Christmas Caroling Follies

It was sooooo cold, that baby Seth and Mama skipped the caroling and came for the chocolate.

FROZEN! Noses and cheeks!

Enjoying chocolate, sugar dipped spoons and hot chocolate!

Each year, as a tradition, we host the annual Christmas Caroling and hot chocolate party. This year, after passing out invitations and inviting the entire ward, we watched the weather turn dangerous! On Monday, it snowed all day, then towards afternoon, the snow slowed down. I was getting excited as I scoured the house and made treats and hot chocolate. Then I looked out the window and saw the wind whip the snow into a white out! I watched and waited and answered phone calls asking if we were cancelling. Finally we decided that there was no other time we could do it and we would have to brave the weather, and we headed out. We had fewer families attend due, I'm sure, to the weather. But we still had several small children in attendance. We started walking and took a "short cut" to get to our starting point. I hadn't thought through the fact that the path wouldn't be shoveled yet. The snow was about 18 inches deep on the path. That's pretty deep for little ones. The wind was howling and we trudged forward through drifts up to 2 feet or more.

We ended up going to just a few houses before the weather turned severe! No longer gentle flakes were blowing in our faces! The wind hurled shards of ice into our eyes and frozen noses and mouths. We had a van set aside just in case the kids needed respite from the weather, but after we finished the last house, the van was no where to be found. The driver had driven off with his little boy who was screaming. We quickly herded the remaining children back through the drifts of snow towards our house. We felt like the Martin Handcart Company! We had just a small taste of what they must have gone through. I was grateful for my down, fur lined hooded, coat, snow boots, scarf, and gloves. Those poor saints out in that horrid weather with their feet wrapped in fabric and no more than shawls on their heads and wrapped around their bodies! I was grateful to enter a nice, warm home with hot chocolate waiting to warm my insides.

I learned a thing or two that night. Tradition is not worth risking life and limb--especially when little children are involved. We should have just cancelled the out door caroling and had everyone in for cocoa and a sing a long. I also have greater appreciation of what those early saints went through. One of my relatives was in this party. She ended up losing her feet, but made it to the Salt Lake Valley. I would not be here today if it weren't for her great suffering and endurance!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Celebrating the Moments

One thing that I decided to do to alleviate some stress and find bits of joy this year, is to enjoy and celebrate the moments! Since doing this, I have found many of these moments--many more than I realized. I have grabbed the camera a few times to capture those moments, and now I'm feeling quite joyful. Here are the results! My little Christmas Connor Claus

Playing "Airplane" makes my kids soooo happy. They were also playing "Race Car" which is a game that James and his dad played when he was a little boy.

This was one of those rare moments when everyone was just taking time to play together. Everyone was happy!

This cute little Hunter present is filled with lots of love!

Have you ever seen a Santa-Pi-Rat? It's pretty weird!

Alex and his silly costumes keeps us in stitches!

Hope you are taking time to enjoy the little moments!

Gingerbread House Party

We had a great time decorating Gingerbread houses this year. We invited 3 families over and all together, we had 8 adults and 14 kids! Our kitchen was bursting at the seams, but we couldn't have had more fun! Here are the highlights:
My house!
Little Bryn Legg, who looks just like Cindy Lou Who, snitching the candy.

Sarah and her crashing house. This house supplied much of the night's humor!

No matter how she tried, she couldn't keep it together until someone else helped.

Ken was being a bear! (just kidding)

Alex made this clever chimney out of crackers and then James decided to create bricks by sanding red hots with tweezers (I'm shaking my head).

Only James would think of sandpaper for a Gingerbread house!

The Leggs with little Grayson.

Cody and Lori, the newlyweds!

Hannah and Mikaela (Lori's daughter and Hannah's best friend) and their creation.

Emily was so good instructing all of the little ones on how to create a graham cracker luxury house.

Hannah and Mikaela couldn't possibly have gotten one more piece of candy on this house!

Ashlyn Legg and her house.

Aiden Legg and his house.

MaKenna Legg and her house.

Christmas is Back on the Menu!

Deep breath in---out---! Okay, I'm back to normal. After a big fight with my family and a long day of crying, I feel much better. Hormones? Emotions? Teenagers? Holiday Stress? Whatever the problem was, I suffer with it every year, the week before Christmas. I have tried different things on different years, but it always sneaks up on me. My only consolation is that I know it will pass. Of course there are always pieces to pick up afterwards, but that just makes me so grateful for the atonement and the true message of the season! Live, Learn, move on. I am now ready and able to continue on with the joys of the season.

