12 Days of Christmas Part 1

I am so grateful for this tradition. I know it might be over the top for some people, but I am so grateful that my husband and children will go along with it. Each experience is precious to me!

On Christmas night we all gathered in Kent and I's room by the fireplace to do our MacKay Family Christmas Program. It is so fun now that the kids are learning the words to the songs more and more, and can help with the reading.  

I read the first page from our book and then we all went to bed. It had been a wonderful day!

The next day was Boxing Day and we worked hard! Here is my post from fb:

Happy Boxing Day! We celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas from December 25th to January 6th by having a special activity each day leading up to Epiphany Day. The day after Christmas we organize and clean and get some things together to donate that we don't need anymore. Everyone worked so hard! My husband has definitely figured out how to score big points with his wife!! I am so grateful he goes along with my somewhat-crazy traditions and also for the organization bug that bites him every once and a while! Thanks Kent for being so great today!!

I posted about our Christ-centered traditions throughout Christmas and especially these days because of a discussion I had with my friend Carly who is a ward missionary right now. She challenged me to post daily about how the gospel is making a difference in my life. I'm not sure I can do it every single day this year, but on these days it was easier.  

Anyway, Kent and Natalie rearranged Natalie's room so that she could move her school desk up into this corner. 

Here is her new bookshelf. She LOVES it! And she felt so grown up getting to help Kent put it together.

Then Kent and Caleb reorganized the cold storage room and the athletic/storage room. They did a great job! It makes me so happy to get some more space to fill down there. =o]

And here is what I was doing all day! I went through each room with each person and we de-cluttered the house to make room for our new presents, and then we put the new presents away. It was beautiful!! Again from fb:

Our bags for DI! This is a perfect activity for the day after Christmas because everyone is in a giving mood! smile emoticon 

Thank you King Wenceslas for your example at the Feast of Stephen all those centuries ago! Even if it turns out to only be a legend, I still think you and your song are cool!

From fb:

Today for the 12 Days of Christmas we studied about Jesus instituting the sacrament. My favorite part of the discussion was discovering just how blessed we are to get to participate in the sacrament each week when BILLIONS of Heavenly Father's children have never experienced that ordinance. I believe with all my heart that we are given this blessing because we need the protection and strength it can provide if we utilize it! Happy Sabbath to you!!

Today for the 3rd day of Christmas we studied about the interactions of Jesus Christ with the people who lived in America. We also continued our tradition for this day of marking a copy of the Book of Mormon to give to a close friend who didn't have one already. We each chose one story and a color to highlight with, and then I wrote in the margins and underlined with a pen. I hope the friends we gave this gift to can feel our love for them. I hope they can gain peace and strength as we have as a family from this remarkable book. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for my family! I am so grateful for Christmastime!

It took me basically all day to get this done. Mostly because I was interrupted like every minute. But I'm so glad I persevered because it was a great experience to go and give the book to our friends the Lizano family.  

I also gave another copy of the Book of Mormon to my friend Jenn this Christmas. It took me months to read and mark for her though, because I read the whole thing and marked all the references to women in it. I wrote my testimony in the back of the copy- it took 27 pages. I hope she will read it. 

From fb:

Today for the 12 Days of Christmas we wrote our thank you cards. Aka we did art projects that happen to say thank you on them. Someday they will express gratitude specifically about the gifts they received, but for now this will do!

I love the tradition of making gingerbread houses! We made them each year growing up and had the best time creating delectable winter wonders! But now I love this tradition because it reminds me of how much we need the Savior. I mean, look as these houses! Our best efforts are futile. Our houses are ridiculously fragile and flawed! But He would never laugh at us or make us feel ashamed when we have tried our best. He will help us transform our little cardboard shacks into celestial mansions if will just let Him in when He comes knocking on our door. He loves each of us so much!

Today for the 12 Days of Christmas we learned about Jesus being intentional. This is one of the most important words in my testimony of His Gospel. During the day I took the time with each kid to read over their blessings from the past year, and the goals they set last New Year's Eve. Then tonight we set goals individually and as a family for the coming year and honestly, I couldn't be more excited to see what we make of it! After some celebrating and putting the kids to bed Kent and I read our patriarchal blessings together. This is one of my most cherished traditions. I can't think of a better way to start the new year intentionally. Bring it on 2016!!

I made Chex Mix for Kent and he got to watch some football games. He was in heaven!

We played this hilarious game Caleb gave Kent for Christmas. We love pancakes and games so it is the perfect match!

