Santa borrows our wrapping paper

WARNING: Don't read this with children who still believe in Santa!

I had hid a role of wrapping paper in our closet a few months ago, planning to wrap all of the presents from Santa with it. I had done really well keeping it hidden from the kids up until Christmas Eve day. That afternoon Nate had taken the kids out to do something and while they were gone I pulled out a present for Kiersten from my parents that I'd hidden in the back of my closet. In the process of getting the present out, I had to move the "Santa" wrapping paper. I fully intended to put it back in it's hiding place before they got home. However, I got busy and forgot.

After Nate and the kids got home, I assigned Kiersten the job of wiping down all the door handles with a Clorox wipe (we really didn't want to spread Kiersten's pink eye!). The first door she heads off to do is my closet door, and right away she spots the "Santa" wrapping paper. Not knowing why I would have wrapping paper in my closet, she says, "Mom you have pretty snowflake wrapping paper in your room." I try not to make a big deal out of it and agree with her. As soon as she leaves my room I go in and hide the paper, but the damage is already done.

Nate and I try to decide what to do. It's too late to go buy another role of paper and re-wrap all the presents from Santa (I'm too cheap and lazy!), so we figure we'll just hope for the best.

Christmas day arrives, and she doesn't say a thing. But, the day after Christmas she and I are headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things, and out of the blue she asks me, "Mom, do you think Santa borrowed our wrapping paper?" "Yes I do" is my answer - that was a better solution than I had come up with. To that she says, "Wow! He must have been really quiet when he was wrapping presents, because he didn't wake me up at all!" I told her he didn't wake me up either, so he must have been really quiet!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning came bright and LATE to our house! Our children must still be too little to get truly caught up in the Christmas morning anticipation because they slept the latest they did all of our Christmas vacation - Kiersten slept until 8:45 and Tanner woke up at 9. What a wonderful Christmas present they gave Nate and I - letting us sleep in, and wake up when we were ready to!

Kiersten was very excited over all the candy and presents (she was amazed that Santa gave each of us a different candy cane in our stocking. Thankfully she didn't notice that they all looked like candy canes from last year or the ones Santa gave them at our ward party!), but Tanner was pretty excited by the banana that Santa left in his stocking! He wouldn't let go of it until Nate put him in his high chair so he could eat it (which wasn't that much later!).


Back when I first started my Christmas shopping, I asked Kiersten what she wanted for Christmas, and she didn't have any ideas so I picked what I thought she'd like. As Christmas got closer, however, she found a set of princess dolls at Target that she really wanted and started telling everyone that is what she hoped Santa would bring her. A few days before Christmas I really started to worry that she was going to be disappointed by the Doctor kit Santa was bringing her. I even sent Nate to Target 2 days before to get the princesses, but no luck for us . . . Target was out (or, he may have been looking in the wrong spot, I don't know!). So I prayed really hard that she'd be happy with the 1 princess doll Tanner gave her and the Doctor kit Santa gave her.
And thankfully that prayer was answered - she was delighted that no longer did she have to find things to pretend to play doctor with her babies. She now had the "real" stuff! We decided that Santa must have known how much she liked to play doctor with her babies, and that Tanner was going to give her a Belle doll.

Tanner has the funniest look he gives us on a regular basis, but we've never been able to capture it on film. This still isn't quite the look, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what he looks like. (By the way, this was a random face - I was taking pictures because he was so excited sitting on Nate's lap opening the truck from his cousins Brooklyn and Savannah.)

I was a little worried that it would take about 15 minutes to open presents Christmas morning because it was just our small little family of 4, and we only got each person 4 presents (1 in their stocking, 1 from Santa, 1 from the kids/their sibling and 1 from Mom and Dad, and that was a combined present for the 2 of them). However, Grandparents, Aunts, and cousins came through and filled under our tree, and it took over an hour and a half to open presents Christmas morning. Of course, not all of that time was opening presents - we stopped and got Tanner a snack (his stocking banana and some Nutter Butters that Santa had left), and we'd stop opening presents and let the kids open the toys and play with them for a bit before going on.



After we finished opening presents and had breakfast, Kiersten organized another rendition of the Nativity. This time was different than the night before because we had different costumes (I've never known Mary to have such bling, have you? And Joseph has never looked so good in pink, don't you agree?)
Tanner really didn't have a role in this rendition of the Nativity - he just jumped in where he wanted. This time I got a little more for my shepherd's costume - instead of just a hair bow like I had the night before, this time I had a blanket to wrap around my shoulders.

After naps/quiet time Nate took the kids out back and set up the trampoline we got for them. I'm hoping to save my couches and mattresses from all the jumping they've seen over the last several months! Unfortunately our back yard isn't big enough to accommodate a large trampoline, so hopefully they won't mind sharing and taking turns until we move into a house with a bigger back yard (no, I'm not making an announcement - we don't have any plans to move, we'll get a bigger back yard "someday int he future!") and can get a bigger trampoline.

