December 24 - Christmas Eve

Day 24: Make cookies for Santa!  You can tell by the blur of Haze's hands that he was totally in to making sprinkle piles on each cookie.  Andlie was more in to picking the right colors for the right shape & making sure they didn't have excess frosting or sprinkles.  Nora was mostly in to eating the cookies before they got frosted.

Andlie & Hazey spent a lot of their day checking the Santa App on Daddy's phone and the computer to see where Santa was.  It was really cute.  If we couldn't find them through the day, chances were that they were downstairs staring at the computer screen while singing Christmas songs and getting excited with each other.

 

For dinner, I made a delicious ham dinner.

This is how Andlie & Haze felt about it.  (Andlie eventually tried some ham.  And liked it.)

Something pretty neat happened after dinner!  Andlie bit on a roll & started crying because her loose tooth hurt.  Guess what happened next?  Daddy pulled her tooth out!!  She was so excited that Santa AND the Tooth Fairy were coming on the same night!

After we all calmed ourselves down after Andlie lost her tooth, we opened Christmas jammies!

 

(Also Day 24:) And then we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and watched a short Nativity clip on the TV (while Nora somehow managed to get stuck in the box of Christmas books).  Next we went for a little ride to look at lights and then to bed!  Andlie was pretty adamant that we get right in bed when we got home so that Santa could come! 

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve full of fun, happiness, and excitement!  We could definitely feel the special spirit of Christmas in our home today.  We are truly blessed.

December 23 - Pizza Picnic

Day 23: Eat dinner by the Christmas tree!  The kids were LOVING this activity.  We had pizza by the Christmas tree on a little blankie.  We turned the lights off & ate by the light of the tree.  It was a fun night for everyone.

December 22 - Movie Night

Day 22: Watch a Christmas movie together.  We watched "the real Grinch" (AKA the Jim Carrey version).  Haze made sure to watch from the side of the couch so he could quickly hide behind the couch when the Grinch came on.  (Don't worry.  About half hour in, he realized the Grinch was mostly funny, not mean.) Nora just happily got in to mischief and Andlie watched the entire thing.   Her & Haze quoted Grinch lines for the rest of the night.

No night would be complete without a Daddy smush.  They love him.

December 21 - Sunday

Sunday mornings in Nora's room while Daddy is at meetings: a monkey climbing the walls, a giggling little boy, and a tiny one amazed by something.

"Look, we're Santa!"

We finally got to wear our special Christmas Sunday clothes!  Andlie's hair matches Mommy's and we both have our homemade (by her) bracelets on.  Hazey has a tie "just like Daddy."  And Nora's sparkles are all over everyone!  Merry Christmas!

Day 21: Color a picture of the Nativity.  Andlie drew AND colored a pic!  Top: L to R: Andlie, Andlie, Haze.  Bottom: L to R: Chandi, Bryan.

December 20 - Home Sweet Home

After Daddy got a beautiful blessing from Grampa Goodwin, Haze helped Mommy pack & drank some of my Gatorade while he was at it.

Daddy was feeling well enough to drive us home from Idaho.  We had a pretty good trip.  Haze loves him some movies.

Andlie needed a quick nap.  (That's what hotel sleeping habits will do to a girl.)

We finally made it home!  Andlie told us she was Rudolph and demanded that Daddy play the role of Santa in the hula hoop sleigh tied to Rudolph by a jump rope.

While Daddy was at the doc getting some medicine (praises), we played at home.  Nora crawled right in to the bottom shelf of her changing table, turned herself around, and said, "Uh oh!"  Yep.  Uh oh is right.

Day 20: Tell Icabod three things you're thankful for.  Andlie promptly made us line up in a single file line in front of the tree.

Mom: my family, Christmas, prayer

Andlie: Christmas, family, temple

Haze: presents, my truck, skateboards

Nora: {grabs the tree & smiles}

Dad: Christmastime, doctors, family

December 19 - Mand & Tim Graduate

In her swimming suit, eating breakfast on the floor at 10:00 am.  Hotel life.  We had a great time swimming as a family this morning with the entire pool to ourselves!

Day 19: Do something with a whole bunch of family members.  Mandy & Tim's graduation from Nursing School definitely did that!  We are so proud of them and their hard work & sacrifice!  We had a great time at their ceremony and then an even better time at the after party where we ate pizza, cake, and swam!  We were sad that Daddy wasn't feeling well and spent the evening in the room with a bad headache.

Andlie & Haze were too cute when I checked on them at 4:00 am.  I just had to snap a pic.  They're such good friends.  I hope it stays that way forever.

December 18 - Idaho Bound

Day 18: Go the Sing-Along at Andlie's school!  The entire family went and watched Andlie sing, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with sign language!  And then, "There Was a Jolly Man in Red and Santa Was His Name-o," sung to "Bingo."  She did great!

Later, Nora helped us pack for Idaho.  She kept taking things out of the suitcase & saying, "Uh oh."  Repeat.  Repeat.

We left for Idaho at 6ish and got there about 10:30.  Everyone except Nora was sleeping by midnight.  She kept throwing her bink out & saying, "Uh oh."  She's a little tiny bit mischievous, but she's too cute to get too mad.