California Christmas

When my siblings and I started to leave home, get married, and have our own families, the "Plan" was to try to get everyone together for Christmas every other year.  The plan was good, the implementation, lacking.  As a result of weddings and other events pulling us home at different times throughout the year, the last time we were all together at Christmas Aubree was 2 months old.

This year, a good friend of my moms graciously allowed us to use her fabulous cabin in Tahoe for the week.  Technically, we still weren't together for the real Christmas Day, but we decided the week after Christmas was close enough to count and we went ahead and had a bonus Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the cabin.

Unfortunately, Mark couldn't come join the festivities since he'd just had the previous week off of work and just started the new job.  That was definitely the biggest downside of the trip and it left me to fly alone with the kiddos.  I really can't complain, though. The only time we were really alone was while on the planes and a 1 1/2 hour flight is totally realistic.  Grandma and Grandpa Winters went with us to the Seattle airport (they flew back to PA at the same time our flight left), and we were met at the Reno airport by my brother, Sean, and my sister, Katie and their families.  At the end of our vacation, Sean also flew out of Reno the same time I did and in both instances took care of all my luggage.  What a man!

The cabin was perfectly spacious and wonderful for our ever growing family (14 adults & 8 kids).  There were even two separate kitchens with a total of 3 ovens, because, of course, there was a LOT of good eats.

One area, separated from the main cabin, quickly earned the designation of the "man cave."  Whenever we were looking for a brother/in-law, that was the first place to look.  Considering all the chatty sisters and giddy kids running rampant in the main house, I suppose I'm not surprised they sought refuge in the apartment with endless streams of sports and movies on the big screen.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon and quickly got down to the business of acquainting and reacquainting.  For starters, my parents hadn't yet met Thane.

Additionally, three of my sisters also had babies last year and I hadn't met ANY of those beautiful babes.  Tragic. 

 

Thane & Elizabeth, who is only 5 weeks younger than Thane

Tuesday night was designated "Christmas Eve," complete with stories, activities, sugar cookies, and gifts.  Mostly we were just excited to all be together again.  After we (finally) got all the kids to bed (always an event in new surroundings), Santa's elves got back to work filling stockings and putting presents under the tree.  I was expecting a small affair.  I should have known better.  

Wednesday morning the kids woke up to piles of presents and a stocking stuffed with goodies. 

 Kira treated us all to the traditional, mouth-watering Christmas breakfast of sourdough waffles with strawberries and whip cream, and then we got down to the important task of opening and playing with all those gifts.
Uncles with sharp knives are handy to have around...

Classic Bryce...

Here's a fun toy...and another willing Uncle!

 And speaking of uncles, I just love this picture:

The rest of the week sped by. We'd venture out to play in the snow or go to the grocery store, but mostly kept ourselves occupied indoors.  Kira drove to the cabin and filled an extra trailer full of toys and bins of assorted comforts.  One particularly popular item was a baby play mat.  Sometimes it was used as designed:

 Thane and Anna (10 months old)

Frequently, the bigger kids couldn't resist it's allure:

 Bryce & Killian (3)

And sometimes, even the REALLY big kids wanted to see what was so appealing: 

Though the kids and I missed Mark, there were always plenty of people willing and eager to step in and help me out.  Generally, Aubree and Bryce were busy playing with their cousins, grandparents, or assorted Aunts and Uncles. 

 

Uncle Ian with Killian, Anna, & Aubree

Thane took a while to warm-up.  On those occasions when I had to leave him, the scene often looked like this:

 

By the end of the week, he'd decided he could tolerate being held by someone else, but mostly was (literally even) stuck to me. 

One morning Grandma took Aubree on a special one-on-one walk.  They were gone a long time and I started to worry about frost-bite (since she'd picked out her own outfit), but when they got home Aubree was abuzz with all their adventures.

 Aubree described walking to the nearby park and building a snow-penguin.

Her penguin, Osbert, tried his hand at making a snow-angel:

Clearly, it had been a wonderful and memorable outing.

