Christmas Shenanigans

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  We were able to spend time with the Haackes and the Whites and great memories were made.

Christmas Eve

We decided to change things up a bit this Christmas Eve by doing a service project for the Food and Care Coalition with the White Family.  We made about 10 ready to heat and eat casseroles.  We split the ingredients of the casseroles up among the family and then got together Christmas Eve morning and put them together.

 Savannah and Josh cutting up cooked chicken.  Who knew they were so handy in the kitchen?

 Maddie, Jessica and Amy (Jessica's friend) helping with the chicken.

 Jaxon stirring in melted butter into all the cracker crumbs.

 

 The whole gang with the finished products.  After we finished, everyone delivered them to the Food and Care Coalition and then went to lunch.  After lunch they went to see the latest Star Wars movie Rouge One.

I stayed home and got to hangout with this cutie.  His mom stayed and Grandma's house because his little brother Mason was sick, and his dad went to the movie with the big kids.  So it was just the two of us.  We watched Curious George, ate lunch, read Christmas books and took a nap.

Later that night we went to Grandma White's house for dinner and Christmas games as well as exchanging gifts.

After all the kids put on their new pajamas that Grandma White had made for them, we played games.  For one of the family games we played our own version of "Watch Your Mouth".  We had to insert dental mouth guards into our mouths and then say Christmas phrases while our teams tried to guess what it was we were saying.  It was funny and entertaining!

We also did the traditional $5 gift exchange game.  Above Kayden is choosing which gift he should open.

Christmas Morning

We had church at 1:00, so we stayed home Christmas morning and it was wonderful.  We had a nice time opening gifts and having Grandma and Grandpa White som

The majority of our Christmas this year was in the form of a refinished basement.  We decided to make better use of the space down there.  The boys slept down there Christmas Eve night.  They were pretty excited to have the basement done in time for Christmas.  They were all set to head upstairs and see what they got for Christmas.

Another view of the basement.

Suki with a Christmas bow.  I don't think she liked it too much though.

 Josh and Kayden opening presents as well as the boys all opening a family gift.

McKay and Jaxon opening presents.  Jaxon and his Spurs.  McKay got money toilet paper and a money blanket.  I got some odd looks and stares from him.  What do you get a teenager??

Kayden with all the presents he received this year.  He had a great Lego Christmas and spent the following days after Christmas building Lego sets.

Jaxon's Christmas was basketball themed.  He got a few Spurs things and also some new basketball shoes.

 Josh received a wide variety of gifts.  He will be kept busy for a long time!

McKay also received a variety of gifts from a new shaver to a doughnut maker.

After opening presents, McKay laid down on his new blanket and took a nap!

Jaxon explaining the gifts he got for Christmas.

What Kayden got for Christmas.

Josh's Christmas.

McKay shows his gifts.

Family Gifts--in addition to the basement.

Jeremy's Christmas.

I was also spoiled this year.

The Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas Jeremy and the boys went skiing and then we got together with all the Haacke's that could make it (we missed the New Jersey family) and exchanged gifts with the cousins and gave to and received gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  It is always great to be together.

McKay and Jaxon checking out what they got for Christmas and observing all the gift giving at Grandma's house.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  We just wish that we had a little bit more of a break from school.  Just over a week is not enough!

Gingerbread House Construction

The boys and cousins got quite silly while building gingerbread houses.  They were also very creative.  There was some serious concentration and creativity going on during construction:

 

They were serious until it was time to take pictures of the completed house:

McKay trying to show off his house but yet not giving me a normal smile without much prodding and many threats.  His house was very detailed down to the murder scene outside the front door.  One gingerbread man is dead and the other is holding the murder weapon.  Nice and full of Christmas cheer.

Jaxon was no better than McKay.  I couldn't get him to cooperate for a picture for anything.  I finally threatened him that he would be put on the naughty list.

The rest of the photo shoot went something like this:

 Good picture, except McKay can you move your head so the light won't block it?

 Yeah, that's much better.  Not.  Let's try putting your faces by your gingerbread houses.

   Okay, not what I had in mind.  Really, McKay?

 Can ya'll look at the camera?

 Maybe from this angle?  Nope.

 Come on! One more time?

I give up.  You're all excused.

So I got shots of the finished products without the kids.

Starting at the top left: McKay's, Jaxon's (he was obviously in a cheery mood).  Bottom left to right: Josh's and Kayden's.  Gingerbread houses without their creators are much more cooperative.  It's all about the memories, right?

School Sing-In

The Christmas sing-in at the school is one of my favorite traditions at the kids' school.  It always puts me in the the Christmas mood.

Kayden (top middle) wore a Santa hat and a green shirt with red pants for his Christmas sing-in attire.  He sang "We Wish You a Swinging Holiday" and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" with the rest of the third grade.

Josh had to wear an ugly sweater for the sing-in.  Here he is pictured with some of his buddies that are in his class.  The sixth grade sang "Snowball Fight" and "Ugly Sweater" (hence the ugly sweater).

(Josh is on the back row in the middle.)

Huskies Old and New

Every year during Christmas break the Mountain Ridge Jr High coaches get as many kids that have played on previous years teams come back and scrimmage with the current team.  They call it the Alumni Game.  I went and watched my two boys scrimmage each other.

At the end of the scrimmage Coach Smith and Coach Scholle wanted to take a picture because this will be their last year coaching the team.  McKay is on the second to last row from the top on the right side and Jaxon is just about smack in the middle--slightly left--with the rest of the current team.  We love Coach Smith and Coach Scholle.  They are great coaches that my boys really look up to.

