Christmas

Christmas Eve we ate yummy homemade challah bread and clam chowder. The kids opened a present from Grandma that was matching Christmas PJ's! The kids changed and then we tried to take a few pictures before doing a cousin gift exchange. 

 

It was a little confusing for Freddy to be given a present to hold and then be expected to GIVE IT AWAY to someone. As the youngest in the exchange he was given a present first but he didn't want a new present, he wanted to open the one he was already holding. All confusion and tears were cast aside as soon as he did open the right gift, he LOVES the little wooden car transporter Mady gave him!

The kids were super antsy and the parents were anxious to put kids to bed but we felt like we should do something else, so we asked Great Grandma (GG) to recite for us the poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" She had come down from Ogden just that morning and we were so happy to have her there. Despite her wonderful poem, Freddy was too tired to actual sit still and be quiet and I didn't get to hear half of it because I was trying to calm down a screaming Freddy in the kitchen (He's starting to throw some doozy tantrums!) 

As the families dispersed to put their kids to bed, I was wanting to talk more about Christ on Christmas and have a nice spiritual moment with the kids, and so we gathered our children all on our bed in Thom's old room to try and talk about the meaning of Light at Christmas time and try and give everyone a turn to share a time when they felt the Light of Christ during the past year, and/or a time when they've reflected or shared His light. I had wanted to use candles, but improvised with a bedside lamp. It all sounded so good in my mind, but it was a COMPLETE BUST. Alec and Charlie were just mad that they were stuck in a room with siblings and parents when there were cousins to play with, Gwen was whining about something else... probably wanting to eat a treat or not wanting to go to bed, and Freddy was going crazy with the lamp and Mom and Dad were getting frustrated about being frustrated when we were aiming for calm and spiritual. *Sigh* Do we get points for trying? After explicit instructions for the kids regarding expectations about staying inside bedrooms until certain times, we put the kids to bed. 

We helped get the room ready for Santa and by the time that was done we had eaten our stomaches full of peanut and plain M&Ms, red licorice, and cinnamon bears and honestly I can't remember what we did next. Probably just went to bed. 

Christmas morning started at 6:30AM! By 7:00 we were lined up on the stairs and ready for fun!

Because both Thom and Brittany and us were traveling and trying to not spend very much, I think we did a great job with moderation on the presents. I think every child felt loved and spoiled, but I didn't feel anyone went over the top. We had worked all week on a special present for GG and we were all excited to see her open it. It was an "Open When.." box. We filled it with envelopes with instructions written on each one like "Open when You're Worried" or "Open When its Easter" etc.  I got the idea from my sister, Sarah and while it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, it was good to see the kids excited about making it and giving it to her. 

Freddy's exuberance did not disappoint!

Then Chris and I braved the newly fallen (and still falling) snow for a drive up to Herriman to visit with my siblings and parents. It was nice to see them and spend a few hours with them. I forgot to take pictures. Darn! But all too soon (I admit, I cried when it was time to leave) we headed back down to Provo for a scrumptious Christmas Dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, yams, jello, rolls, and trifle.  

It was so fun to be together and have so many fun gifts and eat such delicious food. I hope next year I can be better about really keeping Christ as the focus. Ideas anyone?

Bowling, snow play, music night, gingerbread, motorcycle

Although we mostly kept the almighty Google Doc, we had to make adjustments on the meals since we were just adding daily to the MOUNDS of leftovers in the fridge and scaled back on a few things (like Candy Cane making) since some of us weren't feeling well still. We went bowling at BYU:

Played outside in the snow ALOT:

Had lots of good cousin time inside playing board games: Battleship and Sorry were some of the favorites this year. Our little 2 year olds: Freddy and Jane and Cyrus were so cute to watch interact. Mostly they did well, but also loved to pester and tease each other with toys. Here are Jane and Freddy saying cheese for the picture but not actually smiling or even looking at the camera. 