Overall, it was such a joy to be together with family and recall old memories and make new ones.  I'm reminded why it's important to me that my kids know their Aunts and Uncles and cousins - because they're all such fabulous people!

My Seesters

Ill-ustration

Last night Aubree woke up puking.  She continued through the night.  She's feeling much better today, though she spent most of the day curled up on the couch.  Her illness, however, did not curb her creativity.  At one point I walked past and noticed her drawing a chicken and a barn.

 "Wow," I admired, "are you copying something."

"Nope," she answered, her eyes still focused on her paper.

"Where did you get the idea to draw that?" I continued.

She pointed up to the light on the ceiling, "See that rip, doesn't it kind of look like a chicken?"

Uhhhhh....

Royal Visit

During our week with Karen & co., we snuck off for a couple days to visit some of our most favorite people (the Allred/Frank clan) in Royal City.  Ashlee and Tyler were our neighbors and close friends when we lived in Wymount.  We've also been blessed to meet Ashlee's parents and all her siblings (there are 8 kids - 5 girls, 3 boys - just like my family), and they're all just as amazing as she is (and that's saying something!). 

When we arrived Wednesday morning, we headed over to Ashlee's parent's home where the whole clan had gathered for an Iron-Chef omelet competition.  As soon as we walked in, we were swept up and made to feel like part of the family.  Watching the cook-off was highly entertaining and the idea behind it is so fun and one I want to remember just in case we're ever that adventurous:

There were two competitors (Ashlee's dad and the town mayor - a close family friend), three judges ("Judge President" [Stake Presidency member], "Judge Bishop" [the ward Bishop who happens to also be the oldest Allred sibling], and "Judge Master" [the ward Scout Master - Tyler]), the host (one of the sisters who has a gift for commentary and hilarity), and one chairman (5 year-old grandson, who took his role very seriously).  Each chef cooked three different type of omelets (they made enough for the judges and all the spectators - Yum!) and were judged on presentation, taste, and use of the main ingredient (egg).  So fun!

After the Breakfast (with a capital "B!"), we trooped over to the Frank home so the little kids could nap.  Aubree made an immediate connection with Ashlee's daughters, Gracee (7) and Jaylen (4).  They bonded over American Girls, penguins (Aubree and Jay had matching stuffed birds), and hangman.  Bryce was a bit smitten with their youngest daughter, Maggie (2).  "Mom," he told me, "I like Maggie."  Guess what Maggie had gotten for Christmas?  A tent, WITH a connected tunnel.  After Bryce and Maggie exhausted themselves crawling through the tunnel 5,000 times, can you guess what they did?  Yep, completely filled the tunnel up with anything not nailed down (I'm pretty sure Bryce was the ring-leader in this case).

After naps, we decided to put our winter gear to the test (there was SNOW on the ground there!) and go sledding.  Clearly, farm-folk know how to do sledding right.  We went over to Ashlee's friend's home where the driveway was so long and steep, our van couldn't make it up the hill.  Next to the driveway, they'd created a looonnnnggg sledding run (1/4 - 1/3 of a mile, maybe?).  A pick-up truck made the rounds picking kids and adults up at the bottom and hauling them back to the top to start over.  Impressive - and a little too intimidating for my little neophytes.  Mark found a much smaller hill to use for their first attempt.  Oh, and did I mention that it was COLD and windy and COLD?

 

 On only their second run, Bryce ended up with a face-full of stinging snow and he was DONE.  He came in the nice warm house with me and Thane and discovered an electric train which he found much more enjoyable.  Aubree tried to make a snowman, but the wind had whipped away all the moisture from the snow so it wouldn't stick together. She and Mark also came in the warm house not too long after Bryce.  I guess our Florida blood hasn't thickened yet.

Tyler made us tri-tip for dinner, which is another great reason to be back on the West Coast - tri-tip, Yum!  Their three girls scarfed it down.  My kids wouldn't touch it.  The little vegetarians don't know a good thing when they've got it!

