Family Traditions

"Be certain you are creating a rich environment in which your family can look forward to special times of the year when traditions hold you together as a great eternal family unit." Elder L. Tom Perry

I read this quote from a talk in the December 2012 Ensign last week and it has stayed with me since then. I was raised to celebrate birthdays (all of them!), have family dinnertime, look forward to certain holiday traditions and do many other traditions for our family. I believe one of the main reasons why my family (parents and siblings) is strong and why we like to spend time together is because of the strong traditions my parents have created for us. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Likewise, I want to do that for my family and kids. I believe it's very important. So staying up late making birthday cakes or taking time to plan birthday parties or organizing Christmas countdowns or going to Church every Sunday or making a conscious effort to sit down for dinnertime every night, even when kids don't eat the food I prepare, is really creating our own traditions with my little family. It's all worth it. 

Elder L. Tom Perry says that, "studies show that the reason young people join gangs is for the tradition and ritual of belonging to something larger than self. This is what a family should be."  Well, then I want my kids to "join" my gang...my family that is. I've always had the idea of making my home the fun home where they'll want to bring their friends over to play and to create fun things we can do as a family that they will look forward to doing. With that said we just finished up our countdown to Christmas which is so fun. This is one of those traditions that our family looks forward to and brings us together.

25 days til Christmas

2012

1.  Decorate Christmas Tree and House

2.  Watch First Presidency Message

3.  Make Snowflakes and send to Jared

4.  Jump Planet

5.  Decorate Gingerbread House

6.  Watch Christmas Shows/Cartoons

7.  Swim at the Lynnwood Pool

8.  Ward Christmas Party

9.  Red, Green & White Breakfast & Watch The Nativity

10.              Snowflake Lane

11.              Make Christmas Craft

12.              Eat Dinner by Candlelight

13.              Make Gingerbread Man Cookies

14.              Go to The Lights of Christmas in Stanwood

15.              Read Christmas Stories/Shop for Sibling Gift

16.              Take Treats to Friends

17.              Go out to Dinner

18.              Watch Barbie and The Nutcracker

19.              Play “find” baby Jesus

20.              Read Nativity Story in the Scriptures

21.              Color Christmas Pictures

22.              Celebrate Christmas with Dee Ann and Melanie

23.              Celebrate Christmas with Gpa and Gma Sabin

24.              Open Christmas Eve Gift

25.              Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve we stayed in pajamas all day. Kyle worked until noon when they closed the office so everyone could go home (very nice!). We opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift of pajamas, games, movies and treats. We watched the movie Brave, played the games Uno Moo and Disney Headbandz. We also played Spot it, a fun game from Melanie. We ate our traditional Christmas eve dinner of french dips, pasta salad, chips and onion dip and jello. I also made a white slushy punch which reminds me of wedding receptions (because that's where I've had it) and it was good. We tried acting out the nativity. We left Santa a note, some Oreos and cold milk, oh and 2 carrots for the reindeer. The kids picked their places and put their stockings out then went to bed.

Christmas Morning!!!

Kate woke me up at 7:35am saying it was Christmas morning and after 7:00 (those were the rules, haha!). We woke up Lindsey and got Preston, he was awake in his room, then headed downstairs to see what Santa brought. The kids were excited and it's always fun to see their excitement. 

  

After seeing what they got from Santa and playing with them, we ate breakfast then opened the gifts under the tree.

Kate must have had a wild night because her pajama top ended up backwards. haha!

We woke up Chelsea a bit later to show her what Santa brought her. She's always good to get woken up, poor girl. 

Part of the mess. It got worse. It's a small room. We had fun and the kids loved what they got. Chelsea ate the wrapping paper and grabbed at everything. We lounged around until after naps then we headed over to Justin and Kati's house for dinner. The kids played, we chatted and ate a yummy ham dinner. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Before Christmas: Part 2

We got to Mattawa Saturday night, put the kids down then visited with my parents and Marci. We went to Church the next morning and got to hear the choir's beautiful Christmas program. My Mom is the choir director now so it was nice to be there for it. My home ward has always had a really good choir and even though it's smaller than it used to be it's still pretty good. Since we've been in several other wards we now don't take hearing a good choir for granted. :)

We all matched in our gray, black and white ensembles. Kyle's eyes are closed, but oh well it was the only option.

After Church, we ate yummy chicken cordon bleu and then relaxed a little before Jeni, Kevin and their kids came over. They were doing Christmas with Hebdon's. Sara and Derek were in Mexico with his family on a trip and Jeff and Sadie did Christmas with her family. We try to alternate Christmas and Thanksgiving with our families so we can at least have one each year we are all together for.

We (several siblings and us) got my Mom nice, new kitchen knives. She needed them badly.

We (several siblings and us) got my Dad some new church shoes and casual shoes.

Aubree with Preston and Lindsey. Aubree is growing up so fast!

We had a Christmas sing-a-long and the kids performed for us.

Here they are giggling about something

Kate got a barbie set, she loves it.

Preston got an elephant about the size of him and HE LOVED it!!! I wish I had taken a video of how he reacted when he opened it. He was so excited. Jeni asked him what his name was and Preston said, "I don't know." My Dad suggested Ernie so now we have a 5th child, Ernie the Elephant. 

Lindsey got this car play set and it's been a hit

I loved this picture of all the kids surrounding Marci as she helps Chelsea open her gift. 

Cute dress my Mom made and a new little stylin' outfit 

We got a new down comforter, fancy high quality bed sheets and more David Ridges scripture books. Yipee!

It was a fun and fast weekend with family. It was nice to do Christmas early because it split up the craziness for the kids and split up their presents. It also gave them things to play with before Christmas. :) We have good families and we are thankful for them.