Chocolate Dipping Day

One favorite family Christmas tradition is dipping chocolates at Grandma White's house.  She spends the whole week before dipping day making center for chocolates and then we all get together and dip--and eat.  The boys each get to fill their own boxes with their favorites to take home.  It is a day we all look forward to every Christmas season.

Kayden and his cousin Ben putting the dipped chocolates in little cups.  This was their favorite kind of chocolate--peanut butter--so they were anxious to help.

 Jeremy took his job seriously and dove right in.  As you can see he has chocolate all over his shirt!

Cameron, our oldest nephew, dipped chocolates right along side grandma.  He didn't hesitate to lick his fingers when he was done!

 Jeremy dipped the white chocolate turtles.

No sure what Jaxon is up to here.  Maybe he was sad that the day was coming to an end.  What a pill.  I do know that we all loved helping make the chocolates and then eating the chocolates!

Dear Santa

Found this gem shortly after Kayden recently lost his temper:

It reads, "Dear Santa, Can I have a better life for Christmas and a house of my own?  Love, Kayden"  Really, he's not asking for much.  It is a nice short list!

No Shave November

McKay decided he wanted to participate in No Shave November.  I asked him if he knew the purpose of No Shave November and he said, "No.  You just don't have to shave."  So I explained to him that No Shave November is men's cancer awareness and told him that if he was going to participate by not shaving, then he had to do it with a purpose.  He was given two choices to be able to participate: donate some money to cancer research, or get a colonoscopy.  After learning what a colonoscopy was, he decided to donate money.

This was towards the end of the month.  Grandma Haacke thought it would be fun if they had matching beards.

This is the end result.  (Looks like he is giving a death stare.)  He was very proud of his beard and sad to see it go.  He is already looking forward to next year's No Shave November.

Honorable #32

Jaxon tried out for his school's ninth grade basketball team and made it!  He is pretty excited for the upcoming season and to represent his school.  Go Huskies!

The best part is that he chose the same number that his brother was two years ago when he was on the school team--even though he had some encouragement from McKay.

Happy 12th Birthday Josh!

Oh to turn 12.  What a huge milestone!  Although we had a great time celebrating Josh's birthday, he kind of thought his actual birthday was a bust.  Little did he know that we had plans to celebrate his birthday on more than just his actual birthday.

 Part of the reason he felt his birthday was a bust was that we opened presents first thing in the morning before school.  He missed having the anticipation of opening presents all day.

 Kayden loves his brother and was excited to celebrate his birthday with him!

 The traditional bonk on the head!

 Unwrapping presents.  Serious stuff!

Josh received a couple of pair of basketball socks and a penny board for his birthday.  One of the reasons why we wanted him to open presents in the morning was that a big snow storm was moving and and we wanted him to be able to have a chance to ride his penny board outside before the storm.  He says he still would have rather waited until later in the day to open presents.  We'll remember that for next year!

Josh's day at school was disappointing as well.  Even though he was able to take Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to school for a birthday treat, his teacher's wife had a baby the day before so he had a sub.  The sub didn't celebrate his birthday and he felt a little snubbed.  We also didn't got out to dinner that night for his birthday, but I did make him his dinner of choice.  It was a busy night, but really we were just putting him off until the weekend.

Josh has two friends that also turned 12.  They all have birthdays within a couple of days of each other.  So the parents got together and we decided to kidnap them from school, take them to lunch to JCW's and then spend the night in a hotel in Salt Lake City.  Josh was completely surprised and was glad to continue on his birthday celebration!

After lunch, we went with Josh and his friend Eli to Jack and Jill's where we played two games of bowling.  We then had an awesome laser tag showdown after which we then set the boys loose in the arcade where they had some fun playing games.  The adults had a good time as well chatting and playing some billiards in the arcade.

 

We met up with Ella and her parents a little later for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  Josh finally got the birthday steak that he had been craving.  However, he was too busy having fun with his friends to eat it!

The waiters then brought out each of the kids their own cheesecake with Happy Birthday messages written on the plate. 

 We were able to sing Happy Birthday to all three of them.

 

 After dinner, we strolled around City Creek Center before heading back to the hotel.

Crazy birthday kids.

We spent a couple of hours playing at the pool and then we stayed up late playing cards.  The next morning we went to breakfast at Kneaders to wrap up the birthday festivities before heading home.  It was a fun weekend and a great way to celebrate Josh and his friends turning 12.

12 Things We Love About Josh

1. His willingness to help.  He has had this quality all of his life and continues to have a strong desire to help around the house and to help others.
2. This year Josh was voted by his peers to be on the Hope Squad.  They all voted for the person in their class that was the most trustworthy and that people would be comfortable going to if they needed help.  Josh is an amazing friend to all!  He has also volunteered for Service Club as well.
3. His continued love of basketball.  He made a Lone Peak 6th grade team this year and has loved playing ball on a more competitive level.  He also loves to play flag football as well.
4. He is loyal.  Be a friend to Josh and you will have a friend for life.
5. He loves his brothers and loves to hang out with them and support them in all that they do.
6. He loves playing outside and with his friends.  It isn't too often that I will find him playing video games.
7. He likes to discover how things work.  He really enjoys science at school and loves checking out the weather app when a big storm rolls in.
8. I love the way his eyes grow big and bright when he is excited about something or when he is happy.
9. He is sincere.  He means everything he says.  He really takes time to say his prayers and really thinks about what he is saying.
10. He is a peacemaker--even when it is hard.
11. Josh started taking piano lessons this last year and has really come a long ways.  He never argues with me when it is time to practice.
12. Josh works hard at school and takes great pride in doing well.  He is always making sure things are turned in and that it is his best work.

Happy birthday Joshua!  You have brought so much peace and love into our home.  I thank Heavenly Father every day for the boy that you are!