The following morning Ashlee's dad gave us a personal tour of his Dairy.  Aubree had been so excited about being able to visit the dairy, but when we arrived her excitement quickly turned to misery.  "Ahhhhh!," she cried, "it stinks, it stinks, it STINKS!" And she plugged her nose and whimpered the rest of the trip (to be fair, she's always been really sensitive to smells).

The rest of the kids were much less bothered by the smell and were excited to watch the cows be milked.

 Mark and I thought the tour was fascinating.  

Having the owner give the tour was especially nice because he could answer all the behind-the-scenes questions.  We were even able to hop in his truck and drive around to see where and how the feed is stored and mixed, where the calves live, and (the highlight of the trip) the nursery for the less-than-24-hour-old calves.  Aubree was reluctant to go into the nursery, but came out beaming, "they're all so cute!  We named them!"  That five-minute jaunt turned the experience from horrible to thrilling for her (though I don't think she's anxious to return). 

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at Ashlee's parent's home talking and letting the kids play.  There were four other girls close to Aubree's age, which she loved and needed (she's really missing her Florida friends).

 The older kids kept us entertained for hours playing dance games on their Wii.  

 It was hard to leave, but made somewhat easier with the knowledge that now we only live a few hours away so we can visit more often. 

When we got back to Karen's house and were getting out of the car, I noticed Aubree was carrying an empty soda can she'd gotten while touring the Dairy.  I instructed her to throw it away when she got upstairs.  Immediately, tears sprung to her eyes, "Noooooooooooooooo!"  "Okay," I questioned, "why do you want to keep the can?"  "Because I always want to remember our visit to Ashlee and Tyler's."  I'd say the trip was a success.

Holidays, Hoffman-style

One of the most exciting things about moving to Washington is finally being in the same state as some of our family members.  Mark's sister, Karen, and her family live in Eastern Washington.  Christmas Eve day we packed up and drove over, excited to spend a week re-connecting.  Aubree and Ally apparently subscribe to modern definitions of "connecting" (do you think they're "chatting" with each other?).  

 For our Christmas Eve activity, we had the kids act out the Nativity. Bryce played the part of Joseph and proved to be a conscientious husband (careful, Mary, don't fall off that donkey in your condition!).

 

Ally took her role as Mary very seriously.  From what we understand, she's had a lot of practice giving birth.

 Aubree had planned ahead of time to be the angel.  She memorized her lines and performed flawlessly. 

When it was time for bed, the kids were so keyed up with the excitement of seeing each other and the anticipation of Christmas that sleep was difficult to attain.  Aubree and Ally wanted to sleep in the same room and we thought we'd at least give them the opportunity to see if that arrangement would work.  At 10 pm when I could still hear them giggling it was clear "opportunity" was as far as it would go.  I peeked in the room and both girls immediately feigned sleep. "Phew," I heard Aubree whisper as I walked away, "that was a close one!"  Once they were separated it took about .3 seconds for both of them to crash into dreamland.

The unintended upside to the late night was that no kids were awake before 8:30 am Christmas morning.  That's got to be a record, right?  

Santa had a great time filling up all of these stockings and the kids and adults were excited to empty them. 

Opening presents one at a time helped Christmas last a very long time. By the end, all the kids were on toy and present overload.  Aubree says her favorite gift was her penguin purse, her Light science kit, and her  Meet Felicity book (Aubree can never choose just one favorite anything).  Bryce's favorite gift was definitely his Duplo/MegaBlock Thomas the Train sets.  Thane got the greatest baby book ever (I've just discovered them), called Indestructibles.  It has the look and feel and allure of a paperback (what baby can resist crinkly pages?), but it's chew-proof, rip-proof, and washable!  Brilliant.
It was fun to see which toys were the most popular among all the kids.  For example, Ally got a pink princess couch that was a huge hit (I'm pretty sure she slept on it at night for the rest of the week).  She graciously allowed Bryce to sit next to her as they watched a movie (Toy Story 3! Thanks Eric & Courtney!) Christmas afternoon.

