Holiday Festivities

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas and New Year's last year. It was pretty cold during the break so we did our best to get outside when we could. This snowy and cold winter has definitely confirmed to us that we enjoy living in the South and have no intentions of moving back to a cold state. I'd take a hot and humid summer over a freezing and snowy winter any day.

Ashton helping wrap my stocking gifts that she came up with

Santa came to our house one night.

The preschool program day. Tanner did great standing in front until he saw us in the audience. I ended up sitting with him in front.

Ashton loved the program and did great!

Ashton knew a little bit more about Santa this year but was still pretty oblivious to it all. She knew he came in the middle of the night but that was all. I even wrapped the Santa gift in different wrapping paper but I don't think she would have realized. If you ask her now, she has no clue what Santa brought her versus what she got from family. I'm glad she's not overly into it as it helps her appreciate who got her gifts instead. Her favorite gift is the little kid sewing machine and sewing kit that my parents sent.

Singing Christmas songs together

Tanner loved Christmas morning and was much more into playing with each present than opening them. This appalled Ashton as she was determined to open every present before playing with them. Tanner has really enjoyed the magnatiles that the kids got together and Ashton's scooter.

We went to church Christmas Eve and then laid low that day. We did our traditional movie night with the mattress in the living room. The kids actually laid down/rested for most of the movie. Last year, Ashton was still all over the place during the movie so it was nice to enjoy it this year.

In preparation for Christmas Day dinner at our house, I planned to make a blueberry cheesecake on Christmas Eve. I started it in the afternoon and did a water bath for the first time. I also used a different recipe than my normal "go-to" one. Well, the water bath failed miserably and water got into the pan (despite the multiple layers of foil to keep it out), which made the crust soggy. The rest of the cheesecake was perfect. I was out of cream cheese and it was Sunday night. I knew I wouldn't have enough time on Christmas Day to get it baked and cooled in time for dinner as the stores that were open on Christmas Day didn't open until late morning. I found a few friends who had extra cream cheese and we piled into the van around 8pm to go get them. I set out to make another cream cheese that night but this time, I used my trusty recipe. This recipe requires about 3+ hours of baking. The cheesecake finished right before midnight and the last step of the recipe is to turn up the oven to 500 degrees and bake it for 5-8 minutes just to brown it a little. So I did that like I always do. Well, five minutes in and something on the bottom of the oven started to burn and fill the house with smoke. Smoke alarms starting going off and woke up Joseph and Ashton (Ashton was sleeping in our room already for some random reason). It took us 15 minutes to get the smoke out and the alarms to stop going off. Miraculously, Tanner slept through the whole thing despite the smoke alarm in his room going off too. It was a yummy cheesecake on Christmas day.

The finished cheesecake

Christmas morning was filled with presents and eating crepes. We had a few families over for dinner that night, which was fun. The kids played well and we enjoyed some adult conversation at the dinner table.

Always a satisfaction when your rolls do just what you want them to.

The week between Christmas and New Years was more laid back. I took my gestational diabetes test and passed! Although, I am still anemic so they increased my iron intake for the third time this pregnancy. Ugh... I also was able to go with the church youth to San Antonio for a day. We planned this trip to go to the temple there because the Houston temple is closed for several months due to flooding. It was a long day of lots of driving but well worth it in the end.

The pizza slices where we had lunch with the youth.

For New Year's, we got together with a few families and did a countdown to 7pm. The kids had a blast playing PieFace and some other games. The entire family was asleep well before midnight and I woke up to the fireworks in our neighborhood to remind me that it was the new year.

We're getting back into the swing of things now. BYU-Idaho started this week as well as the kids going back to preschool. Just 6-8 more weeks until our life turns upside down again with baby girl's arrival. I asked the doctor if he would intervene in any way after 39 weeks as Joseph's mom is coming at that point. He laughed and said I won't be making it to 39 weeks given my first two deliveries. We'll see about that.