Christmas Eve

We always try to make sure everything is done before Christmas Eve, but inevitably every year Christmas Eve rolls around and it is chaos trying to tie up all the loose ends before the "big day". This year was no exception as I drove to MD and back to look after my aunt's dogs and did some last-minute dashes to WalMart to grab the final touches for the gifts I was making for my family.

We spent the morning with the Glass family while George helped his parents set up for Christmas dinner and stuffed the turkey. In the later afternoon, the boys and I headed over to my mom's house to prepare for the Christmas program that evening. George stayed at his parent's to finish setting up and met us right before the program started.

Lance getting in some good bubble-blowing practice to applause from various aunts and uncles.

Jason, Stephen, Amy, Chad, Mom and Glenn about to leave to drop off a Secret Santa gift. It's a "ring and run" type thing, so they disguised themselves in case they were seen. While they were gone, I bathed the boys and got them in their jammies so we could do the program when everyone got home.

Jude and Lance loved all the extra attention they got from their aunts and uncles they don't get to see very often.

The Christmas program was supposed to start at 9, but we didn't end up starting until about 9:45. This is how Lance started the program...

I guess the excitement was just too much for him.

Singing Christmas hymns and reading the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Laura and Jason playing the piano together during the program.

Lance got to be the shepherds in the program.

Jude trying to follow along.

Chad playing one of the songs.

By the end of the program Lance was passed out. Jude took the opportunity to give him some love. So cute!

Lance did wake up to open his one gift (a family tradition) and picked this big one from Mom and DaddyG that he thought had a pillow pet in it.

It was a kid's snuggie instead, but still satisfactory.

Lance helped Jude pick out a gift to open, too. It just happened to be the one Lance got for him when he was out at BYU with his dad during Thanksgiving.

It's a BYU shirt! Thanks, Lance!

The boys made it into bed and were asleep by 11:00 p.m. leaving the adults to finish the Christmas prep. I think I made it to bed by 3 a.m., regardless of having all our gifts already wrapped from the day before, leaving Santa a short four-hour block to work his magic before the kids woke up. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The week before Christmas was a crazy one, as usual. 

Lance came back from his dad's house that Monday and met us at Tyson's Corner where we did some Christmas shopping.

The boys found some hats in one store and modeled them for me.

For lunch while we were at the mall, we ate at a sushi restaurant that is located in the middle of the mall proper. It was separated from the rest of the non-eating customers by a small, clear wall. The coolest thing about it, though, is the sushi was on a little belt that traveled between all the tables. When you saw something you wanted, you simply took the plate and added it to your stack. Each plate cost a different amount, so when you were full, they added up the cost of the plates and that was your bill. Genius!

Lance was very happy we ate there and did a good job eating the sushi he picked.

We weren't quite sure if Jude would eat the sushi, so we got him some chicken nuggets before we sat down. 

Aside from some last-minute Christmas shopping, most of our week was spent at the Glass's house relaxing. Okay, that's not entirely true. I was babysitting my aunt's dogs and cats that whole week so about 4 hours of every day was also spent driving back and forth between Ashburn and Pototmac, MD--once in the morning and once at night--to check on the animals. It was pretty exhausting, so I was happy for the chance to relax and be with family in between trips.

Lance thought all the time he spent with Callie and Bryce was fabulous!

One night, we made sugar cookies and the kids got to decorate them. It's always a hit, especially with the little squeeze bottles--much less messy than spreading frosting with a knife and super cool because you can make neat designs.

Bryce working hard.

Jude pleased as always to be "painting" his cookies.

Lance had a method and wanted to do all his cookies the same.

The four cousins.

Good job, Callie!

And it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't a whole lot of tasting going on. Good thing we could tell which ones were Jude's. :)

December 23rd is Allen's Birthday and this year we celebrated by going to his restaurant of choice--Outback Steakhouse.

"Happy Birthday!"

Lance, Callie, Jude, Jen, Bryce, Eric, and Nate

George's mom and dad, Der, George and Allen

After eating a fabulous meal (Outback never disappoints), we drove back to the Glass's house to enjoy some cake while Allen opened his presents.

About to blow out his candles on his chocolate/chocolate cake.

The big 16-year-old making the first cut in the cake.

Allen got a 3DS for his Birthday, much to the enjoyment of all the kids who thought it was nothing less than amazing. I don't know if poor Allen got to play his system very much that night with everyone else trying out the cool 3D features.

