December

To start off our month, we got a knock on the door the evening of Dec. 1. And there was the Shaheen family. Megan holding this ginormous, advent Christmas tree. That she MADE herself, I might add. And filled with goodies and crafts and fun ideas. To say the boys have LOVED it, is the understatement of the year. She included a bag full of the crafts we could do. I cannot imagine the time this took her!! My boys are so so lucky!

Making just a couple of the crafts... candy cane ornaments and painted "glass" ornaments.

 

Sundance did it right and got their work party done the first week of December! It was at Fratellis, so we had good food! Brinn and Megan bought like 20 nice gifts and had them wrapped for everyone to play White Elephant. I scored with the cutest pitcher (because Megan gave her gift to me.... seriously, this girl!) and the game Telestrations and Trader Joe's Joe Joe cookies. So much fun. We missed Sara, but here are all the dentist wives in the practice!

I swear if that vein in my forehead gets any bigger, I'm going to name it.

I was really proud of myself for not waiting til the last minute to get packages out! I only had two, but still. ;) And yet, I still missed Jefferson! I guess it got to his apartment the morning after he moved out. Oh well. I consider the fact that he's home way more important than my package!

We got our Christmas decorations and tree up! Many an ornament has already suffered a violent death at the hands of Missy Moo Moo.

 One Friday night, we decided to drive out to Red Rock State Park to watch the Hot Air Balloons get fired up with the Shaheens. It. was. BITTER. cold. My boys were driveling about their hands, faces, bodies, etc. And you know who didn't make a peep?! Their baby sister!! She was a champ. Or maybe she was just too numb to cry. I'm not sure. But we brought pizzas and only lasted long enough to eat them before hightailing back to the warm cars.

 

Later that night, we got us some visitors!! Jos and Brighton came for the weekend. Saturday morning, they accompanied us out to McGaffey to get a tree permit and chop down our first ever REAL Christmas tree!! First annual Griswold Family Christmas!!! Haha!

 

We got out at one spot and tromped around, searching for the perfect tree. Not much to be seen! So back in the car until we spotted a cluster of potentials off the side of the road.

 Here it is! And we DID remember a saw! :)

 Turns out, it was pretty handy to have Brighton around!

 

The fun continued with a Christmas parade downtown that afternoon. It was actually a really fun parade! The first one we've seen here with real floats!

 So random, I saw Sylvia Lambson!! A lady I used to visit teach in Farmington! Love her. Her mom lives here, but I'm still not sure what she was doing on the float.

 You gotta laugh. Every church, school and organization out here has a "Navajo Princess". I don't get it. Sometimes they walk, but usually they are criss cross applesause (is this where 'Indian style' comes from??) on a hood or trailer. This one was particularly cheerful.

 Aw! How cute are these two?!

Our guests left after church on Sunday. Au revoir Pee Wee!

 

In other news.... OUR COUCHES CAME!!!! *I'm doing a jig on the floor!!* We bought these in SEPTEMBER. And it was nothing but hassles until we got them. I, for one, will be happy to NEVER talk to Kevin Clements from American Home ever again!!

Man they are delightful. And oh so puffy. You nearly roll off them just siting down. And we've had to institute a strict, NO EATING ON THE COUCHES rule. Even I follow it. Lately, I think the kids have heard, "Not on the couch!!!" more often than any other phrase. I will keep these looking nice if its the last thing I do!

 

Alsoooo, (I feel so spoiled), I got a new washing machine!!!! Make it a double jig!!! I have been loathing my washing machine. All but one cycle was broken. And if you know me, you know how I looove the delicate cycle. I'm a bit of a strict-ler when it comes to laundry. I read reviews until I was dreaming about Maytag. It hurt a little to pay so much. But I bought it on sale on Cyber Monday so it was a tad better. It's my first HE. I wanted a top loader. No thanks on the front loaders! It's an LG and SINGS to me when a load is done! Ahhh!! The beauty is almost too much to handle. Doing laundry is my #1 hated chore. Well, it just got a little less hated. I want to stroke it every time I walk past. When I saw how little water it used, I'll admit I freaked a bit. BUT, after continuing to watch it wash, I approve.

 

This stage...

It's getting kind of old feeding her, but she ain't so adept at doing it herself. She starts with the spoon, then just goes straight for the goods with her fingers. Even if it's soup.

 

Wrangling these two at Wal-Mart, then coming in to unload groceries, I'd just about had it up to here! Then I glanced over and they were snuggling up next to each other, giggling and giving each other funny glances. MELT MY HEART. Granted, Olive is licking a stray, half eaten sucker she found on my superrrr clean floor, but whatever. It's all good.

 It's fun to see them interact more. They found a long zip tie from the new washer and Weston was leading her around the house like a puppy. I'm sure he was wishing with all his heart that she was indeed a puppy!

