BANG Your Pot!

Every New Years Eve, the kids wait and wait to go outside and bang pans.  We try to set the clocks ahead a few hours (like three) so that they think it’s midnight when it’s really 9, so it can be over and we can all go to bed, but it doesn’t work very often, and it didn’t work this time either.

The girls were off at a dance, and Jake and Hannah were upstairs playing games just waiting.  Precisely at the correct time, they came down, grabbed the pans and went outside to make some noise!

Then it was promptly to bed!

 

Marissa Personal Progress

Marissa completed her Young Women’s Personal Progress award last month and received her medallion. This is the equivalent to earning the Eagle Scout for boys, so it’s a complex and time consuming process, and one that she has been working on for 4 years.

For her final activities, she had to finish reading the Book of Mormon, bake, and make a scrapbook.

She received her award from the Bishop at a special presentation. (He was just heading to work, which is why he is dressed the way he was-he normally would have worn a tux to this).

 

 

 

We are so proud of you Marissa!  Thanks for being a great example and such a good girl, er ah young woman!

It’s Christmas Time!

On Christmas Eve, it’s tradition that we have pizza for dinner. We went over to Gma and Gpa’s (& Great Gma) and had pizza with them. 

Then we came home, and another tradition of our is the kids all open one present. And it’s always pajamas. Then we watch a family movie. This year it was ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which was a kinda ‘freaky’ movie as Jacob and Marissa said.

Before bed, Hannah put out carrots on the lawn for the reindeer to eat:

In the morning, we always have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we open our gifts. This year, we added bacon to the menu. So we had cinnamon rolls and bacon!  YUMMY!!

Rain Hats:  I think Meg’s is pulled down too low or something

Yep. Shelley actually asked for this!

I got my favorite! Sourz Pez!  YUM! (only found on Amazon)

Hannah made a gift for Spicy. He really loved playing with it too!

Here is what Spicy did during Christmas:

Oops! Not quite ready for the photo yet!

There, that’s better!

Or maybe this one is best?

This year we added a new tradition that we want to continue doing each year.  Yesterday, when we were driving around Sac coming home from the zoo, we saw the homeless with signs asking for money.  We thought it would be nice to bring them cinnamon rolls on Christmas.  So we made a bunch of extras, and got some bottled water and headed back downtown and handed out cinnamon rolls to the homeless.  Most of them were nice, OK only one was a little mean, but she wasn’t mentally stable, she didn’t want any cinnamon rolls – she just wanted help holding her bike still while she strapped all her possessions on it. I was going to take a photo of her, but I think she would have yelled even more.

All the others were very appreciative, and although most had some food from others doing the same thing we were doing, nobody else was giving out cinnamon rolls! 

We had a good time and definitely will add it to our family traditions to be repeated each year.

Here is Marissa and Hannah making a delivery:

 

Christmas day night, we went to the movies which the kids all thought was a weird thing to do on Christmas.  We saw TRON and almost everyone liked it!

Christmas Eve Day Fun

So Christmas Eve Day there was finally  a break in the week of rain, so we decided to take advantage of dry weather and go out to do something.

We remembered that the Zoo and FairyTale Town were free every Christmas Eve Day, and we hadn’t been to either in about 5 years, and it was time!  The Sac Zoo is pretty lame, and free is just about the right price.

There are a lot of birds, birds and more birds, and not so much of the larger animals.  It was still fun to go though.

Lots of BUTT’s in this one:

After we had our fill of animals, we walked across the street to Fairytale Town, even though we were all a little older than their target age.  The kids still had fun remembering when we used to go there.  I even remember going to FairyTale Town when I was a little kid!! 

Marissa was a little scared!

The favorite thing is the ‘Crooked Mile’  - it was my favorite thing there when I was 5 or 6 or 8, and it’s still a favorite of the kids.  Somehow it seemed longer back when I was 8 though!

Video running the ‘Crooked Mile’

Before and After:

I found some of the photos we took last time we were here, which was Feb of 2006.  Anyone look any different?