Christmas

Christmas was WONDERFUL!! All the kids from both Jarett and my families were able to come home for Christmas and it was SO awesome to be around everyone. As always, it was just a constant frustration to decide which family to hang out with. I found that this decision became somewhat easier to make when I had to stay home with throwing up kids or when I could just take off because Jarett was feeling nauseous. Somehow those nights, decisions were just made for me... Anyway, we have a very traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It went something like this:

3-3:30: Mullen House Talent Show

We had a few special musical numbers this year (as always). Travis sang the ABC's completely impromptu throwing in a few Christmas references. We were all impressed. All the kids sang the snowman song (how else do you expect 2 year olds to sit through a program). Kaia and Hayley sang a Christmas traditional, "The Gentle Donkey" from the Carol Cantata. Hayley sang this in Sacrament Meeting when she was about 6 and Kaia has learned it as well, so they sing this as a duet now.


Alanna and I played the famous Nutcracker Piano Duet (not something that should be a tradition, but it's just fun to see how much worse it gets every year). Hayley and I played the Joy to the World piano duet (something that will have to become more of a tradition). Jarett attempted O Holy Night. Usually his attempt is phenomenal, but this year he was beginning to feel the sickness come on and somewhat failed in the attempt. The family backed him up and it turned out to be a wonderful time. We all sang a few tunes together and then headed over to.....

3:30-4:15: The Nativity Reinactment (yes, it takes this long)

I'm sure you can all imagine 7 kids 6 and under huddled around trying to get ready to act out The Nativity with all their aunts with the excitement of Christmas Eve. It just takes a while. Always wonderful. We had Joseph and Mary aka Jarom and Kaia.


We had the donkey aka Jarett in his true form (this used to be the role of my Grandpa Jubber)

We had Mary #2 aka Saryn with her Teddy Bear/Baby Jesus

We had the shepherds aka Alanna, Dustin and Jack

We had the angels aka Brooklyn and Kienna


We had the Wisemen (who usually are better dressed, but the costumes had been borrowed for Moroni's Quest and not yet returned) aka Hayley, Brittany and Travis

We had the Narrator aka Dad

and we had a new addition this year: the MANGER....because Kimmy just really wanted to hold Jaymeson (who was playing Baby Jesus)

THE WHOLE CAST:

4:15-5: Grandkids Pajama Opening





and the Mens "Surprise Package"
5:30-7: Off to the Cahoons for a Marvelous Christmas Dinner with the world's best Homemade Apple Pie a la Mary. Unfortunately, my camera died before I headed over there and I haven't been able to get any from my sisters-in-law.

7-7:30: Another Nativity reinactment which was even more of a gong show seeing as there are 13 grandkids over there 11 and under.....plus we had to include the new puppy as an angel (please don't ask).

7:30 - Bedtime!! Santa doesn't come until we're all asleep.

8:00 - Back to Mullens for "present" opening (always a huge surprise of Pajamas)
There are a ton of pictures for this....but they'll be coming in another post.

9:30-10 set up stockings for our stocking exchange as well as putting out the kids stockings (so santa can find them).

10:30 -11 - Bedtime for the adults!! Whew!!


Christmas Day!!

7ish - Wake up call!! SANTA CAME!! Rush over to Mullens to see what he brought....

9ish - Open Presents and eat Mom's famous nd very traditional Sausage Egg Fondue

11 - 2:30 - Over to Cahoons for present opening and Christmas Pictures (always attractive)

2:30 - 9: Mulling with the Mullens and preparing/eating another AMAZING Christmas Dinner.

We had the adults at the main table.....

The Older children at the coffee table set up for 4.......

And the two year olds at a small play table (with a drop cloth underneath it).....


I just LOVE Christmas. It is SUCH a special time to be with family and to remember the "most wonderful time of the year". I think of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family to be with and for the gift that was given to us over 2000 years ago - our Saviour, Jesus Christ. What a wonderful time to reflect on the gift that Heavenly Father has given to us. I am so thankful for all these traditions and wonderful things we get to do to remember...

