The lab Christmas party was held at the office and kicked
off the season of celebrating early in the month. Our family company includes several others
that feel like family so our company gatherings are always fantastic. We had a TON of amazing food to match our
Mexican fiesta theme and Husband’s mom put together some great activities and
games to go with it. There was a
shooting alley with dart guns, “pin the mustache on the cactus” and my favorite
was the buffalo roping (a buffalo rug draped over a rolling suitcase that the
kids had to “rope” as it rolled away from them). There were fake mustaches for the men, roses
for the women, a lot of laughing and giggling, some miscellaneous hidden prizes
and finally, a Yankee swap game. There
was a huge pile of presents in the middle and our large group took turns
choosing and stealing. The surprises
varied of random pens from a trade show to dollar store toys to beautiful opals
and other stones donated by my fossil and gem collecting inlaws.
The next night was our ward Christmas party. We arrived late, having spent the day cutting
a Christmas tree with Grandma & Grandpa and packing. But we had time to load up our plates with
tasty food and then visit Santa and do a craft in the Primary room. Lastly was the Primary program, led by some
of our ward’s amazing musical talent. They
had borrowed hand bells, each assigned a color to coordinate with the music
written out on giant posters. So
together we played several Christmas carols on the handbells. It started rough at first but we caught on
quick and it was beautiful and fun.
The next weekend was my turn for a work Christmas
party. It was held at the community
center of one of the private communities up in the hills. Some of the ladies had put together a feast
of gourmet appetizers, entrees and desserts.
I’ve been working at the gym for a few months and attending regularly
for almost a year now, but there were still a few people I’ve never met. And of course we joked that everyone looks so
different wearing real clothes and make up (as compared to our usual sweaty,
work out attire). It was fun to mingle
for awhile and especially for Husband to meet some of the people I talk about
all the time.
The weekend continued with my family’s Christmas
celebration. Saturday morning kicked off
with decorating the tree and truthfully, it was probably the most fun I’ve ever
had doing that. The kids were bursting
with excitement and the adults were happy to accommodate, lifting the children
to place ornaments on the higher branches.
We got rather daring and silly, stacking children and adults as high as
we could to reach the top. The girls
loved discovering the different ornaments, treasures from my childhood and
scattering them across the tree. It
turned out beautifully, with only a little bit of ornament clustering at
kid-height. The girls played in the
snow, we watched Christmas cartoons, decorated gingerbread men (one of my very
favorite holiday traditions) and colored pictures. We sang carols and Santa made his
appearance. Butterfly ran eagerly to
him, Ladybug took her turn more leisurely (more interested in her snack) and
Lovely wanted nothing to do with him. We
had a quick dinner and exchanged gifts.
The kids were delighted in the wonderful gifts they were given and
anxious to try on their new clothes and test out the new toys. I’m sure I’m forgetting some adorable details
and regret not recording our experiences sooner but this month has been
crazy. Eventually, we somehow convinced
them all to go to bed and they were soon sleeping, all the cousins piled
together in the bunk house.
Sunday morning was the usual chaos of bathing, dressing,
feeding and readying for church. We
managed to get there only a little late and dropped all the kids off to their
classes. Lovely clung to daddy during
Sunday school and with Grammy and Papa to assist, we made it through
sacrament. After a quick family photo,
lunch and naps, there was more playing and Christmas fun. Butterfly usually disappears with her 7 year
old cousin into a world of pretend princess/doctor/chef/heroine/house and
Ladybug shares toys with some of the younger cousins. We were joined by more family and close
friends for our Christmas feast, followed by our Christmas devotional. My sister in law shared a beautiful story
“Teach the children” about some of the Christmas icons and their true meaning. Then we donned costumes and acted out the
nativity (Butterfly loves to tell people about this as her favorite part of
Christmas). And then Grammy gave each family a new nativity, with a piece to
open on each day as a countdown to Christmas.
It came complete with memory match cards to play with and is wonderful,
simply and brightly decorated, perfect for little kids to play with.
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