Christmas Break 2016

It was a "Woodbury" year for Christmas in 2016, which was nice since we didn't have to travel anywhere!  Everyone came here, so it was really convenient.  Garrett's 3 sisters and their families came (with their combined total of 4 big dogs), so his parents' house was quite full.  Thankfully, we got to come home and sleep in our own beds every night, which was really nice. 

Garrett's family has a tradition of getting pizza on Christmas Eve.  This year instead of getting takeout, we went out to a place called Main Street Pizza.  It was really good and they had all kinds of different pizza options for all the varying tastes (and gluten restrictions for some) for our group of 19.

After dinner, we came home and opened sibling gifts (we have a gift rotation - our family had his older sister's family this year, so we gave them a watercolor portrait of their family that I commissioned from Etsy, it turned out really well and was just $30).  His younger sister had us and they gave us a really neat wall ruler for measuring the kids' heights.  I will have to do a blog post about it because it was really neat and a unique design, not like most of the ones you see.

After that, we tucked the kids into bed and got to work.  The girls slept upstairs in the smaller media room:

I love this picture from Christmas morning... all of us adults/parents getting ready to film the kids coming down the stairs (after Mannheim Steamroller got started, of course).  And it's only one of about 3 or 4 pictures I took all morning! Whoops.  

 

We really didn't give our kids many gifts... I'm not really into getting tons of things.  We did want/wear/need/read again (plus something from Santa), like we've been doing for the last several years.  Honestly though, it was still too much.  I think next year we will just give them wear/need/read, and let Santa take care of the "want".  Even that will be plenty.  Soon I hope to move away from gifts altogether and just plan some fun trips or outings for the upcoming year or during the break.  I almost did that this year, but I didn't and wish I had.

Abbie asked Santa for the American Girl gymnastics set, which she was thrilled to get.  It comes with a balance beam, uneven bars, and a mat for her doll.  She's had lots of fun with that.  I'm glad Santa got them all American Girl dolls for Christmas the year before -- it has been easy to give them gifts over the last year because they always like getting things for their dolls.

Ellie asked Santa for a robe for Christmas.  Yep, just a robe!  Haha. So, that's what Santa brought.  He also brought a matching one for her American Girl doll.

Olivia asked for a My Little Pony necklace.  I wasn't sure if those existed or not, but thankfully they do!  She actually got a set of 4 necklaces (4 random Friendship Pony necklaces... I think we got Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash).

For their "wants" from us... Abbie got a bracelet making kit, Ellie got a big stuffed unicorn (she's totally into those TY stuffed animals with the big sparkly eyes... this wasn't a TY doll but it looked just like them and was about half the price.. I think it was from Justice?  She loves it).  Olivia really wanted a "My Little Pony" robe, and what do you know... we found one on Amazon.  Haha.

For their "needs" - Abbie got an alarm clock, and Ellie and Olivia got bikes.  Both of them had outgrown their old hand-me-down bikes, and I knew that by summertime they would need new ones.  I really wanted to count it for Christmas so we got them early, which has already been nice since the weather has been pretty mild this winter and they've already put them to use quite a bit.

For their "wear" - all three girls got some black boots.

For their "read" - Abbie got an American Girl book about math ("smart girls' guide to math" or something), Ellie got the American Girl "Kit" books series (I totally stocked up on AG books when we lived in Madison, our library in Middleton always had tons for sale for like 25 cents each).  Olivia isn't reading yet, so I decided to buy her the My Little Pony matching game (I've realized that if I get the kids games I enjoy playing, I'm much more likely to play with them.  I like matching games... and her knowledge of My Little Pony trivia and characters always cracks me up.  We've had fun.).

And of course the kids got some fun things from their grandparents, like the My Little Pony sweatshirt that Olivia got (pictured above).

After Church, we attempted to take some family pictures on the back porch.  How many people does it take to try to get kids to smile and look the right way?  Haha.

