Not long after I posted pics on Meysa's birthday we celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving. It was just our family this year. It was low key. I cooked a small turkey and only had a few sides and not the 25 sides that we normally do when we have company over. I made only two pies and no appetizers. We sat down for dinner and 15 minutes later all the kids were done and has escaped to the other parts of the house. We did at least say what we were thankful for. That counts doesn't it? There were football games on and games to played. I think I got a small nap once the tryptophan kicked in.
The next day, Black Friday, I ventured out in the afternoon (I am not crazy enough to head out in the morning)to do some shopping by myself. I got several things done and it felt good to get a head start on Christmas gifts.
After Thanksgiving, we have been busy with the everyday stuff. Ryan is finally moving forward with his research project. It has only taken 10 weeks to get to this point. Talk about frustrating for him.
Ayden is plugging along in school. He and a few other kids from our ward decided to put together a "band" to play at our Ward Christmas party. They have been practicing for several weeks now and tomorrow night we get to see how they all sound together. It is an interesting collection of instruments. A trumpet, clarinet, harp, cello, and piano. I'll let ya know how it goes!!
Meysa must have hit a hormonal milestone as well as a birthday recently. She has been "super fun"!! Just two nights ago she had a meltdown because she couldn't draw stars as well as Ryan could. She is submitting a drawing to be considered for the yearbook cover for her school. It has stars on it and she only has until Tuesday to do it and apparently the world was crashing down around her. Oh, yeah and it was 9:30 at night. When the irrational starting spewing from her mouth I had to walk out. Ryan saved the day and talked Meysa off the ledge.
This happened after a meltdown from Ayden (talk about a great night). He has dishes this week and decided that he should shove all the dishes that he could into the dishwasher, so there was less to handwash. Since he had leftover dishes from the night before only about half should have been put into the dishwasher. That stunt earned him another week of dishes and a sink full of dishes to hand wash!! Am I ready for teenagers? I honestly question it!!
Lauryn is her unique little self. She is so boisterous (read loud) and creative. For the first time since we have had kids in school, we had to do retakes for pictures. Lauryn brought her pictures home and she looked possessed!! Really with one eye bigger than the other and her head titled slightly. She said the guy took her picture before she was ready!! So hopefully take two went better than take one. She is finished with her art class through the Parks and Rec. She loved it and wants to take the next one as well. That really is her niche in life.
Wyatt is keeping me in line. Everyday at 9am sharp he calls me to start Preschool. He loves it and is already starting to read small words. He is constantly asking me how to spell words that he is wanting to write down. He keeps us laughing as well. A few Sundays ago I had asked Ayden to help Wyatt put his shoes on so we could leave for church. Ayden was struggling a bit to get them on and Wyatt, apparently exasperated by the lack of progress, sighed and said "this is ridonkolus"!! We busted up and I saved Ayden from any further humiliation from his baby brother!! It is now a running joke in the family!! We have several of those and most of them come from Wyatt!!
Alright, now that we are caught up on everyone, let's get to Christmas trees. Last year we settled for a pre-cut tree from a nursery close to our house. It was nice but frankly there isn't anything better than heading out into the wilderness (or tree farm) to cut down your own tree. So this year I did some investigating and found a pretty close farm that had u-cut trees. Our only free weekend was last Saturday so we took the opportunity to go and forage for our Christmas tree.
Once we found "the one" the men settled in for the hard work of sawing it down. Meysa wanted in on the action as well though. Meysa is a lot like I was at her age. I always felt that if the boys could something, well then so could I. For Meysa, that meant getting a couple of passes of the saw right along with the boys. Lauryn and Wyatt were busy picking up weeds and being silly. I think Silly should have been Lauryn's middle name. She is a ninny!!
Once the tree had been cut, the men hauled it over to a bundling station where some nice guys trimmed the bottom, shook the tree and then bundled and strapped it to our car. I guess you don't really find those guys in the real woods, but the experience was close enough!! As we were in line waiting for our turn to get things trimmed up we took some pictures of the kids on this nice little setup they had. I think Lauryn must be proud of the fact that she is missing some teeth, every picture lately has that same look.
So there you have it, a catch up. I have all my Christmas cards sent, packages sent and almost all the shopping done. My holiday baking will be next week and then hopefully I can relax the last week before Christmas and just enjoy things. Our family finished reading The Book of Mormon this year and we are also enjoying reading the 24 days of Christmas each night. It really is the simple things that make the season merry and bright.
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