Holy SHIP it's Christmas!

Thanks to mommy bloggers, Noah and I realized that we've been doing Christmas wrong all these years in our marriage--we've been buying our kids their presents at stores instead of making them.

So this year, we did it right. And we did it better than every mommy blogger out there.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... Let me start with Christmas eve:

Festivities began for us with the kids sprinkling magic Reindeer food on our lawn so Santa's reindeer would have energy to complete their long journey (for those of you living in the West coast, that basically means we single handedly saved your Christmas, so you're welcome).

then it was dinner time. This year, we went for a simple, but significant dinner of fish and honeycomb. If you're wondering why that's significant, it's probably time for you to start going to church.
honeycomb looks so cool, but boy is it powerful stuff!
This year, we decided to do eve gifts, which we do some years. I found pirate pajamas for Oliver and Saturn/ rocket pajamas for Alex (he's very into outer-space right now, and really loves the planet Saturn). Gabby doesn't particularly care about sock monkeys, but I couldn't find any PJs with a book pattern so that's what she got.
Bedtime. We read the Christmas story out of the bible, and a handful of other Christmas themed books before sending the kids off to bed. Alex and Oliver fell asleep without any problem. Gabby wasn't asleep until midnight. She was too excited.

My first Christmas gift this year was that my kids slept until 8:30 AM! Which was awesome because I stayed up until 2 AM finishing Christmas preparations.

Santa made it to the house, leaving the kids stockings filled on their beds. Oliver got coal in his stocking (coal gum), and a rock, which is exactly what he asked Santa for when we saw him at the Children's museum.

The tree was also loaded with presents below it (because I had stayed up until 2 AM wrapping them), but those had to wait until after breakfast.

For breakfast, we ate delicious Santa pancakes covered in whip cream and loaded with raspberries. But you know, the kids were so excited about the presents under the tree that they hardly ate anything.

And then it was the much anticipated present opening time

Oliver started things off. This was his first year of being excited for Christmas which made it extra special. He insisted on playing with every toy he opened before letting anyone open another present, which meant that Christmas lasted a whole lot longer.

My nerdy kids got exactly what they asked for...a kit for growing crystals for Alex, and...a DNA laboratory--complete with centrifuge--for Gabby.

If you're thinking that these gifts look surprisingly store bought for a homemade Christmas, you're right. The kids got Christmas money and gifts from their grandparents, uncles and aunts (Noah and I only bought few of the gifts under the tree).

The real present from us was in the basement.

... concealed by a paper barrier:
This is what the kids looked like (note the glum expression on Alex's face--after all the excitement from present opening wore off, the flu set in):
this is what they were looking at:
HOLY SHIP!

Initially, Oliver was a bit apprehensive about the ship since Noah put a rocking mechanism on the thing, so it literally ROCKS!

He has since warmed up to it

But wait, there's more!

Noah built an indoor half pipe--you know, for the kids.
The kids actually really love it-- what kid wouldn't! I however, have stayed off the thing remembering what happened last time I got on one.

Christmas night was spent at my best friend, Adrea's house in Indianapolis where we had the best Christmas dinner of my life. Seriously.

We got home around 2:00 AM, put the kids in their beds, gave Alex a drink of water, and watched as he threw it up violently (along with everything else he ate). I think he must have caught the flu bug that's been going around. So we got to clean up puke.

Next year, we're getting the kids each a pair of socks. That's it. And you can bet they'll be store bought.

The Halls are Decked

This year, I am really getting my holiday game on. We have lights strung along our roof line (thanks to Noah, who is awesome) and our front porch looks amazing, especially at night.

Yes, that is a Halloween door mat. We keep my favorite holiday running all. year. long.

I made wreaths:

and even garlands (never doing that again!):
the tree is up, and the train is already broken (thanks Oliver):
And the elves are hard at work in the garage building something...

Since we last spoke...

Christmas came, and went. Here's a recap of our holiday:

The kids collectively decided they wanted a dog for Christmas, and Noah and I actually let them get one--from the pound. Say hello to Egon:

The dog was the big present this year, but thanks to grandparents and uncles and aunts, the kids got spoiled rotten.

Christmas Eve was spent with Noah's Uncle and Aunt who live near us. Every year, they host a "Bethlehem dinner" where they eat Middle Eastern food with their hands. I love the idea, and the evening was super fun.

