Christmas

On Christmas Eve, I went to Brian's ward again to hear him sing in Sacrament meeting. He sang "what child is this?" and did so good. Then when he was done singing, I rushed home to go to church with my family. 

Daniel told me during Sacrament meeting that he saw his mission president during with a family in our ward, the Curtises. So afterwards, we went over to say hello. It was so fun to meet Daniel's mission president! And Daniel got to meet me and the kids. They said something so sweet, like, "It's so nice to see you doing well and living the life you should." I'm sure that's so gratifying as a mission president and wife to see one of their missionaries staying on the covenant path. It was also so fun to realize the connection with the Curtis family! We'll need to get together with them! 

Mom, Brooke, Camille, Daniel and I made food and cleaned up all afternoon when we were done with church. We made a beautiful salad, a jello salad, dinner rolls, Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and our favorite salmon. It was a delicious dinner. After dinner, we did our candy cane hunt and sand Christmas songs around the piano. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve. 

Brian and Sammy left, and we got our kids to bed so that we could wrap presents and prepare for Christmas. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" while we waited for kids to fall asleep. 

Sawyer woke up several times that night, before and after Daniel and I went to bed (and we didn't get to bed until 1 on the morning 🫠). He acted like he was sick, but nothing really seemed to be wrong. It was very strange. 

It kind of put a damper on our Christmas. The kids came up to wake us up at like 7 in the morning or so, after we struggled to sleep. It was a bit hard to wake up. 

We got Sawyer up, even though he wasn't feeling well and likely wanted to keep sleeping. He laid on our bed while we went down to watch the kids go through their stockings. They were so excited. ❤️ They got a bunch of little things they wanted (like jump ropes for the girls, caution tape for Jack, a suction cup ball for Camille, and cars for Sawyer), plus candy, oranges, underwear and socks, dental hygiene things, and personal hygiene things. 

We brought Sawyer down to watch the nativity video from the church. We had a little discussion about it, and then let the kids start into opening presents. I think everyone had a great Christmas. We got Jack a small (Chinese, haha, it had Chinese characters and these funny little Chinese jingles) power wheels; Sawyer a ride on police car, complete with siren and radio; and the girls roller blades, which they have basically been living in since they opened them. Everyone also got books and clothes or shoes of some kind. I got Daniel a panini press, a new sweatshirt, and a book. He got me a new straightener and a new balance ball. Plus, my main gift was a girls trip with my friends to Austin, Texas. 😊 

We spent the rest of the day playing with our things. The girls went outside to skate a little bit and Jack joined them in his new car. Sawyer was mostly lethargic and either sitting on the couch or sleeping on our bed the whole day. He did get up for a little bit to play with his police car and try out Jack's car. And he joined us for a little dinner. But that was it, poor little guy. 

Daniel and I started one of dad's new puzzles with him. And we watched some TV, which we put on for Sawyer Man. Winnie the Pooh Christmas, I believe. 

We made panini for dinner that night with our new press, which I think Daniel was excited about. The few days before Christmas, he started talking to me about the fact that we hadn't gotten a new press, and "should we ask to see if anyone has one we can borrow?" And "we won't be able to have panini on Christmas now!" It was pretty funny, knowing I had one wrapped under the tree for him. 

And that was basically our Christmas! It was a good one, I think everyone was happy, with the notable exception of poor little sick Sawyer.