Christmas Vacation and the Rest of the Traditions - Entry #1

So I had great plans.  I decided to post a Christmas tradition each day of December on my facebook profile.  I was doing great.  I was up to 13 on the 13th and then....well, we flew out of Basel on the 14th to go back to Houston for the holidays!  We hit the ground running literally, both before we left (we had an extremely early flight) and after we got there (just lots and lots to do).  Not only was I posting a tradition on facebook, but then I decided I should blog about each one.  I had only posted one, and had three others in the works, and had great intentions to write about the rest.  But...

The Christmas holidays have come and gone, and I have to say that this Christmas had to be my favorite of all.  So I'm going to finish those first few blog entries, and I might even write a few more; but I want to get Christmas memories 2010 down on paper before this feeble mind forgets all the wonderful times we had together!

We originally thought that we would finally have the whole family together for at least part of the week prior to Christmas.  We knew Sarah, Iz, and Katelyn were flying to Utah on the 23rd, and that was only fair because we had had them for the past two Christmases.  Israel's mom hadn't even met Katelyn yet, but we had figured out a way to get everyone else here from the 20th through Christmas----we thought.  It looked like we really might pull it off.  However, Mike, Toni, and Ariana had just relocated in Nevada where Mike had been assigned with the Air Force.

 

They had to report there on December 10 so Mike thought that once he was there and had done some preliminary meetings that he could arrange to come back to Texas for the holidays.  As fate would have it, he had some mandatory meetings on the 22nd and the 27th, nothing in between and nothing much after.  His actual training wouldn't start until January 10th, but by the time he got there and got all this information, it was too late to book plane tickets.  Because of the five day window, they couldn't drive either. 

Soooo, we ended up with 26 of the 29 of us in Spring.  Matt had been able to fly in from Ft. Knox on the 17th. 



Matt said that it was amazing how many people came up to him in the airport or on the plane and thanked him for what he was doing.  He said people would honk their horns when they saw him in uniform as he was coming home.

 
Matt's  family lives about 10 minutes from our house (which Sarah and Iz are lovingly taking care of for us while they rent theirs to others); so we only needed to sleep 21 of us at the house---only 21!  Can we say pack and plays in three bedrooms plus Katelyn's crib, blow-up mattresses, and kids on the floors?
I knew it would be chaotic at best, and that we would need to come up with a variety of down time vs. fun things to do, adult entertainment (the clean kind) vs. kid-friendly activities, alone time vs. crazy togetherness time, spending time with friends vs. spending time with the fam, etc. etc.  I knew feeding this crew would be nuts. I decided to treat it like a family reunion.  We had a plan, a loosely determined schedule sometimes with lots of options, meal-time assignments, and it all was spelled out in a four-page document---no joke.  I wanted everyone to know what we hoped to have happen so we wouldn't have misunderstandings.  It worked!  For the most part, everybody stayed busy, happy, had fun, and nobody (mainly me) got stuck with all the work and the dishes!  Did we follow the plan perfectly---no, but with one exception (a family slide show of Christmases past that was in the works), we did all the biggies.

I tried to get a lot done before we left Switzerland.  A lot of November was spent online ordering Christmas presents.  I had Abby's help purchasing games on a killer sale at Toys R Us, and then she wrapped and delivered them when they drove down from Idaho.  I found another fantastic sale on Spode and had several big boxes delivered.  Sarah and Israel, I'm sure, felt like they were living in a warehouse as the packages started to arrive (not only things I had ordered, but all the kids were shipping things there as well).  However, Katelyn thought she lived at a toy store!

Sarah even started wrapping things for me, but not for a while!  Kate was having too much fun playing with things even while they were in the packages.

I also tried to order coordinating clothing for the grandchildren so we could have a family picture taken---no small task, there are 13 of them!  Thanks heavens for colored pictures on the internet sites and free shipping!


Our little wiggle worms minus Ariana.

We also made sure we had packed the Wii and favorite Christmas movies that we had brought to Switzerland.  We double-checked with Sarah to make sure they had editions of all the favorite games.  We knew we needed alternative entertainment options ready for the masses.

We got there ahead of the kids, though a day later than planned.  Our flight was cancelled out of Frankfurt, so we arrived on the 15th.  It was almost nice to have a little breather away from Basel in the nice hotel in Frankfurt so we could gear up for busyness!  We had three days in Texas to finish the shopping and wrapping, to decorate (Sarah had graciously not put up their things so that the kids could come back to "our home" instead of theirs), and to buy the first major installment of groceries.  DJ worked one day, and had a dentist appointment another, but was quite helpful as he pulled trees out of the garage rafters, set up topiaries on the front porch, helped hang wreaths, and went to Wal-Mart (and then again and again).  His excitement for the week was being able to go back to the gym with Walt and Gary---he had really missed his racquetball games and work-outs!

