February in Review

Jacob has been gone all weekend on an overnight basketball trip... so I can't sleep. Here goes... my memories (and pictures to go with them) of February.

It has been a long month (thank goodness it's only 28 days!) and I won't hide the fact that I'm glad it's over. There have been some struggles, some cold weather and many plain ol' blah kind of days. But when I look back on my camera, we actually did manage to do some fun stuff. So here's to the fun stuff in February (and even the not-so-fun)!

Reading Carnival at SoHi
Feb. 7

Jacob was gone on a basketball trip so I determined not to sit at home and be bored with the kids all day. We decided to round up a bunch of friends and go to the Reading Carnival at Soldotna High School. It's basically a bunch of volunteers from different schools and other organizations that got together in a high school gym to celebrate and promote reading. Our good friends Tate and Owen came with us and Holly and her kids met us there. The kids got to meet and take pictures with Clifford the big red dog (he wasn't so big!) and the Cat in the Hat. They jumped in a funhouse, had their faces painted, won yummy cupcakes in a cakewalk, made dinosaur fossils, played bingo and won lots of books, bought some other books for 25 cents each (yeah!) and had fun running around in the commons area. It was so much fun that we ended up staying for about three hours instead of the planned one hour! We walked away with baggies full of goodies and books and lots of energy spent. All in all, a very successful outing!

Girls' Night Out and Hives

The same night, I got a babysitter and went out to dinner with a couple of girl friends. We went to a restaurant that I'd never been to (what? a good restaurant in Kenai/Soldotna? what a wonderful discovery!). I shared a really good salad and pizza with Holly. We should have stopped there, but being as this was GNO, we decided that dessert was a must. So Cold Stone Creamery it was. I had an extremely chocolatey ice cream (couldn't have packed in more chocolate if they tried) and I loved every bite of it. Funny stories were told, laughs were shared and great times were had. Unfortunately, the fun stopped there!

At about 2:00 that morning, I woke up itching like crazy. I talked myself out of going to the mirror to take a look, but when I got up later that next morning, I was covered with hives. COVERED! I suffered through them for the day, stayed home from Church on Sunday, loaded myself up on Benadryl and slept all day (literally). Then on Monday, the hives were on my lips and this worried me. I did snap a picture of myself, because it was actually quite comical (I looked like a Botox experiment gone way bad!), but my pride is keeping me from posting it! Jacob stayed home from work and took me to the doctor, who kept me "on watch" in his office for several hours. He sent Jacob running to the store two separate times to get some other medication in me immediately. He was concerned that the hives would spread in to my mouth and cause some more serious problems. After Singulair, Zyrtec and Zantac, the hives finally started to go down a bit. I came away with a bunch of medication (even an Epi pen!) but no real diagnosis.

I've had these hives periodically since I was a young teenager but nobody (including an allergist, a rheumatologist and even a biopsy) has been able to figure them out. The last time I had them was when I was pregnant with Ziya (about as far along as I am now). I do have a very slight allergy to oranges and chocolate, but I usually ignore this because I love both and constantly eat both and never have a reaction to either. My only thought is that the weird pregnancy hormones do make me react to these foods. The Cold Stone chocolate dessert may have been what put me over the edge (oops!).

Anyway, this has been one of the main reasons February has been such a yucky month for me. The hives stayed pretty bad for about a week and a half. They've gotten better, but I've just now (at the end of the month) been able to stop taking Benadryl and the other meds daily to keep them at bay. Translation: I feel like I've sleepwalked through the entire month... just barely functioning. No fun at all!

Valentine's Day Celebrating
February 12-14

Rachel hosted a Valentine's Day party for Abe's preschool kids and their siblings. The kids had a great time. They got to make a Valentine card for me (very sweet), they sang some songs and exchanged Valentines. Ziya was excited for the lollipops and Abe was excited for the pictures of Superman on his Valentine's folder.

