Christmas 2012

I love Christmas. 

I love the joy on the kids faces and the excitement in their voices. 

I love watching them find gifts for each other. 

I love the wrapping paper all over the floor and finding new homes for their new presents.

Our Family Christmas 2012
Simeon 11.5 years, Corrine 9 yrs 10 months, Ammon 7.5 years, Rebecca 3.5 years.

Rebecca with her beloved Dream Light. 

Both Ammon & Rebecca had an unwrapped present in the basement. I wanted to get down there before they did so I could take pictures of them. As I was going down the stairs I saw this scene and loved it. Ammon is being tickled in dads lap and Rebecca is hanging out on dad like normal.

Rebecca got a "jumping thing" aka trampoline!! She LOVES her trampoline so much! She jumped on it  most of the morning. She's get off for a little bit to play with something else, then jump some more.

Our Blue belt Ammon got his very own training kicking bag. He is loving working on his kicks and punches. Combined with boxing gloves he also got, he's in his element down here. He likes to climb on top of it and hang on while we punch the bag.

Corrine got a lot of Lego Friends Horse Legos this year. She got 2 different Lego sets with horses. She spends alot of time building and playing with her horses.

Simeon got a Nook as a joint present from us and Smith grandparents. 

He's been asking for an e-reader for a long time since he loves to read.

I'm grateful for the time we can spend together relaxing and enjoying each other on Christmas.

Becky The Elf

After seeing ideas floating around about Elf on the Shelf, we decided to adopt an Elf this year. We really thought that our Elf would be full of mischief and get into some trouble this month, but she wasn't as adventurous as we thought she would be.

Meeting out Elf

While we were out picking out our Christmas Tree, our Elf appeared with a note for the kids.

Jingle bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way

I’ve got a surprise for you today.

I have left you a friend;

She is my very favorite elf.

Look for her every day.

She will be hiding in the house.

If you touch her, her magic will go away

And then she won’t be able to get back

To the North Pole before Christmas day.

Remember, I’m making a list and

Checking it twice.

So be sweet for your parents and

For your teachers be nice.

Obey all the rules and do what

You’re asked every day.

And elf will give me a good report

So I can visit Christmas Day!

Love,

Santa

The kids decided to name our Elf Becky after our sweet friend Becky, so she could look down on us from Heaven this Christmas Season.

A few places we found Becky the Elf this month.

Toilet Papering out Christmas Tree.

Hanging onto our advent Christmas Tree.

We found her hanging from our chandelier in the kitchen.

She brought us Daylight Donuts for breakfast.

She brought us Candy Cane Oreo's, Christmas Napkins and plates.

She brought our stockings out for Santa to fill on Christmas.

A few other places we found her that we didn't have pictures of-

She replaced her picture in 4 picture frames.

We found her keeping cold in the freezer, because she missed the cold of the North Pole.

We found her hugging the milk in the fridge.

She brought us Christmas cereal.

She tried to learn how to fly on our front room ceiling fan.

She filled our felt Santa with Hershey Peppermint Kisses.

On Christmas Eve, Becky brought the kids new pajamas and a farewell note.

Saying Good-bye

Dear Smith kids,

I have had so much fun being a part of your family for the last month. You guys sure have a lot of fun (and know how to make a lot of noise) around here!

Simeon you did such a great job on Lego League. You must have worked hard to make it to State! Corrine you sound so nice on the piano and viola. Keep up practicing and before you know it, you’ll be a super star on both! Ammon you’re a blue belt now-that’s awesome! I also heard from the Tooth Fairy that you were a trooper getting 4 teeth pulled last week. Rebecca you take such good care of you babies, and give the best hug and kisses. I loved hearing you say “I love you” to your family this month. Remember kids to be nice to your family and to listen to your mom and dad. They love you a lot!!

Tonight when you go to sleep a little Christmas magic is going to happen. I will fly back to the North Pole for the last time this year. I will make my last report to Santa before he gets on his sleigh and heads around the world to spread Christmas cheer. When you wake up tomorrow morning I will be gone and your stockings will be full of gifts from Santa. I know there will be gifts, because I’ve told Santa all about what good children you are.

