South Valley Service Symphony

McKinley joined in with the South Valley Service Symphony, which is all volunteers in the community who come together on Sunday evenings to practice and then perform in the community.  This week and next they are performing Christmas music at a couple of assisted living centers.

She made a difficult decision this weekend and turned down a weekend-long cabin trip with a friend so that she could do this performance. 

iphone pic

Mommy's little helper

This kid has been getting dragged around everywhere during this busy time of year.  He is not the happiest shopper.  Mostly because I insist on him being strapped in to something instead of running around like he'd prefer.  He's been getting a lot of snacks to stay entertained though.

I love that face!

Neighbor party

Last night, much to the chagrin of my introvert husband, we hosted a little neighborhood party.  My neighbor and I talked about starting the neighborhood tradition here of giving to charity instead of gifting trinkets to each other.  So I hosted an open house at our home, and we made donations to Primary Children's and Huntsman Cancer Institute.  We had a good turnout and it was a lot of fun visiting.
Poor Kent is going to have to endure years of socially engaging with people as long as he is married to me.

We had treats and hot chocolate (which later burned because I was talking instead of minding the pot).

Sugar cookies

We made sugar cookies tonight while watching the Christmas devotional.  I think they were a hit!

Sinterklaas came!

Last night we spent our Dutch Christmas Eve with a dinner of chocolate sprinkle toast and strawberries with nutella.  McKinley prepared the whole feast.  Before bed we put out our shoes and placed baby carrots inside.  Hayden almost earned himself a lump of coal, but was lucky enough to find his shoe filled with chocolate and treats this morning.  Sinterklaas was very lenient this year.  Sawyer was very kind to his brother and promised him last night that he could have some of his chocolate in the morning after Hayden was threatened with no goodies.  He actually did give him most of his chocolate coins this morning.  Sawyer said "It's better to be kind than to have chocolate."  

Josh quickly figured out the whole thing and spent his morning eating chocolate and stroopwaffels for breakfast.

Gelukkig Kersfeest!

The lists

We just mailed off our Christmas lists (although they were made in October).  Before they left I took a picture of everyone's list.

Hayden's: Tenkai knights (1,000), a scientist play thing, Mario party 9, Mario party 8, a helicopter, battroborg, skylanders, skylanders giants, a giant panda bear, more beyblades, a phone, more marshmallows (erased it though later), Ipad, Ipod, 3DS, webkinz (1,000), Orbeez, 90 bucks, ds games.

McKinley's:  Cozy Sweater outfit (for American Girl=AG), Pet bed (AG), the dog Meatloaf (AG), the healthy smile set (AG), clothes, national geographic magazine, Nintendogs DSI game, pipe cleaners, colored crafting foam, Journey girl accessories, boondoggle.

Sawyer's: remote helicopter, remote car, $50, PS3 games (sport and car games), football gloves, Mizzou/Clemson jerseys,  Legendary pokemon, webkinz (5), X out Freckles (Ha!  He wants to get rid of his freckles.  I told him no.), a verizon phone, Legendary Pokemon...again, hamster, clothes, BYU tickets (30 tickets), blankets (6 blankets), football card packs.    And then on the back of his long list he wants an Iphone 5S, Iphone 4S, beyblades (again), and an ipod touch.

The first day of Christmas

We got our tree up today!  I even let the big kids help.  That's progress.