Christmas

 Christmas as a parent is pretty awesome.  But also a little overwhelming.  I hadn't realized how much whatever "traditions" you're going to have are almost completely up to the mom of the family.  Then the schools will still give you something to do as well.  The twins had a Christmas program.  It had reserved seating.  I had no idea it was such a big deal for 3 and 4 year olds.  Shows how much I know.  It was fun to watch them act out "The Night Before Christmas," then sing songs at the end.  

My not so favorite part of this was we had a cookie exchange afterward.  No nuts allowed.  At all.  So we went with sugar cookies.  I think whoever invented those had an evil plan to waste away the days of mothers.  Those things take too much time for me.  That, or I'm lazy.  

 Katie's program at school was full of music.  She wanted to wear her fancy dress, so there she is in the middle.  She had a great time.  Jeremy was able to make it and it was so fun to watch her together, especially when she'd see us and sign to us "I love you."  

 And then we had the ward Christmas party and Primary got to sing after the dinner.  They could not stop dancing to the music, or signing "I love you" to us.  

 Katie was so happy she got to sit with Santa and so relieved that he told her she was on the nice list.  

 Sydney and Cora both asked for bracelets since the ones they received from the dentist a few days before were already broken.  About broke their hearts when that happened, but Santa came through for them.  

 Here's their wall of art from some of November and December.  

 This is our beautiful Christmas tree that was frozen solid when it got to our house.  Jeremy braved the -33 degree weather on my birthday to go out and get our family a tree from a tree lot.  They wouldn't sell any of the standing trees because it was so cold all of the branches would shatter from being laid down in a truck.  This was tied up under several blankets in their trailer.  We were impressed with how well our unseen, frozen tree turned out and it smelled (and still smells) wonderful!  My favorite are all of the kids' decorations!  

 I had great aspirations of treat making for Christmas, but being sick means you do really nothing.  I had bought a gingerbread house kit, but the only reason they were put together was the sister missionaries came over Christmas Eve for dinner.  They helped the girls put these together while I finished cooking a few things.  I think that should be a new family tradition!  It was wonderful.  

Here's their Christmas jammies from Grandma Vicki.  

 And here are some of the pictures from Christmas morning.  Can you see the bandages on Katie's pinkie finger below?  As we were out visiting Christmas Eve, she slammed her finger in someone's front door and had to get six stitches in there.  Could have been worse.  

 One of the best Christmas miracles in our house this year was I actually finished the stockings.  I did mine, Jeremy's, and Katie's while I was on bed rest with the twins.  So it's only taken me another four (yes, four) years to finish the other two.  They were so excited, and so was I.  It's so fun to have a chimney to hang them on!  Yes, I hand stitched everything you see on front, so I'm pretty proud of myself.  I just wish I was a lot faster at things like that.