Pictures of Christmas (...to the tune of your own drum(mer boy?))

To quote Eli's latest catchphrase, "Hi, Gang." 

Let's dive into the Christmas excitement! 

Excitement visibly evident by the fact that I couldn't snap a picture without at least one child jittering around in a blur.

We made gingerbread houses! And if you look closely, you can see our elf had some fun with the boys' pictures this day. You should know that dry erase marker did something to the plastic on those pictures so they are permanently stained with those faces now. Barry might not be invited back next year. 

Especially because Barry forced some unwelcome self-reflection upon me. The pandemic has had a way of encouraging me to sneak away by myself as often as I can because it's the only way I get a minute to myself these days. If the kids interrupt my quiet moment, I will often shout through the door, "Mommy is having alone time!" as I finish off whatever snack I'm stress-eating while finishing up the latest episode of Bachelor. 

When Lincoln woke up to see Barry vegging out in front of a screen surrounded by junk food, he was completely unphased and said, "Oh. Barry's having his alone time." 

Most kids like the crusts cut off of their sandwiches...Jonah only eats the crust and then he's done. 

We went to Coors Light...I mean Glittering Lights. Does that not look like the Coors Light logo though? It's all I see when I look at this picture. 

I got called to be the Young Women's President in December. Ahhhhhhh! Much nervousness, uncertainty, and intimidation about my new title. Luckily I have an A+ team to keep me going. The first day we all met together I said, "Is it too soon to say 'I love you?'" I meant it, too. I could tell right away that they are all gung-ho and ready to get to work. So far they've made my job super easy!

Eli wrote a cute essay about how we celebrate Christmas. 

We made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. 

Then we had a steak and shrimp dinner. Jeff was cute and set all those lights up around the house. 

Our cookie lure worked. The Big Man showed up!

Carson

Lincoln

Jonah

and Eli.

Unbeknownst to me and Jeff, Carson set an alarm for 6:00 AM Christmas morning. My kids have never woken up terribly early on Christmas, I think this was our earliest get-up time. *Reminder to check alarms next Christmas Eve.*

Jonah loves Blippi. We found Blippi on YouTube while looking for a garbage truck song once. Jonah immediately fell in love which is unfortunate because Jeff and I both strongly dislike the character. ...Santa...brought this Blippi more as a joke (for Jeff) than an actual gift...but it has ended up being Jonah's favorite present. 

Jonah also only eats the crusts of his chocolate bars. 

...Santa...surprised me and Eli with a Coca-Cola in his stocking.

My kids didn't ask for a lot this year for Christmas which was fun for me because I got to get them some things they wouldn't normally think of that I thought would be fun. Eli had a magical Christmas. 

Carson got a Lego City Ski Resort set he's had his eye on. 

I found an awesome deal on some Hatchimals and I've wanted to try them out. I got one for Lincoln and one for Jonah and they have loved them. They even still regularly play with them over a month later, so win! They named their Hatchimals Mario and Luigi which I found adorable. 

Christmas would have been perfect...had a member of the Bishopric not called us on the afternoon of Christmas Eve to ask us to speak in church in TWO DAYS! I died. It takes me at least 80 hours to prepare a good talk. Ha! Jeff was like, you're going to have to go straight from your first draft to your final draft and skip the four re-writes in between. Even that was going to be pushing it! Luckily the kids had a lot of new toys to play with so I could spend the entire day on Christmas stewing over my talk. 

Jeff had to speak, too, but he felt free as a bird. 

Jeff tended to all of the kids, played with their new toys with them, watched some of his favorite shows. I did not understand how he was so stress-free with our talks looming. We work in very different ways (thankfully)! He let me get my talk all done and then he was able to pull his together and he did a great job.

I threw boxes out in the garage whenever I needed to step away from the computer to ponder. Then it was back to typing. 

With Christmas behind us, Eli put up a Do Not Disturb sign and went into hibernation mode for the rest of (our THREE WEEK!) Christmas Break.