It was a great week!

In other new from that week, Taylor Simmons (my cousin) married his sweetheart Jessica in the Salt Lake City Temple on the 21st. Stephen and my mom got to attend the ceremony and reception and then flew back into town late late late Wednesday night. So happy for you, Taylor!

The Christmas holiday is in full swing

Whew! The last few weeks have been busy a bit crazy with all the holiday prep, school for Lance, George interviewing, and Jude and I trying to stay sane at home.

A few years ago (the first Christmas after George and I were married) we made most of the ornaments that went on the tree that year. One project we did was painting the inside of glass ornaments. Lance was barely 4 at the time but still remembers and wanted to try it again this year, so one night before baths we broke out our paint and some extra glass balls I had laying around.

Lance was being very meticulous about what colors went where.

Swirling the paint around the inside.

 Jude wanted to join the fun, too. I love the look on his face here.

Carefully tapping the ball so the paint spreads out. He did a pretty good job being gentle.

Finished product. (Side note... there was WAY too much paint in his ball, so it ended up puddling at the bottom and making the design streaky. Oh well.)

I told the boys to go into the bathroom to get ready for their bath while I cleaned up the paint. When I walked into the bathroom, I found this:

Hmm. I guess Jude was really excited about taking a bath.

Lance spent a weekend up at his dad's house. George had a bit of a break while he was gone and got to try his hand at some new recipes.

Jude helping daddy make homemade noodles.

Yes, that's an uncooked noodle in his mouth. 

Another night George made some osso bucco. It was amazing! Okay, so part of me felt a little bad for eating a baby cow, but honestly, it was worth it!

When Lance is at his dad's house, we usually get to Skype each night.  It's so much better than just talking on the phone because we actually get to see each other.

Lance and his dad made cute Angry Birds from yarn one night while he was there. They turned out very cute!

We were invited to a Christmas party one night, so we decided to make our favorite sugar cookies. I thought it would be fun to let the boys help cut out the shapes and after much deliberation as to which Christmas shapes we should do, we started rolling out the dough.

You know those cute commercials where the parents are cooking with the little children and everyone is smiling and having a great time and it looks like it's the best thing ever? This is what I envisioned when we started out making these cookies. I have to admit we cut out one sheet of cookies together and then I finished the rest after the kids went to bed. It was a mess of gargantuan proportions when all was said and done. Ah, memories!

The next day I set out some of the cookies and had the kids decorate them together. That was much more fun than cutting out the shapes.

Jude loved "painting" the cookies and kept switching out the colors he used.

Killian and Kendall came over and got to decorate with us. They did a great job!

And we've moved on to the green...

Lance was very careful to decorate his cookies just so and took his time.

Jude managed to mangle his cookies, but was proud of the result.

Concentrating.

I saw a lot of tongues while we decorated. Lance kept his lines nice and straight on the edges of his cookies by employing a similar technique that Jude is demonstrating. I made sure to bag up Lance's cookies in a bag by themselves. Lance didn't mind. :)

Still going strong.

Lance's masterpieces. I think the look really good!

It wouldn't be cookie decorating without lots and LOTS of tasting.

Here are the cookies we took to the party. After looking at the pictures above, you can probably understand why Lance and Jude's cookies got to stay at home for kid-consumption instead of making it into the cookie basket to share.


This year we've been doing the Lego Advent Calendar like last year. This year, however, is pretty cool because it's a Star Wars Lego Advent. We've had a good time opening and constructing a new little figurine or ship each night before we go to bed.

Lance especially thinks it's cool and Jude is getting more into it as well. It's fun that Jude is now old enough to understand what's going on and be a part of the family activities.


We are now up in Northern VA to celebrate Christmas and New Years with our families. Most of our time here so far as been relaxing with our families, but we have managed to (almost) complete our Christmas shopping. It's been fabulous staying with family because I've been able to run errands child-free! For those of you with kids, you know how wonderful that is.

Lance spent this past weekend with his dad while Jude spent the time playing with extended family at both Grandmas' houses.

Diesel is getting huge (he's only 4.5 months old) and loves to try and play with Jude. Jude likes it too, most of the time. :)

Grandmom helping Jude put an ornament on their tree.

Only 6 more days until Christmas! Woo Hoo!