Jacob blew out his candle appropriately and even attempted to blow his horn but as you can see from the video he wasn’t that successful   Although his attempts were so ridiculously cute that they made me laugh!!!

Oh, it’s too bad that I’m not more on top of things to the point where I could throw two parties in two days.  Really the only reason that he’s the one getting the short end of the stick is because he’s younger and less likely to notice.  He’s such a good little boy!  He’s really more than I ever deserved to have as a son.  I can’t think of another child that is more loving and just all around good.  He amazes me all the time.  I love you, Jakey!!!

It’s a sad day because these great women have been an integral part of our lives for the last two years.  It’s going to be so sad to see them leave, especially when they were the majority of my support system.  I think the saddest thing for me is that Jacob has no idea.  He thinks today is just like any other day.  He keeps asking for Becca and it’s been several days since her last visit.  I take a little comfort in the fact that she’s going to come back and visit after the new year.

We got the call and Jacob is supposed to start school on the 3rd of January!  So soon.  It’s a lot sooner than I thought it’d be.  But I’m glad that he won’t have a huge gap where he’s not getting services.

Yeah, Jacob!  You’re getting older and moving on.  The future holds so much for you and there are so many people here to support and love you, most of all ME!  I love you, my little angel face!

So, boring day yet very productive.  With all the decorations down and out (except for the lights) I can now start dusting and cleaning the house and maybe even get a few projects done in time.  Oh yeah!  I’ve gotta get crackin’ on a menu for the party.  I’m thinking chili and cornbread with cake.  We’ll see.

The kids were wonderful troopers with getting ready in our room and being blindfolded and carried down the stairs.  Jacob threw a little fit because he wanted to be blindfolded as well even though we had no fears of him looking at things and telling the other kids .  Something I just realised while stuffing the stockings, I don’t have a stocking for Jacob!  I had to stuff all his stuff in my stocking and that was okay because I didn’t have anything for myself anyway and he can’t read his name.  I think I’ll only be able to get away with that for one more year so I better get crackin’ and make him one!

Church was only sacrament meeting.  It was a wonderful meeting with letters and recordings from the missionaries out in the field.  It’s always such a special meeting when we get to hear from those young men and hear their testimonies of their Savior.  We have Elder Scroggins serving in the San Juan, Puerto Rico mission, Elder Noble LaHuillier in Aurora, Colorado, Elder Saylor Taylor serving in the Sierra Leone mission, and the final speaker was Elder Abe Ivie who had returned home just a couple of days ago from Argentina.

We were back in our house by 10:30.  The kids were so excited to eat their massive cinnamon rolls!  I think this years batch turned out much better than last years.  I guess I’m getting better at making them.

We had a great morning and afternoon at the house before we had to pack up and go over to the Johnson house.  We did have enough time to get the XBox and Kinect all set up but we didnt’ have enough time to get really far on the set up process.  Since this was what we spent the bulk of our Christmas budget on I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do more with it but the kids understood what it was from commercials that they’d seen in the past and they were excited by the games that Santa brought as well   I’ve never been really motivated to get video game systems but this Kinect is really growing on me.  The fact that you have to be up and moving instead of sitting on the couch twiddling your fingers gives me more promise than any other system I’ve seen or used as a child.

♥♥♥♥

Everyone but Hannah and LJ were gathered for some Christmas fun!  Grandma Pat and Grandpa Les wore their traditional Christmas hats for the occasion .  They’ve worn those things for the past 9 years, ever since the family started growing with great-grandchildren.

Back during Thanksgiving, we all drew names for who we were going to get presents for.  Benjamin drew Joseph’s name and that was a no-brainer as to what to get him.  Joseph was ecstatic to find that his brother had gotten him a Yoda action figure!  Joseph drew little Ava’s name and that was a little trickier.  I happened to find an adorable stuffed owl in the dollar section at Michael’s that had the same colors as her owl themed birthday party. I thought it was too perfect to pass up.  Ava continually tried to eat it!  Matt drew Greatgrandpa’s name and so thought that some oversized Lakers slippers would  be the perfect accessory!  Emma was so sweet in helping him to get them on and tie them for him.