BEFORE


AFTER
Ammon got to go on a really fun field trip for Valentine's Day. They went to a senior home to sing friendship songs and then they went to the rink for some ice skating. I packed a lunch for Abe, Ziya and me and we went to watch for a while. It was hilarious! There were kids who have skated for one or two years and now play hockey - so they were out doing tricks, going fast and skating circles around everybody else. Then there were other kids who were terrified to step out onto the ice (thank goodness for lots of parent volunteers!). Ammon was right in the middle. He was excited to try it, but he had a hard time (he's only been ice skating once before and that was last year sometime). He got a hold of a glider (kind of like a walker for the ice) and this helped a ton. By the time we left though, he'd abandoned the glider and was doing great on his own. I love the videos because they show how much he learned in just about an hour and a half! Now he's constantly asking if we can go ice skating. I think that with basketball season ending today (the 28th), Jacob might just have some more free time to take him. They'll both love it. Now we just need to get Abe brave enough to try it (it may not have been a good thing for him to see so many of Ammon's classmates come off the ice in tears after falling).



These are the Valentines I got from my kids. They (the kids and the Valentines) are so super sweet. Abraham says his is a Spiderman Valentine because he chose red and blue!

We worked hard on our school Valentines this year. Ammon and Abe each made word searches with the names of all the kids in their classes. We printed them on pretty heart paper and attached these to pink rice krispies treats cut in the shape of hearts. It was time-consuming (we started about a week early on a day when they didn't have school because of parent-teacher conferences) but the end result was worth it! I found the idea for the word searches online and it was perfect (especially for Ammon) because he was concerned about giving girls cards that said "Be Mine" or other corny stuff like that. Funny, huh?




On Friday night, we took the kids to the Winter Carnival at Ammon's school. I volunteered to help, so I got to sit at a table and sell tickets at the entrance. Jacob was a great papi and took all three kids to do all the different activities. They had fun eating lots of sugar, fishing for treats, catching rubber duckies in a pond, bowling, eating more sugar, throwing darts at balloons, throwing cream pies at their soccer coach's face, getting Ammon's hair painted and doing a cake walk. Oh, did I mention how much sugar they had? They each won a dessert in the cake walk (Ammon chose an apple pie, Abe chose some cupcakes with Super Bowl rings on them and Ziya thankfully chose some breakfast muffins). I did get to leave my table and join my family for a while. We had a fun time. It's good to get out and just let our kids be kids.


Jacob and I got to go out to a nice dinner for our Valentine's date. We had some delicious steak, king crab, a baked potato and a really great salad with a dill dressing that took me back to Germany (long story). For dessert we enjoyed juicy strawberries dipped in chocolate with some sparkling cider. It was soooo nice to go out on a real date (it had been waaayyy too long). We talked about basketball, our kids, our future and lots of in-between stuff (not in that order!). After dinner, we went to the church so that I could practice my hymns on the organ for church the next day. Jacob noticed that the chapel was a mess, so he pulled out the vacuum and got to work while I practiced. This may have been my favorite part of our date. We were both doing what we are all asked to do, serve. Even when ours was a small and simple service, it felt so good to end our Valentine's celebrating this way.

Kenai Kardinals Basketball
December '08 - February 28, 2009

This part really deserves its own post... it has, after all, consumed much of our lives for most of the past couple of months! For his third year now, Jacob coached Kenai's freshman or "C" basketball team. A couple of the boys he coached last year, but for the most part, it was a new team. They just finished their season earlier today in Palmer. I think their overall record is 12 and 4, which pleased Jacob. They had two tough losses just last week. In both games they were behind terribly (and embarrassingly) and then made amazing comebacks... only to lose by two or three points. It literally hurt me to watch these games! I was worried that they were heading towards a sour end to their season. However, on this weekend's trip to Colony and Palmer, this bold little "C" team was the only team out of their high school's six teams to come away with victories! I just talked to Jacob a few hours ago and he sounded so happy. He said the boys just had a great time playing ball... and he had a great time coaching them. A happy ending to a happy season after all - whew!

I'll admit that I've done my fair share of complaining about this coaching thing. It's tough to have Jacob gone so much. However, I'm convinced that it's really good for him to end his teaching days with positive interactions with students (versus the not-so-positive interactions he faces all day working with sometimes resistant students). I also have to constantly remind myself that my own children enjoy going to the games, cheering for their papi, eating concession stands junk food and running around on the stage (or playing with mami on the bleachers, in Ziya's case). Jacob and I have also talked about how good it is for our boys to be around high school athletes who practice and play hard at their sport. Now he gets a whole week off (oooooh la la!) before track and field starts where he'll be coaching the high jumpers again. We've yet to decide if this (coaching) is something that we want to keep on doing (certainly not three sports in one year - NEVER AGAIN!)... but for now, GO KARDS!!!

