Farewell To Toyland and a Visit to Jakey's Chocolate Factory

What a weekend! Golda's last 3 performances of Babes in Toyland. Discovery Museum. Playing with DeBry and Dopp cousins. Getting new Primary teachers. Our 12th anniversary. And of course, Jake's birthday party. I hope Michelle and Rob post lots of pictures of the amazing decorations, the fun activities and the happy kids! Michelle made cool lollipops and a cake I'm still craving!

Now, the kids are partying like it's 1999, eating souvlaki and rice and root beer floats. Happy New Year!

Snowman(ia)

I know, I know, these are all pictures of linens. (Except the cute picture of Golda's baby snowman.) I get a little depressed about the short days, cold temperatures and dreary landscape about this time of year. I'm counting on the cheerful snowmen posted all over our house to keep my spirits up until spring. The Red Bathroom even got hoodie snowman towels. I already had my grandpa's old wooden skis and a 2002 winter Olympics poster in there, so the winter theme continues. Ari, Free and Ruby got new snowflake/snowman bedspreads, courtesy of Target's 50% off sale. After informing me that his new bedspread was "Bad. Weally bad," Freestone decided that he loved it. I love shopping after Christmas! Speaking of which, I guess I'll post the picture of the haul I got at the Bath and Body Works sale. Warning: you might be looking at your birthday gift. I think I'm set for all of you for the next 12 months! Another thing about January is that it makes me want to plan ahead. (And it's not even January yet!)
Scott and I celebrated our 12th anniversary tonight. We took Golda in to Salt Lake for her play and went out to dinner at Faustina. (Thanks for the gift certificate, Bazails!) It was a delicious dinner with awesome company and great service. Our server gave us a complimentary dessert to help us celebrate. After a long, relaxed dinner, we still had time, so we sat in the lobby of the Marriott until the play ended. So...12 years later, Scott is still the perfect guy. I knew he would be. Some things, you just know. I knew Scott would be the one to travel the road with. He's really good at making all my dreams come true. Like I told him when we graduated from high school, "There's more to come..." Still true...

Merry Boxing Day?

The neighborhood sledding hill was a hive of activity this afternoon! The hard-core sledders - Free, Ari and the Energizer Jake were catching air off jumps and everything. The others - Golda, Ruby and Jackson got cold and went in for cocoa. Xanthe was a good sport and watched with me, emphatically reminding me every so often that she did NOT want to join the fun!
Inspired by Tiffany, I set the table with my Christmas china and cooked a ham and Mormon potatoes. (You all know what I mean!) Scott ended up going to the Jazz game with Felshaw and a movie with the bros, so I recruited Tricia and Jim to help us be festive. As if 6 kids isn't festive enough! It was fun...my puff pastry was a big hit with the ten-and-under set. I put a layer of puff pastry in muffin tins and added peanut butter and chocolate chips. Prep time: 30 seconds. Cooking it for 12 minutes made it all flaky and melted. They must have been good...Jackson managed to eat two of them through his halo! :) And there was plenty of eggnog to fill up our new (MATCHING!) glasses that Grandma and Grandpa gave us!
If the writers' strike ever ends, I may never blog again. I miss all my favorite shows! But I sure have a lot of free time between 9 PM and midnight. I need a good book!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas, everyone! A big thanks to Mom and Dad Dopp for all the perfect gifts and the lovely Christmas Eve. I forgot my camera to document all the madness, so I told all the sisters to post lots of pics. My favorite Christmas Eve scene was all the little boys playing on the kitchen floor with their new transformer robots. There was a lot of imagination going on in that small space! I tried to eat as much Christmas candy as I could. I'm sure I could have squeezed in a few more of Marlene's chocolates. I'll have to do better next year!
At last, we figured out why Xanthe shouts "Mitmas Tee!" every time I turn on the radio in the car. Last night when the music came on, she started singing "O Christmas Tree" and we finally recognized it as such. Now we can't get enough of her little carol!
If you were dreaming of a white Christmas, last night was heaven. We were blanketed with several inches of fluffy, glistening powder during a pretty bad storm. We thought we might have to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's house! Today, in contrast, was clear and bright, but definitely white! You couldn't special-order more Christmas-like weather.
I hope everyone had a magical Christmas. I have to go take care of the rest of those cookies, and figure out where all the left-over toy parts go!

