A Table For {Seven}: December Stuff

December was waaaaaay too much fun, as usual. I have learned to embrace the craziness and live by my to-do lists. We had several bigger things happen in December, so I'll do those in their own post. Here is the random December fun and craziness.

Delivery day! I swear, half of my Black Friday online shopping arrived in one day. Happy Mail!

Jenn, Tenille, and I had been trying to get together for 3 months. You read that right.... THREE months! Jenn announced to us that she is expecting! We were thrilled for her. We had a fun night eating ice cream at Leatherby's and gossiping about when we all worked at Ulta Beauty. It's so fun to have these friends that know about a part of my life that no one else does. Love them.

Laylah got Student of the Week!

Daphne got 1st place in the Music Composition category in Reflections and went onto the district competition. She didn't move on to state, but she was happy nonetheless.

The night finally came, the night I had been looking forward to for months.... my last night of work! I had been working part to full time for 2 1/2 years and I was so ready to be done. That day had been absolutely crazy (I will post more about it later) but I had worked the night before, gotten one hour of sleep, and then had to go work all night again. Andy brought me home a giant DDP to get through the night. Luckily I got a very easy pod and was able to go home a few hours early. I really miss my job at Primary Children's. It was a great job that I enjoyed very much. I learned so much and am grateful for it for so many reasons. But I am also so happy to get back to my job as full time mama and student and not feel so totally stretched in life. It has been so great not working.

While I was sleeping after my last night of work Andy took the boys to a U of U basketball game. Andy's brother decided to switch schools right before the season started and he went from playing basketball at Utah State to U of U. We are already Ute fans, so Andy couldn't have been happier.

Grandma had fun gingerbread houses for the kids to make at her house after Sunday dinner.

Pretty peppers about to be stuffed for dinner!

Do you remember when I literally CHOPPED all of my hair off almost 2 years ago? Well, I have been growing it out ever since and was thrilled to finally be able to put it in a top knot and have it stay all day long! Yay for longer hair!
Also, this was my last day of finals for the semester. I was SOOOO happy!

Watching Hallmark movies and addressing Christmas cards. Such a fun and relaxing activity.

My mom and sisters all got together to make our traditional toffee at Rachel's house. We had a silly night laughing a lot. I think we made somewhere around 12 batches. Daddy stopped by too, because we are so fun that nobody can stay away ;)

We had our ward Christmas dinner and party where Daphne was able to be Mary in the nativity play, Laylah helped backstage with all of the little kids, Andy, Jonah, and Baron had lines in the play, and I led the primary kids in the few songs they sang for the play. Santa came afterwards and Magnus was SO excited to tell him what he wanted. He gave out fun beanie boo's and it was a fun night all around.

We had our annual Humphrey's Christmas party with my mom's side of the family. My grandma has done this party since long before I was born, and always at her house. She is turning 90 this year (I think?!) and she finally admitted she was too tired to cook dinner for her ever-growing family. We had the party/program at the lion House and it was so much fun. I adore my Humphrey's fam. Here is my grandma with her grandchildren and their spouses (well, the ones that were there--there are several missing)

And her great grand-children (again, lots are missing)

I love my cute grandma Marge and I am so glad that my kids have such a great relationship with her.

Since we were already downtown we took advantage and went and saw the Temple Square lights and the Macy's candy windows. There was lots of photo-bombing going on.

My cute cousin Courtney joined our fam for lights.

Love this cute family of mine!

My baby boy

The Peanuts theme was so cute at Macy's.

Later that same night we joined friends for a night at The Escape Key and did one of those mystery rooms where you try to figure out all of the clues and get out of the room before the time is up. Our group did it and actually got on the high score board! Fun night with friends.

One day the kids wanted to make Christmas cookies. They all frosted for a minute and left the rest to me.... as well as the mess to clean up. Life of a mom.

Reason for the Season

We have had such a dry last few years with hardly any snow. This year was so great! It snowed a ton. I loved the many snowstorms, I love snow. This was the night of the first storm...