Sweet Emma drew Julia’s name and I couldn’t think for the longest time what to get her.  Emma kept wanting to get her things like makeup and Barbie’s but since I’m not a huge fan of either of those things with my 6-year-old I didn’t want to impose those things on an almost three-year old.  Instead, I made her a little apron with a pot holder and oven mit.  For not having any kind of pattern and only using scraps of material that I had on hand I think it turned out adorable.  I want to make one for Emma at some point (watch, that’ll never happen).

I made a similar one for Aunt Megan just using different fabrics and Megan got pockets.

We spent the rest of the evening eating Christmas dinner  and celebrating the December birthdays.  There was Greatgrandpa Les on the 5th, Benjamin on the 20th, and Jacob’s will be on the 30th.

It wasn’t much of a birthday celebration, something that I have tried really hard to make a point of having since their birthday’s are right at Christmas time, but we’ll be having a real party in 6 days time.

I hope your Christmas was as merry and bright as ours and that you were able to have loved ones near!!!  All our love, The Johnson Family

Earlier this morning we met up with the Johnsons for our traditional Christmas Eve breakfast.  Uncle John was in town and breakfast gave Benjamin the perfect opportunity to have a little chat with him and ask him to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  I think everything is coming together for that.  We have less than a week until we’ll have tons of family and friends over to celebrate that big day!

I spent the rest of the day making our traditional cinnamon rolls as well as an extra dozen for the family we are ringing and running to. (shh ).  I was also running a little behind in a couple of the gifts I was hand making.  Emma had drawn Julia’s name and I had drawn Megan’s name this year.  I know Megan had said that she wanted an orbital sander for some of the projects she had been doing around her house but she had also mentioned how she’d love to have a nice apron since they’re like $30 these days.  I decided to make an apron for her and a mini apron for Julia.  I didn’t have a pattern so I used Jacob as a model.  It was funny to hold these pretty little pink swatches up to him and pin and tie things on him but he didn’t seem to mind at all.  I was so worried that I wouldn’t get them done in time but I finished them around 11:00 tonight.  Talk about waiting ’til the last-minute!!!

The kids and I made chocolate chip cookies and got the carrots ready for the reindeer!  Jenny told us about this English tradition where the children of the house go out and sprinkle “fairy dust” on the walkway so that Santa can find the houses of the children that still believe in him!  I tried it for the first time tonight with the older kids and you should have seen their faces!  They were so excited about the idea and it made a little more sense as to why Jared and I stay up after they go to bed .  The kids set up their tents in our room for one big sleepover.  We started this tradition more out of necessity than fun because we had little ones that snuck around the house at night .  We had them sleep in our room so that we could hear when they woke – and pounced!

I think it was a record for going to bed on a Christmas Eve!  Midnight!!!  Since we have church tomorrow morning at 9am Benjamin came up with the bright idea to blindfold their eyes and take them out to the car one by one and then come home and open presents.  I think I have to agree to that one because they won’t get up in time to get dressed and open presents before we’d have to leave.

It was nice having Mike, Amy, and Jenny over for a couple of hours.  We were all able to have dinner together (chicken noodle soup and rolls) and go deliver our last days’ gift.  Mike and Amy appreciated it because they were living with us last year when we started this tradition.  It was nice to finish the 12 days off with them, running through the cold !

A cute video of Mike playing with the kids!!!

In England there’s a tradition where the children sprinkle “fairy dust” on the front walk up all the way to the door.  This way, Santa is able to find the homes of the children who still believe!!!

The #1 thing on the list was to go and sit on Santa’s lap!!!  We never got around to that last year and I wanted to kick myself in the tush for forgetting.  Thank goodness the kids never noticed, or at least they never said anything about it.

So, tonight, we set out for Bass Pro Shops to see the winter wonderland they created just for Santa!

I forget, almost every time, how awesome Bass Pro Shop is!!!  They went all out!  They had huge stuffed animals set up, perfect for photo opps…

They had train sets that travelled through Christmas villages…

And of course, they had their boats and RVs out.

It’s a good thing too because we waited in line for almost 2 hours to see the big guy!  Correction, I stood in line!  The kids hardly noticed the time going by because of all the crafts and different stations that they could look at.