Around the end of October, Garrett ordered himself a drone for his Christmas present.  It came just a few days before Christmas, and he spent a good amount of time figuring out his new toy.  It's been really fun so far.  Here's a picture a took from a couple hundred feet above his parents' house:

A few days after Christmas, the dads took the kids on a little hike nearby.  This is one of the reasons I love living where we do... we weren't cooped up all day because of freezing weather.  It was also nice that Garrett had the week off, for the most part.  He only had to work on the 26th, and other than that he was off from the 24th through Jan 2 (he started nights on Jan 2).  It was awesome!  Plus, I think that it counted for him "working Christmas" because the 26th was technically the holiday for working people (and he's at the bottom of the totem pole at work since he's new, so he knew he would be working over Christmas which was why it was especially nice that everyone came here! We just lucked out that he got assigned the 26th... I think next year he will be at the top of the list for getting Christmas "off" since he worked it this year.  So that's really nice.)

Anyway, so yes. The dads took the kids hiking.  My two sisters-in-law and I (one had already gone home) did a little shopping.  Mostly we just went to Cosmo prof, because my sister-in-law is an amazing hair stylist and she always tells us what products to buy and how everything works (I always need tutorials on how to do my hair, haha).  She also gave haircuts to everyone (and a balayage for me) which was awesome.  I sooo wish that she lived close to me, but of course she's the one sister who lives far away in Springville!  She works at a new salon in Lehi and loves it.

Another afternoon, we took the kids ice skating at a rink nearby (I say "we".. but I stayed home with Henry rather than going and sitting in the cold and watching.  I can't skate anyway).  The kids had a good time.... Olivia lasted for about 30 seconds and then had a good time sitting with Nana.

My parents sent us a Kubb set for Christmas, so we put that to good use.  Thank goodness for the internet because I could NOT remember the rules.. it's kind of confusing at first!  But we all got the hang of it and it was really fun.

Again...thank goodness for a mild winter!

Lots of time was also spent playing Super Smash Brothers....

Olivia sleeping in her Pony robe.... she slept until 11 a.m. the day after Christmas!

Snapped a pic of us when we were playing Kubb... or maybe this was the afternoon we walked to the neighborhood park.  I can't remember.

Playing "Sleeping Queens"... another favorite game in our family.  It's really easy, even Olivia knows how to play and she taught many of her aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It's something our whole family enjoys playing, so another win for that!

The Tuesday after Christmas, we had dinner at "White Duck Taco", which is one of my favorite places here so far.  It's a really fun atmosphere... pretty hipster, but family friendly.  On "taco Tuesday" all their arcade games are free, so we definitely took advantage of that!  And it was really quiet so we were pretty much the only people there, which was a huge plus:

Sitting on couches and comfy chairs around a coffee table... it was a little crazy but cozy!  Haha.  I seriously love this place - I usually get a pork belly taco with watermelon rind slaw, and a fish taco.

So, another successful Christmas break on the record.  I wish I had some pictures of the kids with all their cousins, or at least a picture of all 4 of my kids with their Christmas jammies on, but... I don't.  Not on my phone, anyway.  I think Garrett got some on his nice camera so I will have to find them.  So glad we got to spend the holidays with some of our favorite people, relaxing and making memories!  

Christmas Parade

We went to our city's Christmas parade a few Saturdays ago.  It was pretty chilly (in the 40s) so we bought the girls some hot chocolates while we waited for it to start (I think we were near the end, so we had a good half hour wait at least).

It was a pretty typical parade... mostly churches, the high school band, the local university band.  Radio stations and pageant queens.  The girls liked it because they got lots of candy.  

Afterwards, there was a little Christmas "festival" at the old train depot downtown.  We went because they said there would be food trucks and we were all feeling hungry.  Sadly there were only 3 to choose from (besides ice cream and donuts), but we tried out some street tacos from one and they were okay (not nearly as good as our favorite food truck that we visit at least once a month, but it was fun to try something new).