Seth even scored a goal!!

Rockin' out in our ghetto basement! We love riding scooters around down there now that there is snow outside so oh well!

Kent surprised us with some extra New Year's Eve fun- poppers! 

Coming up with new goals was so awesome! It was hard for me to let go of my goal "make our home like the temple" from last year because I feel like we still need improvement, but we can always circle back around to it next year! And I LOVE how often our family goals have come up since this night! It is a built in motivator! 

We are going to potty-train Seth. We are going to learn to not yell or die trying! We are going to remember to close the door when using the toilet, not splash around wildly when using the bathtub, and not smear toothpaste and the like on the sink/counter/mirror!! The next one is self explanatory and has been brought up multiple times every day by everyone from Kent to Jenna! I taught Family Home Evening about the Sabbath this past Monday and I have to say it was quite possibly the most calm FHE we have ever had. Everyone participated and was engaged the whole time! Granted, the lesson lasted less than 10 minutes, but progress is progress people! Seth saying the sweetest prayer I have ever heard ALL BY HIMSELF for the first time is probably what set the tone for the meeting. The first Sabbath of the year, especially being a fast Sunday, was a meaningful one for me. I hope the trend continues. And the last goal stems from the trap I am scared of falling into of doing everything for the kids because I don't have a baby to take care of. I don't know if this makes sense to you, but I catch myself doing things because it is just faster and easier for me to do them sometimes instead of making everyone do their own part. But we want to kids to do what they can, and learn to do what they can't! It is more than fine to get help after we have tried our best, and it is also more than fine to need help because we don't even know where to start! What is not okay is having a house elf: me. I am not a servant and I am working myself out of a job this year so help me!

The last phrase is our family motto this year. It comes from a show the kids used to watch a long time ago called the Wonder Pets. Jenna and Seth hadn't seen it but they knew the ditty because we sing it all the time. We showed them an episode so they would understand it better. LOVE IT!

Then I took everyone upstairs to get on pajamas while Kent set up another surprise- popping streamers!! 

Such good times! The kids went to bed without even complaining about not getting to stay up late, In fact, Kent and I didn't stay up until midnight either, though we got woken up by all the fireworks. We live in the fireworks state!!

It has been such a full year. So much goodness! So many blessings!! I am looking forward to the awesome memories we will make in 2016!!!

Merry Christmas!

It was such a merry Christmas!

Everyone was so excited to wake up and find a little Lego set under the tree in their room as well as a candy cane tucked into the stockings they had hung on their door handles. 

The whole point of the Lego tradition in Kent's family growing up was to keep the boys out of the parents' room too early but as you can see in our family, the parent is as excited as the kids to build the Legos! 

Kent got a little Cosmo! 

Seth got a little train! He also got his blue candy cane open after this picture and so this is the only one for the morning where he doesn't have blue lips!

Everyone else's was too complicated to finish quickly so we opted to do them later. 

We watched the Nativity film with Breath of Heaven playing over the footage as is tradition. I love that little video!

I tried to have the kids line up but Seth didn't get it. He was also on a sugar-grump because I had taken away is candy cane as soon as the film was over since I didn't care if he was quiet or not anymore. 

The next few pictures are so sadly blurry. We still have yet to remember to get our camera back from Melissa and Karl! AAAHHH! So my phone with a flash just did not cut it! You can at least get the gist of the excitement though, right?!? 

All those pictures were just from the stockings people. And thankfully it eventually got light enough that my phone camera stopped trying to use the flash! We were so enjoying watching the kids open their stockings and gift that we didn't open ours until after they were done. I went first but of course there are never pictures of me doing anything because I am always behind the camera! I got the promise of a bike in my stocking so I can compete in a triathlon this summer! Woohoo! Kent had a BYU themed stocking this year. =o]

Then we took a timeout for breakfast. As we were getting everything ready I noticed I hadn't seen Jenna or Caleb in a while. I came upstairs to find her in her room listening to her new Frozen CD on her new Frozen CD player and singing away like there was no tomorrow!

I found Caleb in our room hard at work on the set he got under his little tree that morning! He said he just kept thinking about it and couldn't stop until it was finished! 

Natalie meanwhile opened all the blinds all the way so we could better enjoy our White Christmas! 

Jenna came down having changed into her new Frozen play dress. I also had to change Seth into his clothes for the day because he was so sticky from all the candy he kept sneaking! And no wonder, the poor kid was starving! It was after 9 AM when we finally sat down to eat. 