 

The holiday baking begins!! This cardamom bread is beyond words for me. My mouth fills with saliva just thinking about it. It's a bugger of a recipe though, so it's only once a year at Christmas time! I doubled the batch and made 1/2 loaves so I could take them into the office and give out to several friends. Took me all day!!

 Megan threw a girls, ornament and cookie exchange party that was so fun! I made Sea salt and brown butter, chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm. And made a Gallup themed ornament. I liked how it turned out! I took the picture myself of a sign that's on the 66. After snapping a few, a train came chugging past, which is exactly what I'd hoped for!! PERFECTLY illustrates Gallup. Go figure... never thought I'd want to immortalize something about Gallup anywhere! Ha! But I did love this.

 

"If you give an Olive a cookie...

She'll be happy enough to share with her clothes."

(Also a pretty embarrassing example of why White Balance is important!)

 

OK, so I'm not so much on board with Elf on the Shelf. Not even sure how to verbalize my dislike for it. (Not to dog on anyone else that loves it!) Just not my jam. BUT, I did see an idea for a Kindness Elf last year that I LOVED. However, I searched and searched and couldn't find an elf that wasn't the Mayor of Creep City. (Seriously, those elves give me the willies!) Well, Miss Megan knew this, soooo she surprised me on my birthday with my very own, super crazy cute, HOMEMADE elf. Yes, she hand made this guy. It's incredible. I constantly just look at it and wonder how she did it. He's perfect. In every way possible. He has little magnets in his hands so he can hang from things or hold things. He has bells on his shoes and hat. He has the most adorable, gold, chevron legs. It's ridiculous. Megan is ridiculous. I can't even comprehend such talent.

SO, I was way excited to start with our KINDNESS ELF this year! The idea is similar to Elf on the Shelf. Except that he's not here to spy and report back to Santa. He comes with ideas every day on how we can serve others or show some kindness. Some days are really easy... smile at someone... give someone a compliment... hold open a door for someone. But it has been so fun! And the boys love finding him every morning. (OK, lets be honest, I haven't been great about doing it EVERY morning.) But it's been worth it! It has surprised me that Collin didn't know what it meant to hold open the door for someone or give someone a compliment. I love hearing him report back to us about  his experience with doing something kind.

 

His name is Marvin, but we seem to default to just calling him Elfie. He's usually found next to whatever item is going to aid in the act of service. Like holding a cube of butter, on top of the flour and sugar containers when we baked cookies for the local fireman. But maybeee just once or twice he was found doing something more "Elf on the Shelf-ish"

 My favorite so far has been when we "Candy Bombed" a parking lot. I attached about 15 candy canes to little notes and we put them on cars' windshields. The boys thought it was a blast. I did too!

 

They also thought it was really fun to tape some quarters to a gumball machine at Wal-mart. Wish I had my camera for that one!

 

We spent an entire evening, driving to different fire and police stations, trying to give away some cookies, but everything was closed! Don't have an emergency after 5pm, folks! Which meant making MORE cookies on a different day and FINALLY being able to give them away.

 

We got some more snowww!! A lot more this time than the last. Ok, I'll admit, it really is beautiful. And driving Ol' Dirtay is a RIDE, cuz that car can't handle the snow.

It happened to be the day it snowed, that Trav gave me a huge break and took the kids for the day while I took a nap and got stuff done. He even did Olive's hair. Hehe. I really do love it. I love when Dads step in and do stuff like this! He said he tried pig tails first but that wasn't happening so it was just a single.

 Lucky Collin got to go to a birthday party and lucky Weston and Olive got to play with friends at Big Cheese. Think, small town Chuckie Cheese.

 

That night was our ward's Christmas party. The Woodcock's make awesome Mr. and Mrs. Clauses. And apparently they just have those nutcrackers laying around!

I knew Olive was the perfect age to go bonkers.

Yup! She delivered. Best part of my night....  says devil Mom!

 

Sunday night we finally got our first Christmas movie in, while wrapping presents. National Lampoons is hands down my favorite. "I don't KNOW, Margo!!"

 

In the middle of the craziness, I taught the preschool class the letter "L". We did some lemon stamping, practiced counting the sticker dots on lady bugs, and had a "Little Lunch" with Lemonade and Licorice to take home!

 

We got a new classmate too... Clara!

 

I've been wanting a towel rack for the kids' bath towels. Nothing at Hobby Lobby or elsewhere was quite what I wanted. So I made this. I spent FOREVER, pouring over knobs at Hobby Lobby. After the whole thing was done, and I hung the towels on, I had to go, "Humpf!" You can't even see the knobs! Duh, Stephanie! I'm a smart one. Oh well, I know they're cute under there. And apparently we'll be having 5 kids. No more. No less. ;)

 

We had our 2nd Annual Grinch Dinner!! I think things went a little more smoothly this year. We invited the Elders and a new family that just moved into the ward, the Butlers. I told them it was a Grinch dinner and they dressed to impress! I LOVED it!! They looked so awesome! Jessica had Cindy Lou Who "hair", the oldest boy had puppy dog ears and a single antler, and the youngest boy had on a green shirt with a stitched on, red heart. Even the Dad had crazy hair!! What a fun family!  I was so glad they came!