Comfort and Joy

The King/Bazail party was a big success yesterday. Our smallest branch of the family tree is growing slowly! My only cousin, Sarah, and her husband Roland just had their second baby in November. Little Lincoln is just beautiful! Yesterday was his introduction to the family. He and Alex were dressed in matching plaid oxfords and cable-knit white sweaters. They were adorable! We have a special place in our hearts for Alex, our only godson. :)
Notice the pink snakeskin superhero cape on Freestone. He got it from Santa at the DeBry party, and has had incredible super powers ever since. At the King party, Santa asked him where he got his cape. Freestone had no idea what to say. You could see the wheels turning in his head, thinking about how Santa had just given it to him the day before. Had Santa forgotten? Was it a trick question? Was there more than one Santa? Ari saved the day by laughing hysterically and saying, "You gave it to him! Remember?" She thought it was amusing that Santa had such a short memory.
This morning, I heard "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," and the words, "comfort and joy" really struck me. Those are things I have been blessed enough to feel in abundance this holiday season, through the company of family and friends and the presence of our beautiful children. I hope that all of you have the security of comfort and joy this Christmas, and that your deepest prayers are answered.

And let's not forget why we are celebrating today...Sarah Scheuller's birthday! Happy birthday to one of my dearest friends. Thanks for all the years of ice skating and tree trimming parties! What would we do without the "Scheuller cousins!?" :)

It's a party I look forward to all year, the DeBry Christmas party. I have 50 1st cousins on the DeBry side, including spouses, and Emily and Josh's baby will be the 60th great-grandchild for Nana Ruby. My cousins are spread out from D. C. to the Bay area, so it's great to see them at Christmas. I love all of them. There are so many little kids, yet nobody is stressed or overwhelmed. So many of my cousins and aunts and uncles are the examples I look to as a parent. They are so nurturing and joyful. Nana Ruby sets the bar pretty high with her patience and loving manner. I think we all try to live up to her standards. It's hard, though, since she's practically perfect! She had 5 kids in 5 years, the last two being my mom and Uncle Mark, the twins. When things get tough for me, I think of what Nana did, before disposable diapers, and without ever raising her voice, according to her kids.
I am lucky to have a million great memories of growing up in a big family. Just last summer, in Montana, the kids and I and Trajan went to the river with Uncle Jim and Danny to canoe. It started POURING rain and thundering, so we all huddled under the big pine trees next to the river. It was way too wet to try to walk back to the cabin. Jim decided to catch a fish to entertain the kids. He caught a little trout, and, for some reason, was waving it around on the end of the line, showing the kids. The kids were scattering into the brush, screaming, drenched with rain, trying to escape the little fish. Jim said afterward, "This is a Saturday we'll remember. This beats sitting at home watching TV." He was so right. Soaked to the bone in the woods a 20-minute walk away from the cabin with 6 kids in life jackets and cowboy boots after a failed canoe trip is one that goes down in history. That's a Saturday I'll always treasure, and it's a reminder to me to make more of my days memorable and to spend my time with family and friends. That's one of the reasons blogging is so fun. I probably never would have known that Izzy had a party in her crib the other night! :) I might not have seen pictures of Neeley's dance recital. I would have missed Brittany's whole first Nutcracker experience. (After she was my most creative and wonderful dancer for a whole year!)
I love sharing all these experiences. I can't wait for the King/Bazail party tomorrow and the Dopp Christmas Eve the next day.

