Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve.... Dave and the three "older" kids went with Dave's family to the movies (a Strom Family tradition) to see Night at the Museum 3 in the afternoon.  I stayed home with a napping Ella.  Afterward, the 6 of us went out to dinner (a Mitchell family tradition) and then drove around to see the lights and then came home and read a Christmas book.

Another Mitchell family tradition is to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  Tanner couldn't wait (he opened his "rice buddy" from his cousin Eli) while Lacey refused - she wanted to have more to open on Christmas day.  Totally different personalities!

Candy Cane Princess

All ready for bed in their Christmas PJ's

Merry Christmas to All.... and to All a Good night.

Dave and I bet on what kid would wake first and what time.  It was significantly earlier than either of us guessed:  5:34am.  But neither of us were surprised at the culprit:  T-man.  But we have a "nobody can go downstairs before 7am rule" and "everybody waits and goes down together rule" so T-man had to wait for 2 more hours.  Although, he was CHOMPING at the bit that entire time, so no more sleep after 5:34 for either Dave or I!

The kids line up from youngest to oldest to come down the stairs together.  Ella was actually the last to wake, so here are all the kids waiting patiently in their spots waiting for baby girl.

Complete!

Here's the note Lacey left for Santa.  Santa left some crumbs behind....

Stocking Stuffers are the best!

It was a Disney Princess Christmas for RJ.  Heavy on Frozen paraphernalia, but plenty of other Disney princesses made debuts as well.  This was the very first Christmas where Riley actually cared.  Where she sat and opened gifts and got excited.  In fact she is sitting next to me as I type this.  I just asked her what her very favorite gift was.  She said it was "all the dolls."  She will play for hours doing imaginary play with various figures, so I'm thinking "all the dolls" is a great investment from the North Pole.

One of Tanner's very favorite gifts.... a sniper gun.

This kid is "army dude" through and through.

Whereas Lacey asked for Barbies.  Like I said.... personalities are so unique.  Lacey is girlie girl and Tanner is as "all boy" as they come!

But one thing they both have in common.... 

Their "big gift" this year was electric scooters.  They were a major hit and we got the whole thing on video. 

The aftermath...

In the afternoon, we headed over to Dave's parents house where the entire Strom family congregated for Christmas dinner and a gift exchange.  Here is my little mistletoe.  I realized today that I have been pregnant and/or had a baby or 1-yr old for the last nine Christmases in a row.  It's not that I want another baby, it's just that I don't want this one to grow up.

And we ended the day with Christmas Cousin Karaoke followed by watching Home Alone.

Merry Christmas! 

On the 4th day of Christmas.....

Four days before Christmas, we finally made it to see Santa.

The best Santa any where around, hands down, is the one that comes to my work each year.  We have made it a tradition to go there each year and have gotten fabulous pictures each time.  He is so authentic looking and acting that the kids have come away believers each time.  This year, however, the event was the wknd I was in Oregon, so alas, we had to settle for Plan B.  We got a couple cute pictures, but it wasn't the same "experience" and Lacey came away from it saying "I don't think that was the real Santa.  I could see the fuzz (whiskers) on his face below his beard."  Oh well!  

And we also made it to see the DC Temple lights, which has also become an annual tradition.

We always love looking at the creche exhibit and seeing all the nativities from around the world.

We all loved the one from South Africa.  Dave and I saw a lot of these beaded figures when we were in South Africa in 2011, but they were expensive so we didn't end up buying any.  And Lacey loved this because it had a flamingo.  

Riley wouldn't stay still for any of our family pictures, so she is just a blur in all our family shots.  Oh well!

All the kids were cold, so the only one who opted to stay outside a while longer and check out the huge nativity was my Lacey bug.

I love doing all these annual Christmas activities that have become family traditions.

Four more days...... :)

Keeping with Tradition

The problem with going out of town a week and a half before Christmas is that pretty much everything falls through the cracks.  The kids still haven't had their picture taken with Santa Claus, we missed the sleigh ride we were going to do, etc, etc.  But in trying to instill the spirit of giving with the kids, we didn't want our tradition of making Christmas goodies and giving them to all our friends and neighbors to go by the wayside.  But there was no way I was going to have the time or energy to do this, so Dave did most of the work while I was gone.  Don't ask me how.

After getting home from Riley's Christmas concert, I got Ella down to bed and Riley "helped" me finish up.

The cutest little part of this, if you ask me, are the "Grinch Pills."  Dave somehow saw this and wanted to include it with our Christmas goodies.  You get a box of green tic tacs and then glue this little "Grinch Pills" poem/label on it.  Turned out very cute!

The finished product

Sixteen in all.... half the deliveries were made last night and we will finish up tonight.  Kids had so much fun going from door to door.  Some were good friends, some were people we were reaching out to, etc.  But they loved it.  And that was the whole idea.

Merry Christmas!

I'm a Little Pine Tree

After getting home at midnight Monday night, I (wisely) decided to take Tuesday off work and go to Riley's pre-school Christmas concert, which I wouldn't have missed for the world.  I have been listening to her sing cute little songs around the house for weeks!  And, from experience, I have decided that pre-school concerts are pretty much the cutest thing on Earth.  This was no exception.

