New Years Day 2018

Happy New Year! Since Tamara and Adam were in Atlanta this year for Christmas, we decided to meet on New Year's Eve to celebrate our family Christmas traditions. We met at Rob & Ivanna's house for brunch and ate super yummy food including; German pancakes, quiche, french toast with maple syrup and berries, eggs, bacon and hash browns. After we'd stuffed ourselves silly, we opened gifts. This year this is how the "name drawing" played out:
Mom had Tamara
Dad had Kevin
Rob had Adam
Ivanna had Mom
Tamara had Kristi
Adam had Dad
Kristi had Ivanna and
Kevin had Rob
Seems like we've had a similar breakdown in years past, but you get the same 10 people together and you can only come up with so many combinations. Everyone did really good sticking to their $150 limit and only buying for their "person". Of course, Liam and Trace got spoiled rotten. In fact, both Mom/Dad and Tam/Adam bought Trace the same Lego set that Santa had already bought him! The good news is, those two combined to be enough for Trace to get a huge Lego boat that he's been eyeing for months! Because we couldn't go the whole season without someone getting sick, Kevin's body decided to try to pass a kidney stone that day, so we didn't stay to long so we could get him home and on some bed rest and painkillers to get that thing to pass. All in all, a really nice holiday season!

Gingerbread

The one thing that just didn't get done before Christmas this year was that I had promised Trace we would build some gingerbread houses together. The funny thing is that we bought a gingerbread house kit and then had another one gifted to Trace, so now we could do one for each of us! The Saturday after Christmas, we decided to tackle them while Kevin was at work. It was actually pretty fun! I needed to help a bit with the icing and the whole making-sure-the-house-has-enough-icing-to-stay-together part, but Trace had a blast decorating them and making them our own.
Of course, after they sat on the counter for about 2 weeks, I decided it was time for them to go. Since my son can't do anything the easy way, he wanted to "destroy" the houses like a giant before we threw them away. I said okay because I'm crazy, but asked him to do so outside so I could keep the mess to a minimum. It was so funny to hear his maniacal laugh as he dropped and stomped the houses to bits and pretended to "squash" the tiny, imaginary house dwellers. Ah, boys will be boys.

A Cozy Gift

This year, Trace was the only one of Colleen's grandchildren that she made a quilt for. She made it with Star Wars pattern on the one side and quilted into the back an outline of Darth Vader, light sabers, tie fighters etc. It is so neat! If that wasn't cool enough, it also folds up into a pillow! It has a pocket, so if you fold the blanket right, you can turn it into a pillow. So cool! I was so touched that she took the time to make such a great present for Trace.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

This year during the Christmas season, we heard that there was a special part of our local mall that was set aside for the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter". It is a collection of buildings set up inside the mall designed to look like you were really in Hogsmeade Village straight out of a Harry Potter book or movie! Each of the store windows on the outside advertised something straight out of the movies with things like moving paper on the bookstore window, a sale on flying broomsticks, opening boxes that contain chocolate frogs and every flavor jelly beans for sale in a box bigger than my head! Inside the stores they have scarves and robes from each of the "houses", ornaments, candy, books, collectibles and our favorite, the wand store; Olivanders. Trace went inside and was helped by a "real" wizard with a "real" English accent to pick out the perfect wand for him. After much thought and deliberation, he ended up choosing the same wand that belonged to Professor Snape and Headmaster of the House of Slytherin. I asked him why he picked that one and he said; "Snape is a bad guy at first and then a good guy, but he also can talk to snakes." Although not historically correct based on the books, I thought it was a pretty insightful answer. Along with being able to play a quick game of Quidditch, you can also get your picture taken with you using your new wand. Trace was only to happy to participate in this photo opportunity. I think he looks just like he's casting a spell, I better watch out for this little wizard!

Playing Quidditch

This was his favorite background - Spoooky!

Christmas 2017

As we were gathered as a family around the Christmas tree, trying to agree on a Christmas movie to watch one weekend night, I commented how the last few years of Christmas have been a little less than perfect. Last year I had just gotten a wrongful judgement against me and spent the three weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas in a federal courtroom. The year before that I had foot surgery on the 23rd of December, so I wasn't feeling good and in a constant state of fog. The year before that was when I was feeling the wrath of the cancer wreaking havoc on my body and felt horrible most of the time and was scared out of my mind about what was happening to me. So, needless to say, this was a wonderful holiday season, in that, it was stress-free (maybe not "free"), calming and a really nice break from the pressures of life. Although Kevin worked a lot, he wasn't out past 8:00pm any night and he got a lot of rest on the weekends and not one of us even got sick! Sheesh! I think it's been a good decade since I wasn't sick on Christmas and New Years. Since the 24th fell on a Sunday, we only had sacrament and we went to see the new Star Wars movie with my parents and it was a-mazing! Somehow, I managed to wrap all the gifts for everyone prior to Christmas Eve, so I wasn't up wrapping all night long. In fact, Christmas Eve, Kevin and I were so proud to be in bed around 10:30pm! We stay up later than that on other nights even when we don't have anything to do! Wahoo!