Ally also got a little tent for Christmas.  She set it up in the living room and Bryce spent the rest of the week squirreling away anything not tied down inside.  One afternoon several days after Christmas, Chris (Karen's husband) came home from work impressed with how clean the room looked.  Then he glanced inside the tent, which was 2 feet deep with toys, clothes, books, blankets, and assorted other goodies. 

Chris and Karen proved to be wonderful, patient hosts.  They cooked us gourmet meals, took us to see a holiday light show, played endless rounds of Ticket to Ride (though I graciously lost every round, just to make sure our hosts had a good time), and generally put up with us (and even agreed to let us come back!).

Me losing.  Hairstyle thanks to Aubree

I am thrilled the kids had a chance to play with their cousins.  Aubree and Ally got along very well.  They had plenty of the type of arguments you would expect from two bright, bossy, oldest children.  If anything, they're too much alike.  "No!" we'd frequently hear from one or the other, "you're not doing it right!"  But more often than not, they were happily involved in one complicated imaginative world or another.  Bryce occasionally played with the girls, but he had a whole basement full of new toys to explore.  He spent many, many hours downstairs with Dad (who had a whole basement full of books to explore).  Plus, there was a train set and Bryce can play contentedly for weeks with a train set (and remember the tent? He was a happy boy).

 Thane got to know his cousin Cora (who just turned one).  Despite being 5 months apart in age, they are exactly the same size.  Cora thought Thane was great and enjoyed giving him hugs.  Thane wasn't quite as sure how much he liked that. 

We had such a fun time - thanks, Hoffmans!

Pre-Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations had a slightly different flair this year.  Since we moved into our new home the week before Christmas and were planning on spending Christmas day with Mark's sister's family, we didn't put up any of our Christmas decorations.  No Christmas tree, no Santa stocking holder, no Christmas lights, no Willow Tree Nativity.  Some days I felt decidedly un-festive.  

Normally in Decembers our calendars are booked up with traditional activities (breakfast with Santa, Reindeer Run 5K), friends (delivering holiday treats), and parties (with the ward, with friends, with preschool, at the library...).  I know many people endeavor to "simplify" this busy time of year, but I love it and revel in all the fun activities (although I do sometimes with they could be spaced out over a longer period of time).  So this year initially felt a little lacking and lonely (don't worry, we more than made up for it in the weeks immediately following Christmas). 

We tried to keep up what traditions we could.  For example, every year we like to make our own salt dough nativity.  Who needs Willow Tree when you've got this?

The tradition suggests that the youngest member of the family is supposed to create baby Jesus.  This year was Thane's turn, but we ended up with two babies, because after Aubree saw me make a manger, she was determined to make her own. 

Bryce decided he would make the sheep.  But mostly he enjoyed poking his sheep.

 When Grandma and Grandpa Winters arrived, we coerced them into participating in our adventures.  First, we made gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  Bryce thought this was a fabulous activity, though I'm not sure how much candy actually made it onto his house.

Grandpa agreed to help Aubree construct her house and they got quite ambitious in their initial plans (I can just imagine Aubree plotting how much candy will be required to cover that house).

Unfortunately, graham crackers are not the best building materials and their finished product was not exactly as they'd hoped (but it still served its candy-holding purposes).

With extra hands to help the other kids, Thane and I were even able to make a house this year.  My biggest task was trying to keep Thane's hands out of the icing.

Grandma's house was probably the sturdiest and most appropriately decorated (and Bryce says her house tasted great as well). 

Once we moved into our new home and had necessary supplies like rolling pins, cookie sheets, and cookie cutters, we set out to make and decorate our sugar cookies.  What's Christmas without sugar cookies?

Again, Bryce ate as much as he cut out, and I think perhaps he liked eating the flour almost as much as the cookie dough.

