46 is a Good Age

Sunday, Russell announced that his life was half over. The girls were kind of taken aback by this ("What? You're planning on dying at 92?") but Russell's been saying that for years. At some point, it may even be true.

At any rate, he celebrated his birthday yesterday. He got to open his requisite morning present:

I don't know if you can tell, but Kristen was the present. Actually, Alison wrapped Kristen up because Kristen was sad she didn't remember (or have any money left) to get Dad a present. So, she gave herself. It was very cute.

Then he made bi bim bop for dinner (with kim chee!)

We were just glad it wasn't Salsa Surprise.

And opened presents

A Monty Python theme this year.

And then it was time for cake.

I don't know what we'd do if we couldn't do birthday candle math.

I didn't record us singing, but it was gloriously awful.

And we're done for another year! Happy birthday, Russell!

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Morning!

From the top:
1. Alison's been obsessed with pineapples, so Santa brought her one. She was VERY happy. (Even though she doesn't like eating them.)
2. Kristen got a bike. She was convinced that Santa was going to bring one, so she dashed out to the garage first thing, missing the bike that was in the living room. She was very happy when she came back in and saw it.
3. I told Caitlyn, when she was complaining that she had no place to wear her bowler hat, that she should wear it Christmas morning. So she did.
4. Megan with her "College student" haul.
5. Russell and Kristen, enjoying a quiet moment.
6. Megan and her friend Kylie painted some fangirl art for Alison for Christmas. Alison was extremely happy.
7. Caitlyn decided to write one reason she loves us for every single day of the year. But, she got to May 22 and realized she'd used up a whole roll of paper, so she stopped. Even so, it was a fantastic present.
8. Megan got a KU sweatshirt without the silly jaybird logo. She was very happy.
9. And I needed to throw one of me on there. :-)

It was a good Christmas!

In the Days Before Christmas

1. We were Goofy.

They are very silly girls.

2. Kristen built a train.

It went all the way around the tree. She was very proud of herself.

3. Made Rosettes

We waited until Megan came home to do those. She was very happy.

4. Made Cookies

We had the Chavez girls over to play that day, so they helped make the cookies. It was a ton of fun.

At the Nutcracker

We didn't take the camera, but I had my phone on me, and Kristen thought we should snap a couple of pictures at intermission.

We had a good time!

In Case You Didn't See it on Book Nut

Here's our Christmas Eve picture.

Happy Christmas!

The School Sing Along

Every year. the elementary has a Christmas sing-along on the last day of school. This year, the music teacher grabbed a handful of fifth graders to help "direct" songs. That seemed worth going to and taking pictures and movies of.

And two of the songs she did: Frosty the Snowman (play it for the joke at the beginning):



And she had a terrifically cheezy part in Children Go Where I Send Thee:

Story Night 2014

We had story night this past week. Unlike past years, we couldn't find anyone to share the night with us, so it was just us. Which, actually, was kind of nice. We could read longer stories, and there wasn't the usual din surrounding the storytelling.

We all picked our favorite stories:

Caitlyn chose The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and we realized that she's been doing the same story since she started participating in 2004. In fact, we have proof:

It's actually rather cool. And we decided it wouldn't be Christmas without Caitlyn performing the Grinch.

Christmas Nativity Play 2014

Since Megan and Caitlyn were gone, I thought about not doing the puppet play this year. But, Kristen insisted they were NOT too old. So, we roped a couple of very willing sister missionaries into helping out this year.

Kristen's Music Concert

The 3rd and 4th graders got to do the holiday music concert at the elementary school. And Kristen was very excited by it.

And, like all the elementary school concerts, there were a lot of really fun songs. Kristen wanted me to record these four. Enjoy!

"It's Diabetes Waiting to Happen"

Alison has been wanting to be patrol member of the week for a LONG time, mostly because when you get patrol member of the week, you get a giant cupcake. This week, she finally achieved her goal, and got the GIANT cupcake.

For the record, she scraped about 99% of the frosting off before eating it. Still. It's quite the cupcake.

Time to Decorate the Tree

At some point, this Christmas, we realized that we've reached a crossroads. Megan's off to college, Caitlyn's super busy with her play, and that leaves Alison and Kristen to handle pretty much of our standard traditions. One of those, of course, was decorating the tree.

It happened on a Monday early evening, kind of around dinner (which also didn't really happen that night, either). And we kind of half-heartedly sorted the ornaments

and there was a bit of squabbling, but the ornaments actually did end up on the tree.

And it was mostly done. We did save a box for Caitlyn to put up when she got home late, and she decided she needed proof she helped, so she took a selfie.

And we have a tree. Maybe some traditions aren't quite all the way dead yet.

Our Stake Nativity Display

Someone, at some point this year, decided that what our ward/town needs is one of those Nativity/Creche displays. I don't know whose brainchild this was, or where they got the idea, but I was more than willing to go along with it. (Honestly? I've been hoping for an opportunity like this to come along. I just didn't want to be the one who brought it up.) It was this past weekend, and it turned out really quite lovely. I spent a couple hours there Saturday morning, nominally to help out with music, but Russell brought Alison and Kristen by to check out the displays.

Kristen got a picture by the table we set up. (Yes, we got our own table.)

And she told Russell that he needed to take a picture of the Peanuts nativity. So he did.

Alison did crafts in the children's room.

And then he snuck a picture of me playing.

It was a good event.

A Fangirl Birthday

Alison is our resident fangirl. She LOVES Percy Jackson, Dr. Who, and Harry Potter, in that order. And, because we love her, her birthday reflected that.

She got her letter to Hogwarts:

Some Dr Who stuff:

(She wore the fez all day.)



And had a Percy Jackson cake:

All of which made her very happy. But the best reaction was this one:

Sure, there were other presents:

And sure, she blew out her candles too:

But, it was the fan things that made her the happiest:

And for that, we're glad. Happy 11th birthday, Alison!