I wore Henry on me in the Moby wrap during the parade, and he slept most of the time.  He was wide awake for the food trucks, though!  He finally started smiling a few weeks ago and it's been so much fun.  Such a cute little guy.  Most of the time he's either sleeping or eating or fussing, so it's nice to get a smile out of him every once in a while.

O Christmas Tree

When Garrett was growing up, his family always cut down their own Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We were never able to do that until we moved to Wisconsin last year, so it's a new tradition for us.  This year was a bit warmer than last year, but there was still just the right amount of chill in the air to make it feel festive.

My parents were in town for Thanksgiving, so we left Henry home with them and brought Molly (my sister) with us.

I relinquished control of the decorating of the tree and let the girls put the ornaments wherever they wanted.  I think they did a pretty decent job!  It was fun to pull out all the old ornaments that we have collected over the years.  We try to get an ornament each year for the girls, based on something they did that year.  They liked seeing their Disney ornaments (from the year we had Disney passes), their Florida ornaments, etc.  They also have their ornaments they got when they were born, Garrett and I have one from our first Christmas together, etc.  I need to get some Wisconsin ones for them to remind them of our year there.  Someday when they moved out of the house (or get married maybe), I plan to give them their ornaments so they have something to decorate their own trees with.  I will admit, we haven't been great at remembering to get ornaments every year but hopefully we will get better about that (and there's nothing that says it's too late to go back and buy things from years we have missed!).

The random decorations make it look a bit hodge-podge but I'm okay with that right now.  Someday when we have a bigger house I would love to have a "pretty" tree - decorated in matching decor in a way that I really like.  And then we can have the "hodge-podge" tree in a family room or something.

Later that night, Olivia asked me to take a picture of her in front of the tree.  She did several "poses" for me and then looked at my phone to see which one she liked best.

I'm loving the fresh pine scent that the tree adds to our home.  And of course, we love to sit by the glow of the Christmas tree in the evenings.  I love Christmas time!

Texas Christmas

We had always planned to stay in Wisconsin for Christmas.  Garrett had the week off, and we were just going to relax and hang out.  However, after the Thanksgiving break I started thinking that maybe we should plan to go somewhere.... my kids got pretty bored pretty fast and they only had 2 days off for Thanksgiving.  I knew I wouldn't survive 2 weeks of them being home, stuck in the house.  We thought about driving down to TN to see Garrett's parents, but we just couldn't decide what to do.  Technically, it was a "Siebach" year for Christmas, although we have literally never abided by that schedule (we have almost always been a short drive to Garrett's family's house, so we usually just go there).  I hate to travel during the holiays... I don't like flying in general anymore, but the thought of flying during the holidays just made me sick.  However.... my sister Emma kept telling me we should come down to Houston, since my parents were there for a few months, and my sister Molly lives there too.  I told her that it was way too expensive to fly during the holidays, not to mention the hassle.  To prove it, I looked up some flights, totally expecting to tell her that they were $500 and out of the question.  But, they weren't.  They were $140, round trip (out of Chicago, blech, but still).  I knew right away that it was too good to pass up.  For the first time in 8 years, we would be spending Christmas with my family!  

Of course, for that price, the times weren't ideal.  Our flight left at 9:30pm and landed at midnight.  Thankfully it was direct, that makes such a difference.

