Getting ready for Christmas

This past week has been filled with last minute trips to stores and fun family traditions. On Saturday, Clay and I took the kids to lunch at the Pizza Factory. Every year, the last weekend before Christmas we take the kids to lunch and then to the mall to pick out presents that the kids will give to each other. Each child picks a name of one of his brother or sisters and that is the person they will buy a gift for. At lunch they were trying to ask questions to the person they were buying for (with out being to obvious)to see what they wanted for Christmas. Luke wasn't talking at all during lunch he was just dancing around in his seat. When we finally asked him what he was doing he told us that he was "dancing to the Madagascar song (I want to move it, move it)". Clay and I both looked puzzled at each other because the music playing in the restaurant was Christmas music. We asked him where he was hearing that song and he said "it's in my head". That is our Luke!

After lunch we braved the mall in Orem and took the kids shopping for their secret Santa gifts. The older girls took off on their own and Clay and I took the boys around. Luke of course didn't want to look for a gift for Savannah, he wanted to look for gifts for himself. But after some persuading, he got into the spirit of it and found a cute gift for his sister.

We had a fun day picking out gifts for everyone and after we were done we headed home.

After the mall the kids wanted to make the gingerbread house that I bought from Costco. They had a good time trying to make it look exactly like the picture on the box. I kept telling them they could decorate it any way they wanted too. But they still stuck with their original plan.

After the gingerbread house was done they all put on their winter clothes and headed to the back yard for sledding. For those of you who haven't been to my house we have a huge open field in our back yard with a giant whole in the middle of it. It's great for exploring during the summer time and best for sledding in the winter. It's so nice having it right in the back yard too, because I can just look out my back windows and know where they are at all times.

Sunday was crazy with Church and our choir performance both in Sacrament Meeting and later on that night for our Stake Christmas program. I have been so fortunate to have moved into two great stakes that have incredible stake choir directors. The first one was in Cedar Hills, our choir director was Steven Kapp Perry. He is extremely talented and singing in his choir was always an amazing experience. Here in Highland our choir director is Brother Riplinger. If his name isn't familiar it's because he is a little older than most of us. He is in his 80's I would guess. He used to direct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir back in the late 70's-early 80's. This guy is so talented it makes me sick. He can play just about any instrument, sing all four parts in the choir (no joke, even soprano), and writes and arranges most of the pieces we sing. He picks extremely hard music, but it's so much fun to sing and preform.

The next few days were pretty uneventful, just doing the normal stuff, nothing too exciting.

Today on Christmas eve, the kids spent the morning helping me get the house clean and ready for Santa's arrival that night. I did some cooking for our Christmas eve dinner and the kids spent the day tracking Santa on the Internet. Using NORAD and google earth you can see where Santa is all day long on Christmas eve. We also danced around to Christmas music, ate yummy cheese and crackers, and did some more sledding. In a few minutes my SIL Kym and her husband Martin will be coming over to visit for a while before they head to the airport to pick up Martins daughter.

Kym and Martin just left and it was fun to have some family to visit with on Christmas Eve. We decided to not eat our big dinner tonight since we snacked so much when they were here, so we will just save it for tomorrow. After Kym and Martin left the kids got in their pajamas, brushed their teeth and we played a fun family tradition game that we played every year with my family. It's the white elephante exchange game. The kids love this game and it's always fun to try and get the crazy present that you want. This year the big trading presents were the fireworks and the glow bracelets. Of course the screaming monkey boomerage was also a hit!

Time for bed because Santa will be here soon, and I'm so tired!