Christmas Here and There

This past Christmas was one of the best I can remember with my little family.  My brother was set to return from his mission to Alaska shortly before Christmas, so we decided to travel out to Utah so we could see him, share the holiday, and baptize Everett with family in attendance.

It was a great decision.

Joel and I decided we would have a simple family Christmas morning before we left for our trip.  This way we could spread out the gift-giving and not have to bring too much with us.

That was also a great decision.

We woke up around 7am Saturday December 20th and opened presents together.  The kids were thrilled to open presents early.  They seemed to think they were the luckiest kids in the world.

We gave the kids gifts following that old rhyme:  "something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read."  However, the kids already had a lot of books so we substituted games for the something to read.

One of the kids' favorites was a dinosaur excavation kit we gave William.

They all loved it, which leaves me thinking I should look up a way to create one of these at home.

Among the other memorable gifts:  Everett's official lockbox with electronic keypad, Ashley's furry hat and boots, James's remote control Dusty the airplane.

And then, a few days later, we jumped on an airplane to Utah.  We decided to drive two hours to the Omaha airport, which has a short direct flight to Utah.  

It was, by far, the best and easiest time traveling to Utah we've ever had.  

There was no line through security in Omaha.  The kids enjoyed playing around while we waited to board the airplane.  Charlie was going nuts--he tried to crawl around everywhere and just couldn't sit still.  The kids thought he was hilarious and had fun keeping him corralled in the carpeted area.  Charlie constantly tried to bypass his little babysitters to make a run for it to the main walkway, baiting the kids into cracking up and pulling him back to the right area.  I think the two hour drive to the airport did him in.  I was worried about the flight but Charlie did just fine.

The flight was the perfect length of time.  The kids didn't stop enjoying the ride and they were all entertained by a movie and/or catnaps.  (And suckers.)  Everett and Ashley have flown enough times that they are very careful about eating or sucking on something to make sure their ears don't hurt while changing altitudes.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with my grandparents and family.   It was a full house with 15 people to feed.  

I love dressing my kids in matching pajamas, but I can only do it for the little boys these days.  Everett is relieved.  I think he would be disappointed if I bought him real pajamas--he prefers a t-shirt and sweat pants or shorts.  In fact, Everett just had a pajama party at school and Joel and I teased him that he was wearing the same outfit he had worn only a few days earlier on a non-pajama day.

All Ashley wanted was footie pajamas, preferably patterned so she'd look like a cat.  I think she was satisfied.

I love my little dino boys.  They think it's fun to be matching.

My sisters and I had matching pj's too.  It was fun to take a photo all together, just like old times except with a few little additions.

Christmas morning at the Burton's house was delightful.  The kids had a lot of fun things to do and a lot of love and attention.

Everett and Joel had fun setting up a hexbug run.  We've used this since then to have hexbug races.  It's a fun contraption.

Later Christmas Day, we headed up to the Johnson party.  The kids especially were really looking forward to seeing their cousins, and they weren't disappointed!

The cousins were almost all there.  We just had a few missing.  James really loved playing with his cousins, who are mostly girls.  He took to a cousin who is about Everett's age.  She was so sweet with him, and he followed her around everywhere.  He did everything she said.  I think he still misses her!

Charlie also liked all of the attention, especially from Everett.

The adults all had fun playing games, eating good food, and enjoying each other's company.  With a few of us living out of state, it isn't very often that we can all be together in one place.  We always have so much fun that we leave still craving more time with the Johnsons.

The only unfortunate part of the holiday was that both families came down with the flu at the same time.  It was pretty sad to see everyone so sick.  Charlie and I were fine because we had the flu two weeks before we went to Utah, but all of the other kids got it and were miserable just like their grandparents.  

Even though everyone got sick, it was a wonderful Christmas, and I will always be glad we made the trek to Utah.  I am sure the kids would agree!

William got a dino truck for Christmas.  With it came a little pamphlet of all the other dino trucks Vtech offers.  William clung to this pamphlet.  He carried it around with him for days until it started falling apart and I had to save it by putting tape all over it, much to William's relief.  

We let William keep it out for the airplane ride.  I think this is all he would have needed to be entertained.

It was Willliam's most prized possession for almost a month.  He memorized every possible detail about each truck in the pamphlet.  William wanted another one of those trucks so badly that he offered to do chores to earn money for it.  I didn't even have to remind him to get his chores done--he worked and worked until everything was done.  When he finished one chore, he'd immediately ask me what he could do next.  William finally earned enough to go to the store and buy another dino truck.  He still pulls the pamphlet out once in a while to show me exactly which truck he plans to buy next.  

I am so glad we had Christmas in Utah.  We loved our time there and we love our family!

Everett's Baptism

Everett was excited to be baptized for over two years. As soon as he turned six, I think he felt he was in the homestretch for this major life event.

Everett had to wait six weeks after his birthday to be baptized, but it was worth it!  Almost all of our family was able to attend because we waited until we traveled to Utah for Christmas.

Joel baptized Everett the day after Christmas.  I may have been so preoccupied with traveling, packing Christmas for five kids, and figuring out if we have everything we need no matter which house we were staying in, that I forgot a couple of things I promised I'd bring to the post-baptism luncheon.  Fortunately, everyone is so gracious that it all worked out fine.

I had to take some baptism photos of Everett in his new suit.  He wasn't thrilled with this idea but I thought he looked so cute (uh, handsome) in his suit that I couldn't help myself.