Christmas morning, the kids lined up on the stairs after opening their stockings:

Noah and I were a bit sneaky this year. We only put a few presents under the tree, leaving the majority of them in the basement where Santa also left a PING PONG TABLE!!! I was worried the kids might throw fits when they didn't see piles of gifts, but they surprised me. They were happy with only a few presents.

One of the presents under the tree was a Wii game from Uncle Zach, which we had to try out and since our Wii is in the basement, the kids filed down.

And what do you know, there were more presents! Here are some highlights:

Gabby and Alex each got Rollerblades this year and pretty much left them on for the entire Christmas weekend.

Alex loves showing us his fighting moves, so we decided to encourage that by getting him some boxing gloves:
Oliver Kenevil got a power wheel. After figuring out how to work the thing, he lifted it up on a platform Noah built for the kids to play ping pong, and started jumping it. It was perhaps Noah's proudest moment as a father. In the past week, Oliver has continued trying daring stunts, such as: riding backwards, riding while standing, and holding onto the handlebars and dragging himself behind it (the Superman).
Gabby wanted accessories for her American Girl dolls so she can keep up with her friends.I outdid myself and got Noah a new Casio Pathfinder watch, which he LOVED. And he gave me the cutest purse ever (not pictured because I was behind the camera).
The highlight of Christmas though was that my life-long BFF, Adrea came over with her family. This is her son Henry:
We made Gingerbread houses, ate a fancy dinner, and partied all night long and since that wasn't enough, we kept the party going through the next day too.
Adrea made a Yule Log which totally impressed me:

One of our main Christmas traditions is that we buy ornaments that have something to do with events of the past year. We always wait to buy them until a day or two after Christmas because they're all on sale and we're cheap. Here's what we picked up this year:

Noah and I got an ornament commemorating our 10 year anniversary--I didn't blog about our anniversary because I didn't have a working camera but it was simply awesome! Noah's parents came to town and Noah and I had our first romantic overnighter EVER. We hit up Cincinnati, stayed at the Hyatt, explored the city without kids, got tacos from a street vendor, drank hot chocolate, almost watched the lighting of the down town Christmas tree (we got bored and left before they actually lit the thing), and hot tubbed. It was without a doubt one of the funnest times I've had in my life.
Gabby got a Hermione ornament this year because she has become a book worm, she loves Harry Potter, and she's a know-it-all [like Hermione].
Oliver loves Snoopy and requests every night to be read a "Moopy book." This year, he got a tap dancing "Moopy" ornament.
Alex learned how to read this year. One of his favorite books is Green Eggs and Ham, so he got this ornament:

Well, Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Part III: Indiana

Santa came (we had to pay extra for him to make a special trip to our house after Christmas, but it was worth it).
The kids lined up on the stairs. Yes, those are skeleton pajamas on Oliver--in our family, we believe Halloween should be celebrated year round.

Santa was generous, dare I say too generous?

Even Santa loves Halloween. He brought Alex clearanced Halloween costumes:
After opening all the presents, the kids could hardly wait to... play the Wii.

**What???**

And then when Wii time was up, the kids got really cranky. I sat down with Gabby to have a little heart-to-heart and told her how hard it is to hear complaining after her dad and I had spent so much money on the Christmas gifts. Her response, "But you didn't buy the presents--SANTA DID!" I nearly broke the news to here right then and there. But I didn't. Instead I went and screamed into a pillow.

Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Christmas Part I: A Foxy Christmas

Christmas was completely hectic, but quite honestly I love feeling busy so I didn't mind. We pretty much divided our time between three families: Noah's family and my two families.

Dinner with my Dad+11: One of the many family dinners that contributed to me and Noah packing on 10 lbs.

Aside from being with family, one of the biggest highlights was our trip to Soldier's Hollow--the lazy man's tubing run. What makes Soldier's Hollow so great is that there's no work involved--no climbing back up the hill after you tube down it. Nope, instead you hook your tube on a tow rope and it pulls you up.

That's my kind of tubing.

Home

To those of you wondering where I've been for the last three weeks, I've been in Utah. But now I'm back so you can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Indiana is currently shut down due to 4 inches of snow (school is cancelled, the airport is shut down and no one is leaving their house) but luckily we didn't experience any delays on our flight home Wednesday. I was an awful picture taker in Utah because I left my nice camera in Indiana so I'm afraid pictures of our visit will have to wait until I get copies from those who took them.

