A Day of Christmas Jubilee!

Andrew finished his final exams on December 11.  What a relief!  This marks the halfway point in graduate school for our family.  Such good news!

On Saturday, December 13, we had a full day of end of finals/Christmas celebrations.  It was so relaxing to not have any school commitments hanging over Andrew's head and to be able to truly enjoy being together as a family.

"We get to go to Church in our jammies?!"

We began the day with our ward Christmas breakfast.  I totally recommend it because everyone seemed to let their hair down and just have a good time.  It was a blast!

The tables were arranged in a giant rectangle around the cultural hall and there was a decorated Christmas tree in the center with toys underneath that the younger kids played with.  This year, I have seen so many trees with trains on a track around the bottom and I would really like to do that for our family next year.  There was a snowflake-cutting station in the back for the older kids.

 Marta Dulude was in charge of creating a hot cocoa bar.  It was exquisite!  This girl is amazing when it comes to taking a simple idea and making it jaw-dropping.  She asked one of the Young Women to draw a backdrop on the chalkboard.  There was hot cocoa, spiced apple cider, and Mexican Hot Chocolate to choose from.  Toppings included: Pirouette cookies, flavored marshmallows, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, crushed Andes mints, whipped cream, Red Hots, crushed candy canes, Heath toffee chips, hazelnut creamer, raspberry syrup, etc.

I wanted so much to help Marta with the hot cocoa bar.  I saw an idea on Pinterrest to freeze whipped cream whirls and serve them with hot cocoa.  Sounded like an awesome idea!  Guess what?  It doesn't work if you aren't serving the hot cocoa immediately.  

I also helped by crushing the candy canes.  I got confused the night before when Marta and I were texting and thought she didn't want me to crush the candy cane after all.  When I showed up the morning of the breakfast, Marta and I uncrossed our wires and got on the same page and I had to figure out how to crush the candy canes.  There was a crusty, broken-down blender that had probably been sitting in the cupboard at the Church building since it was built.  I used it and ended up obliterating the candy canes into powder.  Bummer!  So I failed Marta on both counts.  Good thing her hot cocoa bar was so stellar that I am sure no one noticed.  Ha ha!

Our Bishopric made pancakes all morning and sang songs for us and the Primary classes presented the symbols of Christmas.

The missionaries shared a Christmas video with everyone that has become one of my favorites this season:

Another video created by The Piano Guys was inspired by the #ShareTheGift campaign:

What an inspiring way to remember the true meaning of Christmas!

It was the best Christmas activity that I have ever been to!  And most importantly, it felt like we were ONE GIANT WARD FAMILY having breakfast together on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, Andrew helped me take a few photos of Cambria.  I gave her a candy cane and a silver bow for a present with a stick backing to occupy her while I snapped away.

We took Cambria to the Forest Library for a visit with Santa.  They had a craft, read a story to all of the kids, and there were Christmas treats as well.  We got in line so that Cambria could sit on Santa's lap.  All of the sudden, I caught a whiff of dirty diaper.  It was Cambria.  Andrew and I both looked at each other and I knew that he knew as well.  We strongly considered ignoring it and putting a stinky Cambria on Santa's lap for her first Christmas.  I know we are the worst parents ever for considering that but we were going to get our picture, plead ignorance, and go into hiding forever thereafter.

So that was the plan.  Until I noticed that Cambria had something on the back of her shirt and down her tights.  Blow out!  "Ooooooooooooooooooooooh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge."  Andrew high-tailed it out to the car to manage cleanup as best as he could while I saved our place in line and awkwardly made conversation with the other parents.

We recovered enough to have a visit with Santa.  He couldn't have been nicer!  Truly.  He was so gentle and kind with Cambria.  She was fascinated by him and did such a good job so that I could get some sweet photos.

After our successful visit with Santa, Andrew and I took Cambria home and deposited her straight in the bathtub to hose her off.  Poor girl!  We got her tucked into bed and then we watched "A Christmas Story" while eating Chinese food.  Thanks for the idea for the new tradition, Lisa!

Thanksgiving in A-Z

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Mitchells in Arizona.  Devin's family and Rachel & Jason all live in Phoenix so it seemed like a good idea to move the family party there.