On Christmas Adam, we invited all my Betteridge family (4 siblings + spice and kids, and even my parents and youngest sister, Hailey were in town for Tiff's baby) for a music night of singing favorite carols around the piano. I think its absolute heaven when both sides of our family get together. I was a little self-conscious that all of this was happening because of me but both sides were kind enough to oblige me and after I weaseled out of organizing/leading the songs I really enjoyed making music with people I love. We even sounded good on some parts!

We made gingerbread houses. For maximum enjoyment and minimum whining us moms hot-glued graham crackers together to make little houses and let the kids be involved with the decorating ... each child with his own plastic knife and mini cup of frosting.  After making the first 3 houses big, we realized we'd run out of crackers and had to downscale the rest. We decided the oldest in each family would get a big one, but still had lots of complaints. Alec was really kind and let Charlie have the big one to decorate. I LIVE to witness moments like that. 

Uncle Eddy brought his little motorcycles over on Christmas Eve. He's been fixing them up and it was really fun for the kids and dads to ride on them. Chris' first time driving a motorcycle! I think some little bikes like these would be perfect to drive around our yard back home in MS. 

Raclette and Temple lights

Thom and Brittany arrived about a day after us and the next day we all went to church at Jess and Ryan's ward to listen to Jess play the piano for their Christmas program choir numbers and hear Ryan speak! So fun to be with family and experience a big Utah ward: 4 nurseries!  Sunday night we had two of Chris' Aunt and Uncles and their families over for a Raclette cheese night. Between monthly woes and some GI bug I wasn't feeling well and didn't really touch food much that weekend. But it looked good. They finished off the night with some Christmas carols around the piano. 

Edward and Kayla brought over their dogs a bunch during the break. Both ours and Thom and Brittany's kids are pretty scared of dogs so they mostly played outside and only came in the house on leashes for short periods of time. Over the course of 2 weeks, I could see some improvement with my kid's fears. On the second to last day of our trip, Frederick would pet the dogs. let them eat treats out of his hand and be content to have me hold him close up to them, Gwen would hide behind me on the couch but not freak out, Alec would take a few steps out of his room to watch them without screaming. Charlie warmed up the most and LOVED to walk the dogs around the house holding onto their leashes and trying to make them do tricks for treats. 

Monday was Austin's birthday so we opened presents and ate a Tardis looking cake after lunch then we had an excursion planned (on our Archibald family Christmas Google Doc spreadsheet) to ride the train up to Salt Lake City and see the Temple Square Lights! 

Poor Austin and his family missed the train up by a few seconds because of some forgotten gloves and a flat tire in their stroller. :( 

It was kind of full so we had to sit on laps, but the kids did pretty good at keeping entertained on the hour ride. 

We met Jess and Ryan at the mall across the street from Temple Square and let the kids play around the playground at the food court while we hunted down some dinner as we waited for it to get dark enough to see the lights.  

So beautiful. I've seen them before but I'm always impressed with the sheer number of lights... it seems like every twig on every tree is decked out. We lucked out with the weather. It was supposed to rain, but it didn't. I WAS still really cold, but we were dry!

Having timed the train and bus schedule just right we needed to kill a few more minutes so we sat in the Tabernacle and enjoyed the warmth and beautiful organ. 

We're so awesome, we made it to the bus stop (which would take us to the train station) with less than 5 minutes to wait for the bus. 15 min later, we hear from a worker that something is delaying the tracks but we can still just take the next bus which will take us to a different train station but will still work to get us home. 

