Christmas 2011

Christmas time has come and gone but the joy remains.  I'm typing this as I hear screaming coming from upstairs.  It's been 2 full days of  Christmas toy bliss with no trips to the outer-world.  All the family togetherness may be finally getting to them. Yesterday, I made them run laps in the backyard to get their wiggles out. :)

We've had a lot of fun this December doing all of our Christmas traditions.  One things the boys particularly enjoyed was the 12 Days of Christmas.  We picked a family in our neighborhood and for 12 days we secretly left treats (along with a poem) on their doorstep and ran.  It was fun to make up the poem and pick items that would go with each day.  Some days, our items and poem were a bit of a departure from the original 12 Days of Christmas poem.  For instance, here is Day 7 (we gave Swedish Fish):

Seven swans a swimming, yikes, that would be cold,

But good for the circulation or so we’ve been told.

The swans have all flown south and couldn’t be got,

But fish are swimmers too, and Swedish ones are hot!

And here's Day 8 (Milk Duds):

Eight maids-a-milking, what a taxing chore,

After all that work, we’re sure they’d want to snore.

So we won’t give you the maids, but what about the dairy,

Here’s some tasty Milk Duds, now go and be merry!

Like I said...quite a stretch, but we didn't see eight maid-a-milking laying around anywhere, so we did what we had to do.  Don't judge us.:)

We made some reindeer ornaments with the boys thumbprints.

And some Christmas trees out of sugar cones, frosting and M&Ms.  Bridger was suprisingly precise in his placement of the M&Ms.

The Elf on the Shelf (aka "Fred") made his debut at our house this year.  Fred is a special Elf that watched over our family every day and at night, would fly back to the North Pole and report to Santa.  Each morning the boys would wake up and look to see where Fred was hiding.  The first night, I caught Gannon out of his bed at 3am.  He wasn't entirely awake, but he kept saying he wanted to see Fred flying. :)  I LOVE Fred.  I really, REALLY do.  Best motivator ever.  Fred inspired the boys to be good because he was "watching" them.  Sounds creepy but very effective. :)

  

This is Gannon washing the dishes so Fred could see his good works and report it to Santa:

It snowed about 12 inches last Thursday and so we really did have a white Christmas.  We went sledding on Christmas Eve and the boys had a blast.  The only problem was that at the bottom of the hill was a playground with lots of equipment, so Jeremy and I had to stand guard at the bottom to make sure no one did a header into the slide.  Bridger tried once with both Jeremy and I, but decided he wasn't the biggest fan.  Maybe next year. 

We put cookies out for Santa and Elf-sized doughnuts (Cheerios dipped in sprinkles) out for Fred the Elf.  And of course, carrots out in the backyard for the famished reindeer.

Christmas morning Hayden and Gannon arose bright and early - 5am.  They were as quiet as could be, but we could hear their whispering and made them go back to bed until 6:45am.  They opened stockings and played with their presents from Santa and then we went to Sacrament meeting.  Trying to get 3 boys ready for Church and out the door on Christmas morning is a near impossible task.  Even more difficult was getting them to settle down through Sacrament.  We only made it half-way through before I had to take them out in the hall.  But not before Bridger let loose with a goodie that entertained the congregation.  We were taking the Sacrament, when Bridger announces for all the world to hear, "I pooped, Mommy!"  In a quiet chapel, this rang out like a fog horn.  Booming.  And then, in case the entire room didn't hear, he clarified, "Mommy, I did it. I POOPED. YAY!".  Everyone around me was cracking up.  The entire Brewerton family was in hysterics.  Brother Brewerton told me later, "That was awesome.  Thank you so much!".  Anything I can do to bring Christmas cheer to one and all.