Saturday, December 26, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Here we are the day after Christmas afternoon.  The sun is shining outside and we have like 2 feet of beautiful snow out there.  I want to be outside so bad.  Eric is not feeling great, Rubie is recovering and so the two of them are down in the family room with our shiny new XBox One.  Scott and Sam went to take Cougar home, who spent the night here and run a few errands.  Samuel is on his 3rd day of wearing the pajamas that Grandma Perry gave him on Christmas Eve.  I tried to put different, new, clothes on him yesterday, he refused.  He refused again today.  He told me, "No!  I will be so mad at you if you try to get me out of these pajamas!"  Oh well.  So he insisted on going to Costco with Scott and we just put snow boots and a jacket over the jammies.

Eric and Rubie have been out of school since last Thursday at noon.  That seems like a lot of time to have off and will make getting back into the school routine difficult.  Their day at school on that Thursday was not really about learning either.  They had a school sing-in.  The Teddy Bear Hug / Service project and then class parties/celebrations.  Eric went home with his friend Nathan from his class.  Friday we went up to Ben and Cassie's and made Christmas cards for Jessica and Emmanuel, decorated gingerbread cookies, played in the snow, played in the house.  Stayed for pizza dinner and then headed home late.  Scott had been in Cedar City so he didn't come along.  The next day on Saturday we hosted an end-of-the-year social for our Sunday School class.  As I expected not that many kids came.  Two boys and 4 of the girls came.  We ate pizza and veggies.  I let them decorate some of the leftover gingerbread cookies we had.  The boys left after a while and then the girls stayed and we played a game of Telepictionary with them.  Monday the Tulett kids came over here.  Tuesday afternoon my kids went to the Tulett's while I did some Christmas shopping at Seagull Book and Walmart--the crazy zoo of holiday shopping.  Wednesday Sarah and her boys came over here for playing.  The kids spent lots of time in the snow.  I took Rubie to play with her friend Elinor and for some reason it seemed that all of Utah County was out on the road at that time.  Sarah went to do some shopping.  Then when it was time to get Rubie, I took Sam and the 3 of us went to the mall to get some Ties for Scott and Eric and we got some gifts for Andy and Beth.  And I really wanted to be done with shopping.

Christmas Eve we went to Mom and Dad Jeppson's.  The plan was to be there at  1:00 to sled and play but we were the first there.  They had so much snow it was wonderful!!  Mom and Dad's house looks amazing.  Slowly Ben came with his kids, then Joe and Tai showed up.  We went sledding in the ravine and Jared showed up while there.  Not too many incidents.  Scott and I destroyed a sled when we went down with Sam.  Sam ended up with scratches and snow burn when he went down with Eric and Eric ended up riding Sam's head down.  It was cold and with each family having at least one little kid we didn't last that long.  We ate yummy food.  Mom and I made soups and we had bean dip, chips, crackers, veggies, cookies and pudding.  We played Christmas charades--with even Dad and Grandma Perry participating.  We did the nativity.  This year I added some parts of Samuel the Lamanite and Alma.  Also I gave the Wise men and Shepherds some lines to say.  It was hilarious, spiritual, and special all in one.  One of the best parts was that after Scott as Samuel the Lamanite got on top of his wall(stool) to make his proclamation, Samuel dragged his own stool over and proceeded to shout, "Behold, I am an angel like you, listen to me.  Behold, behold, behold..." It was hilarious and Grandpa Jeppson sure got a kick out of that and was impressed.  Gifts were fun and chaotic.  But of course so wonderful.  We stayed around for a little while longer eating more, and just hanging out more.  I love all of our nieces and nephews and in-laws.

We had a very nice Christmas Day.  Rubie being so excited woke up at 3:00am.  Since she could see that Santa had not come yet she came to crawl into bed with Scott.  But then I was so worried about the kids waking up while we put out gifts that I layed in bed for about 45 minutes until I was sure that Rubie and even Sam were asleep then I got up and put the gifts out.  Scott got up and started shoveling.  We got dumped on!  Yeah!  The snow is lovely.  But he shoveled snow for probably over 2 hours.  We had a very nice Christmas.  I don't know how it happened.  The kids were so good to let us go in order of one person opening a gift at a time.  Sam would be so excited about a gift that he just wanted to play with it and not open any more.  But somehow we finally got to the XBox last of all.  It was great that way to build up to it.  Scott was so excited for them to open it and have that.  He spent half the day setting it up.  We rearranged our family room to make it better for the cameras and games.  He had to rewire some things.  But it's great.  I've cleaned out lots of old boxes and I'm sure I'll start getting rid of old toys if I can help it.  Rubie got accessories for her AG doll, Shannon.  Camping sets, and hair accessories, and outfits.  Eric got a huge 8 in 1 Minecraft Lego set,  Sam got the Blaze truck that he specifically asked Santa for, and a playset that isn't quite the Rescue Team Rescue Center but he loves it still and has told me so many times "Thank you for giving me this!"  He is adorable.  We got a few games, clothes, and other little things.  We are so blessed and fortunate.  What a different Christmas this year than last with Scott having been laid off last year. Then last night on Christmas Day eve we went to Dan and Brandee's for dinner and gift exchange there.  Angela didn't make due to some flu-ish symptoms she said.  But Andy and Beth came.  It was low-key.  I expected some of Brandee's family members to but it was just the available Wilson's.  We did get to Skype with Linda, Russell, and Dellitt with our new XBox.  That was cool to see them on our large TV.  Our camera could see the whole room all the way up to the kitchen.

 I wanted to get the kids out ice-skating or in the snow today.  But Eric and Rubie are not feeling their best.  Rubie is really congested and was a little sick on Christmas Eve and Eric a little sick yesterday on Christmas.  It has just made them a little lethargic and they don't have much of an appetite. But maybe I can get them out to the sunshine.

Saturday, December 5, 2015