A Good Christmas

Simplicity is the thing, when it comes to me and Christmas. Of course there is a part of me (and Aaron too), that wants to go crazy and spoil our children with their every heart's desire. But surpassing that is an impulse to teach them to appreciate the small things, to allow them to grow up with a sense of the difference between a want and a need, and to let them learn the satisfaction that comes with working hard and earning the things they want the most.

There are certain times when it's harder to remember this broader goal. Like when the happy-families-opening-exorbitant-Christmas-gifts-with-sparkling-eyes commercials come on between all the fantastic Christmas movies we love watching this time of year. Or when we read over some of the long Christmas lists that get composed (and we take a few minutes to remind our kids that Santa brings them one Christmas gift and that they should give him a few choices about what it could be).
Other times it's really really easy to remember this goal. Like when we hit December and there's no exploding closet full of special stuff just waiting to be wrapped. Or when we're going shopping for the sixth time in a week and realize that we haven't even started thinking about what will go in the stockings. Then the low expectations standards flood back in a rush of welcome relief.
This year, it was a feat just to pull off a simple Christmas, but it was well worth it. Each child received one nice gift from Santa, a package of books from me (I can't believe I used to wrap these separately—presents take long enough to open as it is!), a package of some special clothing-type item from dad (coveted boots for Addy, a book-bag for Theo), and a gift from one of their siblings (we drew names), purchased with their own hard-earned, hard-saved money. By some people's Christmas standards, this probably seems a bit austere, but once gifts from grandparents are factored in (and they were so generous with us this year--thank you!!), it ended up being just the right amount to keep our morning occupied with gift-opening, our afternoon with enjoying the wonderful gifts, and our evening (and part of the next day) trying to get rid of all the extra boxes and wrapping. Everyone was so pleased with their gifts and so thankful for each of them, that I have a hard time imagining trying to keep up with more than that. And honestly, I'm even beginning to wonder (me!) if it's possible to have too many books. Between a nice fat package for each kid, a few extra separately wrapped book sets, and books from other people, I think we hauled in nearly a hundred new tomes. Jackpot! The only trick now is finding time to read them all—but let's face it, there's not much I'd rather have at the top of my priority list.
Meanwhile, after all that, I got spoiled spoiled spoiled. But we'll talk about my new boyfriend and my new baby in another post.
P.S. We actually tried out that Christmas caroling 'til the mom and dad wake up thing this year, and miracle of miracles, it worked! We started the morning around 7 am (as opposed to 3 am). We also kept the stockings downstairs. I don't think we'll ever go back.

A Swedish Christmas Eve

Since our visit to Sweden a year and a half ago, I've been dying to try out some Swedish traditions during the holiday season. Since last year we actually got to spend the holiday season with my Swedish Grandma Ruthie (which is actually even better), I didn't get a chance then, so this year was the first chance I had. Admittedly it was a little cobbled together, given that there's still plenty of settling in going on, but on Christmas Eve, we went all Swedish. First, Addy dressed up like Santa Lucia early in the morning (in Sweden they celebrate Santa Lucia day on December 13 to kick of the Yule, or the 12 days before Christmas—maybe next year we'll be organized enough to make that happen) and made sweet rolls for the family (from one of the little Pillsbury pop-cans). Then she went to Sera's bedroom and her brothers' bedroom singing Christmas carols. They joined her and went downstairs to wake Aaron with some more carols, and then we all sat down around the table for a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, apple cider (not quite as good as Swedish apple cider, but pretty good all the same), and Swedish eggs (which are really just super-scrambled not quite completely cooked eggs that Aaron is not a fan of, but which is how they served them in Sweden while we were there, and how my dad always prepared them for us growing up). It was a simple tradition, but we all really enjoyed it—the kids went all-out singing Christmas Bells are Ringing in a round, even.

After a fairly chill day (at least I don't really remember what we did during the day—probably more shopping since it seems like that was our main activity almost every day over the break) we had a dinner of Swedish meatballs (there's probably some awesome recipe for this somewhere, but in our house it meant a crockpot of store-bought meatballs and cream of mushroom soup with some sour cream added at the end served over egg noodles), which we followed with a molded rice pudding with raisins and cinnamon—Swedish style, of course!—with one whole almond hidden inside. The tradition goes that whoever gets the almond will have good luck all year long. This year Theo was our lucky winner! We followed dinner with a nativity pageant that featured a little less jumping on the couch than past years. Then we opened Christmas jammies and sang a couple of Christmas carols before bed. I have since learned that we also should have danced around the Christmas Tree singing a Swedish Christmas song. Maybe next year.

How's that for a very dull narration of a rather enjoyable Christmas Eve?

Holiday Pictures

Aaron's birthday dinner at Bandido's

Girls' Night Out to Nutcracker

Decorating the fake tree, and, you know, the children
One afternoon we made ginormous gingerbread people


They lasted a week . . . or in Sera's case, about ten minutes



We made gingerbread houses. It was fun. Also messy.



Have I previously mentioned that Theo is a zombie?



I sort of love this one.


Gingerbread village, yo.

It's the Holiday Season

I hate when I procrastinate posting and forget everything I meant to post. Of course, this doesn't actually stop me from doing it. Here's what I remember.