December 23 was our official "Pre-Christmas" where we opened all the gifts that were either too big, too little, or had too many pieces to warrant taking with us to Karen's (7 people + luggage + winter gear + Christmas presents = an awfully tight squeeze, even with a van).  We had to wait till Mark got home from work to open presents and I was impressed with how patient the kids could be.  Here are some of the highlights:

Bump House

We really like our new home, which the kids have nicknamed the "Bump House".  It's a bit bigger than our Florida home and is 2-stories (a big change!).  The kids love the stairs.  When we were house-hunting they were fans of any house that had stairs.  Ironically, it's Aubree who has fallen down them twice, thankfully only resulting in tears of shock and fear. 

The biggest down side of the house (and it's only a minor inconvenience) is that it's a split-level.  The garage, laundry room, and playroom are downstairs and everything else is on the top level.  On the list of positives, Mark's thrilled to have a smaller yard to maintain without the horrible Florida weeds grass. We also now have two fireplaces that I have no idea how to use. 

Another big change is that, aside from the kitchen and bathrooms, everything is carpeted.  I had to inform that kids that Lila G. Vacuum (who had gotten used to a life of ease in our carpet-less Florida home) had better start earning her keep. 

So, why do we call it the bump house?  Downstairs in the play room there is a 4' x 12' section that is raised about 18" off the ground under the bay window. 

After a few weeks I realized it could also be considered a stage, but by that point "bump" had stuck.  It's one of the kids' favorite places to play (and jump off).  It's also handy for extra seating.

We're still in the process of unpacking, though it was really helpful to have Grandma and Grandpa Winters here to help when everything was unloaded and we made a lot of progress that first week.  Mark also did a lot while the kids and I were in California (at one point while we were gone he remarked, "do you realize how much you can get done when there aren't kids around?!"  No, I don't think I can relate).  Hopefully we'll have pictures on the wall before it's time to move out (I really, really stink at decorating - anyone care to volunteer to come help??  Seriously!).

Post Preview

Wowsers!  It's been a whirlwind the last couple months.  I realized yesterday that since we left our Florida home two months ago, we've stayed at seven different places - most of them 5 days or longer.  So, it shouldn't be a surprise that I still wake up every morning wondering, "where am I?"  I can only imagine what my kids wake up thinking.

Clearly, I have a lot of catch-up blogging/journaling to do.  But here is a quick synopsis of our adventures:

Dec. 14 - Grandma and Grandpa Winters arrive

Dec. 15 - Household goods are delivered to our new rental home (kids rejoice to see their favorite toys).

Dec. 17 - Move into new home and out of temporary housing.

Dec. 18 (wee hours of the morning) - Power goes out.  All freeze.  We rejoice that we still have one remaining day in temporary housing and pack ourselves back to the apartment to have warm showers and watch the BYU bowl game.

Dec. 19 - Mark and Erin give talks in church (Thane doesn't believe Mom needs time to prepare and spends the previous week nights crying and crying and crying despite her best attempts to console him).  

Dec. 23 - Pre-Christmas

Dec. 24 - Drive to Hoffman's home (Mark's sister's family) in Richland, WA.  Christmas Eve festivities.

Dec. 25 - Real Christmas (and party the rest of the week)

Dec. 29 - Drive over to Royal City, WA to visit some of our most favorite friends, Ashlee and Tyler Frank and all of Ashlee's fabulous family.

Dec. 30 - Tour a dairy, lament that a visit with the Franks is never long enough, and head back to Richland.

Jan. 1 - Drive back "home" and think how ironic it is to tell the kids "we're going home," when at that point we'd spend more time at their aunt's home than our new home.

Jan. 4 - Mark drops the kids and me and Grandma and Grandpa off at Sea-Tac airport.  Grandma and Grandpa head back to Pennsylvania and the kids and I jet off to California (okay, technically we flew into Nevada, but don't tell Bryce) for a week at Tahoe with my family.

Jan. 5 - California Christmas

Jan. 9 - Fly "home" to Washington

Jan. 10 - Wonder "what do I do now?" (I mean, besides catch up on my blog?)

More details (and pictures - lots and lots of pictures) coming soon.