Unfortunately, I forgot to explain to Everett that he needed to treat his suit differently than his regular church clothes.  After the baptism, Everett had fun running and sliding across the gym floor with his cousins.  The result?  Holes burned into the knees of his suit pants and scuffed-up (new) shoes.

Sigh.  Lesson learned.  At least we have pictures of him wearing it!

The kids were all very proud of Everett.  They were not too happy about standing still for a picture but they were excited for Everett's special day.

Everett is very blessed--he doesn't know how blessed--to have two sets of wonderful, loving grandparents.

We were thrilled to have my parents come.  My Dad presented Everett with his scriptures.  Everett was thrilled to own his grandfather's scriptures.  He has taken very good care of that special memento.  He is lucky to be able to learn from his Grandma and Grandpa Burton.

Joel's parents hosted the baptism in their church building.  I don't know what I would have done without them, particularly my mother-in-law.  She was amazing and took charge of the details that I could very well have been overwhelmed by.  We had a nice luncheon afterwards thanks to her hard work.  Everett is lucky to have these two wonderful people in his life.

My grandparents came to Everett's baptism, which was a real treat.  Everett calls them "oma" and "opa."  They gave him a special remembrance book and Everett has been working to fill in the details of his special day.  It is because of their support that Everett's baptism was even more meaningful.  I think Everett would happily do anything they asked of him.

I had to get in a picture.  Everett and Joel looked great together in their whites.  Everett's were the wrong size but he didn't care a bit.  

Everett was pretty nervous, which is a little unusual for him.  I think he had been looking forward to this for so long that he was worried about making a mistake.  Fortunately the baptismal ordinance is so simple there is very little opportunity for error.

Joel was mouth for a beautiful blessing which bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost on Everett.  Everett was excited for this.  He wrote in his book of remembrance: "I felt nervous and happy.  I felt nervous because I thought they were going to say the wrong words and happy because it was exciting."

Everett also wrote that his blessing promised him that he would easily recognize the Holy Ghost and should listen to the Holy Ghost in order to help him and those around him.  The blessing also reminded Everett that he has a supportive family and that they will love him.

I do remember, but not in exact words, that the blessing promised Everett that he would have and recognize many opportunities to serve those around him.  

I was so glad that Everett and Joel got to share this special time.  Moms get to do so much for their kids from birth to adulthood, it is really nice to have milestones that revolve also around the fathers.  I am glad that Joel is the father in our family--he is the best man I know and I love what he does for us.

Everett has a deep, tender testimony of our church.  He loves the gospel and he loves the Savior, and he loves praying and reading the scriptures.  He has a testimony that the scriptures teach truth and he loves trying to emulate the heroes within.  Everett has a great heart and I am grateful for a church that teaches tenderness and love and responsibility in a time that these attributes are not very celebrated, especially in boys.

Turning eight meant that Everett also got to start going to cub scouts.  I don't know very much about this program, but I think I am falling in love with the things it teaches.  Everett loves doing the activities and learning, and I think it will help him to be more well-rounded.  

Possum Friend

In December, we were visited several times by a juvenile opossum.  

Joel left one night to run an errand and when he came back, we noticed the garage door wasn't shutting properly.  It was a little crooked and the tension was off enough that it would retract instead of shutting all the way.

We went to figure out the problem and saw this little guy hanging from where the cable winch was.

He was not too happy to see us.  I tried to prod him off with a long pole to no avail.

When we finally got a good look at the situation, we realized that the opossum couldn't get down even it if wanted to, because the cable that used to pull our garage door up was now wound loosely around its body and tail.  

The possum snarled when we got too close.  I may have googled whether possums are carriers of rabies before we did too much more with it.  Turns out, it is extremely rare for a possum to carry an active rabies virus.  Yes, this made us feel slightly more confident.

We tried to pull the cable off without getting close to the opossum but we didn't make much progress, so we decided a call to animal control was in order.

Animal Control sent out a random dispatch officer.  While we waited, Joel and I decided to try again to free the opossum (with almost literally a ten-foot pole).  We un-looped its body from the cables successfully, and then instead of prodding, we pushed and pushed and almost whacked that possum until it finally tumbled off.

I shrieked (I never shriek) as the opossum came tumbling down to where I was.  The best part is that I shrieked just as the dispatch officer pulled into our driveway.

He helped us search for the possum (who had sought refuge under our lawn mower) and shoo it out.

His parting advice to us was to leave our garage door shut so critters couldn't come in.  Thank you, dispatch officer.

Because we didn't have the tools or the know-how to fix our now off-track cable, we had to call a garage expert.  Over a hundred dollars later, we had a fixed door and a diagnosis:  a baseball bat fell behind the cable track, got pulled up with the cable, and knocked the cable off its track when the bat hit the top.  

Well, that is what he said happened.  All I can say is that the opossum chose a very coincidental time to make a haven of our garage door.

We thought the opossum was scared well enough to avoid our house, but it kept showing up--ambling across our back deck, creeping in the side yard, hanging out on our front porch.

I saw a few opossums smeared across the road over the next few weeks and gave a mental fist-pump every time I did. 

I have never taken pleasure in dead animals before.  But I was sure creeped out about a skittery opossum invading our space.

We haven't had any other critters visit since December, and I am not anxious to meet any more.  I think five kids causes enough pitter-pattering around here.