Aaron started the holidays off with an awesome choral concert. I know I say that every year, and I guess that's his job, but not one concert goes by where I don't just say "wow." He did a great job coordinating with the Orchestra this year, and his new concert hall is just awesome. We got there a few minutes late (I'm MORTIFIED by this given that we're the conductor's family, but it's still true--it did snow a lot that evening), and for the first time I brought ALL FOUR KIDS. I was nervous, but everyone did pretty well aside from Sera's bouncing around like a pogo stick through the first half because she realized JUST AFTER we sat down that she desperately needed to use the bathroom. Nice. Fortunately the new concert hall was TOTALLY PREPARED to distract her. We sat at the very very back of the auditorium, and there was a light show that went on along the walls throughout the whole thing. Lights slowly flashed, changing from red to green to gold to blue, and on the ceiling there were moving lights in the shape of snowflakes. It really kept the littler kids' attention. The programming was so well balanced between fun music, sacred music, and old-fashioned Christmas carols. Theo's favorite was "Merry Christmas" from Home Alone 2, Addy really liked The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy (which I have to mention Aaron did SUCH an incredible job at getting that choir to sound like a bunch of Jamaicans just chillin' and celebrating Christmas--he's awesome at that stuff), Emerson loved the jingle bells and whip cracks in "Sleigh Ride," and Sera's favorite was the Christmas carol sing-along at the end of the program--especially "Deck the Halls." My favorite was the arrangement of "Away in a Manger" with the choirs and orchestra. It was slow and ponderous, but the choir really pulled it off, leaning into their phrases, pulling the audience back to that lonely night in Bethlehem, where animals and a few shepherds alone had that privilige of witnessing the birth of the King of all. It was a very pure rendering, and it really set the scene for our Christmas season. One of the great things this year was how early in the season the concert happened--we were able to enjoy the Christmas season without so much concert stress hanging over our heads (and by "our heads," I basically mean Aaron's head).

We also had a nice time celebrating Aaron's birthday on December 1. Thirty-five (although we're both seriously considering knocking ten years off our ages at this point--or maybe that's just me). Anyway, we had a lovely dinner at the Mexican restaurant that's PRACTICALLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE, and let me tell you, I don't think we could have been more excited. Mexican food has been a rare RARE treat over the last three years, and having a delicious meal (since we were there on his birthday, Aaron's was FREE--love that place!) followed by the best fried ice cream I think we've ever tasted pretty much rocked. And we followed that with a German chocolate birthday cake. Way to start a sugar-laden month off with a bang!

The rest of the month was a continual balancing act. No Christmas shopping had been done in advance this year (we were a leetle preoccupied), so there was that plus as many holiday activities as we could squeeze in alongside the unrelenting race to get this house done furnishing-and-decorating-wise. After about a week, we decided against the live tree and put up the fake, which thankfully we didn't manage to sell at our yard sale before we moved. It actually looked not especially tacky this year when we decorated it with beaded garlands, ribbons, and red and gold balls in leiu of most of our hand-made ornaments this year. Surprisingly, the kids didn't seem to mind much at all that every pipe-cleaner snowflake and popsicle stick star didn't make it onto the tree, and I look forward to picking up a smaller tree (maybe a purple sparkly one) at an after-Christmas clearance sale so that next year they'll have a place for all their hand-made glory. I still love it and am sentimental about cute stuff they made when they were three, but I enjoyed having a tree that was beautiful this year too.

Around the house, we've nailed down nearly everything. We got the second-hand couches we hooked up with down the stairs, and even though they're not fancy, I'm glad we not only saved a bit of money, but that we don't have to be super-careful with our feet and such when we have movie nights. A week before Christmas, we finally made a TV decision, and we have a super-deluxe 42" flat screen for our movie nights. Though Aaron scored a great deal on a 55" and we were very temped to keep it instead, a combination of doubtful reviews and the fact that it wouldn't actually fit on the built-in shelf already installed down there helped us make our decision. After watching a few Christmas movies down there with surround sound? No regrets. We're still trying to make a decision about a kitchen table and find an amazing piano for a reasonable price, and Aaron has a way to go on organizing his office (though he's begun to make headway). BUT, the rest of our house is looking great, so we tried not to be annoyed about such silly little things that are missing, although it was very strange to sing Christmas carols without being able to play them. What can I say? We're piano people!

As for fun Christmas activities, we squeezed in a Nutcracker night with just the girls, making big gingerbread men, quite a few gingersnaps, a little gingerbread village, two batches of toffee (which mostly disappeared before being delivered), caroling to a grand total of three families, and nativity-centered Family Home Evenings. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough. We've had a wonderful first holiday season in our new home, and sometimes it's okay to just keep things simple.

Some other things were missed, and I hope they come back in the future. I missed my kids playing the piano--a recital or duet in church or something. They did participate in a little production of "The Grinch" put on at their school, so at least that was something. I missed doing something more service-oriented than dropping off treats and singing a song or two. Our family service projects have been so uplifting for our family, and hopefully for others too. I missed our ward Christmas party, which they skipped this year (and even though I missed it, I'm not sure we would have made it if they had had it, so really I'm grateful), and I missed going to a Christmas Eve service at a big fancy church--admittedly we've only done this a couple of times when Aaron has been an organist or choir director at a church, but now that our kids are old enough to appreciate something like that, I would love to make it a family tradition.

Here's the thing though: the Christmas season is always too short for everything. I've been around long enough to have figured that out. The things we really missed this year, we'll make sure to fit in next year, but we'll probably have to leave something else out instead. And that's okay. Life is too short not to enjoy the bursts of light and joy as they come, rather than fixating on every little thing that's missing. This season has been a season of love, a season of giving, a season of remembering Jesus Christ and the light He has given to the world. And if we've managed to remember that, we haven't really missed anything at all.