True to December from, December 2019 was chock full of excitement, festivities and one tired momma!
We had many performances...here is Brenna looking stunning after her ballet recital....
The same weekend and an additional week of December was full of Katelee debuting as a young ape in Tarzan.
She fit right in the jungle as a wild, unruly animal. It was a fun show to watch especially when the half clad fella personifying the panther hopped on to Dave's armrest. Dave had to look down, he couldn't even take how immersed he was, it was just too frightening for him, and too funny for me! We love watching Katelee shine on stage, you can tell she has a great time.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday Brenna has been heading to the school early to be in the elementary school band. She thought she'd give it a whirl. She has a had a fun time playing, but never ever practices at home, so it may be a one time thing. We could not stop giggling and praising the band teacher's name as we sat through that concert. That takes one special someone to teach young kids brass and other instruments at the same time and wrangle them in while attempting to make music. Kudos to band teachers everywhere!
Harrison joined in the musical holiday celebration with his made up songs. He made up all sorts of tunes about "that Starry Night" We have thoroughly enjoyed each one!
Not only did our family participate in cultural and sporting events, we also watched some others show their stuff! Brenna took her buddy Kate to a BYU basketball game where they ate, cheered,
made it on the Jumbotron and hung out with Cosmo. They had the greatest time.
Dave and I won the religious lottery and scored tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. It is no easy feat so we were stoked to spend the evening downtown. We met up with Shannon, dropped off our donations and toured the Candy Cane Corner site as we always do, walked through the Grand America
to see the Gingerbread House
and eat a treat.
We went to dinner and then Dave and I ditched the others for the concert as they enjoyed the Temple Square holiday lights.
Everything was perfectly helping in our holiday spirit. Grant and Katelee had a holiday choir concert that was fabulous. Their middle school choir teacher is da bomb and has the greatest music program.
Harrison had Grandparents day and Grandma was able to spend a bit of time in his kindergarten class after his adorable program.
There pretty much is nothing better than 5 and 6 year olds singing 'All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten' and 'Skinnamarink' ending with the anticipated blown kiss. I love kindergarten. He also had a VIP week just for him. There was a bit of a drama one day when a substitute kicked him off of the special chair, it was pretty much heart breaking when he came home sobbing. But, the day I got to go in and show his class his special pictures and talk all about Harrison was pretty special. When he asked what he liked to do with his family, Harrison said he liked it when we are altogether and when we get along. He followed up with "We don't get along very much" So funny and also true! Ha!
The first few weeks flew by and we made it to Christmas Eve! We went to Boondocks and had a game of laser tag and played some arcade games. We think Christmas Eve laser tag may need to be a new tradition! We also wanted to do something kind and thought we would try and pay for someone's meal in a drive thru. Turns out the fast food restaurants aren't hopping on Christmas Eve around 3pm. Ha! But, we finally found one that looked a little busy, got in line, told the cashier we wanted to pick up the check for the car behind us and the car in front of us had already paid for ours!! Bless that holiday cheer. After a few attempts, we found success at Taco Bell, it was like their bells were Christmas bells ringing in the holiday with tacos.
Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house was delicious and delightful.
We had our program, played the white elephant game, exchanged gifts and handed out pajamas.
Grant did request another onesie so he could be toasty warm after snowboarding. But, gauging his reaction to this baby blue Yeti outfit, not sure if it was what he expected. Haha!
Our sports man was content with his jammies- he acted out and posed as a player for each sport represented.
Christmas morning was magical, like always. Santa came through with the requests from the little kids. They were the only ones that paid him a visit,
so I am not surprised he remembered their requests.
He remembered that Harrison really wanted a BYU helmet. Not only did he bring a helmet, but a jersey too.
I think he is set for all football. He pretty much could play for the cougars tomorrow, if they asked him. Unfortunately, I have told him he will have to wait until he is in college to play. We will see if I can hold out on that. He feels ready to tackle.
Brenna got a polaroid camera. It maybe wasn't the desired color, but I'd say it's a win.
Everyone was so excited to get Lagoon season passes! We also all took a turn zipping around on our mini-segueway. Grant and Dave are a little bit of scaredy cats and tried to balance but one try was enough. We are going to enjoy rolling around in the house till the weather is warmer and then it will be an outside toy. In the meantime, it will help me get all my chores done quicker, I am sure!
We played our new games-Sushi Go, Ice Cool and Cover Your Assets. They were so fun!! We pretty much do nothing on Christmas day, but somehow we are exhausted.
Cousin sleepover happened. Grandma is a good sport to let the kids come over and "sleep" during the holiday break.
And it wouldn't be a McArthur December without someone getting sick the week after Christmas. Harrison got a really bad illness-he woke up in the night struggling to breathe. It was so sad. Dave ran him to the Instacare in the morning and he had Croup and Influenza. Poor kid. He did a breathing treatment, got some steroids and kindly passed it on to Dave and me.
We couldn't help but cuddle him when he was so under the weather, so no shocker that we got it too. Because we were feeling icky, New Years Eve was low key with Harrison and Brenna. Katelee and Grant weren't sick so they hung out with friends at parties and still rang in the new year with a bang.
And so we start a new year-here's to 2020. After a December like that, I need to remember to take a moment...Harrison was totally in his room the other day "meditating" I am not sure that I would typically describe the kid as being "zen". He took a squirt bottle the other day and told me he was going to spray all around and then "just feel the peace." Wouldn't that be just wonderful if we just sprayed peace and it sprinkled on us whenever we wanted! I appreciate when he can calm himself down, though. After a bit of a rough day, loss of electronics and time in his room, Harrison got a hug from me and I told him I loved him. He responded with "Can I tell you what I wanted to say? I was going to tell you that you're the worst mom ever and I don't need you anymore. Then you hugged me and I felt better and didn't need that."
Lesson learned: peace comes through hugs,meditation, and tiny squirts of water
No comments:
Post a Comment