Random Acts of Cuteness
Throughout the Month

The student council at Ammon's school designated a "Dress-up-as-your-favorite-book-character day." Ammon wanted to be Darth Vader or Batman ("but I have books that they are part of!" was his argument). After much ingenious parenting, we talked him into choosing something a little more academic. He and Abraham both absolutely love and fall to pieces laughing over Skippyjon Jones books by Judy Schachner. Alright, alright... so the cat is white and not black and his ears really should be a lot bigger - but can you see that cool tail I made him? He had a really fun time wearing his "costume" to school. He also took the book with him to school and was proud that the teacher chose to read it to the entire class -- highlighting his own costume.




My sweet little Abraham is always fighting to find his niche. We have been giving Ammon a lot of praise because he is really becoming a good little reader (and taking much pride in this, I might add). Well, just the other day, Abraham got out his puzzles and practiced and practiced putting them together over and over again until he got quite fast at them. Now he is constantly reminding us how good he is at doing puzzles. "Do you want to watch me do them again?" is his newest plea. "I'm really good at puzzles!"

Our little Ziya is just a hoot. One night after her bath, I told her it was time to read some books - and then I got busy getting Ammon and Abe out of their showers. When I came back out to the living room, this is what I found. Ziya must've gotten tired of waiting for me, so she started her own "reading." She got out her huge blanket and her doll bassinet and stroller, each with one or two babies in them, and she started reading to them... the new Downeast Outfitters catalog that just came in the mail. Hmmmmm... what is she teaching these wee little babes of hers???

Marissa Turns 14! February 22

Our niece turned 14 on the 22nd. When I met Marissa, she was only 5 years old. I remember that Jacob invited me along (it was just our second date) on an uncle/niece date that he had with her. We took her to the Del Amo Mall and went to the Disney Store where we spent a long time playing with stuffed animals and looking at princess dresses. Then we took her to eat at a Panda Express type of restaurant in the mall and she loved it! Another fun memory I have of her when she was so little is of a drive to Santa Paula - about two hours because of Los Angeles traffic. She sang to us the entire way! I was amazed that she knew so many songs! Now she's in 8th grade and she won't sing for us anymore. But she's an amazingly bright and beautiful young woman. Jacob secretly "spies" on her by talking to her teachers whenever he runs into them at district meetings. They all say the same thing about her: that girl is a real genius with artistic talent that they have not seen in many students that age. Happy 14th Birthday Marissa!

Lights Out = Family Fun at the Beach
February 23

On Monday at about 2:30 in the afternoon, the electricity went out in most of Kenai. I was taking a nap with Ziya and Abe and I wouldn't even have known except that tenants started calling me and ringing the doorbell (darn them!). Jacob, on the other hand, was a the Rec Center getting ready to start his basketball practice. In a gym with no windows, this wasn't possible - so he sent all the boys home and came home himself. After picking Ammon up from school at 3:40, we were at a loss for what to do. We are never all together at home that early in the day. The sun was shining and it was actually a pretty warm day (a whoppin' 30 degrees or so), so we decided to put on our snow gear and head down to the beach to play on the ice glaciers.

It was beautiful down there. There was some recently fallen snow on the ground, so it wasn't as slick and treacherous as the last time I went with the kids. Ammon and Abraham went straight to the water's edge, which had me pretty nervous. The thought of one of them slipping on a patch of ice and falling in to that freezing cold water just about did me in. I quickly informed Jacob that I would take good care of Ziya while he did all the water rescuing! Fortunately, everybody managed to stay dry. We jumped from glacier to glacier, broke off huge icicles that hung from them, made a slide out of a glacier edge for Ziya to go down about 100 times in a row, snapped pictures and just had some good 'ol family fun.


AND THAT WAS FEBRUARY!

I'm Back!

Illness, laziness, dumbness, busy-ness... whatever "ness" it is, I just haven't been blogging. However, just earlier today, I survived a Stake Relief Society speaking assignment that has been eating all my free brain time. I feel like a free woman now! I no longer have to constantly think "I really should be working on my talk instead of doing this!" So now, I'm working on a mega-long February-in-review post. And just today, I talked to my talented friend Leaca, about my banner. So she designed this new one for me (she's also the way cool photographer of the way cool pictures of my family). Once again, yay for talented and motivating friends!

