*more Christmas leading up to Christmas*

So I realized finally that I spend a lot of time at a little place called the University Hospital and I hardly have any pictures of my friends, my work area, and the fun and fully capable doctors that I work with.

We are kind of lame in the holiday decorating on Labor and Delivery. I mean we didn't have any decorations anywhere until right before Christmas when our unit secretary decided she had enough of our unfestiveness and demanded we all make snowflakes. It was a slow night so we hopped onto Pinterest and found some snowflake patterns and were able to create a winter wonderland.

This picture does not do it justice.


We also had an Elf party one night. Probably one of my most favorite parties we have ever had at work. It was a sugar fest complete with candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup. Oh and spaghetti and pop tarts and coke and hot cocoa and chocolate syrup and candy cane forest cocoa stirrers. And we couldn't forget the beef and cheese.


We made spaghetti a la Buddy and dared everyone to eat it. I have to brag that I was the brave and was the first one to try it although there is not proof. One of the residents was trying to take my picture and I turned away because I wasn't expecting it to be cold so I kind of spit it out at first but after I got over the initial shock, the actual taste wasn't that bad.

We had a couple other brave souls...




...and Ben will eat anything.


A group picture of some of the wonderful people I work with.


The next night was Justin's company party and then we made it to the Nutcracker this year without any fiasco like last year.

We went to eat at the Olive Garden and then we immersed ourselves in the genius of Ballet West.



It was pretty awesome because I bought the super cheap seats and the theater was quite empty the night we went. So we just scooted ourselves a few seats to the left and were sitting in the posh $44 seats. We felt like high rollers.



We bought shakes, made gingerbread houses, I went out to lunch with the Scott women, and we had our Christmas eve party at my cousin's house. It is always such a fun time when we get together. We visited, decorated gingerbread Santa sleighs, ate dinner, exchanged our semi white elephant gifts with a fun "left/right" story, my uncle read the story about a family who had Christmas for a dollar, and there was a ginormous pinata to top off the evening.




Miss Olive was entertaining us with her many facial expressions.





Poor Luke was sick that night (and ended up getting diagnosed with strep the next day) so here is a picture of me and a glimpse of the top of Luke's head.



I wasn't lying when I mentioned the pinata was ginormous and my aunt stuffed it so full of candy and fun little toys that the kids were in heaven.



Justin and I went on a fun date to Hale Center Theater to see A Christmas Carol which I highly recommend to everyone. Then I totally copied my friend's family's tradition of "The Night Before the Night Before" and went out as our little family to dinner and the movie "The Adventures of Tin-Tin". We all loved it--I didn't have any idea what it was about and it exceeded all my expectations. It was like an animated Indiana Jones. I loved starting this new tradition because it is a night that usually doesn't have other obligations and it was nice to spend time with just our little family.

This brings us to the next day--Christmas EVE!

We started the day at my parent's house with brunch. I did not get one picture which kills me. It was a great way to start the morning!

I was proud of myself that I was able to get all the wrapping done before today so we all went to Justin's aunt Heidi's to celebrate with his family. As always, we had a fantastic time.









One of the highlights of the evening was playing the pipes. It was so cute to see the little ones anticipate when their number would come up on the chart and then enthusiastically hit their pipe with gusto. If anyone has a pipe cutter and needs a gift idea for me, I would love a set of these babies.

Here are Justin and Mel explaining how everything works and leading the controlled chaos.




A snapshot of the Scott boy cousins with their new Utah beanies. There is one missing from the picture because the excitement of the next day caused him to have a little meltdown.


We went home, tucked the kids into bed, got out the milk and cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer, helped Santa find his way around the living room, and then I headed off to work.

It is most definitely the most wonderful time of the year.

*yes I know it is the beginning of March but I am finally getting around to Chrismas*

We had our annual Santa party at the Scott's house.

It is always such a fun time seeing the big man in red with his elf, playing trivia games, the kids acting out a silly Christmas story, and of course, opening presents.

This year Nick was putting up a little bit of a stink about having to sit on Santa's lap but it didn't take much coercing to make it happen. Still a little bit of his inner child remains underneath all this handsome manliness.






Singing "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" after we answered the joke that is always asked: "Which side of a reindeer has the most hair?" Well, the outside, of course.



The kids received red hoodies from Santa which is great for us since they are dress code approved.