As we pulled into the train station on that next bus we watch the southbound train pull away so now we wait on the cold platform for the next train 45 later. :( Not so fun for a group of 13 cold, tired, past bedtime kids under the age of 9. This train was even a few minutes late but it came! ... only to stop 1/2 way home and sit on the tracks for a good 20 minutes before telling us that there was a blockage up ahead and  we should stay tuned for an update.  We start going again to the next station and sit there for another 20 minutes when the train driver buzzes over the intercom that we'd have to get off at the next stop, board some buses to take us to the following station and then continue on South. 20 more minutes later - Nevermind! they were clearing it and we could just stay on the train. 20 minutes later - Nevermind! it was going to take longer and would probably be faster to board the buses. So we all (along with 100 other people) get off and wait outside for some buses to appear. 20 minutes later 2 buses show up but they fill up before we can all get on. But it was fun to hear Edward speak Spanish and help a sweet couple from South America figure out what was happening. Finally some more buses come and we were driven the 20 minutes to the next station. We get off and head to the station only to be told by a worker that the trains aren't working still and that they would just drive everyone on buses to the last 3 train stations. We packed our crew (13 kids, 1 double stroller, and 8 adults) into a few seats of another bus (Thanks to the college kids who gave up their seats and stood up so our kids could sit down) and were driven during the next 40 minutes or so to our stop in Orem. Hahaha. Such a long commute. We could have just driven it ourselves in less then an hour but then we would have had to find parking. :)  J/k. We took the train on purpose because we knew the kids would love it. And the crazy thing was... they did! They actually did so well! Not too many complaints or problems. Chris entertained a bunch of them with his silly spur-of-the-moment songs, Grandma saved the day with some jolly ranchers, and Brittany too with some bags of pretzels and they just had fun laughing and joking with each other. It was funny to watch the kids' personalities emerge. Some went quiet as the night wore on, (Mady) or fell asleep (Frederick) and others were ramping up (Alec, Mia, Jackson) ... having a grand ol' time the later it went. I was impressed with the Archibald's make-the-best-of-the-situation positive attitudes. I'm sure lucky to have married into this family. 

Tiffany and baby Henry

My sister, Tiffany was expecting her 5th child around Dec. 21st but she's pretty much always gone early but I was hoping that my little nephew would wait to come until after we arrived in Utah so I could be there with Tiffany for the big event. Five hours after we arrived in Provo, I get a text from my sister, Tiffany, saying that she thinks she's starting labor. I was torn between excitement and trepidation because we had literally just laid down in bed to try and sleep for the first time in 48 hours. I snagged a couple of hours in the car during the previous night but I was really tired, and the roads were snowy and Chris was nervous about me driving 45 minutes north in the middle of the snowy night with only a few hours of sleep under my belt.   I told Tiff as much but told her to keep me posted because I still wanted to come, so I fell asleep holding my phone in my hand under my pillow with it on silent (so it wouldn't wake up Freddy, Gwen or Chris). Around 3:00 am, I woke up realizing I hadn't heard from Tiff but feeling like 5 hours of sleep had done me good and I was able to go if needed. No news from Tiff, so I fell back asleep and woke up every hour or so to check my phone. Around 5:00am I get a text from Tiff and my other sister Sarah that they're headed to the hospital! So I snuck out of bed, threw on some clothes and drove as fast as was safe to meet them. I walk into the delivery room and find a talented midwife, a supportive nurse, a still pregnant Tiff on the verge of being ready to push, a calm Todd and a quietly excited Sarah. 10 minutes later little Henry made his appearance! It was sooooo peaceful and beautiful and exciting, and special.  Tiffany was amazing.  

My job was to film a g-rated version on Tiff's phone because her other kids wanted to watch it. I stayed up by Tiff's head and did a pretty good job with my assignment - as long as you ignore the camera shaking a little bit because I was crying. Newborns make me cry. Everytime. It was sooo fascinating and peaceful to watch a  live natural birth and not be the one doing it! I'm so grateful that Sarah made Tiffany text me and that her and Todd were so kind to include us during this personal, special experience.  I love my sisters and my family so much. I'm glad I got this chance to experience what life would be like to live close enough to my family to be involved with these spontaneous (sort of ) life events. 

He's got the chin dimple like our Dad! 

If I'm being totally honest, the whole experience kind of made me feel a little sad about my labors, since I don't think I keep it together as graciously and as quietly as Tiffany does. In general, where Tiffany is concerned, this isn't a new feeling. She really is that amazing, at everything but I still love her and love to be around her.  After I shared these feelings with Chris, he chimed in to say that even if I do make more noise or am less calm, gracious or beautiful (I added that last one in.. he'd never admit to that) that watching me labor is still the most beautiful and amazing thing he's ever seen. He's pretty good at making me feel better (even if it just proves that that just mean he's never seen Tiffany give birth. ;)