I wanted to put up lights outside, but we needed to trim the bushes before we put them up---imagine that!  The four of us (Sarah and Iz helped, too) spent a chunk of Saturday doing yardwork---something my friends from the north will not comprehend (who does yardwork in December?).  I decorated inside the house with a lot of help from Matt's daughter, Carmen.  I'm big on trees---nothing fancy, but I like to have a theme in different rooms, etc.  This was actually one of the traditions I wrote about (#8) so I won't bore people with the details here.  Then there was the Santa collection, the nativities, the wall hangings, the snowman collection, the advent calendars, the garlands....  Let's just say we were still putting up trees in the upstairs bedrooms on the 20th and probably the 21st after the kids got there.  At some point I just said, "It's not like I would like it, but it's done!"

Sunday (the 19th) we enjoyed going to church and listening to it in ENGLISH!  I have enjoyed our Switzerland Ward, but I have to work so hard to pick up even the tiniest bit of what's going on during Sunday School and Relief Society.  They usually have headsets we can wear during Sacrament Meeting, and one of the more fluent English speakers translates for us.  Anyway, it was nice to be back amongst familiar faces.  By evening the troops had started to arrive!  DJ picked up Mark, Liz and their two boys from the airport; David, Marinda, and Conner completed their drive from Idaho as did Abby and Steven in a second car.  We let Matt's three kids have a sleepover that night, too.  And the good times began!

We knew we wanted to keep Monday low-key.  We weren't sure when some of the kids would arrive because of weather, etc., so we planned a pretty slow day---movies, games, visiting, and letting the kids have cousin time.  Though we had designated Thursday as a "friend" day because the Arciniegas were flying out that morning, Liz's family had to make a run to the Galleria to see Megan Beck Hulse and family and her extended family, the Becks, as this was the only day they could see Liz and crew.  They had lunch with them and were back in time to meet Sarah, Katelyn, Marinda, and Conner at the library's baby storytime.  While they were gone, the Dailey seven arrived from Tennessee via Russ' parents in Beaumont.  We were babysitting Matt's kids so he and Falicia could do their Christmas shopping as he had just arrived a few days earlier.  The cousins had a ball.  These pictures were just random shots taken at the house throughout the week:


Most of the girls having fun with the pop beads---oh, and AJ, too!  Hunter (age 4) is not totally in the picture, but you can see his cute little hands totally in charge of the Wii controls---he's amazing!



Katelyn and Conner playing with Matchbox cars---don't you love the boxes and tubs of trees and decorations still in the upstairs hall????



Cousin Cade gets in on the action.



Hunter and Katelyn in the playroom playing with the kitchen and food.

 

Katelyn looking the the basket for just the right dishes!



Grammy, Hunter, Colee, Cade, and Becca playing a game.

And...the three oldest, playing a game of their choice on a table that we set up in the entry way.  We wouldn't all fit in the breakfast room and dining room so we thought it would be fun to set up a table within earshot of the dining room table.  It came in handy for lots of things!



Katelyn's bouncer came in handy for Conner, and...





for Isaac.....





....multiple times!



The newly installed gate kept four kids under 17 months of age from falling down the stairs, but it kind of looks like a jail here!  At least William and Isaac look happy, I think!!!!



Cousin time on the piano.  Morgan was practicing a piece for Christmas Eve, and Carmen completely learned Jingle Bell Rock in two days for the program as well.  Gram's little Beethovens!



Singing cousins around the piano



Different pianist, more singing

Monday afternoon while the kids were playing and the guys were "vegging" or unpacking or watching movies, the dinner prep was begun, and brownies were made for Family Home Evening Treats.  After a Italian dinner of sorts, I taught the FHE lesson, but only after DJ led the singing for our opening song!



A rare, but wonderful sight!

I have always been impressed how the Lord had Joshua and the Israelites erect a monument of sorts with 12 stones so their posterity would ask what they were for and be taught and reminded of the Lord's goodness to the Israelites and the miracle of the parting waters of the Jordan so they could cross into Caanan.  We built our own monument of sorts as I had some of our kids tell the stories of the Lord's blessings upon our ancestors as they came to America and crossed the plains in wagons, left most of their belongings, and sacrificed greatly so we could have what we have.  It wasn't fancy, and I had the kids build it on top of a Rubbermaid tub lid so we wouldn't scratch the table.  We did stack those rocks though, and we did a lot of remembering!



Listening to one of the kids tell stories of our ancestors (don't you love our rock monument?).



Listening, but not sure what Morgan's facial expressions are about!



Auntie Liz with baby Kate



I think we might be putting these two to sleep!

After FHE and brownies, we piled into cars and took off to see the lights of Prestonwood Subdivision.  A lot of the streets in their neighborhood pick a theme and decorate their yards accordingly---the story of the Nativity, 'Twas The Night before Christmas (both the normal and Texas-style), The Twelve Days of Christmas, Sesame Street, The Grinch, etc.  Someone got pics at one house, but they didn't turn out very well, so we can't show how amazing these places were!



Anna and Becca in Uncle Steven and Aunt Abby's Car



Carmen and Morgan in Uncle Israel and Aunt Sarah's Car---are you seeing a theme here.  Hunter road with the Daileys so he could be with Colee.  It was so fun to see the kids want to be with their cousins and uncles and aunts.





Day One of our "family togetherness" came to a close---except for a late night run to Kohl's to pick up some clothes for a few of the adults for family pictures the next morning.  All and all we'd had a great day!  More to come...