Christmastide

We had a great Christmas Eve, starting with our butterscotch roll party in the morning. I made 27 dozen rolls this year! Here is Malachi eating…all of them?

I always love seeing so many friends together and having the house full of people on Christmas Eve. My midwife Cathy took this picture. It's so good to have an excuse to see people I sometimes don't see otherwise all year!

Here we are getting ready for our candlelight dinner that evening. Homemade tacos have evolved over the years into purchased Cafe Rio tacos, definitely a change for the better. I never feel like cooking dinner after making those rolls all morning! But it was strange and sad not to have Abe with us. This dinner is probably his favorite part of the Christmas season, and he always sits by me when I do the online ordering and tries to talk me into getting more things. I quite missed it. We did get to talk, though! He called early Christmas morning and we had a good chat, and then he called again for a few minutes to say hi to all his siblings later. So that was nice. He had a happy, busy, Christmas and I didn't worry about him. Sure missed him, though!

We had a good time at our Elf Olympics. We played a sort of Lego Pictionary. Malachi's and my team (not to brag) won pretty handily. No thanks to Little Miss Walk-on-the-Counter over there.

We had an engineering challenge too—building bumpers and a ramp to get a ball all the way down both flights of stairs. Since it had to turn three corners to get there, it was indeed a challenge. But with everyone's more-or-less-enthusiastic help, we did it!

The children opened their presents to each other. Goldie made Daisy this darling little "Book of books." It has a whole bunch of teeny-tiny books stuck into different pouches. So cute!

Goldie also made this beautiful ocean scene, complete with gold and jewels in a treasure chest, for Junie. And, somehow I don't have a picture of it, but Junie got her sisters little tiny necklace charms—a cup of cocoa for Daisy and a cupcake for Goldie. Then there was a magnetic chess set for Teddy from Daisy, a bunch of darling bead bracelets for Seb from Junie, and a cornbag (the kind you warm up to keep your feet warm in bed) for Ziggy from Ky. We somehow cobbled together a couple last minute things for the littlest boys to give to their people (somehow we always forget to have those littlest kids get their sibling presents to give!) and all was well.

Seb spent several weeks working on drawings of everyone's favorite animal. He drew them on Sam's iPad and then sent them in to a printing place to be made into T-shirts. They turned out SO CUTE. All the kids loved them, of course! Gus got his on Christmas Eve and was very pleased and proud to wear it.

The girls slept upstairs by the little boys' room. There was much giggling and excitement!

And here is everyone on Christmas morning, lined up to go look at their stockings. The big boys were lurking nearby, of course!

Clementine took the opportunity to get up onto a big present and dance around.

Here we all are in the aforementioned shirts! Sam's and mine are matching pictures of a shark about to eat a bunny. Hmmph.

Seb's animal drawings

Daisy got this policeman uniform for Ziggy and I think it was his favorite present. He has barely taken it off since Christmas. He feels very official in it—perhaps a little too official—since he had to be told after some trouble before bedtime that Daisy was "Officer Babysitter" and she had even MORE authority than the Police Chief did. She's a quick thinker, that Daisy.

Daisy also made this adorable Caw shirt for Gus. Sam helped her design the Macaw and she pieced it together with fabric and appliquéd it onto the shirt. That is two Caw shirts for Gussie, if you are counting. And then—with the matching Caw shirt she made for Caw himself—that would be three.

Ziggy also got this little vacuum like our real vacuum. But Gus plays with it more than Ziggy does, except when Ziggy notices him and decides to suddenly care about it. *Sigh.*

Gus got this garbage truck that can dump a dumpster AND two garbage cans into it. It has front arms and side arms for the purpose. Gus literally could not stop playing with it. He was UNABLE to stop playing with it. At bedtime Christmas night, he got up about five different times and we'd hear him driving it around in the loft. Then we'd plop him back in bed and five minutes later, he'd be up driving it around again.

Naturally, Clementine has taken an unreasonable liking to the garbage cans, after never having had the slightest bit of interest in anything like them before, and she gets them and carries them off anytime she can. When Gus notices—she feels his wrath!

Will any of these children ever learn to share??? The verdict is still out.

Seb got a new hi-hat stand and hi-hat cymbals. I had to do a lot of research to learn which specific ones (in our price range!) he would like best! Drum stuff is expensive. But (do you know this about me?) I actually played the drums myself in high school and college. So, though I'm not GOOD at the drumset, I knew enough to find something suitable. And I even found some that were floor models at a store and so sold at a discounted price. I was pretty pleased with myself when Seb saw the brand and said he'd been considering getting these very ones himself!

He brought his drums upstairs for a few days and took some pictures of them. They look nice!

Our dear Daisy has been dreaming for years of owning her own Hot Chocolate Shop. She's said ever since she was a little girl that that's what she was going to do when she grew up, and it's been so long now, and she's been making so many plans based on it (down to pricing mugs at D.I., learning about different kinds of bulk chocolate, and looking into what she needs to be a business major in college) I really think she may make it a reality! So, I asked Sam to design a logo for her. He drew it out and we had it embroidered on a shirt and two aprons for her. When she opens her shop one day, she can use them! :)

The logo itself is very meaningful. The brim of the cocoa cup has scallops or petals around it like a Daisy. The handle of the mug makes a "D." And the steam from the cocoa is in the shape of a penguin, her favorite animal! I think it's so cute.

She also got a penguin mug to put her cocoa in!

And here she is whipping up a fresh batch to go in her mug. We make our hot chocolate in the blender, you know. We have for years. It is so good that way!

Junie and Daisy also got soft blankets. They are so soft wrapped in their blankets like this, I can't stop hugging them!

Junie got a tiny little realistic piggy. It came with a little bottle to feed it with. So cute!

Teddy got a BYU football helmet and jersey!

Clementine got a little pop-button phone

Goldie got this little sandwich-making set

Ky got two new Brandon Sanderson leatherbound books, to join the two he already had,

And these weird clear playing cards.

Sam got me this cool charcuterie board, and salamis and cheeses and things to put on it. Yum! He knows what I like. He assembled all this for lunch for me the next day. It's cool how the little gold knives fit right into the board.

And the three little boys got these cool Tubelox building things which I got on sale like last February and which have been in a big box taking up my entire closet space under my dresses since then. Hallelujah!