I dropped my camera while standing in line and it wouldn’t do anything for about 5 minutes!  It was crazy and I was trying really hard not to cry!  I think we were about 30 minutes from seeing Santa and it somehow dropped and hit the ground hard.  I decided to turn it off and just let it rest and somehow when I turned it back on it was working- to a point!  It wasn’t until I tried to take a picture of the kids with Santa that I realised it wasn’t zooming the way it was supposed to .  I’m bummed but then a little part of me is jumping up and down because that means that maybe I can get a new lens instead of this kit lens!

When it was our turn, Santa spent a good amount of time talking to each of the kids and asking them how they’ve been and what they would like.

My all time favorite thing to see was Emma burying her face in Santa’s chest as she gives him a wholehearted squeeze!

They still believe and that’s more than I could hope for!!!

As usual, I was blindsided by the cupcake request from my son especially since I wasn’t planning on anything because his official party is on the 31st (combined birthday/baptism party).  I guess I was wrong to think that way .  Benjamin requested a Wild Kratts party, which basically means themed cake/cupcakes with candles for him to blow out.  I made a simple vanilla cupcake with icing to match the Wild Kratts characters, Martin and Chris, but then added some chocolate fudge frosting in a rope design around the edges!  I knew a couple of the presents that my parents were going to give him for his baptism and there was one in particular that I wanted him to have before the baptism, along with a couple from us, so, with Nana and Michael, Amy, and Jenny standing by, Benjamin blew out his candle!

His Nana and Papa gave him a razor scooter, a new jacket, and a baptism towel.  I was surprised at how much time he gave the towel considering the other presents, but he took some time to read the poem and we pointed out that he can use that next week to dry off when he comes out of the water.

My Baptism Towel

Today you will be baptized
your sins all washed  away
And I will be there waiting
Excited in every way
For I’m a very special towel
With an important job to do
And I will be the one they take
To wrap around you
You can keep me as a reminder
Of this very special day
When you were baptized a member
And your sins were washed away! 

Jared, the kids and I got him a couple new suits, one was a bit big and so will have to wait for later, but a new tie and tie clip, also a new set of scriptures with his name engraved on them!

He was so thrilled to see his name engraved on the front of his new scriptures!  He had been using my old scriptures that I received when I was baptized for several months now.  It was really neat to watch him put his new scriptures in his case and pass my scriptures onto Emma.  She was just about as thrilled as he was at getting new scriptures!  Well, new to her at least ;) .  She’s getting so good at her reading now that she needs something more than just The Book of Mormon but then I don’t want to buy her a new set just yet because we want that to be a special gift for her baptism in 18 months.  Oh my!  I just realised that she’s the next baptism for both the Combs and Johnson families.

We tried to squeeze as much into this trip as possible, gas is just too expensive these days to not try to do that.  I was able to see a young girl in our primary in her dance recital at the mall.  I think the primary  children get so excited when they see you outside of church so I try to find little opportunities, like the one today, to see them.  It ended up being really nice for Emma to see what other forms of dance there are out there.  She was captivated the entire time .

Once the recital was over we headed over to Macy’s to take a look at this Mailbox that we’d heard so much about.  I didn’t really have any expectations so when I finally saw the whole set up I was pleasantly surprised!  As you can see, so were the kids !!!

They had already written their letters to Santa but they provided you with paper to write on if you wanted and so, of course, my children were excited to write yet another letter to Santa!

I think the best part was watching them mail their letters!  At one point, Emma looked like she was making a wish as she dropped her letter in, Joseph kept pulling his letter back at the last second to readjust it and make sure it went in just right, while Jacob put his letter in and then tried to look inside the mailbox to see where it went!  The simple innocence of children is so rejuvenating this time of year!!!

So, the entire time that we were at the mall, Jacob was enthralled with the escalators.  He went up and down and up and down every chance he got.  Luckily, I have a husband who went up and down with him so that I could stand back and take pictures of it all .

He’s really getting so much better with his proprioception!  The fact that he willingly initiated this activity, even though you could see the fear and unease on his face sometimes, is a huge step in the right direction for him.