school party, we went to the end of our block party back by our house, and then got in bed so they would be ready for the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting the next day.  Kaitlyn did a great job memorizing a tricky little part - and Tyler, as usual, got up there and decided he wanted to sing as loud as he could in the microphone.  Thank goodness the teacher that was sitting next to the mike controls was quicker than him, and turned the sound off as soon as he said his part!  I was impressed.

Oh well.

Christopher got sick the next day with a typical congestion cold, so I didn't think much of it when I woke up with a sore throat Tuesday.  It was painful to swallow, so I got some cough drops and figured I would be fine.  Then the fever hit.  By the time I had to go pick up the kids from school, I was starting on the chills.  That was no fun, especially considering that Tyler's school is a half an hour round trip.  Once I made it home, I just set the kids in front of the TV, rode out the chills until that broke, and then called all sorts of people to get rides for my kids on Wednesday.  Obviously, I needed a day off, and thankfully, I have lots of great friends and neighbors who were willing to help out.  Jasmine was also willing to watch TV and scavenge for her own food all day, the silly girl.

I spent basically all day Wednesday in bed (and not really able to get out very long), but figured I'd be fine by Thursday.  So I didn't arrange any more rides.  Thursday morning I decided I was now better, had breakfast, took a shower, and herded the kids to the door to go to school, while ignoring how tired and out of it I felt.

And then the fever and chills hit me like a rock wall.

I have never felt that sick in my life, I have to say. But I couldn't make Tyler late to school- he had a field trip to go swimming and have a pizza party for lunch!  So I drove out there, and pulled over in the parking lot of his school white as a sheet and shivering like mad.  I knew I couldn't go any further, so I called my sweet mother-in-law who dropped everything and drove over to pick me up.  She drove me to the Instacare,which, you have to understand, is impressive for that family.  She taught all her kids that you don't go to the doctor unless you are truly broken.  But the Instacare checked my vitals and said that I was too low to stay there.

And that's how I ended up in the ER the day before Halloween.

After taking all kinds of blood samples and tests, all they could determine was that I probably had strep.  Between the 2 IV fluids I got and the shot for strep, I finally felt better enough to get out of there.  Lorraine stayed with me all day, Christopher came down from work, and my sister-in-law came to get Jasmine.  Their family had the funniest story of the day.  Jasmine apparently blended in so nicely into their family that she started calling them "mom" and "dad" with the rest of the kids.  They kept her until bedtime, and helped her carve a pumpkin with everyone else, too.  So when they asked if she was ready to go home, she said "no."

"Don't you want to go home?"

"No.  Mommy sick."

She had found a new family for herself, I guess.  One that actually did fun things, with a Mommy that got out of bed.  I wasn't sure what she thought of how sick I got, since she just sat silently watching in the backseat while I shivered.

Thankfully, we were . . . almost back to normal in time for Halloween.  I had to keep reminding myself to not over-do it, but it is hard when it should be such a fun day.  I am just so amazingly grateful to everyone that helped me out.  As I apologized to my neighbor and told her that I owed her some favors for all the times she got Tyler to school and back, she reminded me that we are all in a Sisterhood.  We all do everything we can to help each other, and we might not ever help the exact people who helped us, but we just all help those we can help when we can help them.  The kids thought I was crazy when I started crying while blessing the food that night, but knowing how much love had gone into that clam chowder that arrived on my doorstop was just the last in a long list of helps I had gotten that week.

Halloween night was crazy, at that point.  I was too tired to be of real use, but I did manage to get the kids put together in time for a neighbor to take them trick-or-treating.  I just didn't get a picture of them before they went, sadly.  Christopher didn't take them himself because it was the warmest Halloween I can remember, which gave him a new idea of what to hand out as kids came by.

Thankfully, when I told my kids today how sad I was that I didn't get a good picture of them and asked if they wouldn't mind dressing up one more time, they were thrilled to go change.

Jasmine went though a few dress-ups that day, but eventually settled on Princess Sofia.  Which is pronounced "Pin-cess Ah-Fi-AH!"  Part of me regrets not making her a really nice version of that, because it would be a fun costume to create.  Then I remember that this is cheaper and easier.  And that her favorite part is the silly plastic medallion with a picture of Princess Sofia on it, just in case she forgot who she is.

Tyler's bucket is the only sewing I did this year.  A 1-up!  It wasn't my best work, but he didn't mind at all.

Happy Halloween!  I'm just glad we made it.