Ammon Loses Another Tooth!

Our blog is now officially photo-less. Our camera is bubble wrapped up in a box and sits patiently waiting for somebody to take it to the post office so it can be mailed to the Panasonic Service Center for repair.

So a few nights ago, when Ammon lost another tooth, I felt kind of sad that there would be no photo to document the exciting event (it's his fourth tooth lost, but every single one has been quite a big deal!). We sat at the dinner table and Ammon started wiggling his very loose bottom tooth. It's another one where the adult tooth broke through before the baby tooth had time to fall out. He's like a shark... with multiple layers of teeth! He sat there wiggling it, grossing us all out because it was just sooooo loose. Jacob encouraged him to push it all the way forward, which he did. Then all the way backward... which he did again. Pop! It came out -- just like that.

Just two nights later, Jacob was cleaning out Ammon's pile of papers that came home from school and he found this picture. He must have drawn it a while back when he lost the two front teeth, but it still says it all! I don't feel sad about not having a photo anymore!

Stop... and Listen to the Music, Watch the Rain Fall, Admire the Eagle, Watch the Wind Dance Across Puddles, Enjoy Being With Your Kids...

I am guilty of deleting many forwarded emails. My alone time on the computer is precious. I'd rather get on to the "real" emails, to my blog, to some project I might be working on or to the apartment work I have to do. I'm not sure exactly why, but I opened a forwarded email today, sent to me by my friend Lisa from Idaho. Thank you, Lisa.

It was very timely for me, as I just had the "opportunity" to spend two full days with all three of my children (Ammon and Abe have strep throat so Ammon stayed home from school and we haven't gone anywhere except the doctor's office). During these two days, I had many thoughts about the frustration I could vent in a sarcastically written post about our many mishaps, arguments, fights, and other not-so-pleasant experiences.

Instead, all I can write is that I should have stopped to enjoy the extra time playing with my children. Should've, would've, could've... right??? I will repent and try to do better tomorrow.

Appropriate confession: At one point during the day today, I was yelling at my kids about how they needed to hurry and pick up their toys. I was fed up with being inside our messy home, looking outside at the dreary gray sky and hearing the rain fall onto the ice-covered street. My kids, on the other hand, were not listening to me. Instead, they were just standing at the window fascinated by the way the wind blew across the huge puddles in the street, forming ripples that awoke their imagination into creating an "invisible speedo man" who was running back and forth on the puddles in front of our window. I made them leave the window and clean up their toys.

This article from the Washington Post is long, but fascinating. I also watched the Youtube video. And finally, here is the abridged version of what it's all about. (Sorry for the blue font... I tried my hardest to change it, but failed.)

A Violinist in the Metro

- Something to Think About......

A man stood in the lobby area of the metro station in Washington D.C. and started to play the violin. It was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and continued to walk without stopping.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but then the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother pulled him along hurriedly, but the boy stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head back toward the violinist all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, witho ut exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people actually stopped and stayed for a while. Twenty-seven people gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected about $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any other recognition.

Obviously, no one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, and he played it with a violin worth $3.5 million.

Two days before this performance in the subway, Joshua Bell had sold out at Symphony Hall in Boston where the seat price averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by The Washington Post, as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the finest musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing every day?

May you take the time in 2009 to experience

the beauty of the sights and sounds that surround you.

Three Boys and a Princess

My doctor gave me the option of going to Anchorage for what's called a "targeted" ultrasound. I will be almost 35 years old when I deliver the baby, which almost puts me in a higher risk category. I agreed to have the ultrasound (a trip to Anchorage, a cool high-tech ultrasound, a chance to find out the baby's gender, and of course, a confirmation of the baby's state of health... I couldn't resist!).

The appointment started with a meeting with a genetic counselor. She asked me a bunch of questions about my family history (both my and Jacob's sides) and drew a diagram as I gave her the answers. Then she reviewed the results of a quad screen blood test I'd had done about a month earlier. Not only were my results negative (for chromosomal abnormalities in the baby) - they were actually very, very negative.