Lucky for us Santa will lift my magic for just a few minutes after you are done reading this letter. In those few minutes it will be okay to touch me, hug me and kiss me goodbye. When you are finished with your goodbyes just put me under the Christmas Tree and I will find my way to the North Pole tonight. Can’t wait to see you next Christmas season!

When I was searching your house for spots to hide, I found where you keep your wrapping paper and decided to use it to wrap these early presents for you. I hope your mom doesn’t mind me using her wrapping paper. Enjoy your presents!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Becky The Elf

Rebecca giving Becky a hug before putting her under the tree to go back to Santa until next year.

The kids had fun looking for Becky everyday. Next year she's going to have so many more places to hide and will hopefully be a bit more adventurous.

Relaxing by the fire

I was going through pictures and I found this gem of a picture that Corrine took on Christmas Eve as we watched old 80's Christmas movies from YouTube on the TV, worked on a puzzle, ate caramel popcorn/chex mix and sat by the fire. 

This picture so sweetly captures both Johann and Rebecca's fascination with the fire. Rebecca became mesmerized by the flames and spend most of the night sitting near it with dad.

I think after tonight we have another fire watcher in our family!

Farmhouse Chocolate Mint Cookies

These cookies bring back such fond memories for me. I still remember the first time I had them. It was probably 8 years ago. It was right before Christmas and my friend Linley gave us a cute decorated brown paper bag. Inside we found the yummiest chocolate mint cookies I'd ever tasted!

We used to live just down the road and across the school playground from each other. If the school playground grass wasn't there we said we would have lived on the same street. 

Thinking about this brings back memories of a day in June when our newborn Ammon was sick and I was taking him to the doctors. My mom had flown in the day before. She was at the house with the kids and Johann. He was going to walk Simeon to Carson's house for a birthday party. Life changed very quickly for us after arriving at the doctors office and Ammon going grey on me. Johann walked Simeon to the party and told her what was happening with Ammon. Linley was one of the earthy angels that were placed in our path that day. She brought Simeon home from the party where he felt such enjoyment to find out his new baby brother was fighting for his life.

OK back to the cookies. Linley's Farmhouse Mint cookies have earned their spot as an absolute favorite cookie in our house. We like them so much that we don't just make them at Christmas time. Simeon had them for his birthday treat last year!

The original recipe calls for an Andes Mint on top of the cookie. We LOVE them this classic way. Then when Hershey came out with white chocolate peppermint kisses, I tried those one year. They are great and gives them a pop of red and white on top. Then this year we tried another topping-caramel with sea salt. 

Oh man all 3 are are so yummy and we eat way too many of them!!

Farmhouse Chocolate Mint Cookies

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 T water

12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb Andes Mints (2-3) boxes

or 1 pkg peppermint Hershey kisses

or a batch of simple caramel sauce*

1 Place butter, sugar and water in a sauce pan on low heat until butter is melted. 

2. Add chocolate chips and stir until almost melted. 

3. Remove from heat. Continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. 

4. Pour into a large mixing bowl and let stand about 10 minutes to cool. 

5. With mixer on high speed, beat in the eggs one at a time. 

6. Reduce speed to low and add combined dry ingredients until just blended. 

7. Chill dough for 1 hour.

 8. Heat over to 350*. 

9. Roll dough into balls. Place 2" a part on greased cookie sheet. 

10. Bake 9-10 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE. 

11. Immediately place mint (peppermint kiss or caramel sauce) on hot cookie. Allow to soften, then swirl mint to cover top of cookie. 

12. Remove from cookie sheet and cool. 

Makes 40-50 cookies.

*Caramel sauce-I used a handful of caramels and a little bit of milk to thin it. I melted it in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds or so. I spread a generous spoonful on each cookie, then sprinkled a little salt on each of them.

Our Nativity

Years ago my parents gave our family us this Nativity set. We used it for a few years on it's own, but it needed a stable for all the pieces to go into.

Then I found this stable at a thrift store for $2 and it was PERFECT for our Nativity set. 

We've been using this Nativity set and stable together for nearly 10 years. For a long time I had the set on display on our piano and would bring it down for the kids to play with when I was with them.

I was scared of them braking the pieces.

After reading a story about a mom just like me and her special Nativity set and a sweet interaction with a small child playing with baby Jesus, I changed my mind. 