And the next morning! Yay snow!

Laylah had a choir concert. She is the vice-president in her class and she announced their songs. She is on the far left in the back row.

I also got to go to parents day at her dance studio before Christmas break. She has improved so much this year, it is so fun to watch her.

The last day before Christmas Break from preschool, Magnus' class did a little program. It was sooooo cute! he did such a great job singing and ringing his bells. He took it very seriously.

I just love prepping gifts for Christmas. These were visiting teaching, home teaching, and friend gifts.

Tiny little succulents in a tiny little pot.

Teacher gifts

I got tickets to the MoTab Christmas Concert this year!! I have tried for the last 4 years and have never gotten them, I was SO excited. It was such a fun night. This day was crazy--I had a Christmas surprise planned for Andy (more in another post) and we were leaving out of town the next day. Also, that day Magnus had had his quarterly scans (another post as well) and we were very happy because they had come back clean. And we were also very tired. I slept through part of the concert, but it was because the music was so beautiful and I was so content :)

I love Christmas lights!

Laylah and I made this hilarious white elephant gift for a Young Women breakfast she was going to.

It's play and Shave Barbie. She has chest hair, a goatee, and armpit hair.

More Christmas prep! Getting down to the wire.

For family night the Monday before Christmas we went to dinner, got donuts and went home and made hot chocolate. Such a cozy and fun night together.

I have no idea where laylah is...

My two babies enjoying the winter sunshine.

Cristan and I met up on Christmas Eve for breakfast to exchange gifts. I love her.

I was TOTALLY ready on Christmas Eve for Christmas.... except for wrapping gifts. I spent all afternoon in the basement wrapping and watching Christmas movies and the few times I meandered upstairs for more tape I spied these cuties passing the time playing games together.

Oafie's last night with us was spent hanging on for dear life in the tree.

We had an absolutely wonderful holiday (more later) and I snapped this photo of Laylah on the Sunday after Christmas. I just couldn't believe how all of the sudden she looked so grown up! It's crazy and so true what they say.... The days are long, but the years are short.

The girls and I spent a super fun day hitting the after-Christmas sales and exchanging some gifts.

We have a tradition of going to a movie on Christmas (one of my favorite traditions from growing up) but sometimes we have a hard time getting there on Christmas. So we went during the break. We saw Peanuts. It was so boring and I fell asleep for part of it. I have never been a Peanuts fan. I don't get it. But the kids loved it.

Magnus and I were running errands near Andy's work one day and stopped by to kidnap him and take him to lunch.

Jonah had his annual eye check-up and we talked to the ophthalmologist about getting him contacts. He recommended we wait until Jonah is 12, so maybe this summer we can finally get rid of the glasses. Jonah is super excited. I don't know if I am quite ready for him to have that responsibility. Plus, he is SO cute in glasses! He's had them for almost 8 years. I can't imagine him without them.

We had such a fun time with all of the snow and took advantage during the break with sledding, late night snowball fights, and the like.

I took on a huge project over the break. Back in October I sold all of the girls furniture that they had had since Daphne was 2 and Laylah was 4. I scoured the classifieds and found the perfect antique pieces with lots of character that I could turn into exactly what I was picturing in my mind for their new rooms. The new-to-us-furniture sat in our shed for a couple months until I could finish the semester, finish up work, get Christmas over with, and get through Magnus' scans. We had separated the girls and given them their own rooms and I wanted to give them a new room that reflected their personalities (for a budget!) I have to say, I am so happy with the results! It was SO much work and I will post the finished product soon, but for now here is some of the process. Rachel helped me (being 8 months pregnant--she is the BEST!!) and we painted for what seemed like days upon days upon days. It was a pain. I am so glad it is over. My kitchen had drying furniture in it for over a week. My house was a huge mess. And my Christmas decorations stayed up for longer than they should have. But we did it!

I needed a break from painting one night and demanded that all of my siblings come to my mom's house for pizza and sledding and hot cocoa afterwards. It was SO much fun! I love my family! Here are way to many photos from the night: