Town Christmas Tree Lighting

Each year the town Christmas tree is set up outside of the White Salmon Boat Works.

This isn't a public square or city park, but it's on the main shopping street in town and there's a large space here between the building and the road that's perfect for gathering. I'm not even sure who coordinates all the little details, but the last couple of years there have been fires and complimentary s'mores.

The fires were welcome on such a cold night. Holly was in her little "polar bear" outfit keeping warm in the stroller. This is her typical get-up for picking up the girls from school, although with all the snow on the ground she usually rides in a backpack. (Snowy roads aren't stroller-friendly.)

We went over to the tree lighting after spending the afternoon at the library's holiday open house. There was a bell choir and brass and string ensembles playing Christmas carols. There were goodies and kids' crafts and a lot of our friends.

It's times like these that I really enjoy living in a small town. The mayor led the children in the tree lighting. He asked everyone to count to three and blow, and then . . .

Ta-da! (Notice the white salmon topping the tree.)

The mayor also told the kids that if everyone wore their pajamas inside-out and backwards for three days we'd get snow. I guess they listened. We're no longer dreaming of a white Christmas. We'll have one.

Durable Decoration

Believe it or not, I've had this candy house for TWENTY-SIX years. I made it in Miss Lizak's kindergarten class at Brookwood Elementary School in Sandy, Utah.

My mom saved it and eventually passed it on to me. I've used it every year as part of our Christmas decor. This year when I took it out, for the first time, some of the candy was feeling sticky. Maybe its days are numbered, hence the photos.

Twelve Days of Christmas in the Sciptures

Every year on Christmas morning before opening any gifts, my family reads the Biblical story of the Nativity in Luke chapter 2. Many years ago, on Christmas Eve I began to read in 3 Nephi in The Book of Mormon about the events on the night of Christ's birth. Several years ago I decided to go back even further and for each of the 12 days leading up to Christmas I found scriptural references relating to Christmas--not only the events that happened, but prophecies and teachings about why they needed to happen.

Reading these scriptures has become one of my Christmas traditions. I shared this list with my family a few years ago, and this year I want to share it with all of you. I've included links so you can go directly to the scriptural reference via the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or print the list and tuck it into your own scriptures. If you don't have a Book of Mormon, you can get a free copy here.

Merry Christmas

Read each reference in the days leading up to Christmas.

December 14 Moses 6:57-62--Plan of salvation revealed to Adam: why the Lord must come.

December 15 Moses 7:42-47--Enoch asks when the Lord will come.

December 16 Isaiah 9:6--"Unto us a son is given."

December 17 1 Nephi 10:4-6--Lehi's prophecy: 600 years until the birth of Christ

December 18 Isaiah 7:14 & Matthew 1:23--A virgin shall conceive.

December 19 Alma 7:10--Jesus shall be born of Mary.

December 20 Luke 1:26-38--Gabriel visits Mary.

December 21 Luke 1:46-55--Mary rejoices.

December 22 Matthew 1:18-25--Account of Jesus' birth

December 23 Helaman 14:1-8--Prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite

December 24 3 Nephi 1:4-21--Sign is given on the night of Christ's birth

December 25 Luke 2:1-20--Christ is born in Bethlehem

Brian's MU Fried Rice

The "MU" stands for "Made-up." Brian is my dad.

Tonight I made his fried rice. I've only made it a couple of times before. Tonight wasn't my best effort. Last time I think was my best. While tonight was pretty good, last time I couldn't help from just gobbling it up. But tonight as I was cooking it, I had a realization. Fried rice is one of my comfort foods.

Now, if you were to ask me about my favorite foods, I would not say fried rice. Or if you were to have previously asked me about memories from my childhood, I don't think fried rice would have been on the list. However, tonight as I was stir-frying and trying to get the color and the look of my rice just right, I realized how many memories I have of Dad's fried rice. I can remember trying to sneak a little bit of crumbled bacon from where it was draining on a paper-towel-covered plate next to the stove. I remember sitting at the table as Dad walked around it dishing up heaping piles of the hot rice directly from the pan. I remember cranking out extra pepper from our wooden pepper grinder. And I can remember being disappointed when there wasn't enough rice for seconds. I know I had to develop a taste for the fresh bean sprouts, and that there was probably a time when I picked through my plate and ate all my bacon first.

I also credit fried rice for my misguided thinking that rice was a difficult food to cook. You see, when you make fried rice, you have to start with cold rice. That requires cooking it ahead of time and then giving it time to cool. So, when I received phone calls from my dad at work saying, "Tell mom to cook some rice and I'll make fried rice tonight," I assumed rice was complicated--or at least took a long time to cook. When I got married, I had never cooked rice. I quickly learned that it wasn't so tough and it's become a staple at our dinner table.

The real key to the authentic flavor--at least of the MU version--is the dark sesame oil used for frying. I don't think I had quite enough of it tonight, but the last time I made it the flavors were all perfect and I was transported back in time to my parents' dinner table. Damon probably thought I was crazy. I just kept going on and on about how it was so good and reminded me of being a kid and was just like my dad had made and oh, oh, oh--all this between mouthfuls.

So, here's to childhood memories that are brought to the fore through the marvelous senses of taste (and smell). And, here's to my dad and his many MU recipes.

Snow Day!

We got our first snowfall in late November, resulting in TWO snow days off school. That's all our school calendar allows, so we're in trouble. Anymore cancellations and the kids will be going extra days in June. Fortunately, one of the best snow days was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which was also Damon's birthday. After a quick breakfast we got all bundled up,

and then we headed down the street.

There had really been no plowing to speak of, so a stroller for Holly was out of the question. This backpack was great because I was able to put her down and still have her up off the snowy ground. She handled it for awhile, but Damon and I also took turns holding her.
The six of us descended upon the snowy school playground,

for sliding . . .

. . . of one kind . . .

. . . and another.

Everyone had a turn going down the little hill, even Holly. She rode a couple times with Mom and Dad.

. . . and even once by herself! (Don't worry, we didn't start her from the top.) She didn't seem to think much of sledding, one way or another. She mostly just had a puzzled look on her face, like, "What are you guys doing to me now?"

We all had a great time being the first to make footprints in the soft snow, sledding and rolling down the hills, swinging, and sliding (that tunnel slide was sure quick!). The kiddos loved it--and even loved each other!

Da-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na

They say it's your birthday!

It's my birthday, too, yeah!

It's fun to have your birthday and your spouse's be 8 days apart. We do lots of joint celebrations and joint gifts, but we always have our own cakes.

Damon's was really more of an ice cream pie, but yummy and full of candles nonetheless.

They say it's your birthday.

We're gonna have a good time.

I'm glad it's your birthday.

Happy birthday to you!

Random Acts of Fun-ness

Here's Adah, being silly and dressing up like her dad. I think she's even wearing his belt. (But those are my glasses.)

Giddy-up! Maggie insisted on driving the "wagon" and making Gunnar ride shotgun.

Licking the beater has never been sweeter. . . or messier.

Food, Glorious (Solid) Food!

All of my babies have been exclusively nursed. None of them have ever had a bottle. I tend to wait until they are six months old to begin solid foods. I guess I just want to hold onto that stage where I am providing their sole sustenance for as long as possible. I'm not sure what it is, but maybe every mother out there understands that thought that their little baby is just not "big enough" to be doing something new, even though you really know that they are.

So, with Holly I have been just as reluctant to start her on solid foods. I knew she'd be six months old at Thanksgiving and thought that seemed like an appropriate day to start. However, a few weeks before that holiday devoted to food, I decided Holly might need a little more in her tummy than I was providing. She just wasn't sleeping well anymore (and she had been a GREAT sleeper--going 10-12 hours at night) and was waking up to nurse in the middle of the night again.

I'd been thinking of getting her going for a couple of weeks before I actually got around to doing it. It was mostly a matter of pulling out the high chair and not being rushed at a meal. Finally, though, on November 10 we buckled Holly into the chair.

Look at her. So innocent. So tiny. (I purposely didn't crop out that big tray. Look how small she is behind that tray. Surely, she can't be old enough to be starting solid foods when the tray is so large and she is so small. Right?)

Well, we moved ahead and she seemed pretty amenable to the whole thing (as were her older sisters, who are just ecstatic at Holly's every milestone), until the camera came out. Then all she could do was stare at the camera.