A Christmas Favorite:

Genes....

So, over Christmas we stayed with Cahoons and this picture was in our room. The baby in it is Jarett. It's not too hard to see where Jaymeson gets his looks from, is it?

C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A

Trying to sum up a week in California with one post is NOT going to be easy. We had SUCH a blast. It was just WONDERFUL. Anyway, here's my attempt.

"C"inderella's Castle
We could not pass the castle without my girls getting giddy. Even while we were on other rides, they were just telling me that they could still see the Castle. In fact, the main thing that they were excited about going to Disneyland for was to see a real castle…

And can you blame them? It was breathtaking. Saryn couldn’t even look at the camera she was so taken with the castle.

"A"ction!!

We often tease my mom about how hard it is to keep up with her on vacations. It's just GO GO GO and then GO some more. We've always said that we could split our family in half. My mom could lead the troops and my Dad (which is where I would follow) would go down to the beach and relax for a week. They have very different opinions on how a vacation should be. Little did I know, I married someone like my mom. Jarett had us up at 5 every morning to get out by 6 and on the road. It was non-stop, but it was SO worth it. What a great trip!

"L"ittle Princesses

We had the opportunity to take our Little Princesses to a Princess Fare. They attended an official Coronation Ceremony where they were crowned ‘Honorary Princess for a day”. They danced with Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, walked around a Maypole and made princess crowns.

"I"t's a Tea Party

The Girls sure couldn't get enough of Alice in Wonderland's Teacups. Saryn especially asked to go on the teacups about 100 times. It was her favorite ride. Of course, the pink one was the best...

































"F"amily
We had SO many great memories made as a family. That's what every vacation is about, right?







"O"ut Cold!
After these kind of days....everyone needed a little break, but the little ones were able to find a place to rest - and BOY were they OUT COLD!!




































"R"esort Resting and Relaxing







"N"ot dealing with -40 degrees in Canada!!


"I"t's a Small World

Now, most people skip over this ride saying its lame, but my girls were in HIGH HEAVEN. What little girl wouldn't love dancing dolls dressed up in costumes from all over the world decorated with snowflakes and Santa and all things Christmas? It sure was awesome. We have SO many pictures from this ride, because they had such priceless expressions. Even Jaymeson was just looking around and checking everything out.

"A" Surprise Party
Because we were going to be travelling home on my birthday, my mom threw a surprise birthday party for me. Thanks Mom. This was a much better celebration than on the snow covered roads for hours and hours....

Disneyland

So, Disneyland has always been special, but this year, we told them we had our little baby coming and asked if they did anything special. They went ALL out. We couldn't believe all that they did. They even had a news cast on it. Check it out....



Okay, so perhaps this is a slight exaggeration, but Disney sure makes every guest feel SO special when they come. It sure was a magical time of year to go too. Pictures will be coming soon. I promise.

Travelling and Las Vegas

Okay, so we're not going to do the repeat of before where a month took 3 months to repeat. Sorry for the overload of pictures, but what else happens when you're on a vacation that long and that special?? Anyway, as said before, we stopped in Vegas on the way down to California. Here are a few pictures in Vegas and in the car...

Saryn wasn't quite sure what to do with the neck brace pillow that we got for the kids. But hey, everyone needs a good headband every once in a while.....

The girls were wearing their "brides" aka veils for a vast majority of the trip. They're watching a movie here too. They were such troopers. Couldn't ask for them to be any better.

At the Belaggio:

My mom and Kaia in front of the Poinsettia display (and a ginormous rocking horse)

This snowman family (the mom was my girls favorite) was made completely out of tiny flowers. It was STUNNING....

In front of their GIANT Christmas Tree was just a perfect picture place, so just skim through...

This was one of the lobby areas in the Belaggio. It had all these super cool flowers coming down out of the roof and then Christmas trees in each corner. There was a pianist playing Christmas Songs off to the side too (this is now my dream job).

My mom and Dad in front of one of the corner Christmas Trees...

In front of the Belaggio fountains. They were SO amazing....

Brookie with Jaymeson waiting for the fountains to start (for the second time - we loved them so much we had to watch the second show).

