Christmas Vacation

My parents rented a cabin in McCall, Idaho for the week of Christmas and we drove up the day after Christmas to join them.

Uncle Jacob with Matthew and Tori's baby, Owen. It was so fun to finally get a chance to meet that chunky little baby!

Nathan playing "Pass the Pigs".

Nearly 6 months pregnant!

There was so much snow! Probably at least 3 feet of it, and it snowed the whole time we were there. Uncle Jacob took the boys down to the lake behind the cabin to jump off the dock.

Matthew made a deep hole in the snow when he landed.

And then he had to crawl out of that hole in the snow--makes me think of a snow worm.

Nathan played for hours in the snow. Hours.

The boys collected icicles off the house and built a sculpture that resembled Superman's house. This was the biggest icicle they found--it broke off the roof as Matthew was licking it.

Maggie tried to play in the snow a little bit (she loves her snow pants but not so much her Princess boots) but I think the snow was just too deep for her.

Daddy throwing Maggie high in the air.
She LOVES it. "Again!" she always says as soon as she comes down.

Nathan and Matthew went skiing on our last day--Uncle Ryan taught them. They had a blast and Matthew came home to report that he only fell down one time...which meant he only fell down one time on one of his runs, and I guess that was the run that counted.

The Wilson sibs: Me, Tori, Jacob, Sariah, and Cami

It was a fun trip and it was so wonderful to see all my family--especially Tori and her family who we haven't seen for a long time--but it's nice to be home.

Christmas Day

Christmas Wonder

Maggie reading her new Disney princess books.

Matthew asked Santa Claus for three things: a laptop, a PlayStation 3, and "Arthur and the Invisibles" video game. Well, Santa found the video game...

...and a V-Tech version of a laptop...

...but no PS3. I think Matt will survive, don't you?

Nathan lined up all his gifts in front of the new chest of drawers that Santa left for "Natebutt and Mattbutt" (Brian says Santa knows the boys' nicknames) to take pictures with his new camera.
So of all the wonderful toys and presents that Maggie received for Christmas, what do you think she took to bed with her that night? Her bag of stocking candy, tucked carefully on the pillow next to her. I don't think I saw her without a piece of candy in her hand the whole day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Thanks to a long story about an Elk and some pies and a bloody kitchen I was not in the best mood on Christmas Eve. But I tried to keep my pregnant hormones to myself as we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa Swings' house for Christmas Eve dinner and festivities. The kids had a good time, at least.

Maggie in her Christmas bows.

Mommy and Maggie

Opening a few special Christmas Eve presents: cameras for the boys, a vacuum for Maggie, and traditional pajamas all around. Thanks, Grandma!

Maggie playing with the xylophone from Aunt Charity and Uncle Erik. She kept telling me to sing "louder!" until I was practically yelling "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" as she pounded the chimes with that little plastic mallet. It was quite the Christmas performance.

Matthew and Nathan (with Uncle Erik) trying out their new plug-n-play video games from Charity and Erik.

Seeing Santa

Along with broken Christmas lights, shopping in crowded stores, and bad Christmas music on the radio, going to see Santa is one of the true headaches of Christmas. Why do we do it? For the same reason we do all of it, I guess: for the kids.

Last Tuesday, we ventured with Grandma Swings to the mall for lunch and a visit to Santa. After finally finding a parking space only a quarter of a mile from the door (instead of a half mile) and trekking through the entire crowded mall looking for Santa and the food court, the kids were hungry (so was their pregnant mom, and you don't put off lunch for pregnant moms). So we managed to find a table and sat down to enjoy some lunch.

After lunch, we made our way back through the crowds, talking up Santa all the way. But when we got there...no Santa. Apparently, they forgot to mention the Jolly Old Elf takes a lunch break from 1:15 to 2:15 when Grandma called to find out what hours he'd be available. It was 1:15. What do you do in a crowded mall for an hour with a very cranky two-year old and two high-energy boys?

Well, we all survived a very long hour. I wasn't about to go home and try coming back another day--it was see Santa today or next year. And after waiting only another half hour in line (ok, I let Grandma do that part while I sat on a bench and watched) the kids finally made it up onto Santa's lap.

Nathan, Maggie, and Matthew (showing his "tough" smile) and Santa Claus

After we arrived home, Matthew took this picture to his room to compare the Santa with the photo from last year. Apparently, the other Santa had a bigger beard so they aren't the same guy. Matthew's theory is that, "the helper Santas tell the real Santa what the kids want and the real Santa is up at the North Pole busy getting ready for Christmas." Sounds good to me.

Say "Cheese!"

I wanted to get pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes this morning before church but we were running a little behind. As I was rushing Maggie into her clothes of course she had to start throwing a fit: screaming and kicking me and acting, well, two years old. So I forced her tights on and dragged her dress over her head and pulled a brush through her tangled, shower-wet hair all the time pleading, "Not this morning, Maggie, I don't have time for this this morning!" (Yes, sometimes I resort to begging my children to cooperate, and no, it rarely works.)

After we finally had her all done up I told her that Daddy would take her picture. Suddenly, she was a new child. She brightened up and said, "Say cheese, big smile like this," and demonstrated her biggest, happiest smile. Wow, we should take out the camera more often...!

Maggie, looking so pretty in her piggy tails and happy smile.

The Kids: Maggie (2), Matthew (5 1/2), and Nathan (8)

A Note About the Elk

Yes, there is a dead elk in our garage. Brian finally killed his first big game animal. He brought it home late Thursday night and hung it from the ceiling of the garage. (I wonder what our renter living above the garage thought about that.)

And then Brian decided he needed to be a man and cut the elk up himself. Let me tell you how thrilled I was at the prospect of seeing my kitchen turned into a butcher shop and my Kitchen Aid mixer used to grind up 200 lbs. of elk burger...and all this only a few hours before throwing a party in our kitchen (a football party, not a hunting party). Lucky for me (sorry, dear) Brian came down with that stomach bug we've all been dealing with this week (yes, I got it too). Yep, after hacking up the thing in the garage he got too nauseas to finish slicing, grinding, and packaging. So the process came to a halt before it trespassed too heavily into my kitchen. Hooray! I was able to quickly clean things up (with the help of my brother, thanks, Jacob) and get the house ready for company without having to scrub out too much blood.

But now we're stuck with a garage full of dead elk. Brian swears up and down that he'll get it done. And I'm swearing up and down that I won't touch the thing. I don't mind raw meat so much, but 200 lbs. of it? No thanks.

We took some great pictures when the skin was on but the camera lost them and I'm not going to post pictures of, um, the current state of affairs. I don't even want to go in the garage--thank goodness its detached from the house.

Sugar Cookies: Part II

I just had to post this picture of how Maggie frosts cookies:


Okay, not really--this was the only cookie she frosted herself and then tasted. For the rest she chose the cookie shape and color frosting while I wielded the knife (and quickly set the frosted cookie out of reach).

Sorry, I was having too much fun watching the kids decorate their cookies to take anymore pictures. You should have seen the green snowmen, pink and white santas, and triple-stacked wedding cakes on our cookie trays. It's all about the creativity.

Clarification: we cut and baked cookies on Monday but didn't get around to frosting them until Thursday.