I decided that if a piece got broken it would show that it was adored, played with, loved and teaching our children about the baby Jesus, the real meaning of Christmas. 

Since then we keep the stable and Nativity pieces on a low table for the kids to play with. Each of the kids like to set it up in a different way. Corrine added 2 brown horses that she painted last year. They fit perfectly in with the other animals and the more there are to adore baby Jesus, the better.

As the kids have grown older, they have learned to be more gentle with it. It wasn't always an easy thing hearing the pieces getting set down hard, or dropped or hit together. A gentle reminder of who they were playing with, seemed to remind them to treat the pieces with more reverence and kindness. 

Every year when we get out our Christmas decorations, these are some of the very first to get set up. This year Corrine and Rebecca set it up. Rebecca was sitting near Corrine and as she got each piece out of it's individual bubble wrap bag she would exclaim who she was holding, and they would both smile and look at it closely before getting the next piece out. 

I am so grateful for the sweet baby Jesus coming into the world to show us the way we should live to return to our Heavenly Father. I am so incredibly grateful to be able to teach our children about the baby Jesus and how Christ is the reason for Christmas.

Through her eyes

I found this picture I took of Rebecca with our lights before we put them on the tree. 
I love the look of pure magic in her face. 
It's so fun to see Christmas through the eyes of your young child.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

For the past 10 years (except for one sad year for Johann) we have gone out to Barnes Tree Farm south of town to cut down our Christmas Tree.
Some years we've trekked through a couple feet of snow, other years we've gone out in light jackets.

This year we had a wet day in the mid 50's to hunt for our tree. The kids absolutely LOVE hunting for the perfect tree. We each pick what we think is the perfect tree, and then we see another great one down the row and we go check it out. Then someone else see's a great one and we go check that one out. It's never a quick and easy process to pick out the perfect tree, but that's the way we like it.

We had our eye on a tree right in the middle of two giant trees. It looks so dwarfed between the giants, but it really was over 6 feet tall. Crazy how perspective changes when you take a step back and look from a distance.

Rebecca has been such a daddy's girl lately. She loves to hold his hand, sit by him, follow him around, just be near him.

We finally found the perfect tree and all the big kids wanted a chance to cut it down. Johann started it, then handed off the saw. Ammon took a turn, Corrine took a turn, then Simeon took his turn. Ammon walked behind the tree just as Simeon cut the last of the trunk and down the tree went, just barely missing Ammon!

I love this picture of Corrine. She looks so happy and the bright colors look so good on her.

It was so different not needing to carry the tree up to the shop. The kids all grabbed it and off they went. We had the cutest little caboose trying as hard she could to keep up with her bigger siblings. After one fall, they slowed down so she could help out with the very top of the tree.

Family picture with our tree. 

This is the yummiest part of the trip. Getting a cup of hot apple cider, a cookie and a candy cane in the warm shed.

Until next year Barnes Tree Farm. 

Love from Iowa

This past summer we were able to go stay with Uncle Josh & Aunt Irma for a few days in Twenty Nine Palms, California. We had such a great time visiting them. The kids adored their dogs Lala and Lili.

In September Josh was deployed to somewhere in Afghanistan and Irma went to live in the Philippines with their son Liam who they are adopting and her family. We miss them and wanted to do something for both of them for Christmas.

The kids had so much fun picking things out to send to them. Lots of yummy snacks, some practical toiletries and some fun things to play with, and cute pair of pj's for Liam.

We made tags on go on every item in the boxes. The kids were cute making the notes to go on each item. Simeon was no-nonsense on his tags; Razors-shave up, Crystal Light packets-Flavor. Ammon was more comical with his tags; Hot Tamales-DO NOT catch on fire, Angry Bird squeeze toy-Squeeze, pull, concentrate. Corrine worked real hard on her tags. She grabbed the Naughty List card with coal. She thought he was going to get a kick out of it!

The kids also wrote notes and drew pictures to go into Josh's box. They really enjoyed writing their letters to  him. Rebecca made the sweetest Christmas tree with cut up pieces of paper to send to both of them.

In the end the boxes were filled to the brim. The kids had such a great feeling knowing they were sending a boxes of love to them and I got my 1st experience with customs forms and sending packages international. We're excited for them to get them and to feel our love at Christmas!