Christmas

Celebrating Christmas Eve night. We actually exchange most of our gifts on Christmas Eve. One of my favorite traditions- Scrooge gifts- gifts for $1 or less for each person. These are often the most creative and hilarious gifts. One of my favorites this year- Craig giving us Chinese names.

Crystal-Niang: meaning feminine and mother
Jake-Jun:meaning handsome and talented
Kate- Chong: meaning spoiled
Samuel-Pang: meaning chunky like a round chunk of bread
We came home and left out some of his favorite ice cream for Santa. Kate was pleased to see if was gone when she woke up, and then looked out the window for several minutes trying to find Santa.
Kate repeatedly told everyone that Santa was bringing her a baby. Santa made last minute arrangements to have one in her stocking so she wasn't disappointed. She literally cared about it for one minute or less. I'm not sure why she kept telling everyone it was what she was getting if she didn't really want it. A funny little memory of Kate's first santa experience.
Opening presents in matching pj's
Samuel was very excited about this surprise quilt from Grandma Freeman. Santa brought the kids a lot of books.
Christmas morning grin
No Look Pass with a new basketball set.
Trying out some new dress up clothes. Jake and I determined to keep Christmas simple with the kids- alloting them three gifts to keep in mind the wise men's three gifts. We presented them each with two and Santa with the books, plus a stocking. Even with this plan in mind it seemed like it took forever to open everything and we still haven't found placed to put it all.
Trying on some new clothes. After having Christmas here we went to Grandma and Grandma Anderson's to celebrate and watch everyone open their gifts.
Two cool guys hanging out.
Kaylie and Kate take turns pulling one another around the house since it is too late for actual sledding.

Playing in the wrapping paper and boxes.


Jake and Kate sled outside. Kate enjoyed being pulled around on a rope the most.
Back at home and trying to recover. It turns out the after Christmas elf has brought us the flu.

Welcome Home Elder Craig

My brother Craig completed a two year mission in Taiwan this month for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So the Anderson family has been anticipating Christmas for an extra reason. Per Craig's silly request, only Mom and Dad went to pick him up at the airport. Disappointed as we were, it was nice to be able to corral tired children at a house rather than airport since he wasn't getting home until around 11:00 pm. While we waited we decorate the house. Above is a phone picture Mom and Dad sent when the picked him up.
We surprised Craig- who didn't know his grandma from California would be at the house. I think he had planned on trying to not cry and be tough, but the minute he saw her it was all over. Craig and her have always been very close, and the past two years Craig has been gone have been very difficult ones for her with the death of her husband and battling lung cancer. It was a wonderful surprise to have her there.
Everyone cry laughs at Craig with Grandma.

Seeing Kate- last time she was a crawling non-verbal being. Things change the most with kids in two years. Kate kept saying "that's mommy's brother"

Kate doesn't get why everyone is crying. And yes- Craig does look like he is a Taiwan native- funny how that happens.
Aunt Carole helps with one tired Sam.
Gramdma Wood with Crystal and Ali.

Craig meets Samuel for the first time. He quickly comes to agree that Sam is the most awesome baby in the world.


Amy and all the kids. It was a long and late night- the kids were up past midnight, so we will see how today goes, especially with our intent to celebrate his homecoming with more friends and family at a dinner this afternoon.
Welcome Home Craig- we are so proud of you!

You can read more about Craig's mission experience here.

Are you Exhuasted Too?

Kate fell asleep on the couch the other afternoon after a busy day of errands, visiting, etc. She then fell off the couch and didn't wake up, but continued sleeping on a train set she had been playing with earlier. I am this tired too, the holiday's are exhausting. Don't you agree. Every year I promise I will do less. That I don't really need to do Christmas cards or bake everyone I know a special treat. That I won't decorate a ton or wait until the last minute to buy what I need. I am always just amusing myself though. One by one each and every thing that makes the holiday season so much work creeps back into my to- do list. What if instead of exchanging gifts with people we just granted ourselves 12 days of naps?

Pictures and with no theme at all.

My man of many words. This is hands down my favorite age. Sam has taken off with talking this week. His vocab list now includes- "Mama, Dada, nunu ( a word for wanting to eat) Hi, Book, That, Whats That, This, Dog, T (Kate) and lots of pointing, and singing, kissing, dancing, and clapping. He is crawling at warp speeds and taking over the stairs as well.



Please oh please will I ever get my children to sit still where I want and smile when they are clean and dressed and I am attempting to take a photo.
Another attempt to get a picture of Kate in her Christmas dress. It is completely hopeless. I have tried to bribe her by letting her play with one of the nutcrackers.
Do you ever have pictures you love that you remember when you take other pictures. And you hope with all your might that it will somehow be replicated in an updated and somehow ever better form. This was an attempt to replicate a picture of Kate and I two Christmas seasons ago. Of course it is nothing like I had hoped- Kate wouldn't even take her coat off, and that is not even addressing our mostly unhappy faces.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Just like her Mom- Kate enjoys some good hot chocolate. Of course he favorite part is the whip cream. If you look close you can still see some of the bruising on her forehead left from last weeks fall/ stitches incident. When we took her to get them out yesterday she was singing-"Going to the Doctors, Gonna get Kate's Head fixed" over and over again.

