This Christmas

For the last few years I've been making an effort to help our family do more to look outward during the Christmas season.  In the past, we've included little service projects during in our activity advent, we've made a point of sharing treats with friends and neighbors, we've "given the baby Jesus" a collection of papers listing good deeds we've done, and we've contributed the spare change we've collected to a charitable cause.  But in an effort to try to integrate service into our thoughts and habits, we're trying to focus on small acts of kindness we can perform every day.  So tonight during FHE we talked about things we can do all day.  This is the list the kids and I came up with (as recorded by Cat):

Pick up their things if they fall

Respect

Write a nice note

Compliment them

Smile

Listen to them

Be encouraging

Be funny

Be nice

Sit with someone new

Say thank you

Pick up their trash

Share

Say nice things

Help them carry

Hold door open

Talk to someone new

Behave (referring to being well-behaved at school)

Cheer someone up

Along the same lines, we wanted to try to help everyone in the family feel more loved and really encourage more service all the time, so we're also trying Secret Siblings this year.  Each of The Bigs was given a sibling to be his/her secret sibling.  They are to do secret acts of service until Christmas for their sibling, then reveal themselves with a gift on Christmas morning.  These are the ideas we came up with for Secret Sibling service (again, written down by Cat):

Make beds

Help in general

Help clean room

Talk nicer

Play with them

Let them help

Listen to them

Share

Put away their things

Say sorry

Do their job

Let them talk

Be encouraging

Read to them

Help them get ready

Write nice notes

Fold laundry

Obey

Say please, thank you, and I❤U

Let them do their thing (meaning don't interfere if they are trying to practice piano or get homework done, etc.)

I'd still like to do some of the other bigger projects we've done in the past, but I'm hoping that by really emphasizing the little things, we can make service and intentional kindness more of a pattern for our family not just at Christmas time, but all year long.

How have you taught your family to be more service-oriented?  Is there anything special you do during the Christmas season to reduce the I-wants?

Thanksgiving 2015

(originally published March 10th, 2016)

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving last year.  Cousins came over the week before for a play date and made cute coffee filter turkeys, and combined with some other pictures the kids made at school or at home, we had a festive little art display in our family room.

My grandparents came up from southern Utah for Thanksgiving weekend.  We were lucky enough to have them stay with us, which was lovely.  They are so good with the kids and so patient with the craziness in our house.  They read with the kids, Oma did Eliza's hair a couple of times, and when it was time to watch FSU football or put up Christmas decorations, they were happy to help with those things too.  We took them down to the BYU Musum of Art one evening to see this great Norman Rockwell exhibit they had there and they really enjoyed that, even if it did completely tire them out.  Oops...

It was pretty cold that weekend, but at least the kids were excited to see the first decent snow of the winter.  They had fun playing outside, and Ben helped Eliza make an itty bitty snowman too.

On Thanksgiving Day we were pretty lazy.  I made cinnamon rolls (which finally turned out really good - I knew I'd beat the odds eventually!) and we ate them close to lunch time, haha.  Then we went to my cousin's house where lots of extended family was gathering for dinner.  I don't have a single picture from dinner, but it was big and yummy, just as it should be.

We  posed for a couple of quick pictures before Oma and Opa left on Sunday morning.  Jack wasn't interested in being in the picture and there wasn't time to try to talk him into it, so just imagine he's there with his siblings.

It's a real consolation for me that being as far away from most of our family as we are, at least we're just a few hours from my grandparents.  We've loved getting to spend time with them during our Utah Years.

Jack's Leaf Pile

As the leaves began to collect on streets, sidewalks, and lawns around town, my kids started talking about wanting to jump in a leaf pile.  Little did I know when we stopped for an impromptu play date at a park that Jack would find a way to do just that.  He raked leaves up with his hands for a while, then decided to pile them up on his jacket and carry them to his pile.  With the help of his family and some of the other kids at the park, he ended up with a decent jumping pile, and he absolutely loved it.  Several other kids were able to join in the fun as well.