On Christmas morning, Kevin and I kept the tradition of waking around 8:00am and waiting patiently for our son to rise and meet the day. I tell ya, that kid loves his sleep! I guess he's just confident that no one will be taking his presents and they'll be there for him when he wakes up, so he's never been a real early riser when Christmas arrives. We got him a new storm trooper luggage bag for our trip, jammies, a really cool pirate ship and of course, Legos. After we had celebrated with our family, both Grandma & Grandpa and Nana & Papa, we added it up and Trace received 8,164 Lego pieces in all! That is the combined total between 7 different large sets and a couple of smaller vehicles to go along. Trace was so happy and began to immediately plan his order in which to build the machines. I just kept thinking; "where are we going to put all these?". We have added 6 shelves to the walls of his playroom and have a table full and the top of his bookshelf. Geez kid, we're seriously running out of room! It is so neat to see Trace sit down with a 800+ Lego set, pull out the separate bags of Legos, the instruction booklet and get to work. He rarely needs help anymore and a lot of the sets he builds have age recommendations far above his age. He thinks all this building will help him get a job as an architect, I have yet to break it to him how much school is required first. We're just trying to make it through the second grade.....Merry Christmas everyone!

Decided to leave out Chocolate Milk for Santa this year

Don't forget the carrots for the reindeer!

We kept with tradition and read "The Night Before Christmas" before going to bed.

Battle bots for the boys to play with, yay! 

"Ooooooo More Legos!"

I guess we wore him out?

The Scooter to take camping was a popular gift

Delivery Exclamations

This year, Trace and I decided to deliver our neighborhood gifts via car since it was so cold and snowy. He ran up to the house in the back of our subdivision, while I waited in the car. He was up at the door for so long I started to wonder where he had gone. Then, he came running back to the car and exclaimed; "Hey Mom! I know those people! They answered the door, recognized me and we had a really nice chat! They're so nice!" I thought it was so cute that he was so excited about having a nice chat with some neighbors he recognized.

Christmas Concert

Trace heard a song on the radio as we were driving around one day and said; "Hey! This is the song we're singing in our performance this year!" After emailing with his teacher, it turns out that East Sandy Elementary participates in a "sing-around" where each grade performs a song they've learned for the rest of the school in a type of assembly. Normally, parents are not invited to such a thing, but I asked if I could come anyway and his teach said okay. I took the morning off of work and headed over. I was one of only 4 parents that were there, but we got to hear all the grades perform a song or two and then even the teachers performed their version of the "12 days of Christmas" at the end. Since I was seated a bit out of the way, I had a terrible view of Trace and didn't get many pictures at all, but I did catch a glimpse or two of him and most importantly, he saw that I was there. This year, the songs for the 2nd grade were "Mele Kalikimaka" and "The Chipmunks Song". Trace didn't really know the words for either one, but he had a great time participating with the other grades and singing what words he did know. Such little things like this I've been waiting for my whole life. So rewarding to attend events like Christmas concerts and school events for my precious, special boy.

Polar Express

This year, as a surprise, I decided to book tickets for us on the local steam train called the "Heber Creeper" in Wasatch County when it turns from the plain, old Heber Creeper into the Polar Express! We got VIP tickets and were seated in the first car. Lots of kids wore pajamas (Trace did not) and brought blankets (Trace did) as we boarded the train for our Christmas adventure to the North Pole! The ride started when it was nearly dark, but as we headed out of town, we could see other kids in their backyards waving and laughing at us inside the train. So fun! We planned to be really cold as the train cars are not climate controlled, but it was such a warm night, we actually ended up opening the window for a bit so we could get a bit of fresh air as the train zoomed into the darkness. On our train car there was several "elves" that were singing and dancing with all the kids on the train and we got to enjoy hot chocolate and cookies as the train rumbled on. Before we knew it, we looked out the window and saw little buildings and a sign saying "Welcome to the North Pole!" and even a big jolly fellow standing on a platform and waving. It was Santa! Santa came aboard our train and rode with us back into town. He took the time to take pictures with each of the kids and their parents and was so patient with all the requests of the children. When it was Trace's turn to talk to Santa, he told him that he wanted a "Lego Coastguard Boat". Santa replied by saying; "Lego's! My shop is lousy with Lego's. We have so many of them, we're giving them away." Yuck, yuck. Who knew Santa was a comedian too? Santa gave us all a reindeer bell to put on our tree and a hot chocolate mug to bring home! The most memorable part of the evening for me was after Santa had talked with Trace, we took a family photo and I was watching Trace watching Santa make his way to the rest of the children in the train car. Trace looked at me and said; "Mom, I wonder what Santa's childhood was like. Do you think he was happy? I don't suppose there was anyone to bring him presents, right?" What little child thinks of that? How sweet! I don't think I ever thought about Santa as a child, what a loving thing to say and think! Just another example of how Trace is a special boy.