On Friday I cleaned, did laundry, read to Ammon, played a bit with Ammon and Clarissa, quilted, babysat the neighbors for an hour and a half, and made challah, applesauce, and potato latkes for dinner. At dinner I told the kids the story of Hannakkah and then gave them all gold coins for dessert. I should have looked the story up before telling them because I think I mixed up some of the details…Oops. I will look it up and tell them whatever I got wrong today!
After dinner we had another meeting with Carolyn Blosil and the Hersheys about insurance. It was very interesting, and, as always, motivating.
Afterward Abe and I watched a little Harry Potter with the girls. Abe stayed up until 1:30am working and I went to bed at 11. It was a full day.
On Thursday Rose Marie Morrell came over to show me how to quilt. She had just had a skin cancer removed and was shaking from pain. Of course I told her many times she didn’t have to come, but she loves quilting so much that she said it made her happy! So we had a great time quilting together and then I spent the rest of the day quilting.
Since the table was covered with my quilting project, we had a taco picnic on the floor. We have a new rule that Mary gets to choose Thursday dinner because she had a long spell where every night she moaned that I never cook anything she likes. So Abe proposed that I cook a meal she requests every Thursday and then the rest of the week she will eat whatever we have for dinner without complaining. This week it was tacos.
Abe got home at midnight. It was so good to have him home!
When I tucked the girls in on Wednesday, Mary was having yet another hard day. She seemed to think her life was awful. Since she seems to have semi-permanently adopted this attitude, I took it upon myself to tell her what a hard day would actually look like. I described in detail the skin lesions of Victorian chimney sweep children, the hardships of children living through war, and what poor children in third world countries endure. I told her she was so lucky that not only does she not have any of those problems, but she was born to parents who love her and love each other. Some parents, I told her, don’t get along and some even get divorced. I concluded by telling her that childhood is a modern concept and that before this idea was invented, children have been expected to be mini-adults and work hard without any special treatment for being children.
It might have been a tad bit graphic of a conversation, but by the end Mary said she wasn’t having a hard day anymore. When I got to the part about children who have parents who don’t like each other, she raised her hand and asked this question: “Wait, I’m so confused. I thought you just walked around until you found someone you liked and then married them. Why would you not like your husband?” Lydia chimed in: “Yeah, the only time you and dad have ever argued was about what color my eyes are!”
I’m pretty sure Abe and I have had more disagreements than that, but it felt nice to see that the girls can’t even conceive of a world where their parents don’t get along. That felt like a win. Thank you, Abe, for being the best best best BEST husband ever!!! You couldn’t be easier to get along with. I love you.
My favorite part of today was after dinner when I joined all of the girls in Ammon’s room. As I entered, Mary and Lydia were lying on their stomachs with their chins in their hands as they watched Clarissa dance on Ammon’s bed. As I stepped in, Lydia cried, “We’re having a cutest baby competition and Clarissa’s winning!!”
I laughed so hard. She followed that up by reading me a quote from the “How to Make Your Baby Even Cuter” manual that she and Mary were writing. The first suggestion was: Make your baby cuter by looking at her. All babies get cuter when you look at them.”
I thought that was actually so spot on! It was such a delight to watch all of my girls interact so beautifully together. For the rest of the hour Mary and Lydia built towers for Clarissa to knock down, but Clarissa would either just look curiously at them or take them apart very slowly and carefully. She is the first baby I’ve had that didn’t just go for it and knock those towers down as fast as possible.
We also played a game where we all pretended to sleep, and then Clarissa would jump up and bounce up and down like Tigger. That pretty much sums up childhood in a gesture.
Here are the pictures from the rest of the day:
I took Clarissa and Ammon to the park this morning before Clarissa’s nap. We played chase, raced, and climbed all over the park structures.
Clarissa took a really short nap today. I spent her whole nap reading the Book of Mormon so I can finish before the end of the year, and so when she woke up I still had to prep dinner. I burned my hand in the oven trying to get the squash out before Clarissa could run across the room and burn herself, so I spent an hour in front of the television nursing my wound. During that time, Clarissa discovered the marshmallow bag:
In the morning I got a kick out of Clarissa’s headband. She took it off as soon as I took the picture, but at least I got the picture:
After school and music practice, I took the kids to the park.
After the park we went home to do homework and have dinner. We had fondue again, this time with roasted broccoli and cauliflower, artichokes, baby potatoes, and two more apple pancakes.