Skipping Christmas

Would I be a total scrooge or grinch next year if I just skipped Christmas all-together? I would put up a Nativity-but that's it. It is getting too over the top. Remind me next year to just skip Christmas!

Is Christmas Over yet???

I'm feeling the usual week or so before Christmas burn out. HELP! I don't want to be Scrooge!

Strep Throat

We have now had three cases of strep throat in our house! Yikes! Hunter has had it twice; once about 6 weeks ago, then my mom took him to the Dr. the day I went in for surgery on the 13th because he got it again (How could that happen?), and Connor was just confirmed as having a very bad case of it!

I was suspicious when Connor woke up in the night saying that he had "spikes" in his throat. I hoped it would go away the next day, but it didn't. When we got to the Dr.'s office, he told the Dr. that he had "struck throat." I thought that was funny. I guess it's good because it can be treated by an antibiotic whereas a virus would just linger on for weeks.

We have miraculously avoided viruses so far this season. I have made it through fall without contracting laryngitis--an amazing feat for me. I was exposed, though (thanks Mom, hope you're feeling better), but I have been taking Airborn and vitamins this week. It will be nice to actually participate in the choir and maybe do an additional musical number if my voice keeps up!

Speaking of voices, Alex has started a long chain of choir performances. We were able to go to his rehearsal on Mon night. The director decided that since he had to call a rehearsal on Mon, that he would invite the families and call it Family Home Evening. It was really fun seeing the dynamics of the class and watching how the director interacts with the kids. It brought back SOOOO many wonderful memories. I loved being in choirs in high school and college. And I currently enjoy being in the ward choir. Maybe someday I'll make it to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! It got really hot in the choir room with all of those bodies, and one girl fainted. She fell right off the back of the bleachers! I didn't notice until a few people jumped up and ran to help her. One of those people happened to be the town's doctor. Everyone is connected here! Apparently she is in remission from cancer. She looked really awful, but like a trooper, she stayed at the rehearsal and sat in a chair. Alex is one of only two sophomores in the choir. He's one of the youngest members, but he seems to fit in very well.

Alex will be performing at Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the 13th. If you are in the area, I'm sure he'd love to have you come! He'll be at Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg at 4 PM, the Assembly Hall at 5:30 PM, and the South Visitor's Center at 7 PM. It's the Rigby High School Choir, the Triolairs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

That most wonderful day has already come and gone! I love Thanksgiving because it means being with family and loved ones as well as doing one of my favorite activities: eating! Thus it is one of my favorite holidays!

Thanksgiving gives us a great opportunity to stand back and look at our lives and feel gratitude for all that we have been given.

James recently took a challenge at work to list 125 things he was thankful for. I had him forward the list to me in an email. It was a list that really said a lot about him. I won't list it here, as it is very personal to him, I think. I did find it funny, however, how many electronic gadgets made the list. What a great challenge to have to think of 125 different things in a short amount of time. I know you're thinking how easy it would be--yes, we are all so blessed. Well, then, I challenge you. Write down 125 things that you are thankful for--being careful not to repeat yourself (as I found James doing when it came to his gadgets). Yeah, I know it's after Thanksgiving, but this is an exercise that can be done anytime. So get going. I know you'll be glad you did!

Once again, we had a very exciting Thanksgiving. It was a rare opportunity when all 9 of us children were together. We tried to get a photo op in, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. Maybe next year? It was so great catching up with all of my siblings as well as my aunts and uncles and cousins. The food was delicious. None of it was made by me (except for a banana cream pie that Hunter begged me to make while we were there--easy). I have to say that my Edward (aka James) did ALL of the dishes!!! The family women were so impressed!

After dinner, we had the annual fire show but this year it had a twist! My sister, Sadie, and her friend, belly danced with the fire spinners! It was freezing cold, so I decided to watch from the picture window with my Grandma Shirley and the other sickies.

On Friday we went to a movie--which is another favorite of mine. We saw Australia. It was beautifully shot with epoch scenes that brought me to tears on several occasions. My only critique of the film is that they didn't throw in a little wedding scene before the big love scene! Really, how hard would it have been? I understand that the Drover had commitment issues, but still I think it would have been appropriate.

On Saturday we went to Salt Lake to Julie's Fire station in Sandy, then to see our good friends, the Atkissons.

Now that I'm home, I just can't get over the fact that it's Christmastime, and time to set up the tree! Jingle Bells--Here we come!