Christmas Before Christmas: Part 1

With Kyle's new job he doesn't get any time off this year except for Christmas Day because he started so late in the year. Lame! So we went over the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with his family and mine. It was a quick trip and we were sad to not be able to stay longer. 

We got to Dee Ann's on Friday night and once the kids were in bed Kyle and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Delish! I've been wanting to go back for a while so that was nice of Dee Ann to watch our kids. Then on Saturday we woke up, lounged around and then started getting food ready for our Christmas lunch. Arlene came over along with Melanie, Milo and the kids. We did a gift exchange and visited. 

Before we headed to Mattawa that night, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Wright's house. We had a good visit with them and the kids love playing with their vintage barbies and toys. :)

Preston, Kathryn, Kate and Dane- a little excited to open presents! 

Nathan, Melanie and Owen- who ended up leaving with a fever, poor boy!

Lindsey opened her first gift which was My Little Pony's and then hugged Dee Ann. Cute.

Tonka Trucks and he got a new shirt

Lindsey was so excited for this butterfly pillow pet so she hugged it. 

She got play make-up (ahhh), lots of new twistable crayons and Barbie Princess Charm School DVD
I got a big beautiful red cast iron pot from Dee Ann. I'm excited! Kyle got a gift card and I'm going to make sure he uses it. :)

All the grandkids: Lindsey, Reed, Dane, Nathan, Kate, Kathryn and Preston. Then Dee Ann holding Chelsea and Owen

Cute picture of Dee Ann and Chelsea. This was the first Christmas that Dee Ann has hosted at her house since retiring and moving from Las Vegas to Tri-Cities. I think we wore her out! It was fun and probably nice for her to not have to travel or haul gifts up. 

Break Time

The last day of school before Christmas break...

Preston's afternoon bus driver said she is retiring now so she won't be back. We loved her. 

Kate made a gingerbread house at her school holiday party. 

I made this cake stand for Kate's teacher for Christmas. You take a melamine plate and bowl and glue them together (I used E-6000 glue). I saw the idea on Pinterest when looking for a Christmas idea for someone else. I bought some gingerbread cookie mix to put on the plate then wrapped it up and added a glittery ornament. Easy and pretty cheap considering the plate and bowl were on clearance. 

Kate had her Christmas sing-a-long at her school the last day and it was so fun. We all joined in singing Christmas songs like Rudolph, Santa's coming to town, jingle bells and they even had us sing "Joy to the World". I was surprised and happy considering it talks about Jesus. Another reason why I love her school. The 2nd grade classes sang "Light a Candly for Peace", so the bottom dark picture is off the 2nd grades holding their candles during the song. Getting a good picture in a gym is hard!

Forever Young

The other night we were on our way home from somewhere and Kate said, "I don't want to grow any older than 8 because I don't want to move away from home. I'll be sad and miss you." It made me happy that she'd miss me. :) I told her I felt the same way growing up. I wanted to be home with my family and not grow up or move out of the house. I told her it's good that I grew up, married Daddy and had a family or else she wouldn't be here. She thought about that and said "yeah, but I still don't want to grow up anymore." I'm glad she likes out home, but we'll see how she feels in 10 years. :)

On another note, I could listen to Faith Hill's song "Where are you Christmas" over and over. Oh wait, I already do, I put it on repeat on Itunes. haha! I also love the Christmas songs "O Holy Night" and "The First Noel" and I've heard really good versions by Josh Groban on the radio. It snowed today so being home this afternoon in a warm house listening to Christmas music and making yummy treats for teachers is a fun atmosphere for the holidays. I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away now!

Love My Kids

Preston (5), Kate (7), Chelsea (6 mo's) and Lindsey (2)

My Mom made their adorable dresses. I found the hounds tooth corduroy material and loved it. My Mom is amazing at sewing, which I'm so grateful for! (Don't mind Chelsea's red raw nose. I can't wait for her cough/cold to go away.) I love my kids and think they are pretty cute too. :)

The Lights of Christmas

This year we decided to try something new. I have heard from a few friends of this event and how they liked it a lot. Tickets are pricey so when I heard about an online deal I bought tickets and put it down for one of our countdown to Christmas activities. I was excited for us to go. Well...

Friday, we made the trek to Warm Beach for The Lights of Christmas. It's an event with lots of lights, train rides, pony rides, carolers, Bruce the Spruce (talking Christmas tree) and yummy food you can buy. Sounds fun, right? Well, not for us! It was 27 miles away and took us over an hour- gotta love traffic. It was pretty cold, but not raining so that was good. We lucked out. When we got Chelsea out of the car she started crying. She is normally very good and is quiet so it was weird she was fussy. We waited in a long line to get in and once we did we lost Preston, but I quickly found him crying as he was trying to find us. Then we made it to the nativity (my favorite part of the whole thing b/c it was pretty and had beautiful music playing). We went to the Polar Express Train first and the line was a 50 minute way. What?! We walked to see Bruce the Spruce, but another long line. We looked at the map that didn't make sense to find an ATM b/c we wanted hot cocoa and they only took cash. Preston was crying saying his feet were freezing, Lindsey's hands were cold, Chelsea was still crying, Kate was saying it was the worst day ever and I was cold too. We weren't prepared. It was a disaster from the beginning. Kyle wanted to go home right then and there, but I didn't want to. We had driven all that way so we might as well make the most of it. We finally went back to the train line that was only a 30 minute wait and endured the long line. After the super quick train ride (not worth it) we found hot cocoa in a warm building, got mini donuts and headed home. The lights were pretty, but waiting in long line after long line in freezing temps was not ideal. We would rather get hot cocoa and drive around to look at lights. Now we know. The pictures below show our adventure.