We may not have a big yard or a leaf-pile-producing tree, but Jack didn't let that stop him from enjoying this, one of the best things fall has to offer.

Halloween 2015

Halloween was once again a fun and memorable holiday for our family.  All of our kids who were old enough to know they had the option to, changed their costumes in the last hour or so before trick-or-treating.  Out of desperation, Cat put on my old high school cheerleading uniform.  And it almost fit her.  Jack colored a wolf mask that I found online and donned raggedy clothes to become a werewolf.  Eliza assembled a princess costume, borrowing a tiara from Cat, and with Cat doing her hair and makeup.  Luke wore last year's lion costume and managed to rock it for the second time.

We kicked things off with our now-traditional Jack-o-Lantern pizza.  (We used to have crock pot chili before trick-or-treating, but decided to make a change.  I like the idea of having something easy like hot dogs before going out, but they're so junky that I nixed that idea and replaced it with the almost-as-junky but much-more-time-consuming homemade pizza.  I'm pretty smart that way.)

Cat was invited to go trick-or-treating with a friend at her grandparents' neighborhood, which we have now verified gives out ridiculous amounts of candy.  Of course, it helps that Cat and her friend basically ran from house to house.  Cat carried my old cheerleading bag with her and it was about half full of candy when she got home.  (Click here to see Cat wearing the same uniform four years ago.)

Ben and I took the younger three trick-or-treating in our little neighborhood and didn't even make it to all of the houses before the kids were ready to go home.  They had a great time, though, and enjoyed plenty of candy anyway.

When we got home, the kids got ready for bed and we all watched the original Star Wars movie together.  The kids loved that, too, and have been talking of Star Wars, drawing Star Wars pictures (including during church...), light saber fighting, and watching Star Wars related videos on YouTube, ever since.

It was a fun night for everyone!

The Week Before

Mon - FHE

We had an FHE lesson about the Holy Ghost, so naturally
we decorated ghost sugar cookies for our treat.

Wed - Carving Pumpkins

Thurs - Trunk or Treat

I only took this first picture of Cat at the Trunk or Treat.

Cat was dressed up as an identity thief, Jack was Shaun the Sheep,

and Eliza and Luke were a cowgirl and cowboy.

Fri - School Costume Parade

Eliza - cowgirl

Jack - fireman

Cat - identity thief

The Fun Before the Fun

Our Pre-Halloween Festivities included these fun events:

Pumpkin Regatta
We invited some friends to join us this year,
planning our trip up to Salt Lake based on the times listed
on the website.  Well, the website lied.  We arrived early but we
still missed the racing.  Oh well.  We had fun anyway.  We got
to see an encore race and the kids sat in a giant pumpkin, then
they played at the playground.  Oh, and we all got out of the house.

Jaker's Pumpkin Patch

This is our favorite pumpkin patch.  The kids love it every year,

and it's free!  (This year they started charging $1 if you go during

certain days/times.)  We were some of the first to arrive in the morning

so we got a private hay ride.  The kids loved checking out all the cool

animals, and of course the corn pit was a favorite.  While my friend and

I were with the young kids in the corn pit, the older kids had lots of fun

playing tag in the hay maze and the hay pyramid.  No pics, though.

(It's a wallaby.)

The Pumpkin Walk

The kids always like going to this little event in Orem every year

too.  I wasn't feeling the Halloween spirit very much this year, and

the kids were largely on their own to put together costumes from

things they found around the house.  Eliza put together this Princess

costume.  Cat was a mixed-up, nerdy athlete.  (She's wearing/carrying

items from four different sports.)  She later said she was the opposite

of Eliza, haha.  I waited in line for a loooooong time for a free

caricature sketch.  The kids went off and played the various games

and came back to check in with me.  Then we did the doughnut on

a string together, and admired the cool pumpkins on display.

Luke was Bob the Builder.  (Jack wasn't with us this
time because he'd had a behavior issue.)