December

We had much to celebrate in December. Matthew turned 6 on December 19. He has expressed a feeling of being "older" lately and his behavior has seemd to mature. Just this past week he received an award in school for being the "builder of the month," which means he "built" up others with his kindness and good attitude.

Happy Sixth Birthday Matthew

In addition to a family birthday celebration in the morning, Erika took the boys and some of Matthew's little buddies to the Children's Discovery Museum downtown and served them a pizza lunch.

Thomas had a science project for school--an invention that uses simple machines, such as axles, ramps, etc. He came up with an elaborate Rube Goldbergesque machine for sending a car down a ramp. The chain reaction starts with a ball rolling down a ramp, which hits a pencil that spins on a lollipop stick, a string attached to the pencil then pulls a block out from under one side of a bridge, and a car on the bridge then rolls down and stops in front of a cardboard replica of a grocery store (the grocery store also serves to carry all the parts of the machine when you take it apart).

We enjoyed a Christmas nativity reenactment at my parents' house with all my local siblings and their families. I had the honor of being narrator.

After the nativity story we acted out a silly version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Thomas and Matthew acted as sugar plums dancing in my and Erika's heads. Sarah narrated.

We opened a few Christmas presents. I loved Stephen's present to Mom. It was a picture book called, "The Many Faces of Stephen," or something like that. His face is a bit, how shall I say, rubbery, which allows him to make all sorts of silly faces. If you are ever in the vicinity of South Jordan go over and ask to see the book.

Matthew being a helpful present distributor

Erika's parents flew in from Seattle (after visiting Erika's sister) and spent the holidays with us. We took them straight from the airport to the Polar Express in Heber City. (We had mixed up which day they were flying, hence the haste from airport to train--in fact we had to go back later to get their luggage). The Polar Express is becoming a bit of a Christmas tradition for us now.

Waiting in the freezing cold for our trip to the North Pole

Matthew found a heater and let the air flow up through his nightgown

Before getting on the train we had a few minutes to spare, so Erika surprised her step-dad, Gene, with a Mini-van Birthday Party. That's where you stick candle in a cake, light it, and sing happy birthday all within the (warm) confines of a minivan...preferably on someone's birthday.

Matthew was beaming with excitement to get a glimpse of Santa Claus and the North Pole. I think this picture captures rather well that 6-year old Christmas anticipation.

Matthew took on a very reverent and solemn demeanor when Santa boarded the train

We all got bells from Santa

We sang carols and Matthew got to hold up one of the Twelve Days of Christmas signs

The next morning (Christmas Eve) we celebrated Gene's birthday some more with a nice breakfast of cinnamon rolls, etc.

For dinner that night we had middle-eastern food to bring our thoughts closer to the nativity of Christ. We borrowed some costumes from my mom's abundant supply to dress appropriately.

A Christmas Eve dinner

Three Kings

Erika led us in a game of Dreidel, with coin chocolates as the prize. She even found a funny demo video online for us to watch before we started the game.

Luck was not on Erika's side in Dreidel

The boys got to open a couple of presents from the grandparents before bed.

And the next morning we awoke to the surprises from Santa. One of Erika's presents to our family was a baby bottle, representing the new baby that will be coming into our family in the fall. Erika thinks its going to be a boy, but I think it might be a girl. We'll let you know after the first ultra-sound.

A Christmas Feast

Sorry for the somewhat brief narration of the photos. I should have written this more promptly, but the pictures really convey more than words could express. In my next post I will talk about our vacation to Catalina Island. But one quick story first about Christmas toys. I was taking the boys home from a fast food restaurant around Christmastime when Matthew suddenly said out of the blue, "The people in China are really nice to kids, aren't they Dad?" I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him inspecting his kids' meal toy. I guess he noticed that almost every toy he has says "Made in China" on it.