Next, we (I was joined by my friend Gina) went into the ultrasound room. This part, of course, was way, way, way cool. After having had ultrasounds with three other babies, I now kind of know what I'm looking at on the screen. However, I was still amazed at how much information the doctor was rattling off to her nurse. I just silently sat in amazement that she could see so much from just one image. For example, when she looked at the baby's brain, she listed off a whole bunch of measurements and findings, including the lateral ventricular atria, choroid, cavum septum pellacidum, thalami, ventricles, cerebellum and cisterna magna (yeah... a mouthful, I know!). For the heart, she was able to evaluate the situs, rate, rhythm, chamber size, outflow tract size and orientation, and pulsatility index of the ductus arteriosus. Also included were the axis, pericardium, valves, septae, and aortic and ductal arches (yes... I'm cheating by looking at a list they gave me of what the examination included). In short, IT WAS AMAZING!! The end result: the baby shows no signs of Down syndrome or trisomy 18.

At one very quick point, the doctor asked me if I wanted to know the baby's gender. I hardly had time to answer, "Yes," before she said, "It's a boy," and quickly moved on to check out some other cool stuff. Both Gina and I were amazed at how quickly and how confidently she made this assessment. She did go back later, slowed down and let us newbies see some evidence. THE BABY IS DEFINITELY A BOY! When I told Jacob that it was 100% boy, he had his doubts: "It can't be 100%... there's always room for error." I guess I'll just say that I'm certain enough that I'll be preparing for a boy!

I got home early enough to catch the three kiddos still awake. Ammon and Abraham both guessed that the baby was a boy. We watched the DVD of the ultrasound and closely examined the pictures. It was a very cool experience. Now, we're being more serious about searching for a name (the kids have had some interesting ideas... even Ziya!) and getting ready for May 15.

I'm posting two pictures of the ultrasound and one of the cute little boy outfit Gina helped me find to celebrate (Gina and I both thought the moose theme was very appropriate for our little Alaskan boy). The first picture is a 3D image of the baby's face. It was hard to get a clear shot because he had his face buried in the placenta the whole time (snuggling against it like a pillow!) and he was also constantly nestled against one of his hands (by his mouth on the right side).

We're all very, very excited and happy to know that our baby is healthy and that we will remain a family of boys with a princess in the middle!

You Know It's Cold When...

A day or two after Christmas (I'm too tired right now to do the research to verify these dates and exact temperatures), our temperatures dropped... and dropped... and kept on dropping. We hit -20 degrees and we thought we were going to die. This happened last winter, too (at the end of January) but if I recall correctly, it only lasted for a few days. So when I saw it happening again, I felt cold, but I wasn't too worried about it. Well, the low temperatures lasted throughout the whole Christmas break. On New Year's Eve, I took a picture of the thermometer in our car reading -22 degrees. That was the lowest I'd personally seen since living in Alaska. Now my camera is broken (thanks to my little Ziya) and I have not been able to snap more pictures (like when I dropped Ammon off for school today and it was -32 degrees). We're three days back into school and we have not warmed up one single bit. As a matter of fact, the last two or three days have only gotten progressively colder. I'm hesitant to say this (again, because I'm too lazy to verify any of it), but I don't believe we've hit anything above about -15 degrees since those days after Christmas. AT LEAST IT FEELS THAT WAY!!!

Thus, the title of this post:
YOU KNOW IT'S COLD WHEN...

• My little die-hard outside player, Ammon, only lasts about 2 minutes each time he insists on playing on his hill (which is really the huge snow pile that the plow has made from our parking lot snow). The two or three times he has attempted, he comes in very bravely stating, "I just can't do it. It's waaaayyy too cold!"
• You start to wish that it would warm up to at least zero degrees.
• Any and all moisture in your nose immediately freezes when you step outside. This is gross, I know, but it's very, very true! You just take a step outside, do a little sniffle and for a second or two, your nostrils stick to each other. And I won't even go into the details about talking to somebody outside for a while and having to look at the frozen booger hanging off their nose the whole time.
  
• Speaking of standing outside talking for a while... you have a hard time forming words after just a few minutes. It's like your face wants to freeze into just one position and all the mouth and facial movement that conversation requires becomes increasingly more difficult the longer you stand outside.
  
