Christmas!

Wow.  It's hard to believe it's here and gone.  The kids just went down after a long day of new games, new toys, family phone calls and lots of sugar.

I really love Christmas.  I know I'm not the only one, but it is just a fabulous time of year.  It's a little chilly and dark up here in Alaska, so looking forward to December 25th really helps get us through and it never seems to disappoint.

We started our celebration last night with a family from our ward and the missionaries.  We ate, played some games and the kids ran around enough to crash around 8:30 at our house.  The girls put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  We did read Luke 2 before the kids drifted off which was nice.  Beth and Isabel are now both old enough to read it on their own well enough to understand while reading and I think it really helps them understand the real Christmas story.  I got called in to the hospital, but not for too long.  Carol and I did the standard prep and made it in bed by midnight.

 This morning we got up and I did the daddy  duty of turning on the Christmas music and setting up the video camera.  The hounds were then unleashed and they all came crashing down to a mountain of presents.  Carol and I tell ourselves every year that the mountain will be small and it actually was a bit smaller this year, but could be much smaller still...maybe next year.

Last year we had the kids take turns opening presents to make the experience last a little longer.  This year we just let them at it and they  really had a good time.  They kind of took turns anyway and helped each other track things down and get things opened.  We missed grandparents and cousins but got to have a little extended family love with presents they had sent from around the country.

My present had to have been the best one of all.  A couple of years ago, Carol made a blanket for my mom and hers in red and green with reindeer formed from the kids hand and foot prints.  I loved them and so she made me one this year.  It is really amazing.  It's one of those things you know you'll have forever.  Thank you Carol!

The theme this year was mostly board games and legos.  Owen got some train stuff and everyone got some books.  Owen also got a great race car helmet from the Edwards which he absolutely loved and ran around with for hours.

After the gift frenzy, we had crepes with apple filling...my standard Christmas breakfast for most of my 35 years (thanks mom!).  I also had to have some Andes mints (another tradition from my youth) and Carol made some "pulled pork"  style BBQ chicken in her new cast iron pot from her mom that was incredible.

Overall, we had a great day with lots of great family memories.  365 more days and we get to do it again!  What a great holiday.

More photos here.  I also added our Halloween and Thanksgiving photos to the Zenfolio site.  You can see Halloween here and Thanksgiving here.

Owen Turns Four Years Old!

Owen was so excited about his birthday party.  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his party, he initially wanted to do the same thing as last year and invited all his friends to Glow-Putt.  I didn't think I could handle another party with a bunch of 4 year olds, in the dark with neon shining everywhere for 2 hours, so I steered him to an at home birthday party.  Once he was on board with that, he decided it would be very cool to have a penguin theme birthday party.  We had a penguin scarf that all the kids got to make and penguin mobiles they got to color and put together.  Then all the kids got to play the penguin bean bag toss game.    Following the crafts and games, we had cake (gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free cake mind you, try finding a recipe for that one) and ice cream.  Owen seemed to have a great time and all the kids that were there had a nice time too.  The best part of the kids birthdays for me are after the parties, on the day they were actually born when I get to snuggle with them and let them know how special they are and how glad we are to have them in our family.  We are so blessed to have such an exuberant and full of life boy like Owen in our family.   We love you and are glad that you are growing up to be such a wonderful, smart, handsome boy!  Happy Birthday Owen!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Oh we have so much to give thanks for!  We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  Liz and Jack came to the frozen north to keep us company.  We had such a great time with them.  Thanksgiving day was started by the kids watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

The kids were delighted to be able to spend the entire day in their pajamas. The day was full of cooking (Liz made her fabulous orange rolls, Tom the pumpkin pie), games of Go Fish, knitting, coloring, more Go Fish, a walk, a movie, visiting with friends, more Go Fish, eating, and a little more Go Fish (guess what Owen's current favorite game is).  

Beth is our cranberry girl, and would eat the whole jar in one sitting if we let her.   Needless to say, she enjoyed her CRANBERRY and turkey sandwich the next day.  We had a ton of left overs, but somehow they all disappeared!

Much of the weekend was spent in the house playing with paper airplanes, doing puzzles, reading books and yes, a lot more Go Fish. 

Maama taught Beth and Isabel how to knit.  They both were able to complete a scarf which they gave to each other.  One day was spent skiing.  Another day we went to North Pole, Alaska to visit Santa's house.   Santa was home even though this is a terribly busy time of year for him so the kids were able to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  Each of the kids picked an ornament to put on the tree and then we went to a little Chinese restaurant.  It was fun because it reminded us all of "Chu Dynasty", a favorite Hammond Family haunt in San Diego that is no more.

The last night, Liz, Tom, and the kids all made sushi.  Beth really got into it, and she made most of the rolls. 

It was a great visit and we had a lot of fun.  The only hard part was when the kids woke up on Sunday morning to find Maama and Popop on the plane back to Salt Lake.  There were quite a few tears, but they have been comforted by spending their nights reading to them on the phone.  Thanks for a great visit Liz and Jack.