2012 Christmas Vacation (Part 2)

(Part 1)

On Saturday, the 22nd, we packed up and left the family reunion in Altamont, then drove back to Orem and took Tristan to Café Rio for his birthday lunch.

Then we went to Daniel’s Mom’s house in Pleasant Grove, where we stayed for the next four nights.        

After we got our stuff all settled, we went out to Alpine for a Christmas party with some of Daniel’s family at his Dad’s house.  The kids loved riding around on all the fun toys in the garage:                                     

And the fancy hot chocolate bar:                          

Tristan got to open a special birthday present before all the Christmas festivities started.  He was lucky to have so many helpers.  Also, I love Ollie’s face. 

Back inside, hanging out with Uncle Nic and excited to start opening presents:

The girls in  their new jammies with their cousins London and Adele:

The boys and baby Finnegan.  Henry developed all sorts of web-shooting powers once he had his new Spiderman jammies:

Tristan and Oliver in their new BYU gear.  They each got two shirts and a sweatshirt, and that’s really all they’ve worn since.                                                           

Rachel and Lizza got some fancy new outfits, some jewelry, and a nail-polishing kit:

Henry opening his present from Grandpa Darcy.  I kind of want to let him open a present every day, just to see his dramatic reaction:

Everyone admiring Henry’s new legos:

Cynthia pretending to fall asleep in my lap:

Fancy desserts:                                                                   

All the boys went outside to play a game of Horse with Grandpa Darcy – they had to shovel off the sports court first, but I guess when you have a new basketball to test out you don’t let a little snow stand in your way.

The next day was Sunday.  We went to church with Grandma Nini and Daniel’s sister Audra, and then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at Grandma Nini’s house.  Everyone stayed in their Sunday clothes, because later that day we had Tristan’s priesthood ordination and Rachel’s baptism (Rachel turned 8 last summer, but we were having a hard time scheduling it when any family members could come.  We decided to wait until Christmas time when all of my family and most of Daniel’s family would be there;  plus we were already planning on having Tristan ordained as a deacon that day, so we just decided to make it an extra special joint occasion).

Henry admiring Grandma Nini’s nativity:                

And doing puzzles (he and Cindy took turns with this one):

Lizza, sick in bed – she wasn’t feeling well and fell asleep as soon as we got home from church. 

Grandma Nini is an expert nail painter, and she helped Rachel get all fancied up for her big day:

Here she is all ready to go.  Everything she was wearing was special to her – Aunt Audra made her the special white headband, Uncle Anthony and his wife Amber gave her the special necklace, and the baptism dress she is wearing is the same one I got baptized in, that my mom made for me.  I remember going to the fabric store and picking out the pattern and everything.  It was so fun to see her in it. 

Another special thing about Rachel’s baptism was that she got to be baptized in the Joseph Smith Building on BYU campus (and it was on Joseph Smith’s birthday, too – we didn’t even plan that part).  My dad is a Bishop of a BYU ward and I had asked him if he would arrange a place for us to have the baptism – somehow the JSB font ended up being the most convenient one to use.  It was really neat for both Tristan and Rachel. 

Something that was not neat but will always be funny to remember is that as we were driving to the baptism, about 5 minutes before we got to BYU, Lizza started throwing up in the back seat of the car.  We handed back a bag as fast as we could, but of course nothing ended up in the bag.  She was freaking out because it was all over her dress, and then to make matters worse (or funnier, depending on how you look at it), Cynthia, who was sitting next to Lizza, was really grossed out by all the throwing up, and she started gagging every time she looked at Lizza.  Daniel could see her in the rear-view mirror, and she would look over at Lizza, gag, look away, throw-up a little on herself, then look back at Lizza, gag, throw-up, etc.  It was so awful that all we could do was laugh (and be glad that at least it wasn’t Rachel in her baptism dress).  I had really wanted to get a nice family picture taken, and I was pretty sure that was out of the question now.  We made it to the parking lot across from Brick Oven, I grabbed Cindy (luckily she had done a lot less throwing up than it had sounded like and the damage to her dress was minimal) and then took her and the rest of the kids minus Lizza up the stairs towards the JSB.  Daniel stayed behind and started cleaning up Lizza and the car, using some of the nearby snow to help.  Once they made it up to the JSB, I took Lizza into the bathroom and we used some paper towels to finish off the job.  By then the baptism was supposed to start, so we quickly gathered together for some pictures.  Lizza even managed a little smile, despite all that had happened.  You can tell by CIndy’s face that she was still pretty disgusted by the whole thing.   