While your Christmas may be over, ours has just begun. Santa will be stopping by our place tomorrow night, so on my calendar our Christmas card isn't late yet. And so folks, here it is--our first one EVER to make it out of my computer and onto yours.

Dear Everyone,

Here goes our 7th attempt at getting a Christmas letter out (none have made it to the mail box yet, but that doesn’t keep us from trying).

For those of you wondering why you haven’t seen us around lately, it’s because we moved to Columbus, Indiana in January of last year where Noah works for Cummins. We finally sold our Orem house in October, after having it on the market for one year and are now living in a beautiful house that we totally love, which is a big improvement on the small apartment we were living in.

Since our first attempt at writing a Christmas letter, we’ve somehow acquired 3 children. Gabrielle is now seven, Alex is four and Oliver is 1.

Gabrielle is a second grader at xxxxxx elementary (which looks strikingly like a prison from the outside). She loves friends, the color pink, climbing trees, and keeping her mom in line when she tries to break rules. For example: a few months ago, Kaila took the kids to a movie and brought her own drink in. She made the mistake of telling Gabby to “just keep quiet about it because it’s against the rules.” During the entire length of the movie, Gabby was beside herself with worry, convinced that at any moment the police would arrive and haul her mom off. It didn’t help when a few days later Kaila got pulled over for speeding. While waiting for the ticket, Gabby asked her if the reason she got pulled over was because she took her own drink into the movie theater.

Alex loves playing the Wii, fighting bad guys, being with friends, and riding his bike. Occasionally he carries around an imaginary boomerang, which Gabby loves to grab out of the air just before he catches it, so it gets taken away from time to time. As I type this, Alex is shooting lightning bolts out of Christmas ornaments, to give you an idea of the excitement he brings into our home.

Oliver loves breaking things, playing with outlets, turning the computer off when someone is using it, climbing on things and getting stuck, opening the dishwasher while it’s running and pulling out knives, hiding in cupboards, and finding balls. He keeps us busy and keeps our heart rates up.

Kaila spends most of her time on disaster control, but when she gets a minute to herself she blogs, decorates, sings, or goes for a run. She’s super happy about the move because it means she’s only 30 minutes away from Indiana University which has one of the top music schools in the country. She plans on auditioning in one year for the master’s degree program.

Noah has kept a pretty busy schedule this year by: continuing to be just plain awesome, working 3rd shift (a.k.a. graveyard) at Cummins as the production manager, getting totally sick during the move to our new house, and finishing his Master’s degree. That’s right, at the end of this month you may all refer to Noah as “Master Noah.”

Well that pretty much sums it up. We hope that you’re all doing well and missing us terribly. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Noah, Kaila, Gabby, Alex, and Ollie

Bring on the Holidays!

The ornaments are on our tree (starting about half way up due to a certain one-year-old). The train was up and running but is now unplugged and de-railed (again due to said one-year-old). I even strung a garland around our front door and wound lights on a tree trunk outside our house.

As for presents, Noah believes in waiting until the last possible moment to buy them (in his mind he's saving money) so we have one gift for Gabby (an expensive set of cups) and that's it. The big present this year is plane tickets to Utah. Noah originally wanted to drive but I welled up some authentic tears and he folded.

This year's homemade siblings gifts are on their way to getting done. Alex is just about finished stapling Gabby's fabric covered bulletin board. As predicted, the staple gun was a huge hit with him.I've re-thought what Gabby's making after realizing that I'm not really up to helping her sew a tent so instead she's making Alex a batman growth chart which she'll have more fun making anyway. For Oliver, Gabby and Alex are going to help paint a picture of monkeys to hang in his room. Over all I think I've spent about $35 total on the supplies for the kids' gifts to each other, which isn't too bad.

For our neighborhood friends, we made hot chocolate-on-a-stick (directions here). Unfortunately, they were such a hit in our own family that none of them made it out the door to our neighbors. Maybe next year. . .hot chocolate-on-a-stick's biggest fan:Over the weekend we spent the evening freezing at the city parade. There were fireworks too apparently but Gabby (who was with a neighbor friend) was the only one in our family willing to brave the cold long enough to see them. This week, my goal is help the kids finish their gifts so we can all veg in front of the TV on Friday night and watch A Christmas Story.