• You spend more gasoline warming up your car than you do going wherever you have to go. As a matter of fact, after only about a week or so, our Suburban is running near empty... and I haven't gone anywhere... AT ALL (just school, the store, church... all within about two miles of where we live!).
  
• Church is truncated to just one hour, Sacrament meeting. The rest of the meetings are canceled because the furnace pooped out and half of the building is freezing cold.
  
• You can't see a face on the noble crossing guard at Ammon's school. He is covered from head to toe in arctic gear. I'm surprised he can see well enough to know when there's a kid waiting to cross!
• The home teachers are given a special assignment to call all of their assigned families to make sure that they are warm enough.
  
• Schools don't let the kids out for recess. I think the district's weather policy is that if it's lower than -10 degrees, the kids have to stay indoors. Do you realize what this means? You just spent two straight vacation weeks indoors and your kid is dying to get back to school for recess... only to find that there is none! I don't know how the teachers do it! I don't know how I'm going to do it if this keeps up for too much longer. Talk about CABIN FEVER!!!
  
• You burn your fingers opening a door without a glove on. It's the weirdest sensation. It burned for about 1/2 hour when all I did was touch the door knob for about 2 seconds.
  
• You have to plug in your car to keep the engine from freezing. A neighbor who went away for the holiday season left her car unplugged. It wouldn't start when she got back so she had to plug it in for two days straight before it would start.
  
• Your four and six year old children have a perfect understanding of negative numbers. About a month ago, when we tried to introduce the concept to Ammon for his homework, he was very, very confused. Now he gets it... EASILY!
  
• Some water pipes in the apartment building froze. Our life-saver maintenance hero purchased some space heaters to try to thaw them out (mind you, these are for rooms that are already heated!). A few hours later, the parking lot was converted into an ice-skating rink as the pipe burst and water gushed everywhere, immediately freezing, of course. The entire building's water had to be shut off while the necessary repairs were made. Now the new space heaters are staying on round the clock. We're still crossing our fingers!
  
• I heard on the radio (a few days ago) that the last time Anchorage temperatures stayed below 0 degrees for more than 14 consecutive days was in 1917. I can't wait to hear what kind of records Kenai is breaking... especially since I'm pretty sure we're significantly colder than Anchorage is right now.
  
• Your friends start writing posts like this one entitled "Drastic Temperatures Call for Drastic Measures." (They're escaping to Hawaii... luuuccckkkyyy!)
• You spend 20 minutes of your precious time just to write a post about how cold it is.
  

I could probably go on and on (and I may add more to this post after I lie down for the night and think about it some more). The point is, it was -32 degrees when I dropped Ammon off for school this morning. That is 64 degrees below freezing! We are supposedly going to warm up tomorrow or the next day - all the way to 18 degrees above zero. I'm not going to believe it until I see it though. A 50 degree change in just one or two days is kind of hard to believe.

If you can't tell, I'm just a tad bit FED UP!!! If I were a cussing woman, I would probably cuss.

Christmas Eve and Morning

I grew up with tamales for Christmas and Jacob has fond memories of the Lebanese food that the Munyers always had. Well... I don't know how to make tamales and Kenai cuisine does not offer us any Lebanese food, so last year, we decided to preserve the food portion of each of our cultures in our own simplified way. We like to call it TACOS AND TABBOULEH! We did it again this year and it was yuuuummmmmyyyy!

After dinner, we did our Luke 2 reading and re-enactment, and then the kids got to open one present. Unfortunately, they misunderstood and thought that they'd get to open ANY one present... we stuck to our guns and made them open only their pajamas. This wasn't as exciting as the light sabers they knew they were getting (Jacob wrote "To: Jedi Knight in Training" on their gift labels and they figured it out!). There was a tiny bit of disappointment that mami didn't get the sewing done (or even started, for that matter) and the pajamas were purchased and not totally matching each other. But we all survived. We put the cookies and carrot sticks out for Santa, wrote him a brief note and went to bed.

Ammon was up twice during the night. Abraham, on the other hand, walked right past the tree and had no clue what was going on for several minutes. We woke Ziya up and let all the fun begin.

I made a collage, but I also put the exact same pictures in a slide show so that grandmas can snag a few if they want to.