Christmas: Denver

I dropped our camera on a ceramic tile floor in California, essentially breaking it. So most of the pictures in the last posts were taken by my dad (which is why I was actually in some of them). These pictures from Denver were either taken on my phone or by someone else.

We haven't been to visit our family is Denver since before Connor was born, so this trip was long overdue. Connor got to see new family members he had never meet before. Dallin had way too much fun playing with his cousins every day. He loved every minute of it.

We went to an indoor bouncy house/jungle gym/play place. Dallin went on everything by himself, and loved doing the teeter totter with Judd.

Dallin and Porter have always been buds. They closed themselves in the TV cabinet together.

We went to the Denver Zoo.

It was a cold day, but warm enough that we didn't freeze. We just bundled up really well and made sure to visit an indoor animal every once in a while.

Connor was mesmerized by the animals. Once we found an enclosure with animals in it, you couldn't pull him away.

Connor is the short one on the right.

Our nephew Isaac loves learning and asking questions. And Mckay loves to answer questions.

Mckay found an opportunity at every stop to teach Isaac something and he just soaked it right up!

Our whole group by the elephant:

We also went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. When we stopped for a picnic lunch, Dallin wanted to eat chips instead of his peanut butter sandwich. We told him to eat the sandwich first, so he found his own solution: layer the chip on top of the sandwich and eat both in one bite.

Very clever!

We also celebrated my birthday while we were in Denver. Mckay got me a new camera! He said he didn't know what he was going to get me for my birthday until I dropped the camera. I'm good at creating a need. :)

It was so fun to spend 2 weeks with our family. It was a nice relaxing break before getting back to work and school. And it was a good reminder of what is really important to us: our family.

Christmas: at the Beach House

Christmas this year involved 30 people, all under one roof. There were 2 Crapo parents, 8 Crapo siblings (I'm number 6), 7 spouses, 12 Grandkids (4 were babies under 1 year old) and 1 awesome uncle. Since my parent's house can not accommodate that many people, they rented a larger house near the beach for the week so we could all stay together.

We were some of the first people to arrive, so we got first pick on bedrooms. (hehe)

Things got a little crazy at times having so many people together, but it was sooo much fun. I think we made a pretty magical Christmas for the kids.

My sister Julie created a lot of that magic. She collected Christmas bedtime stories, one to be unwrapped and read each night to all the kids.

She made ginger bread houses and men for the kids.

Her husband Christian helped the kids decorate.

The kids loved being able to hang out together all day, playing games...

...and playing light sabers with uncle Mark.

There was a piano in the house and my little brother Joseph brought his guitar. 

We sat around the fireplace many nights singing Christmas carols while I played and Joseph strummed.

Connor was often found walking around in the kitchen begging for food.

He was very moody and clingy the entire trip. Then I noticed the day after Christmas that he had a molar coming in! I was expecting several more teeth to show up before seeing a molar. And then in the next 7 days, molars 2, 3 and 4 popped up. Four molars in one week! No wonder he was grumpy. (But if you ask my mom, she'll still say he was a perfect, sweet angel the whole time.)

He sure was:

Christmas Eve was spent at my Uncle and Aunt's house. They always throw a big Christmas Eve shindig with lots of food, followed by singing and chimes.

That's me in the yellow shirt in the back of the picture, playing the piano.

 The singing goes pretty late into the night, so our boys were worn out and ready for bed.

 On Christmas morning, we woke up to find stockings for all the grandkids.

 All the kids explored their stockings, and then it was present time!

We got lots of great things, just what we wanted, and the kids got plenty of toys.

Connor was surrounded by toys and boxes, but all he wanted was some Rice Chex.

Here is our whole group on Christmas day.

 It was so fun to see all of our family again. Being in Indiana, we don't get to see very much of them, so we had a blast being together again.

And we had a wonderful Christmas.

Next up is our trip to Denver!

Christmas in California: Aquarium and Alcatraz

We went to California for Christmas this year to be with my parents and siblings. We had some presents to each other to open before we left, but we weren't quite sure when to open them, so we started pretty early in December. Our thought process went something like this "Open them the day before we leave? That'll be a busy day with packing. How 'bout the weekend before? We could... there's nothing special about December 15th though. Any day we open them won't be Christmas, so we might as well pick any day. And we need the UPC code for the mail-in rebate on that already wrapped box... so December 3rd it is!"

 We only opened one on the 3rd. It was a new TV (the one with the mail-in rebate).

We made it part of our Family Home Evening lesson. We talked about the Christmas story and the wise men bringing gifts and why we give gifts to each other. And we saved another present for the next weeks FHE lesson. Some nights, we used opening a present as a bribe to get Dallin to eat his dinner. That child has never swallowed whole chunks of food so willingly.

We used their eagerness to open presents to our advantage. On the airplane ride to California, we wrapped some cheap dollar store toys for them to open on the plane.

When they we getting squirmy and didn't want to sit quietly any longer, we broke out a present and that bought us a little more time.

As has become a tradition when visiting my parents, we went to Monterey Bay.

We ate lunch at the Fish Hopper and Dallin enjoyed making Grandma color his menu

Connor had pizza.

We went to the aquarium next. Dallin's favorite part is definitely the splash tank.

We visited the beach a few times on our trip (In the few hours that it wasn't raining).

Connor found a stick and was using it to scoop sand into his mouth. Yummy.

Mckay and I got to go to Alcatraz with a few other family members while the kids stayed at home with Grandma.

Here we are on the boat heading for the island.

It was a pretty cool tour and I'm glad we went. They had pretty strict rules for the prisoners there. This was my favorite one:

"You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege."

I am so hanging this up in my kids' room someday.

More on our trip coming up...

Felt Advent Calendar

December was a really busy month. You probably noticed because I haven't blogged in a while. Part of my time was taken up by finishing the Felt Advent Calendar I started back in October. My plan was to finish by December 1st, and I was a week late for that deadline. But I did finish it! And I love how it turned out.

I sewed buttons on the tree for the ornaments to hang on.

 Every little stitch was handsewn: the numbers on the pockets, the pockets to the backing, each individual ornament.

And I embroidered snowflakes on the white felt background to give it a little more detail.

 The 25 ornaments:

angel, baby Jesus, stocking, star, dove 

holly, bell, drum, cup of cocoa, candy cane

wreath, snowflake, Santa, tree, ball 

bow, present, reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man

candle, mitten, peppermint candy, ice skate, Christmas light bulb

After I took these pictures, I gave it a more finished look by sewing silver gray double fold bias tape around the edge, and sewed three red felt tabs on top to hang from. (I did use a sewing machine to attach the bias tape, so I guess it's not completely hand sewn.)

I love how everything turned out. I've been wanted to make one for a few years after seeing this one on a blog and I'm glad I pushed through and completed my goal.

 

Then we left our house two weeks later to spend Christmas with my family in California. I wasn't about to spend 2 months of my life sewing this calendar and then not get to enjoy it all Christmas, so I packed it up and brought it with me. Incidentally, upon returning home and unpacking, I can't find the snowman ornament. If any of my relatives find an adorable felt snowman with an awesome blue scarf, I have a warm Dec. 11th pocket waiting for him...