While this was Cambria's second time flying, it was a little different since it was not a red-eye and she is much more mobile now.  She was so wiggly!  At least she was in good spirits on the flight (albeit a little loud per usual).

Andrew and I got to experience our first stinky diaper change at 30,000 feet.  I did it during turbulence so I feel like I really win.  Or lost, actually.  I really lost.

By the way, everyone was convinced that Cambria was a boy.  You may think I am exaggerating when I use the term "everyone" but you would be wrong.  Because EVERYONE ON THE ENTIRE PLANE thought Cambria was "the cutest boy!"  "Such a handsome fella!"  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  I'm gluing that bow to her head from now on.

Our family was able to take full advantage of the beautiful, sunny weather while we were in Arizona.  We never got in the pool because it wasn't warm enough for me or Cambria and Andrew just never hopped in.  However, there was a great park about a ten-minute walk from the house we were staying in and Cambria went there everyday.

Orange trees everywhere we looked!

It was her first time on a baby swing.  Prior to this, she has just sat on one of our laps to swing.

Thumbs up for the swing!  Big thumbs down for the slide.  Andrew said she did okay on her first few slides but once they took a ride on one of the steeper slides, she decided she was no longer cool with sliding.

The day before Thanksgiving, we took a family trip to the zoo.  Cambria wasn't so sure about it at first.  But she warmed up eventually.

Clara and Katherine

Tom, Lily, Katherine, Clara, and Laurie

Staying hydrated with her zebra sippy cup--apropos for the zoo

Sister Girl mean muggin' with Aunt Kelani

This zoo was great for getting up close and personal to the animals.

And it seemed to rub off on all of us.

Nana made sure all of the grandkids rode on the merry-go-round.

 

Cambria just wanted to be held.  And to eat.  And to take a nap.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  I guess Cambria didn't want us to miss a moment of the day since she got us up at 5:30 AM (after waking up three times prior to that).  Thank heavens we were in Arizona and the Macey's Day Parade comes on super early on the West coast (like 7:00 in the morning early).

We had Thanksgiving dinner with some of Laurie's cousins and Donald & Shannon Woo's family.  While we were waiting to eat, the kids jumped in the pool (it was in the mid-80s) and we took Cambria to the park.  She loves the swings so much!

After a fun outing at the park and stuffing ourselves silly with turkey comes the post-dinner cleanup.  And for this Little Miss--an early bedtime.  

In the spirit of sharing, this holiday season the three cousins (Lily, Cambria, and Clara) all decided to pass along some sort of contagion amongst one another.  Said sickness included leaky faucet noses, chest congestion, hacking cough and it all really threw Cambria for a loop when she lost her voice for a few hours early one morning.  

Cambria was already waking up every couple of hours throughout the night and so this served to make matters even worse (which in my sleep-deprived naivete, I didn't think was possible!)  Her restlessness led to talking in her sleep which was actually quite cute.  She would wake up, mumble a few whispered nonsense phrases, maybe exclaim out loud, and then fall back asleep.  

Babies in a bathtub are so squishy and cute!

Rachel and Jason

Kelani and Caleb

Clara and Papa

Laurie's cousin's daughter, Nana, Katrina, Shannon and Alyssa

Clara, Katherine and Devin (good job looking at the camera, Katherine!)

On Friday, our family spent the day at the Gilbert, Arizona temple.  It was a special day for us because Rachel received her endowment and then she and Jason were sealed for time and all eternity.  The happiest days are those spent in the temple and the happiest of happy days are spent in the temple with family.  Is there any possible way to put into words the absolute joy that is felt as we embrace our family members in the Celestial Room of the temple?

Kelani and Caleb watched Cambria (and all of the other kiddos!) for us while we were in the temple.  This was the longest we have left Cambria with a baby-sitter.  I wondered how well she would go down for her nap and if she would be sad to see someone besides Andrew or I when she woke up but she did great!  At least, that is what KK told us.  

When we got out of the temple, I was so eager to give Cambria a big hug.  But she couldn't have cared less!  She wasn't even interested in me holding her--she just wanted Daddy.  Ouch!  My Mommy pride was wounded!

Aunt Rachie painted your cute toes a pretty gold color

That's our Arizona trip in a blog post.  We had a wonderful visit with family and feel like the time always goes too quickly.  It just makes us more excited for the next time we can all get together!