Arizona Christmas Fun

We visited family in Arizona for Christmas this year but before left we celebrated at home.  Beatrix got to be the innkeeper in a nativity play.

The girls and I went to see a ballet similar to the nutcracker.  Their friend Tessa was the main character, she did great.

We also did all of our presents but I didn't get any pictures.  

Once in Arizona we first visited my Grandma Rucker.  She is 97.  She has dementia and her memory isn't quite working.  I enjoy talking to her. 

One evening we went and saw the Mesa temple lights.

Beatrix had gotten a camera for Christmas and was really into taking pictures of everything.

Mainly we hung out in my parents retirement community. The golf cart was a big hit.  I know most of the kids got to try steering it.  Leon had gotten a lock pick set for Christmas and was able to start it without the key.

We swam pretty much everyday and we even went to line dancing.

The main thing was really the pool and hanging out with family.  The weather was warm and sunny, it was great.

Christmas 2022

We had snow this year for Christmas.  Well, kind of.  It snowed off and on a lot the days leading up to Christmas, but not much stuck.  The little bit of snow we had was fun for the kids.  Something even better than snow happened this year, my parents came.  It was great to have family to be with this year for the holiday.

We were freezing though, and even inside our house was cold.  One of our heaters wouldn't work and we keep blowing circuits just to keep the heat and lights on.  We did convince them to send someone out to look at our heater and they said it was too cold for it to work and we should wait a few days for it to warm up outside then it will start working.  Bob had to convince them that we needed heat and weren't going to wait for it to warm up outside.  They ended up replacing it after a few days and I can tell a huge difference.  Our house is still very poorly insulated and we do not have central heating so some areas of our house are cold.  But now we can keep the family room warm, so I'm grateful.  

Christmas morning is always exciting.

It was Sunday so we had to hurry off to church.  Bob was a little extra stressed because it was his first year being the branch president for Christmas Sunday.  Things went pretty smoothly though.  Our family played the bells and sang "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus."

I threw this picture in here because I had to work over Christmas break.  Not on Christmas itself, but up until it and then again right after.  It is my first year working like this up to Christmas, and it was a little hard.  I wish I could be home with the family.  In this picture I'm "volunteering" with the USO.  I'm technically working because this event was during my work ours and I was getting paid by Navy Federal but I was helping out at the USO.

We went to the local park/woods a few times over the break including on Christmas Day.  We even found a gigantic version of a plant I have in my windowsill.  I wonder if mine will get that big.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Concert

Scarlett had her first strings concert last week.  She just started playing this year and she did great.  She plays the violin, but she says she doesn't really like it.   I think the main problem is that the teacher makes them record a video of themselves practicing for an hour each week.   I actually dislike it too.  With three kids all needed to record themselves practicing and one computer it is annoying, I wish I could just initial that they practiced.

Penelope also played that night in the advanced strings class.  She says she likes her strings class.

Tucker played percussion the next night for his band concert.  He is in the advanced band and claims he is much better than everyone else.  I have no idea how true that is, but I do know the one class ranges from 7-12 grade and consists of kids on the second year of the instrument up to however many years.  I think he really likes it, and he also likes that it is one class he doesn't have to stress about.

Christmas Decorations

I love decorating the house for Christmas.  This kokeshi nativity set has brought me lots of joy the past couple of years.  I'm so glad I put the time and effort into making it.

With this being our first and only Christmas in this house we had to find new places for all our decorations.  The tree fit perfectly and the nativity has a good spot as well, but the lights and stockings don't really have a great place to go.  It also feels like we don't have enough decorations because this house is bigger than our last.  That is ok though, I'm happy with how festive the house looks this time of the year.

I wanted to make these 3D ornaments for gifts for coworkers this year so I asked the kids print them for me.  After making one I thought people might want to buy them, so the kids convinced me to put them on facebook.  They got a few requests and have now been selling them online and making some extra money.  They are thrilled with their new business.

The ornaments say Harmony.

Beatrix missed more school!  She tweaked her neck one night and could not really move in the morning.  It was sad, but she looked so sweet sleeping I had to take a picture.  She was totally fine after her nap.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas 2021

A fire seemed necessary on Christmas Eve this year so we found on on Youtube.  I think this might have been the first time our TV has felt too big.  If the fire really was that big we would have burned our house down.

We sand a few Christmas songs and the kids did a nativity play that I was forbidden to post the video of.  We then watched the church nativity video.

We stayed home and spent time together this Christmas.  It was nice and low key.

I attempted a Japanese Christmas cake.  It was way to much work.

Calista and Beatrix loved their new "washable paint."

The older kids main gift was a 3D printer.  It has pretty much been running nonstop since we got it.

Graham Cracker Houses

The kids had a blast making their graham cracker houses this year.  Beatrix was the only who needed very much help.

Calista did need some help, but she was happy just making a pile of candy to eat later.

Scarlett likes to do a tower every year.

I thought Tuckers was pretty good.

Leon's was very creative.  He had a lot of stories for what was going on all over his house.

Penelope's was pretty classic.