Our Iowa Christmas – Part 1

We went to Iowa on December 19 to begin our Christmas celebrations with the BYU vs Utah football game, which gave us until 3ET to get ourselves my family’s home.  We were mostly packed the night before so we thought we could be on the road by 8 or 9 at the latest.  With a six week old and toddler on the getting out the door committee, we had a diaper blowout and major spit up, unpacking and repacking of toys and clothes, thoughts about needing snacks, and all sorts of “If you give a mouse a cookie” developments that extended our departure time by two hours.  The trip went really smoothly once we were on the road and was broken up by an hour at the fanciest Wendy’s I have ever seen, complete with a fireplace and big screen TV.

One of the most important parts of this trip was blessing Nathan. Andrew, my dad, and two brothers Derick and Brian stood in the circle to give him a name and a blessing.  It was a special glimpse into the sweet boy that is part of our family and good direction for Andrew and I on what we need to help him with.

Other highlights leading up to Christmas: playing lots of games (nertz, pente, rumikub, foosball), watching Christmas movies, going to the dentist and eye doctor, playing with marbleworks and dumping marbles all over the floor (the first time was an accident, the many other times were just for fun), spending  time reading and playing with Grandpa Moose, swing dancing with Uncle Derick, learning how to use a calculator and read i-spy books with Uncle Brian (thank you for lots of babysitting Brian!), reading and doing hair with Aunt Christine, walking in the fairly warm weather, going to a friends Christmas recital that ended with a tornado warning and serious rainstorm, and making cracker towers at the table.

Christmas Eve began with Christine, Emily and I heading to the eye doctors for a quick adjustment on my new glasses followed by a trip to starbucks to celebrate Christine’s birthday. We were three fish out of water knowing nothing about coffee except what it smells like. We now can tell you a frappuccino is cold and a latte is hot and Starbucks can make anything with milk instead of coffee. Emily is a fan of the blueberry muffins.

We had our traditional ham and mashed potatoes Christmas Eve dinner with the missionaries.  We played the bells, read the Christmas story and attempted to act it out (that ended with Mary riding in on the donkey after three attempts), got ready for bed and opened our Christmas ornament that represents the year.

I chose one thing to pull together for Christmas this year – new pajamas for Emily and Nathan.  It was my first attempt at making my own pattern and sewing pants. Emily only wore them long enough to snap a few pictures (which I had anticipated), but Nathan likes wearing his.