Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We invited our friends, the Checkettes family, to join us for dinner and to act out the nativity. Dinner was scrumptious - though I did make the mistake of trying a new kind of roll rather than sticking with my tried and true. They weren't a complete flop, but they weren't fantastic either. But everything else - the twice baked potates, salad, ribbon jello, ham and turkey were all great!

The nativity was adorable. I don't have anything in way of true costumes, but I have lots of random fabric that we made due. Devry was Mary, Pierscen was the angel, Leo was Joseph, Ryan was the shepherd, Hyrum and Grant were sheep, and Emillie and Asael were Kings. I took pictures. :)

The kids were so cute! It was a little chaotic, but they had a lot of fun. There was even a squabble over baby Jesus, but when the Kings arrived bearing gifts, all was forgiven and forgotten. Haha. 

It was the perfect evening. I'm so glad the Checkettes were able to join us. 

Everyone wanted to open a gift that evening - though I was reluctant for Ryan and I to open anything because we really didn't have much for the next day! But that's okay. The kids got to open their beautiful outfits from Rayola. Thank you Ray-Ray!

I opened Pierscen's gift to me, which was a pumelo. I had no idea such a thing existed! Basically a giant grapefruit. Random, but perfect. Thanks Pierscen!

Random December Happenings

Living here definitely has it's advantages, like doing bike rides in the winter. 

And seeing Santa on multiple occasions, like at the ward party.

I loved going to the temple and seeing this beautiful nativity scene on the grounds there. So humbling and wonderful for centering our lives on what really matters. 

And we made ginger bread houses! This is the first time I have ever bought a kit and I just have to say, it's pretty awesome. Super easy and fun. I loved getting the village one because then they had lots of houses to decorate. I bought a few boxes of different candies too and I can say we were all on a sugar high by the time we were done. So worth it!

Watching hot air balloons year round: 

And scaring mom to death by building super high cushion towers. This was not by any means one of his worst ideas, but still not anywhere close to safe. Naturally. ;)

Pierscen's Winter Program

Pierscen's school put on a wonderful winter/end of unit program/talent show toward the end of December. It was so cute! Each of the kids had lines of a poem to recite, as well as fun facts about New Mexico. Pierscen's fun fact was the New Mexico State Insect is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp. They have an enclosure for these ginormous insects at the botanical gardens, but I never saw one in there. 

Each kid had the option of signing up to do their own talent, but P wouldn't commit to anything - which is strange because he loves to perform and would happily do just about anything. It wasn't until signs up were well over that I thought, Man! He should have sung the 50 Nifty United States Song. He is amazing at that! Oh well. 

So he performed in a boy band with a few other kids. Meaning, they played real music over the PA system while the boys hammered along on toy instruments. It was cute. 

By far the cutest thing was watching the kids perform the Mexican Hat dance and sing Feliz Navidad. Neither of these videos will upload and they are SO worth watching. But I am months behind on the blog, so I will have to play around with that until and update later. 

It was such a fun evening. The kids loved performing and it was so great to get to see their little personalities bloom. Pierscen was by FAR the most enthusiastic little jumping bean during the dance. It made my little mama heart proud. :)

We are lucky to be able to be part of such an amazing school!