Notes from Christmas

Life has been busy, but I thought I'd share a few moments from the past few weeks

*The Nativity Reenactment: We decided to start a new tradition and act out the nativity. Originally, Liam was set to be baby Jesus. At the last minute, he decided to wear an old Harry Potter cape-costume since everyone else was in costume. Then he began making these hawk-like Caah noises and flapping his arms. When asked what he was he said a bat. So a Christmas bat is now part of our nativity scene.

*Santa's Cookies: Eva wanted to leave cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and water for the reindeer. Santa ate all the cookies, but one and drank the milk. One carrot was left with nibble marks out of it. But with no chimney, how did Santa get in? Too many questions and I'm not sure Santa will survive this next year for Eva.

*Casual Christmas Morning: It felt good to have a cosy gift opening and then a lazy Christmas Day. We love our families, but not having to rush around this year was nice. On a different note, we are all sick of ham leftovers.

*Wedding Reception: Adria and I helped man the kitchen for a wedding reception in our ward. It was exhausting and fun. I learned a lot about logistics, organization, food and venues for wedding receptions. It won't be too many years before I have to start thinking about these things. Yikes!

*Crazy Weather: We have had days where the high temp was in the teens and ice or snow on the ground. Then the past few days, weather in the 50s and even 60s with LOTS of rain. Too much of a variation all at once, has our sinuses going crazy.

*Church Zaniness: Our ward rotates starting times with the other wards in the building every year. Starting next week, we will be going at 1pm. I keep telling myself it's better than the 3pm we once had in Virginia. We also had the opportunity to go to tithing settlement with our 'bishop'. One of those odd moments in a long first year as the bishop's family.

*Late Hours: We are a family that naturally likes to stay up late. Over the break, we've been slowly edging back our bed times. Of course, this makes for cranky people and throws off the next days schedule. Last night everyone was ordered to bed early. The kids were great probably due to Christmas vacation exhaustion. Now, if only, I could fall asleep early.

We wish all our friends and families a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's and Best Wishes in the upcoming year!