I don't know if you can really tell from this picture, but Riley, who has been totally off the charts for her height for as long as I can remember, is probably a full head taller than pretty much every other child in the preschool even though they are all within a few months of each other in age.  So, I had to laugh when they were all singing "I'm a little Pine Tree, you can see, all the other pine trees are bigger than me..."  They did this movement where they would look to the right and then to the left while singing that.  And there was Riley in the front row towering over all her peers singing her little heart out ".... all the other pine trees are bigger than me."  Haha!

Anyway, it was a great way for this exhausted mama to start her post-jet lag day!

95 on 12.13.14

I just returned from a weekend in Medford, Oregon.  Six of the seven members of my immediate family (Ricky is in the throws of moving and was the only one unable to be there) flew from all over the country to be with my grandmother to celebrate her 95th birthday.  It was a true labor of love to orchestrate this the week before Christmas, considering Maret is 8 months pregnant and all the rest of us have children at home.  And Lindsay and I are both on the complete opposite side of the country, so flights are very expensive and there are no direct flights into the small little Medford airport.  But we pulled it off and it was so, so worth it!

The morning of her birthday (Saturday, the 13th), she was in the lobby of the Manor (she lives in a retirement community known as the Manor, but she has her own apartment in the Manor; it is mostly Independent Living and that is where she is, at Age 95, bless her!).  My parents were with her (she knew they were coming to celebrate) and then the four of us "kids" all walked in singing Happy Birthday.  I got the whole thing on video, but uploading video to blogger and I have never gotten along.  So suffice it to say, she was SHOCKED.  She got very emotional.  She just couldn't believe we were all there.  After surprising her, we visited in the lobby for a while and then joined her for lunch.

It's too bad Ricky couldn't be there.  This is the only time I can ever remember all us siblings getting together without spouses and kids.  It was just like "old times" 20+ years ago.  Back at the hotel, it was like a slumber party every night!

Checking out the view from the "Penthouse"/rooftop of the Manor

Grandma lives on the Third Floor

One of the absolute highlights of this trip for me was face timing my kids and having Grandma "see" them.  I named Riley Jane after my Grandma, Betty Jane.  The last time I was able to visit my Grandma was in 2010, when I was pregnant with Riley.  So, although Grandma has seen pictures of Riley, and vice versa, this was the very first time they were able to "meet" each other.  That is Riley on the phone.  It was so sweet to see them talk to each other while looking at each other and hearing them each say "I love you" to the other.

I had Ryan hold the phone so that I could take pictures and document them "seeing" each other.

That night, the festivities began!  I only have two cousins on my dad's side of the family (my dad has one sibling, his brother Jim, who has two children, Tom and Jackson) and they were both able to join us.  So, my grandma was surrounded by all but one of her grandchildren for her big day.

Mother and son

My 95 year old grandmother even thought of and provided party favors.  We each had a box of Sees Candy along with an angel ornament at our place setting.  In addition, I added the scroll at each place setting which was a personalized "On the Day You Were Born" write up of a listing of current events, cost of living, etc during 1919.

My dad started our steak dinner with a toast

After dinner, we brought out the cake we had ordered from a local bakery and sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl!

After some family/group pictures, we visited a while longer and then Maret had to say good-bye since she was flying home first thing the following morning.

And so did Lindsay

One of my favorite memories of the trip was after we said our goodnights/goodbyes, we watched grandma pushing her walker toward the elevator.  We all spontaneously started singing "Happy Birthday" as we walked out the front door.  As we finished singing, she turned around and waved.  I had tears in my eyes.  I think most of us did.  And I soaked in that moment of watching her from behind, at the age of 95 pushing her walker toward her apartment, as we parted ways after a day where we all left our lives to celebrate hers.  I tried to consciously etch that moment in my mind.

After getting Maret and Lindsay off to the airport, the four of us explored Medford a little.  Here we are at Tou Velle State Park.  Would have been a great place to kayak or raft in warmer weather!

We also went to see the Medford LDS Temple.

Then we went back to the Manor to visit with my grandma some more.  Ryan and I took her to the computer lab and showed her our family blogs.  Then we all had dinner together.  After dinner, we went to see a performance by an acapella group called the Undertones from Northwestern University. My grandmother's 94 year old best friend, Marjorie, joined us.  Aren't they cute?

After the concert, we headed out to see Christmas lights.  I looked online and found a single house that people online were raving about, so we headed out in search of that one house.  Little did we know that "one house" was part of two streets where every single house up an down both sides were DECKED out to the nines.  It was incredible!!  There was even one house that had music playing and all the lights flashed on and off all over the yard and house in different colors and such all synchronized to the music.  It was AMAZING!  And just when you thought, it couldn't possibly get better, the next house was even more amazing.  I am 38 years old and have seen a lot of Christmas displays in my life.  But I have never in my life seen this many amazing homes all congregated together like this.  It was a perfect way to end the trip!

Pictures can't possibly do any of this justice, but trust me, it was absolutely AMAZING!

Monday morning, we had a couple hours in the morning before we had to leave for the airport, so we picked up Grandma and headed to Harry and David, which is headquartered in Medford.  We all did a little retail damage there!

Cranberries anyone?

And before we knew it, it was time to drop Grandma off and say our goodbyes...

It's hard to say good-bye to your only living grandparent when she is 95 years old knowing the last time I saw her was 4 years ago, due to how difficult it is for me to get to Medford.  But what a great weekend.  So many great memories.  So much good, quality time.

You are loved, Grandma!