December

December was a busy month for us and I'm barely getting around to blogging about it. Here are a few highlights from our month:

Trip to Utah December 11th-21st

We got to see my Grandpa Seegrist


Luci had a sleepover with her cousin's Damon and Kannon. (not much sleeping happened though)

Sledding with some of my family



My parents have had a lot of stresses on their plates lately. So for our Christmas gift to them, my siblings and our spouses cleaned out and organized my Dad's wood shop. It was so messy I thought it would take all day, but with everyone's help it only took about four hours to finish.

Before:

After:

My Dad's table saw was in the garage and needed to be moved to the shed. It was so heavy that it took six of us to carry it. (You can't see me, but I'm there)


For Kirk's parents Christmas present we gave them canvases and finger paint, then let them enjoy watching their granddaughters make them art.

I thought Clara wouldn't do anything but eat the paint, but she loved banging her hands all over the canvas.

She did still try to eat some though :).



We had a cousin present exchanges on both sides of the family. I love seeing the difference between the two exchanges.

Kirk's family


My Family


We also went down to Temple Square to see the lights. Clara stayed back with Grandma and Grandpa. I love going down to Temple square, but I prefer going at a different time of year. It was so crowded!

We thought that visiting our families before Christmas would cut back on the amount of luggage we'd need. Maybe it did, but we still had a ton! I'm glad I had Kirk with me this time to help out!

Luci was a big helper too!


Christmas Tree

The good thing about waiting until the 22nd to get a tree is that they are so much cheaper!


Luci immediately picked out the one (out of four left) that she wanted and started dragging it into the store to buy.


As you can tell, both girls were so helpful in decorating the tree!

Luci and I made wreaths with the branches Kirk cut off the bottom.

Luci didn't have any help on hers and was so proud of her work. I love it! We hung it on her bedroom door.

Here's mine
Christmas

This was our first Christmas by ourselves. In some ways it was kind of sad to be away from our families, but it was really fun starting our own traditions.

Both of us grew up opening pajamas on Christmas Eve so we kept that tradition. Kirk and I weren't going to get any for each other to save money, but Kirk still got me some.

To add our own twist, we decided to open our pajamas before dinner, and eat in them. For dinner we decided to have breakfast foods. We had crepes with strawberries, mangoes, nutella, and whipped cream; hashbrowns; bacon and eggs. After dinner we had a spiritual message to share with the girls.


Earlier in the day Luci and I made cookies for Santa. We forgot to set them out before she went to sleep so right before Kirk and I went to bed Kirk set them out. I laughed as I watched him set out three cookies and then eat two and a bite. It must have been another excuse to eat more cookies because Luci would have had no idea how many were on the plate to begin with. :)

Earlier in December Luci and I were getting our hair cut at the mall and decided to stop by and see Santa. He asked her what she wanted and to my surprise she wanted a telescope. She'd never mentioned that to me before so I thought she would just forget about it. She never did though. She was sure that since she told Santa she wanted it, that's what she would be getting. I already had gotten stuff for her but didn't want her to be devastated on Christmas when she didn't get one. So while we were in Utah Kirk found one on-line and bought it. We thought it wouldn't be shipped until we got back, but it ended up coming while we were still gone. They tried to deliver it but since we weren't there they sent it back. When we got back home we desperately tried to find a telescope at the stores by us, but none of them had one. It was too late to order another one on-line too. Luckily I found my way around this problem. Luci told me that she really wanted some cheezits. I told her that Santa could probably give her those instead of a telescope if she really wanted. She thought that would be a fair trade so I called Santa for her and told him her new wish. What a relief!

I was so excited for Luci to get this 24 pack of play dough. After one play with it I wondered why i didn't just make her one giant tub of brown, because that's what it became. Oh well, she had fun!


My cute little Clara! She was sick for most of December and you can see it in her eyes.

For New Years Eve our town put on a first night festival. They closed off one of their main streets and lined it with ice sculptures.

They even had one that was a track for a sled to go on. Luci went on it, but didn't want me to come with her. It's too bad, because it looked like fun! No other parents were going by themselves and i didn't want to be a nerd bomber.

We just had to take a picture of this bike train one family rode there. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the first bike is a three seater! I love it!