Flying down there was pretty much as much of a hassle as I expected, though.  The security line was going extremely slowly; we were probably in the line for almost an hour.  People all around us were missing flights.  But of course, the TSA doesn't really care about anything so it didn't matter to them.  Eventually, the security line split into 4 separate lines, and you waited to go up to the security guard at the desk who would check your ID and ticket.  Well, when we finally got near the front of our security line, our security guard just got up and walked away.  After 10 minutes, no one had come back and our line was just stagnant, but meanwhile the other 3 lines around us were moving forward.  No one was even looking at our line or noticing that our guy had left.  It was so annoying!  Finally I convinced the guy in front of us to just go to another line's security guard when he was free, so he totally just ran up there when another person got through (the guy who was next in that line wasn't happy, but they had noticed our guy was gone for a long time so I didn't really care).  When I got to the front of the line, I called out to the security guard of the other line and said that our guy had been gone for 10 minutes.  He looked around stupidly, then got up and shuffled away as if he was looking around for him (now the line beside us was REALLY unhappy, but hey someone had to do something!!).  Finally he came back with another security guard.  This is why I hate flying.  Ugh.  And then, when we got to the gate, we got our seat assignments and NONE of us were sitting together, despite the fact that I had chosen our seats when I booked the tickets.  So that was another minor fiasco, but eventually they got our seats for us and, what do you know, they put us in the front row of the cabin (the seats that are normally extra $$), and we were all together.  So that worked out.  The flight went smoothly, we landed in Houston about 30 minutes early actually, but then we waited for 35 minutes for our luggage to come down the conveyer belt so... 

 But finally, we were there.  It was SO fun to be with my family for Christmas.  And of course it's always fun to play with other kids' toys:

Isn't my sister's house so cute?

Emma has been learning to write calligraphy and I tried my hand at it.  It's a lot harder than it looks!  But it was fun.

We decorated gingerbread houses:

And waited 90 minutes in line for the second best BBQ in America.  It was good!  And waiting in lines isn't bad when you're hanging out with people you love, and it's 80 degrees out!

My parents bought a house about 3 miles away from Emma's house, and they plan to live there for 3-4 months each winter.   Molly and her husband also live there year round so that it doesn't sit empty.  There's a shortcut path (literally over a river and through some woods!) that is only about a mile, so we did that with the kids several time.  We went "caroling" to grandma's house one morning.

Christmas Eve:

Olivia and grandpa:

New pj's

Waiting to come downstairs on Christmas morning:

Santa brought the girls each an American Girl doll.  They were SO excited!  I guess he figured that since they live only a few miles from the American Girl factory, it would be a good gift this year.  I am excited too because now it will be easy to buy them presents for the next couple of years... they just want outfits and accessories for their dolls! ;)  I remember getting my American Girl doll (Felicity) when I was little, and it is one of my favorite memories.  The girls each got the doll that looks like them - blonde and blue eyes.  Abbie's doll's hair is long, Olivia's is should length, and Ellie's doll has "light blonde" hair, so thankfully it's easy to tell them apart still.

Dance party in the living room:

The kids loved the strobe light, too:

Donuts for breakfast.  See JB holding up a dollar bill?  We told the kids that whoever slept in the longest each morning would get a dollar.  It worked like a charm... they started sleeping in until around 8 or so once we implemented that.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we mostly just hung out.  The kids played on the trampoline a lot, and basically just ran around the house and outside.  We took them to a movie one morning (Charlie Brown Christmas movie), played at playgrounds, watched movies, worked on projects.  I sang in sacrament meeting with my mom and sisters for their Christmas program ("In the Bleak Midwinter").  Garrett went with John to some house projects.  We walked back and forth from my mom's house a bunch of times.

We had SUCH a great time in Texas for Christmas, and I'm so happy we decided to do it despite my reservations and anxieties about flying during the holiday season.  I was really worried that Chicago would get snowed in, or that someone would get sick for our travels, or that a flight would be majorly delayed... but none of that happened and we made some wonderful memories.  

Garrett left the day after Christmas, he was on call the next week and had to get back.  The girls and I stayed until Wednesday, and flew into Madison where Garrett had left me my van the night before since he couldn't pick us up.  We had a 5:30 a.m. flight (!), which meant we had to leave Emma's house at 3 a.m.... not ideal but it actually wasn't too bad.  Huge thanks to Molly and Mom for driving us to the airport!  But hey, no traffic.