Jake's family always teases him he should come back to California so he doesn't have to shovel all the snow all winter. Little do they know who is really doing the shoveling. Okay so we actually don't make our two year old do the shoveling- but she has been joining me when I do each day. She likes to help, or eat snow off her mittens. This is a big improvement from years past when she would cry if her boots got snow on them.

Excuse the fact my child is wearing a tank top mid Dec.... she is very into re-dressing herself mid day without my assistance. Here she has added the Mr. Potato Head Santa parts to complete her ensemble.

Decorating the Christmas tree with Mom. Kate knew where the star went, and loved putting the ornaments on. We have quite the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It is fake, and not even meant for christmas decorating, about 4 ft tall and sitting on the coffee table pushed the the side of the room so the kids don't knock it over and break the ornaments... again

Week in Review

Samuel turned 9 months old on November 23 at 9:46 to be exact. It of course has gone by incredibly to fast.Samuel at 9 months
Weight: 19.8 - 25 %- yes his "Chubby" nicknames seem silly at this point
Height; 28.5 in- 75%
Head- 18.25- 80%

#of teeth- 2
# of dimples- 4 and they are adorable
# of Words-2- Mama (Sam follows me around the house and cries "MAMAMAMAMAMA" when I put him down and am not holding him), sadly he doesn't really say my name in a happy way ever. He is a little too much of a mama's boy. But it is nice to be so loved. He also says "Dada" - but lets take note once more that "Mama" was first.
Things he likes-
moving, crawling, climbing on furniture and people, pulling hair and jewlery off his mother, eating crackers, Cola, Kate, music, dancing, singing, balls, setting new records in how far he can throw his pacifier, sleeping, cuddling, being tickled, chasing Kate around the house, laughing, playing peek-a-boo, letting Mom dress him in trendy clothes his dad won't wear, clapping, taking compliments from strangers about how adorable he is, being the happiest baby weve ever known.
Samuel is such a perfect baby, who is quickly turning into a toddler. It is sad and scary to see him start to pull himself up on the furniture and say words. He has been the most content child who litterally only cries when we he really tired, or wants his mother. He didn't even cry the last two times he got shots- what a tough guy. Those who knew Jake as an infant say Sam is just the peaceful, happy child his father was. He does look quite a bit like Jake as well, although occasionally before say he looks like me. His puppy dog eyes and toothy grin light up for me when I come into the room and it melts my heart.
Here is Samuel doing the motorcycle dance. He rotates his wrists when he hears music like he is riding a motorcycle. It is awesome.
The kids on Thanksgiving. Kate has been talking about her cousins coming over for four days straight by this point and can't wait another minute.
Our Kitchen before- it really was lovely, and our kitchen after- I think it took 6 loads of dishes to undo the disaster.
It was a lovely Thanksgiving though. And my almost completely from scratch holiday feast turned out as good as I had hoped. It was wonderful being home for the holiday. I have no picture of people on Thanksgiving other than the one of the kids at the top. I get to preoccupied in chatting and cooking. But thank you dear family for joining us.

The kids and I decorated for Christmas yesterday. All we need now is a tree. The minute these singing decorations come out the kids play them, and play them, and fight over them, and play them, and they have run out of batteries almost already in less than 24 hours. I don't think they will be replaced. I can hardly stand hearing penguins and snowman singing Christmas tunes for another 24 hours.

Thanksgiving

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving around here. What am I most grateful for? Easiest question ever. These two of course, and the man I am proud to call my husband who I get to share them with.
Tomorrow Jake's three sisters and their families will be joining us for what I hope to be our best Thanksgiving yet. Aside from the Thanksgiving Jake and I had by ourselves our 1st year of marriage- where we cooked a small but complete entire Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves including a entire pumpkin pie a piece-this will be my first real hosted-by-me Thanksgiving.
To bad my entourage is not that much help-I've got lots to do.
I've already been to the store three times for the big event- partially because it took that many stores to find a turkey big enough to fed the crew- and it is not like I waited until today, I guess you have to go more than four days in advance if you want to biggest bird- now I know. I finally found us a 24 pounder who has been defrosting in the fridge ever since. What else does the menu include?

Hors d'oeuvre
Chilled Vegetable Platter
Assorted Crackers and Cheese

Beverage
Assorted Sparkling Cider

Dinner
Slow Roasted Turkey with Lemon
Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic
Classic Brown Gravy
Slow Cooked Cornbread Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Three layer Jello Salad
Garden Salad
Pepperoni Pasta Salad
Homestyle Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Carmel Glaze
Homemade White Rolls with Honey Butter and Strawberry Jam

Dessert
All-you-can-eat Assorted Pies
Vanilla Ice Cream

Good thing I've already started the chopping/ baking/ roasting/cooking. I am looking forward to the meal, and even more so the company...and the leftovers. I think a lot of women stress out about cooking Thanksgiving. I think it is mildly stressful- mostly figuring out how to have everything perfectly warm at the same time with one oven. But I will take making Thanksgiving for everyone over traveling for the holidays any day. That really stresses me out- and turns my children into rabid mommy eating monsters. I am looking forward to staying home and remaining thankful for them instead.

Happy Thanksgiving- I hope it is safe, and delicious!