Me and Daniel with our 12-year old almost-deacon, and our 8-year old soon to be baptized:

Grandma Orva (my mom) with Rachel and the baptism dress she sewed 24 years ago:

Rachel in front of the font.  Because it’s in a BYU building and used mainly just for adults, there was no guard or railing next to the water – there were some doors in the classroom that just opened right up to the water.  It was pretty cool.  But we did have to keep a close eye on all the little kids.                             

And there were tons of kids!  Rachel was so happy to have most of her cousins from both sides at the baptism – none of them would have been able to come if we had done it in Texas.  Here they are singing “When I am Baptized”:

Tristan was ordained a deacon right after the baptism and confirmation.

And here are both of them with all the men who participated in Rachel’s confirmation and Tristan’s ordination:

Four generations:

Afterward we all headed to my grandparent’s house– they had offered to host a little get-together there since we couldn’t have food at the JSB.  Here’s Rachel having some wassail and cookies with her cousins:

And we went straight from there to Daniel’s grandparents house, for another get-together with his dad’s side of the family.  Poor Henry was so worn-out by this time.  He didn’t know whose house we were at, or who any of the people were, but he just walked right in, plopped down on the couch next to one of Daniel’s cousins (whom he’s never met) and fell right asleep.                         

Here he is the next morning (Christmas Eve Day), when he finally got to start working on his new dinosaur legos:

Poor Lizza was still feeling pretty sick:

For Christmas Eve we went to my parent’s house for dinner and games:

Cousins at the piano:                                      

New books from Grandma and Grandpa (that is their gift to our children every year – we love it).  What I also love is their gift to our family this year – a framed copy of that painting hanging above the couch.  It’s a painting of the nativity scene by one of my favorite artists, Brian Kershisnik. 

Let the games begin:

These kids were our helpers when we were playing Catch-Phrase.  It was the best system – they weren’t on anybody’s team, so they didn’t take turns describing, but they could call out guesses on every turn.  It was a fun way for them to participate with the grown-ups.

Christmas morning – back at Grandma Nini’s house with hot chocolate and whipped cream:

Miss Cindy Lou started her Christmas morning throwing up (for real this time).  She was pretty miserable about not being able to eat anything for awhile after that.  This picture reminds me of my sister Marian – it seems like when we were little she was sick every Christmas, and there are always pictures of her in her Christmas jammies with a totally green face.                                 

Stockings!                                                       

After Cindy got her presents from Grandma Nini she just needed some cuddle time with Mama:

The girls with some new headbands:

Henry with the most perfect presents ever:

We’ve never really done Santa Claus with our kids – he’s more of a fun Christmas story.  This year Henry told me he knows Santa Claus isn’t real, but he just really wanted to learn how to draw him.  So I taught him how, and he practiced and practiced.  Here is the skinniest Santa ever, along with some pretty cute little reindeer.  He drew this before we went to Utah, and I love how there is sunshine and green grass – living in Texas his whole life he doesn’t really get the concept of a white Christmas. 

Christmas dinner.  Daniel’s mom had just barely moved in to her new house, and hadn’t gotten all of her furniture yet.  She felt bad, but the kids loved eating their dinner on the floor – they probably thought it was the coolest Christmas dinner ever. 

After dinner we put the kids to bed and then stayed up talking and playing games way too late before we got packed and ready to leave the next morning for the next part of our trip – Arizona!