January Chills

Coche Nuevo

2011 Nissan Altima

This is probably one of the most memorable January's on record of our family (unless Snowmagedon in NJ was in January..)  At any rate, during this LONG month we've all been through a sickness (possibly a light case of the flu),  we've had frigid-- even negative!-- temperatures, big J's car got totaled and now pink eye.  But, there's been some sunshine in there.  Not real, warm, lovely sunshine of course but bursts of fun that have made life cozy regardless.  For one thing, when we were all sick big J got me flowers and took care of us while we laid around.  Maybe I should get sick more often....  Not much to do about the frigid temps but we have gotten together with friends a few times, which has been fun!  And heaven must have been shining down on big J when he got in his accident.  Let this be a lesson to all to not run red lights!  Some lady from down south plowed into the front of our 1-year-old Versa when she ran an obvious red light going 45+ mph and all that big J had was a (pretty nasty looking) airbag burn on his wrist.  He wasn't even that sore.  Granted, I'd given him an incredible heated neck massage that evening that I joke we should charge the insurance for with some amount of seriousness.  And with the pink eye, well, little bug has discovered that eye drops are not as bad as she first feared.  AND, we've even been to a BYU basketball and volleyball game and I started up our community volleyball.  And today we bought the above car--another Nissan but upgraded to an Altima.  Today we had a showdown between a new Elantra and this 2011 Altima and put them side by side because it was such a close race that we needed to see them together.  And fortunately, the dealerships were only a mile or two apart.  The Altima won out largely based on comfort and snow handling ability.  So, a month that is for the record books for good and not so good and beginnings and endings and chill and warmth.  Speaking of warmth.....is it spring yet?!!

Christmas 2012!!

Preview--our Christmas tree at home, Christmastime in Leavenworth, and gingerbread village

First Christmas.  Since we were going to be gone for Christmas we decided to open one present each the morning we left.  We really had to do this because little J was getting a new bike and we didn't exactly want to pack that up to Washington.  

But before we went to Washington we had to go see B's Christmas choir concert.  They sounded lovely and it was definitely worth staying in town 24 hours extra.  

Making gingerbread houses in Wenatchee

Fun in the snow!

We had super lota fun sledding on the golf course just behind my parents house.  Though, we had to watch out for those trees at the bottom since the snow had an ice crust and we seriously ZOOOOMED down the hill!  In fact, we had a designated 'tree guard' that was to stop a sled from crashing at all costs. 

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

 (little bug is hinting what was inside by her smile)

Gifts!!  Big J has a big grin because he is opening a voucher for a paragliding or hang gliding lesson or tandem flight.  Hehe.  

Love abounds

More gifts!!

Playing down by the lake not far from my parents house.

Hot tub time!!  We have crazy kids.  Look at them rolling in the snow!

Oh, wait, big J's running up the hill too.  Well, we know who encourages crazy behavior around here...

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's in Washington and in new BYU shirts once at home and before going to see a basketball game

The kids discovered Mastermind at my parents and I think we tried to master each others' minds at least 50 times.  Big J also discovered Scotland Yard.  Good times.

Building B's roller coaster

Completed K'Nex Roller Coaster.  Awesome.

We had a shorter sledding day another day at my parents.  Surprisingly this is one of my favorite activities, despite being nervous the whole time that someone will get hurt. 

Christmas in Utah on New Years

New Tradition

This year we added a new tradition to our holiday spirit.  We know we all like to give gifts to each other and the older two kids made stuff in school to give to us but our littlest hadn't so the thought started with this in mind and a new tradition was born.  I'd heard of families really liking giving set service gifts to each other but hadn't ever put enough thought into how to go about doing that in our family.  I thought we needed some way of spreading service as gifts to one another and making it fun.  

We needed a prop.

Then came in this baby Jesus that I'd made several years ago in church.  

Here's how it works and how we explained it to the kids:  we all want to give to each other during Christmas and we love it when we do things for each other.  Starting December 1st we'd have one of us parents start with the baby Jesus and when we did service for another person in the family we let them know by putting baby Jesus on their bed; but the service could be a mystery or something they knew.  Finding baby Jesus on their bed let them know it was their turn to do service for someone in the family.  And it could be passed on as quickly as you wanted--in fact the sooner the better to keep everyone guessing!  

  

We think it is a great way to keep the true meaning of Christmas alive throughout the month leading up to Christmas.  The kids had so much fun doing this this year that I think we'll have to pull out baby Jesus next year.  Already looking forward to Christmas 2013!!