A couple days later we headed to my most favorite Christmas tradition. Hands down.
This year I thought it would be fun to do an advent calendar of activities. I made a super cute one with little brown paper bags with little tags in them that listed the activity we were going to do for the day.

The activities ranged from decorating our tree to service projects to places to go and things to make and eat. It was a really fun idea in theory but I was so busy trying to MAKE the Christmas spirit happen that I was totally missing the point of the season.

The Candlelight Christmas is the best thing ever to get you out of over stimulated mode into the right frame of mind to think about the true meaning of Christmas.

Here we are making paper chains and popcorn garlands to decorate the schoolhouse tree. The cute ladies started singing Jingle Bells and even got my boys in on it too.

It made me so happy to hear Nick's new scratchy voice sing along.


The carolers are amazing and always so friendly calling out "Happy Christmas!" as you walk by.


We wrote letters to Santa and set them in the fire to have the ashes get carried to the North Pole by the wind. Liam did two just to make sure.



One of my favorite parts of the entire evening was learning a line dance with Andrew. He was mortified that Justin would be taking pictures and was into it for a while but then bowed out in the middle. Nick stepped in and finished off the dance with me.



We went on the train and I tried taking pictures but had the wrong lens so the pictures were super close and the flash was really bright. As if you couldn't tell from Andrew's face.


We visited the quilt display at the old hospital. I didn't get any pictures of the quilts because I was too worried that the boys would touch the displays but they were pretty amazing. Some of them dated back to the 1800s.


We went to the printing press, saw a puppet show, and made handmade ornaments.




My favorite part is the live nativity. This year they staged it in the stable and as we walked by the shephards welcoming us the beauty of everything hit me so hard that I started crying. Walking into the stable was smelly, flies and animals were everywhere, and there was Mary and Joseph looking content and proud with their sweet little one bundled up to protect him from the cold. It was absolutely beautiful.

This is the true meaning of Christmas. Our Savior and His love for us. I wish I could remember as I am planning for Christmas to do more service and not jam pack every day full of silly things because Christmas needs to find our hearts. Needs to seep in and fill in the cracks of our broken souls and build us up so we can build up others. Christmas is a time for meditation and reflection, not running amuck and feeling stressed. My goal for next Christmas is to do less and feel more and hopefully by doing so, teach my children that you need to slow down to let the spirit talk to us and help us understand what we need to do and that by serving others, especially around Christmas, is the best way to show our Heavenly Father and his precious son how much we love them.

I am not saying that I don't like the festive spirit and doing fun things throughout the month but I just need to tell myself it doesn't need to be forced and to see what occurs when we just let things happen to us rather than making things happen.




We visited Father Christmas and the boys were able to tell them their wishes and received a candy cane.



I absolutely cannot wait for next year's visit.

*random*

While I am trying to figure out the password to Justin's laptop so I can load pictures, I wanted to remember some funny things the boys have said lately.

We will start with one from Liam.

We were playing "pass" with his stuffed angry bird and after a couple throws he decided that the areas in front of the couch were acid. He jumped onto the couch and proceeded to tell me that the areas on the side and in back of the couch were safe. I asked him how we were going to be able to get anywhere since we are not allowed to go over the back of the couch. His little body manuvered over to the side of the couch to get off and as he was hopping back on, one of his feet touched the acid.

I asked him if his foot hurt since it was probably burning off because of the acid and he looked at me and said: "I'm okay, I am wearing special shoes."

One from Luke.

Our cable is out due to all the snow that has been falling up at my in laws. The boys get a little restless and Luke was getting a little bored. I was at work and Justin texted me a conversation he had with Luke.

Justin: "Why don't you choose a board game?"
Luke: "No way. Grandma and grandpa only have old games like the pioneers had when they walked and walked."

Oh boy.

Lastly, another one involving Liam and I couldn't have a post about funny things my boys say without including a bodily function.

There is quite a bit of roadwork being done on the way to the boys' school. Liam and I were on our way to pick up the brothers and as I was turning onto the road I smelled something foul.

"Liam, was that you? Did you toot?"
"No mom! It was you."
"Um, I know it was not me."

The smell dissipated somewhat but then a couple seconds later it was pretty bad again.

"Seriously Liam. Quit farting!"
"Mom! It wasn't me! I didn't feel a burst from my bottom!"

Turns out they are working on the sewer line.