After dinner we cleaned up, got everyone either in bed or ready for bed, and read scriptures. Then Abe and I wrapped more presents and watched more Renaissance documentaries while Mary and Lydia played Monopoly together. I gave Mary a talk beforehand on how to handle losing, but Lydia was so sweet and not only let Mary win but was so kind about it. She kept getting excited about how much money Mary had, and while Mary was exulting in her win Lydia just smiled, said sweet things to her, and complimented her on her ability to always win at Monopoly. Abe tried to tell Mary she was not being a very nice winner (because she kept counting her money and shouting, “I WON!! I WON!!”, but Mary was so elated that she didn’t hear a word he said. We’ll work on this more in the future. In the meantime, thank goodness for Lydia.
I have been feeling very tired, so I was so glad to stay home and nap with Clarissa during church. I did get to go to Relief Society and felt very inspired by a lesson Emily Hair gave on scripture study.
After church Abe had to help with tithing settlement until almost 6pm. I helped the kids decorate ugly sweater cookies and prepared dinner after. When Abe came home, he grilled salmon and we all had salmon, steamed artichokes, brown coconut rice, and apple and gorgonzola salad. It was kind of hodge podge but very yummy.
After Lydia gave a wonderful FHE where we all picked characters from the nativity from a hat, acted out our character, and then explained how we fit into the story of the nativity. Then we watched a video about Light the World and had a quick discussion about what we can do to light the world (a bit early) this week.
I was so tired that afterward I went to bed at 8:30pm.
Ammon spends a great deal of his life in this witch costume. I think his love of witches comes from his very favorite book, Room on the Broom.
In the afternoon we went to go pick a tree. I think Abe has those pictures (I hope!). I wanted a skinny tree, but I also felt very tired and couldn’t handle any trees that looked too tall. Lydia wanted a fat tree, so we settled on a small chubby tree. It’s pretty cute.
I had so much fun with Mary. She loved every. single. tree. and stood in this excited pose by her favorites that she really, really wanted to take home.More excited Mary.
When we got home, we got out all of the Christmas decorations, set up the tree, and had fondue for dinner.
Our Christmas mess.Ammon was so excited he wore his Santa hat to bed.
In the evening Abe and I had a wonderful date. We went to Target for some more Christmas decorations and ended up spending most of our time smelling candles. Then we got home and finished putting everything up:
On Friday I got up early to get all of my Christmas shopping done (online). In the middle of the morning, the girls called me down to a tea they had prepared with Abe’s help. He said that it was so cute watching them cooperate to make it happen.
It was a child’s dream meal, with popcorn, hot cocoa, cinnamon toast, and fruit. After we ate this “meal,” the girls excitedly announced we had caramels for dessert. The grownups laughed a lot when they made that pronouncement.
In the evening we drove to Park City to meet up with Karin, Jay, and Jere for a post Thanksgiving meal at the Marriot there. It was great to see Karin, Jay and Jere.
by the elevators
Unfortunately, Clarissa burned her hand on the fireplace while we were there and we had a horrible drive home as it snowed on us through Provo Canyon. At one point we hydroplaned, and there were a ton of cars off the road at that very spot. It was so scary, but I was so thankful to be the driver because I would not have been able to handle it as a passenger. Abe and my mom were great passengers and refrained from screaming, which is what I certainly would have been doing in their place. I was so thankful to get home safely.
On Thanksgiving morning I went to yoga and then rushed to get all of the rest of my cooking and chores done so I could finally do what I actually wanted to do, which was play games with the girls. I did get a game of Uno and some Bananagrams in before it was time to go to the Miners for Thanksgiving.
We went to the Miners around noon and got there around 1pm. We had a great time and the kids enjoyed playing Sushi Go! at the end. I wish I had pictures, but somehow I totally forgot to take any. I think Abe might have one, so when I get a chance, I will upload that to this post.
After we got home and put the kids to bed, I got a head start on Black Friday shopping online.
On Wednesday the kids had their first day of Thanksgiving break. In the morning we did music, and then I cooked for the rest of the day while the kids enjoyed some much needed free time.
Mary during practice.
In the evening after the kids were in bed, Abe and I went to the library to see a photography exhibit and check out books. We got in trouble when Abe started reading things to me in the stacks. I was embarrassed but Abe was so funny and didn’t seem to mind at all. It was a great date.