Later that evening Kiersten was so excited to set up her easel from Grandma and Grandpa and get to work. She's colored and painted so many pictures. Watch your mail - you may be the lucky recipient of some of her original artwork one of these days!

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas day. We really enjoyed being able to spend time as a family. While we missed our family and friends, we were also glad we couldn't share our sicknesses with you (Kiersten had pink eye, Tanner had a fever, and Nate and I had colds!). And, Kiersten has done a wonderful job of keeping the Nativity story in the forefront of our thoughts, as we've now had to act it out 4 times in the past week (and that's only because we've put her off several times! If she had her way it would have been at least daily!)

Christmas Eve

This is the first year we've celebrated Christmas by ourselves. There are several things we've really enjoyed about it, but we have also really missed being with our family. However, thanks to technology, we've been able to participate with our families - my mom read her favorite Christmas story to us over web cams, and we got to watch Nate's family perform the traditional Nativity story via a live broadcast over the Internet. In between those events, we've had our own family things too . . .

Kiersten decided that for an "activity" we were going to act out the Nativity (she used to confuse "activity" and "nativity", but I think by now she usually gets it right!).

Here she is pulling out all the things she's collected over the last couple of days to use for the "activity" or Nativity or whatever it was we were doing!

Tanner was far more interested in giving Daddy (and everyone else!) kisses than getting for his role as the lone Wiseman!

Our Nativity telling started with the Angel Gabriel appearing to a very pregnant Mary and telling her that she was going to have a baby and that she should call his name Jesus.
" And she brought forth her first-born son . . . " (I didn't mean to time the picture just so, it just happened, and it's the only one Tanner was in, so I had to use it!)

Here's Mary and Joseph admiring their baby Jesus who is laying the the manger (which is really the stable to a Nativity my mom bought for the kids in the Phillipeans!). (Keep in mind Kiersten chose everyone - including Joseph's - costume!)

Our telling of the birth of Christ ended with the visit of the shepherds (my shepherd costume consisted of a Christmas hair bow and the white sheep on my lap) because our wiseman had moved on to bigger and better things!

After our re-enactment of the Nativity ended, we had my Grandma's bread pudding - I didn't expect Kiersten or Tanner to like it (I remember not liking it as a kid, but now I love it!). I was right on one count - Kiersten was interested in it only long enough to determine that she didn't have the nut and win the prize. Tanner on the other hand couldn't get enough of it; I think he ate as much of it as I did!

Kiersten and I ended our Christmas eve festivities by putting together a plate of cookies for Santa. (We even had fun decorating the plate together, although it did get a little stressful when she and I had VERY different ideas about which font we should use to say "Cookies for Santa." Thankfully, in the end, she saw the light, and I prevailed!
We've had a wonderful Christmas Eve, and look forward to more family time tomorrow, and I'm off to bed so Santa can come visit our house!

Christmas Lights

There have been a lot of things that I would have liked to do with Kiersten and Tanner this Christmas, but decided that they were still a little too young. One of these years we're going to ride the Polar Express, and I think next year I'm going to let them decorate cookies (I'm sure they would have loved that this year, but I just wasn't ready for the mess! Next year, though . . . !) But, one thing they have both really enjoyed are the Christmas lights. Every time either one sees lights anywhere they squeal, and then usually the other joins in as well!

So we started the Christmas season by going to see the lights at the Mesa Temple with Nate's family who was here for Thanksgiving. Everyone loved it. It's not Temple Square in Salt Lake, but it is quite impressive, and it's a whole lot warmer!
(Tanner didn't care who held him that evening, as long as they cuddled him and kept him warm, so Grandma Larsen and Aunt Kathryn fought over him!)

A Tucson holiday tradition we hear about every year, but hadn't actually tried yet, is going to see the lights at Winterhaven, a community in Tucson. Their light displays are amazing - it's as though each house is trying to be bigger and better than the next. I'm really glad we don't live there, because the pressure to compete must be pretty strong!) We figured that this was something the kids would appreciate and enjoy, so we bundled up (ok, so it wasn't snowing and frigid cold like we're used to braving in Utah, but it still was cold, especially for our Tucsonian children . . . and their mom!).


(Kiersten dressed herself that night. We suggested they wear their warm "snuggle" footed pj's, and we told her she needed a hat to keep her head warm. This wasn't quite what we had in mind, but she was adament that this is what she was wearing. )

One house not only had their lights timed to music, but also had water jets synchronized. Here's a short video - but they seemed to be encountering technical difficulties as we got there, because everything went black and quiet, and stayed that way!




The kids loved it, as did Nate and I, and even though we only made it through a fraction of the houses, we felt it well worth the drive. (Tanner could have stayed longer, it was Kiersten who was done first, and very vocal about it!) We've decided to make it one of our family traditions every year - to go check out another part of the lights at Winterhaven.