Spoon? What's spoon?

Even here you can see that she has partaken of the rice cereal (yum, right?) but is still pretty fascinated with the camera.

Overall, it was a successful first attempt. I think she even did a bit better than her siblings, whose darn tongue-thrust reflexes were so hard to overcome.

Now, two weeks later, we're still figuring out how to fit these new solid food feedings in to her schedule, but she's doing well and slowly adding on new foods. Bananas are not a big hit--I should really get a photo of that face--but she loved the Thanksgiving yams. She does really seem to like her rice cereal. If she only knew how many better foods are out there.... All in good time.

Gratuitous Baby Photos

Holly is becoming quite mobile. She's been rolling over since she was just 3 months old and now can creep along the floor to get at toys--or other desireables. As of Thanksgiving, Holly is 6 months old. The other girls were just rolling over at this point.

You always have to have some shots of babies playing with their toes.

And sucking on them.

We had sleeping bags out for a star-gazing Family Home Evening activity and afterwards Damon just found his to be so cozy and warm that he fell asleep in it on the family room floor--with Holly who had a little trouble falling asleep on her own that night.

Aren't they cute?

We're Nuts for Butternuts!

Count 'em, folks! We grew SEVENTEEN butternut squash this year! (Now, did you really count them? If you did, you only found 16. We gave one to a neighbor before we took the photo. ha ha)

Here is the biggest squash next to the smallest:

And, now, for scale:

I weighed that big boy before cooking it, and now I forget how much it weighed! It was too much for my kitchen scale and I had to take it to the bathroom scale. I think it was around 12 lbs.

Here are the three kiddos who did the harvesting, lovingly holding some of the tinier guys. They were very excited when the first use of the squash was one of our favorite recipes, butternut squash gnocchi. Check out the recipe on my other blog, Family Bean (which you may notice has not been updated for all of 2010).

We've never had such a successful butternut crop. They were planted in the same place as last year's cucumbers, so maybe we're onto something. Now we just need to decide what crop we want too much of next year.

More Look-Alike Babies

Maggie or Holly? Holly or Maggie?

Baby A:

Baby B:

Baby C:

Baby D:

A: Holly

B: Maggie

C: Maggie

D: Holly

Halloween: Spooktacular Family Fun Night

Every year our ward has a Halloween carnival sometime the week before Halloween. This year it was bigger and better than ever!

My friend Aimee was the mastermind behind much of the event, but she really did an excellent job of rallying all the different leaders in our ward to pitch in and take responsibility for part of the night. I've really never seen the church auxiliaries work together better to put on an activity for the entire ward.

The night began with a chili cook-off dinner. Anyone who chose could enter a chili and then everyone dished up and voted on their favorite. The people in charge of the dinner decorated our gym so festively with garlands and lights running down the tables and they played a slide show of past church costume parties. The smartest thing they did for the chili cook-off was to have little cups instead of large bowls on the buffet table. Then you could take a little sample of each chili without having too big of a serving.

Once dinner was complete, all the young kids lined up and received punch cards. Then they were let loose to visit different rooms and activities around the church building. They could visit each room as many times as they wanted, but the punch cards meant they could only get a prize/treat once for each stop.

Here's Adah waiting to go fishing in the room run by Zorro (or the elders quorum president in disguise).

The other Sunday School teachers and I were in charge of the beanbag toss. A couple of us decorated the room (plastic dollar store table cloths go a long way) ahead of time and one of the teachers with no young kiddos ran the game on the night of the activity.

The Relief Society ran a cookie walk (like a cake walk, but with less-crumby winnings).

There were several other rooms, like gourd bowling and bobbing for donuts (on strings hung from the ceiling, not in tubs of water), run by the other auxiliaries. Everyone decorated their own rooms and then ran the activity that they were assigned by Aimee.

The star of the evening was the fun house created in our primary room, which has more than one door and thus allowed for an entrance and exit.

Below is Aimee, aforementioned Spooktacular Family Fun Night mastermind, inside the first section of the fun house.When she went looking for large pieces of cardboard to divide up the primary room into different areas, someone offered pieces leftover from another church's Vacation Bible School, suggesting Aimee could just use the back sides. They ended up being painted in these amazing circus scenes, so she decided to just use them (see also the clowns in the Sunday School room above).

In the fun house, kids went through a balloon-filled area and then down a slide; next they crawled through a "bat cave" (a tunnel made by putting small tables end-to-end and then covered with the fabric from an old trampoline). Then they walked across a plank bridge above some "hot lava." (I didn't see that part--my butterfly wings didn't allow me to fit in all the spaces.) Finally they came out through a "lily pond." The photos below don't quite do it justice. The first photo was taken with the flash, so you can see the tulle, frogs, lily pads, and cattails that created the scene. The second photo, without flash, gives you a little idea of the effect created with the overhead lights off and the whole room just lit by some blue and white Christmas lights.
The fun house was so spectacular in its inception and execution. The kids were delighted and all the adults were impressed. Such a fun way to celebrate Halloween!

At the end of the carnival games, we were supposed to have a Trunk-or-Treat in the parking lot, but it was raining hard and super cold, so everyone took a corner or a doorway and the children Trick-or-Treated through the hallways.

We were so happy to have an indoor, Saturday alternative for this year's wet and chilly Sunday Halloween. We chose not to go Trick-or-Treating on Sunday, and so the kids didn't have to be around while everyone else was out on Halloween night, we spent Sunday evening with friends who live outside of town, munching on popcorn and cookies and then venturing out to see dozens of expertly-carved jack-o-lanterns at the home of a family in our ward.

Overall--lots of fun for our family this Halloween!

Halloween: The Costumes

Happy Halloween

from Pumpkin Pi, Flamingo, Pirate, Fairy, Butterfly, and Caterpillar!

This year's costumes were lots of fun to make and put together. The best part of my month, though, was when I was at the fabric store in early October purchasing material and realized that my mother-in-law (retired professional seamstress & costumer) would be here just a week before Halloween! Without her, the amazing metamorphosis from felt, thread, and wire into these AWESOME butterfly wings would not have happened. THANK YOU JOANNA!

I've had the patterns (from an old Martha Stewart catalog) for these butterfly wings and the caterpillar costume (along with several other adorable baby/toddler/kid costumes) since before Adah was born. With 2 October babies and the other Halloween with an infant being just after an international move, I had just never managed to take advantage of those cute patterns. Well, this year I was determined to do it and I chose this cute pairing of the caterpillar baby and butterfly mama. Joanna completely put together these awesome wings. I get credit for safety pinning on some straps and making antennae out of pipe cleaners. Joanna also got Holly's costume started. I made the hat and sewed buttons on the straps. I also sewed on the spots, for which credit goes to Adah! She cut out and sewed together the black-and-white layered dots.

Gunnar was easily persuaded to be a pirate this year. He loved the sword and saying, "Aargh!" and mumbling things about "Bad Beard." (That was not a criticism of his own beard, but rather a reference to Phineas & Ferb.) The other fun part is that Adah was a pirate for Halloween when she was 3, and she wore the same red pants! (No beard for Adah, though.)

Maggie's fairy costume was quite simple. We already had everything we needed in the dress-up drawer for her "Sugar Plum Fairy" get-up.

We jazzed up her look with some curly blue ribbons and lots of glitter! She had on glitter body lotion, sparkly lip stick, and blue glitter on her eyes and cheeks.

Finally came Adah's flamingo costume, which was also really fun to put together. I hit the jackpot at the Salvation Army when I found the pink go-go dancer-style dress, pink bolero top, and pink feather belt! She already had the pink leggings and socks, and the light pink boa is mine. The hat really made the outfit though. After doing some searches online I finally figured out the best way to do the beak. I made the pilot cap out of pink fabric and then stitched on the beak that Damon made out of a piece of white art foam cut to the shape of a flamingo beak. Some Gorilla glue, a little detailing with a Sharpie and voila! We jazzed up her face with pink lipstick and swooping pink eye make-up.

The kids and I all dressed up for the school costume parade on Friday (Gunnar, Holly, and I spectated in costume). The big girls each got to dress up again for Halloween parties with friends, and then we all dressed up Saturday night for our church Halloween carnival. I love getting a little mileage out of my costumes; in fact, don't be surprised if you see those butterfly wings again. I asked Joanna to make them with repeat-use in mind!