In Caesar's Palace. Kienna thought that the sky inside was real. I can't remember exactly how she said it, but it was super cute....just trust me on this one....

Anyway, lots of pictures for a couple hours of a pit stop. I had to twist Jarett's arm to stop, but he was the one with the idea to see the fountains twice, so I guess he was happy we did too.

A Promise to Return...

Okay, so I know that I've been negligent of the whole 'blog' world for the last month, but I'm here to tell you that I am returning. I just need a few more days to make sense of my world. As I look around my house, I have determined that one of my New Years Resolutions is to see my floor again and always keep it that way. Christmas was wonderful, it's just deciding where to put it that's the problem. Sigh. Anyway, I'll give a quick update and then I'll do more details with pictures etc. over the next little while. Christmas Vacation started on December 11th right after Jarett's final. Due to the news of bad weather heading our way, we headed out right away stopping in Calgary for the night. We left Calgary at 6:30am and drove for 21 hours straight stopping in St George just ahead of where the storm seemed to settle. From St George, we continued to Las Vegas (where we stopped to see the Bellagio Fountains and walk through Ceasar's Palace). After Vegas it was non-stop to California where we stayed at the Palm Desert Marriott Resort (AMAZING).


Need I say more?? We arrived on Sunday night and rested up a bit on Monday. It was a rainy day, but some still decided to go on out to the pool. Yes, we're those crazy Canadians. It was about 50 F and we got some seriously CRAZY looks. Hey, it's a heck of a lot better than the -40C that was back home. Anyway, that was Monday. Tuesday was Disneyland (which was perfect, as always) and we got some strange looks only wearing t-shirts and periodically a sweater. Most Californians had never seen weather this cold and they were wearing long coats, scarfs, toques and mittens. So granted, we are strange comparatively. Wednesday was back at the resort (raining again). Thursday and Friday were Disneyland and we stayed overnight in Anaheim (the resort was 2 1/2 hours away from Disneyland, so this saved a LOT of driving). Saturday was a bit warmer (almost 60) and we went to the pool and relaxed for most of the day. My mom also threw me a surprise birthday party (since we'd be driving home on my actual birthday). Then it was back into the car for a long haul. We made it all the way to Idaho Falls from Palm Desert in one day pushing ourselves ahead of another snow storm. We actually went farther, but the roads were SO covered with snow that we couldn't see anymore, so we turned around and stayed in Idaho Falls for the night. We were super sad to not be able to stop and stay with some wonderful old friends that we haven't seen for a few years, but it turned out that we made the right decision. The roads were horrid. The next day, which was my birthday, we were up and at it fairly early and pushed through to Calgary stopping only for gas (which is when I fed the baby) and we found ourselves miraculously home.

The next two days we prepared for Christmas and did our Christmas Eve celebrations. Christmas was WONDERFUL and we feel so blessed to have had all our family around us. We blessed Jaymeson in Sundance ward (both of our parents are in the same ward, so it just made sense) on Dec 28th and it was wonderful. We had our families together afterwards and ate some wicked food. Jarett's mom woke up on the morning of the blessing really sick and it seemed to spread pretty quickly afterwards. Neices and nephews, sisters and parents were all getting sick. We knew that our turn was coming. Saryn got it first and threw up on the Tuesday and Thursday. New Years Eve would have been perfect had it not been for Jarett getting sick and having to leave before 10pm. We thought that a miracle had happened and Kienna had actually not picked something up, but she proved us wrong on Saturday when we were staying over at the Yamadas to get an early get-a-way on Sunday morning. We decided we were going to forfeit church and just get ahead of everything and not get anyone else sick. So we travelled home on perfect roads and have been trying to make sense of the house ever since.

Well, that's my overall synopsis of the 3 weeks of vacation that we had. It truly was wonderful and we had SO much fun every night watching movies or playing games or just chatting with endless amounts of family. How better can you celebrate the holidays? Well, as promised, I will update with more details and pictures once my house is in order.....and now, here I go to do that - wish me luck!!!