Christmas!!

Here's Emma putting baby Jesus on the advent tree on the morning of Christmas Eve... she was quite excited...




We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Ben's family and had a great time. We played games, many of which being the kids games they got for Christmas, watched movies (including going to see Sherlock Holmes, which was awesome!!), and ate lots of yummy food. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Advent celebration of reading the Christmas story in Luke 2 and singing lots of Christmas hymns. The kids attempted to follow along with the story by acting it out with a nativity set... I think the most successful part of that was the hee-hawing sound effects of the donkey.






Just as we finished up Advent, Santa Clause showed up! (We had to tell Becca that it was really just daddy dressing up to be funny, so she wouldn't be so scared... still, she refused to sit on his lap).



Emma enthusiastically raising her hand when Santa asks 'Who wants to sit on my lap first?'






My mother-in-law made the most amazing Christmas dinner, which included three types of puddings - a savory butternut squash and sun dried tomato pudding, Yorkshire pudding, and an egg nog bread pudding to die for - all accompanied by a delicious Christmas roast. It was quite the festive feast!

Grandma making Santa Lucia bread for Christmas breakfast
For Christmas, the girls got matching bedding and cute little pink chairs from Ben's parents. We have matching twin beds ready to use for Emma and Becca, but now we just need mattresses to go with them. I hope to get that all put together in another month or two, at which point I'll be sure to post pics of their newly decorated bedroom. Santa got Jake curtains for his bedroom (because he doesn't know any better yet, so good ol' Santa went with practical, yet fun for me!), and Ben surprised me and got our botanical prints framed. We've had these prints for over 4 years with the intent of framing them for our master bedroom, but the project got put on the wayside, till now. It's so nice to finally have some pictures hung up in our room, since it's literally been the only room in the house without any.


Other presents included plenty of great clothes for all of us, a trunk we got the girls for all their dress up clothes, games, some jewelry for Emma, Beatles Rock Band from the Lee's to us (which we've already played quite a bit), puzzles, new crayons, books, and other little fun odds and ends to keep the kids busy for quite some time... at least hopefully through January. :)













A really BIG puzzle

Becca posing for the camera in a new outfit



Playing Cootie with Daddy


We played an intense game of Operation...




I spent much of the day after Christmas sorting through all the Christmas loot and finding places for it all in the house, while also purging old toys... luckily the girls didn't see me throwing anything out because they were still too busy enjoying their presents and being silly...



There's nothing better than 2 cute little girls in footy pajamas

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Here's to a happy New Year!

8 more days?!!

Only 8 more days till Christmas! Holy cow! I love it! I'm particularly thrilled because Ben is soon to start up a 6 week break - he's currently at the hospital finishing up what should be his last call night of the school year... after his break, the rest of his rotations should be pretty easy without long hours. What a relief that will be - just a little relaxation before residency, right? I'm super happy this morning, too, because our good friends just successfully matched through the military into their number one pick for surgery! Merry Christmas to the Jones family who no longer have to fret over where they will be next year!! :) Seriously so awesome!

We've had a fun and relatively busy December so far. Emma finished up her dance class last week, which she really enjoyed. She also recently had her Preschool Christmas party and is now on Christmas break till January. What a wonderful preschool she goes to - I'm so impressed with her teachers and the time and attention they put towards teaching and having fun with the kids. It's a really great group of kids too and it's been fun to watch Emma do well in a school-like setting. I stuck around for the Christmas Party and Becca came along as well - Becca was a little hyper but also really enjoyed sitting down on the rug when they read Christmas stories and sang songs. I'm sure Becca will really enjoy preschool too, when it's her turn.

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Emma and Becca have both been really enjoying all the counting down to Christmas activities - we've got way too many advent things... a paper countdown chain (that Emma made at preschool), our advent tree that the kids take turns pinning felt pieces to, two chocolate countdowns (from Trader Joes... we bought them after the month had already begun, so they were selling them for only 49 cents...what a deal!). We also have our other countdown traditions such as our Advent activity we do each Sunday after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve as well, lighting another candle on the advent wreath, singing Christmas hymns, reading scriptures, and eating desserts. Also, this will be the third year we've done 12 days of Christmas gifts. The idea came from an Ensign, where you wrap 12 little gifts and each includes a scripture you read about a gift we have received from Heavenly Father. So, all these things have been keeping the kids (and their mommy) rather excited about the upcoming celebrations.

And here's a random picture of Emma and Becca - lately Emma has often been plopping herself down on Becca as they're watching tv, with Emma wanting Becca to scratch her back - Becca willingly complies. What a nice little sister. :)

Oh no! Not Santa!

Well, we're one week into December and we've already done quite a bit of Christmas stuff. LOVE it! At the Ward Christmas Party the kids had the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap - and as in past years, our kids were not happy about it. Emma was nervous and didn't want to do it at first, but in the end did tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas (Hannah Montana makeup... what?! She's never even seen Hannah Montana... does that mean that we have to get it for her, since that's the one thing she told Santa she wants?). Becca screamed while on Santa's lap, but I insisted on a picture anyway, because everyone loves a good freaking out on Santa's lap pic right? :) After leaving Santa, however, Becca waved and said "bye". Weird.

Ben had the day off on Saturday so we had a lazy morning playing Rock Band and making/eating cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls were really delicious, however, they didn't hardly rise the second time around. I rolled them with their filling and sliced them up and put them in the pan and they were supposed to double in size in about 45 minutes before baking them. However, they hardly did at all - so they ended up more dense in texture than they should have been. I've been having bad luck lately with yeasted products. I made some dinner rolls a few weeks back and they didn't hardly rise the second time around either (the first rise works great, though). Anyway- any suggestions or ideas? The yeast was new (and both from different store purchases), so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. ho hum. Well, around lunch time we headed to IKEA to do some preliminary Christmas shopping. We hadn't even started on the kids yet (Ben and I however are all done with each other - it was easy this year... we bought ourselves a new and very comfortable mattress!... so practical and yet so rewarding!). In the evening we made a gingerbread house (a graham cracker house, rather). Can you believe this was the first time I remember doing this? Mom, did we ever do a gingerbread house when we were little? It really felt like this was the first time and it was so fun! Do people actually eat the things when they are done? It sure doesn't look like something I'd want to eat... with all our fingers all touching it and after sitting out for the night it's all hard and crusty. But it looks cute! Word of advice: don't use Honey Graham brand crackers when doing this - they are too flaky and easily broken - I'd recommend using a store brand instead as they are usually much more firm. A lot of people must be making graham cracker houses because when I went to Walmart yesterday to buy some, the store brand was completely sold out. Annoying! Oh, and in the slideshow there's a random picture of my belly next to our creation - Ben thought we should take a picture of the baby with the house - so that he would know he was there too. :)

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Lastly, I have to post a couple of these pictures I took recently. Emma and Becca have been really teaming up together lately and being mischievous and silly. See below... :)