Ah slinkies. The present that lasts two seconds. They had just got them out of the boxes and started dancing to the music with them and immediately they were entangled almost beyond separation. I swear I have spent at least an hour in the days following that morning untangling slinkies! 

Cinnamon rolls, sausage, hash browns and fruit for breakfast- YUM! While we were eating and excitedly discussing everything we had opened Kent said something about that we had already had such a great Christmas morning that maybe we didn't even need to open any of our other presents, and the kids actually AGREED with him! That is pretty amazing to think about. They would have been perfectly content with just what they had because Kent had planned and led out with the PERFECT gift for each of them! He is phenomenal. 

It only took a reminder of the presents they got for each other to snap them out of it though. Jenna had to go first because she was SO EXCITED!! 

Seth was so cute opening gifts. He is a funny little guy. We opened presents until lunch time. The kids want to play with each thing as they open it so it takes a long time!!

In between his turns Caleb always went back over to the counter to work on his Lego set from that morning. It was cute to see his determination, but also unbelievable how uninterested he was in practically everything else because he was fixated on finishing! An important character trait to understand for the future! 

This tortilla press I got is so authentic, hay solamente instrucciones en espanol!

You guys. Jenna got a new blanket. Again. Probably for the last time. But she was SO HAPPY. 

The one by her cheek is the new one and the one in front is the old one. I kept catching her looking at them, or feeling one and then the other and smiling. It was super cute!

After a quick and random lunch we dove back in starting out with presents from our sweet babysitter Abby. We texted her these two pictures. 

This gift definitely wins the labor of love award. We had all the Harry Potter audio books in MP3 files so Kent converted them all and then burned them all onto CDs. He started working on it right after Thanksgiving. Natalie has listened to them seriously every day, and fully acknowledges all the effort he put into this gift!

Then we opened our presents from my Grandmom. She is a creative genius! Seriously, so talented!!

She made one of these for EVERY member of our extended family!! What a sweetheart. 

Then we opened the presents from my mom. Seth opened his first. When everyone saw the owl they thought it was so cute and Natalie attempted to trade him for it with one of her other gifts until she saw that Jenna also got one and realized Grammy made one for each of them. They all love their "book with a thing" presents she gives them! I also an super excited about my present from her- the new morning devotional book by President Monson! Hooray!! 

After that we did presents from the Hansen cousin gift exchange. I love the themed presents we did this year of books. It worked out perfectly! 

Shortly after this Seth went into meltdown mode. We were all feeling overwhelmed I think. It is just so much to take it all at once! So we took another break to put him down for a nap. He was so happy to peacefully read one of his new train books with me before willingly lying down in his crib, covering himself with his blanket and turning over with his back to me. I swear he fell asleep before I finished the song and closed the door.

I came down to find everyone doing their own thing, completely enthralled in their new adventures! =o]

After a while though Kent got the ball rolling again. 

Jenna got a knockoff American Girl doll and couldn't have been more thrilled! =o]

Please also notice in the back ground that she is the proud new owner of her very own trash can. She loves getting to through things away in her own room now instead of having to go into the bathroom. And it's pink to boot!

Really I think Kent wanted to get through the other presents so that we could get to THE presents. The ones in the basement that no one knew about! I have the coolest video of chasing them down the stairs and telling Kent to go faster so we could see their faces as they reacted to the surprise!

They were THRILLED! Caleb was definitely the most excited. He has since spent HOURS playing, even by himself when he can't convince someone else. We played a couple rounds taking turns going back and forth between the foosball table and the ping pong table Grandma and Grandpa MacKay gave us. 

When we finally came back upstairs we found that someone had cleared our driveway and sidewalk for us! We have such kindhearted neighbors! What a Christmas blessing!

The aftermath! =o]

When Seth woke up he opened a few more of his presents, but really he was kind of over it so Jenna was happy to help him.

Then it was time for our Christmas Buffet! (We have ham and bacon once a year lol)

We watched Charlie Brown Christmas while we ate dinner. It was SO GOOD! After just kind of snacking throughout the day it felt good to sit down and eat real food. 

I think Kent had thirds. And I think it is adorable when he curls his toes under like that sometimes. 

After the movie Seth opened the last of his presents while we ate our special treats, before we all headed up stairs to get ready for bed and to start the 12 Days of Christmas. 

We never get the after Christmas blues because for us it is the beginning of a whole other special set of traditions that help us end and begin the new year focusing on Christ.
Merry Christmas! And God bless us, every one!