 

I printed name cards in the Grinch font, and we feasted on elk Roast Beast, salad, rolls, potato casserole Who Hash, yummy green Grinch punch, and Who pudding for dessert! The kids had coloring pages to work on at the table and watched the movie after dinner so us adults could visit. 

 

I had no idea there was a Santa at our mall until a friend told me! Since Olive was hysterical at the ward party, the boys walked away realizing they hadn't even told Santa what they wanted for Christmas! Bah! So off to the mall we went. We walked up to zero people and no line. And since I knew the lady that was running it, I got to snap a few pictures without buying the ridiculously overpriced package. Olive was having none of it, so she stayed in my arms the whole time, keeping a strict eye on the guy in red.

 

We had our first school delay due to snow. After school, we made our first snowman! Rubi was KILLING me in this picture!! How does a girl even get so cute?! 

Mucus Olive was obviously thrilled to be included.

 

Finally got some lights on the real Christmas tree!



 

We hauled it down to the church for pack meeting and I had the scouts make decorations for it. Then, I got it back in the truck (NO small feat!) and drove it out to the Manulito Children's home to donate. It was a looooong night. I decided this might be the last time I donate a Christmas tree. 

 

 

Makin' gingerbread houses!! It was so nice to dump all the excess candy and chocolate I've had collecting over the year, on the table and let the kids go nuts with it. Then throw it all in the trash when we were done! It's a wonder they slept that night with all the sugar pumping through their veins.

My aunt put a Christmas tree up in my Grandmother's house this year and requested that all the grandchildren make an ornament that represented a memory we had with her, to put on it. I decided to try to make a blackberry. I was honestly shocked when it turned out! And pretty darn pleased with myself. Some of my favorite memories were of picking blackberries off her massive bush. I want a bush in my backyard someday!

I've always wanted a pretty nativity. But they are just so expensive. I wasn't sure I wanted the Willow Tree one because it seems like the one that EVERYONE has. But after looking at so many sets and not finding any I liked, I went with Willow Tree. SO glad I did. I'm completely in love with it. Still have a few pieces to add, but those will come in future years. 

 

Well, after donating that tree and talking to one of the people that run the Children's Home, I started reading the flyers she handed me. One of them had a Christmas list of items their home needed. I got emotional as I read.... things like kitchen items, bedding, a vacuum and other such necessities. At the very bottom were a couple of toys. I suddenly felt very strongly that we needed to help them. I just started debating on how much to spend. Then, it occurred to me. I had spent all morning online, looking for tickets to a play or concert for my parents for Christmas. But nothing felt right. Nothing came together, so I didn't buy anything. What if we spent the money we would have spent on my parent's gift, on the Children's Home. I felt that burning confirmation that that's what we should do. Now, it was Wednesday night. We were leaving for Arizona on Saturday. And I had every minute until then already booked with things to do. But I really felt impressed to make this happen. SO, the next night we had a little FHE with the boys and told them all about this Children's Home. I wanted them to understand how very blessed we are and how not every child has a loving family to come home to every day. And that the most important Christmas presents they were wishing for weren't toys. They were regular, household items that they needed. Then we all went to Wal-Mart together to fill our cart with things from their list. It was too late that night to drop off the presents, so we went after school on Friday. It's hard to know what children understand or will remember. But I have hope that this was something they won't forget. They had a million questions about what we were doing. And on Christmas day when we were driving to my parent's house, I asked Weston, "Now, remember how we bought those things for the Children's Home as a present for Grandma and Grandpa? How did your feel?" Weston replied, "I felt good." So I continued, "Why do you think you felt good?" And all on his own he said, "Because Heavenly Father likes it when we do things for others that don't have as much as we do." I couldn't suppress the biggest smile! It was my favorite Christmas present. And as I explained to my parents what we did and felt the Spirit again, I decided this was the most memorable Christmas present/activity/lesson I had experienced to date.

 

It feels pretty superficial jumping from that to this Ugly Sweater party, but if I'm going chronologically, this was our Friday night activity! Some friends that live in Grants, an hour away, were hosting, so we jumped in the burb with the Shaheens and Kings and had ourselves a party! The stake president had been out of town the whole week so Travis didn't have his regular week of meetings, which meant... he could grow a chester mustache!!! So my date was Kip. ;) Boy was I glad when this was over, so he could shave! April had planned around a billion Minute to Win it games, so we laughed all night watching everyone make fools out of themselves. Add yummy food and a White Elephant exchange and it was a legit Ugly Sweater Party. 

The groups shot... cut in half. :)