The rest of the month

 

Here are some things we did, the rest of the month:

We went to a nativity/creche display that one of the LDS churches puts on here.  It’s one of my favorite things and I was SO HAPPY that Gabe wanted to read every word of the brochure and go slowly through the displays.  He was my buddy, willingly:

Meanwhile, Seth was dressing up as a cow and bowing to baby Jesus in the children’s section:

 

Some of us got more out the display than others. 

This is the “Sunday Christmas Outfit Picture”.  It’s only remarkable because, wait for it, this was the FIRST picture I took.  As in:  I took one picture and it was good and I didn’t have to take 276 more to get everyone to look at the camera.  Christmas miracle.

And, even though I was admittedly grinchy and stressed out throughout much of December, here is evidence no one needs to call Child Protective Services:

We made and frosted Sugar Cookies

and made and decorated Gingerbread Houses.

(Although, whether adding MORE sugar to my diet made me a nice mom is definitely debatable.)

And here is Emma’s Christmas violin concert.  Is it even possible to take a useful picture at a kid’s concert?!

This is when we went ice-skating walking.  Meaning: Emma, Gabe and Jane skated around the rink, while Ryan and I hobbled, bent over, desperately trying to keep two peoples’ balance for an hour.

Ooh!  Here’s a highlight! Ryan’s work put on a fabulous Christmas party—lake cruise, buffet dinner, fun dinner companions, fabulous prizes.  And we won won of those fabulous prizes!  THE LAPTOP I AM CURRENTLY TYPING ON!  Yay, F5 Networks.

We completely finished decorating and organizing our basement and kids #4 and 5 play for hours in our art corner.  Plus, it’s so cute.

Faith and I visited the elementary school for the class parties.  Here are Jane and Faith and Gabe with his candy train:

And Gabe and his neighborhood buddies didn’t let a little snow slow them down when it comes to playing “Dominoes” on the trampoline.

And Seth got this ridiculous looking coat.  Because I was frustrated with his zipper on the old coat and ripped it off.  (See? bad mood all month.)  Luckily Gap was having a %40 off sale and I had Gap Rewards and it was clearanced, so my temper only cost me $10 for the new coat.  Plus he looks like he’s heading off to the Artic every time he puts it on…so it was pretty much worth it.

And we had the best New Years Eve ever.  I’ll have to post sometime about the details of my Progressive Party.  Kids and adults mingling without hardly any crazy, plus yummy food, plus funny games, plus actually staying up till midnight equals a truly awesome evening.  (You’ll notice my kids aren’t in this picture.  We sent them home to bed early around 10.  Which made it even more fun…)

I’m glad we only take pictures of the happy and light-hearted. No pictures of certain wrapping paper throwing instances or venting conversations to Ryan that prompted Seth to admonish me “When Heavenly Father gets stressed out, I don’t think He says ‘Stupid’ that many times.” or the 20 pieces of fudge that entered my face.

That way in 10 years, we’ll all forget that December 2010 was hard and only remember, hopefully, that despite it all, we did some fun stuff.