We had a great Christmas! I got my present a month or so ago; a new vacuum that actually sucks, doesn't get stinky after I vacuum up a ton of dog hair, and I don't have to change the bag and clean out the hose after each time I vacuum the house. Yay! David also got himself a present; he's going to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in March. (I decided I'm all basketballed out, especially since we still have two more Jazz games lined up in January and March, so I won't be going to the NCAA games, but I plan on going down to Salt Lake to hang out.) So it was basically Christmas for the Kids at our house this year.
We started out the festivities with David saying, "Can you make some cookies? I need to do my home teaching." As if you can't go home teaching in December without cookies in hand. (You totally can!) But I made a couple batches of sugar cookies anyway, and we handed them out to neighbors and the families David visits. Drew was especially excited:
The kids each only had one item on their lists for Santa. Drew wanted a police helicopter, Owen wanted an ice cream truck, and Samantha wanted a spider. She is still confused about the holidays, and is remembering what she dressed as for Halloween. We also gave the boys ten bucks they could spend on presents for their other siblings. We never really got around to taking Samantha to buy anything for her brothers, but I don't think any of the kids noticed. So Owen got Drew a Mater the Greater toy and got Samantha a pocked-sized Strawberry Shortcake doll. When Owen and I got home from shopping, Owen asked Drew, "What do you want for Christmas, Drew?" I don't know what Drew told Owen, but then Owen started yelling, "No you don't! You want a Mater!" After David and Drew got home from their shop-for-the-siblings trip, Drew came running into the kitchen yelling, "Look what I got you, Owen!" Luckily, Owen didn't get a chance to look before David grabbed Drew and whisked him upstairs to wrap the gift. After that, whenever someone asked one of the boys about a present, no matter who it was for, they would answer, "It's a secret."
Drew got his police helicopter. He loves it!
Owen got his Ice cream truck (which was harder to find than I anticipated) in the form of
Skids and Mudflap, from Transformers 2. He has only seen bits and pieces of the movie, and only because he kept sneaking into the room while we were watching it at a friend's house, and while he was supposed to be playing in the toy room with the other kids. He likes his Transformer, but doesn't know how to make it transform. So we keep it in ice cream truck mode and he plays with it that way. He also got an ice cream truck from Grandma and Grandpa Canfield, who took some trucks with trailers and put ice cream stickers all over them. He likes those a lot, too. (I don't have any pictures of him with any of his new toys.)
Samantha was so hard to shop for! She doesn't really play with dolls, and we decided there are far too many planes, trains and automobiles in our house, so we didn't get her any of those, either. We ended up getting a play kitchen for the kids to share and, so Samantha would have something to unwrap, we got some accessories for the kitchen--extra pans, and utensils and things. We shouldn't have worried about it, because the poor girl was too overwhelmed to unwrap anything. She ran into the kitchen and sat at the table with her chin in her hands. Every now and then, the boys would bring her something to unwrap, and she'd oblige, then put her chin back on her hands. She does love the play kitchen, though. All the kids do. This morning I was feeling a bit under the weather, so the kids went downstairs to the play kitchen and made me some "tea" with "gumdrops" (what Drew calls cough drops) in it. Obviously a miniature plastic cup full of air didn't cure anything, but it cheered me up.
We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. The kids woke up and we had everything ready and under the tree. Grandma and Grandpa Canfield came over with loads of presents, and the boys had loads of fun unwrapping, and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over everything. I scored some new microfiber sheets, a wok, and a
book about hair that I've been wanting to read for a while. As a totally unexpected surprise, David and the kids got me a necklace from a friend of mine who has opened up a
small jewelry business. I got the cluster one listed first on the blog, but mine is grey, which will go with a lot more of my outfits.
On Christmas day, the kids and I headed down to Utah to celebrate with my side of the family. David had to work, so he couldn't come with us. We had a little Christmas party and gift exchange at my mom's house that was tons of fun. The kids and I stayed the night there, then the next day we headed down to Salt Lake to meet up with my good friend Noi who is from Thailand. I have to be honest: this was my one of my favorite Christmas presents ever. I hadn't seen Noi for almost six years, so I was so excited all week long. We met up at the visitors center at the temple, then we went out for some Thai food, then we just hung out and chatted and enjoyed each other's company. My kids love their "Aunt" Noi, and had a great time looking at the water fountains around Temple Square and the Conference center, and riding the escalators at the store (we had to go to Sears to get coats; I'd been needing a new one for a while, and we had left Samantha's coat at home, but she was growing out of it anyway so I justified buying her a new one, too. And Sears had great sales going on that day!).
Later we met up with a few other missionaries that served in Thailand, and we took a tour of the Conference center and walked around Temple Square some more to admire the lights. The grounds were absolutely beautiful! And it was fun to walk around with people I hadn't seen for a while and reconnect with them.
I loved the pool on the East side of the temple. I've taken various pictures here on various occasions, and it's always beautiful, but this time they had set up a nativity scene around the pool, with the main feature (Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus) in the center of the pool. So pretty!
Between the temple and the tabernacle, were bright red and orange lights on every branch of every tree. It was so bright! I felt like I had to squint all the time. But it was still very beautiful.
2009 was a good year. Even though my age is an even number, the year was an odd number, so it was all good. Hopefully I can make it through the first six-and-a-half months of 2010, which will be an even numbered year, and my age will still be even numbered. I've got high hopes, though!