Christmas Love

This is my Christmas story for today: I showed Freestone a sign that said, "Santa, I can explain everything!" He immediately started sobbing hysterically and said, "I can't explain ANYTHING!" Poor little guy, this naughty or nice stuff can be stressful for a kid!
I got a much-anticipated phone call this afternoon from Tiffany, saying that my love boxes were ready. I think everyone has seen my collection. I love the idea of them so much, I decided to start a tradition of giving one to each of my children for Christmas every year. I had no idea it would be so much fun to peruse Tiffany's website and choose each box, with that special child in mind. Tonight turned out to be the perfect opportunity for our new tradition. Scott ventured out into the snowy night to watch the Utah bowl game with his brothers. Left alone to our own devices, the littles and I decorated a gingerbread house. After, I gathered them all together and told them that I wanted to give each of them something special that they could keep forever, because I loved them so much. Before I gave them the boxes, I told them each why I chose their particular gift, without telling them what the gift was. Seeing their anticipation and curiosity was the best part! Until they opened their boxes. That was even better! All the kids loved them. Freestone (alias: Mr. Contrary) claimed that he hated his and that he wanted a rubix cube. See how he fell asleep with his box in his hand? Don't believe anything this kid says!
My kids know how much I love my boxes. I never tell them not to touch, because I want to share them. They are magical. Thanks, Tiffany! We think you are amazing. You helped me make 5 little children feel loved and treasured. I hope they remember that feeling every time they see their boxes.

Christmas Cheer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holiday cheer is manifesting itself in cookies and candy at my house! If you had seen my kitchen yesterday, you would question whether I was merely cheerful, or whether I was borderline manic. Besides the baking, I tried Michelle's candy cane bark, and it turned out so pretty! She has all the instructions on her blog. I crushed my candy canes in the blender, and that worked great. And I didn't use food coloring. The impressiveness-to-labor ratio is high on this treat. It's easy and looks very festive. The trail mix is another easy one. Nuts, dried cranberries, chocolate chips and the striped Toll House chips to make it look colorful.
Meanwhile, Xanthe and Free laid around with mild fevers. Xanthe laid on her "candy cane" blanket and strummed a violin for an hour. Check out Xanthe's droopy eye. That happens when she is tired, and Scott has the same thing. We thought it was pretty cool that she inherited Scott's droopy eye, even though she's not genetically related!
Last night, in a rare confluence of events, Scott and I were both out of the house at the same time! Scott took Golda to flute, then dropped her off at the play and met the rest of the Kings at Settebello for Josh's surprise birthday dinner. The surprise turned out to be Josh showing up on time and ruining the surprise! Settebello, on 2nd W. and 2nd S., is awesome! It's all pizza and salad, authentic Italian style. I highly recommend the hazelnut gelato. Trajan's girlfriend, Jessi, hadn't heard some of the stories about Trajan and Josh as teens, so there were some funny conversations going around. (Does anyone remember Josh and Jeremy and their friends impersonating police officers and pulling cars over using a strobe light and a siren intended for scaring away woodpeckers? It was all fun and games until they pulled over a real cop!)
After dinner, Scott and I caught the last half of Babes in Toyland. It was almost like a date! Scott is just as gorgeous and exciting as when we were dating. Sometime, when Xanthe isn't demanding that I put "wibbons" in her hair "NOW!", I'll tell you about the best Christmas gift Scott ever gave me. It came in five boxes, and it was NOT what I was expecting!

Whiskers on Kittens...

I'm really not a big fan of raindrops on roses, and I'm allergic to cats, but I have been enjoying a few of my favorite things lately.
One: delivering neighbor gifts. Freestone and Henry were little work horses on that job. They loved driving slowly up the street with the car door open so they could jump out at each house. That was pretty exciting. I'm sure some of the neighbors are wondering why there are broken bottles of Tabasco in their bushes, but I think most of the gifts hit their mark.
Two: Sleepovers! We stayed at the downtown Marriott after Golda's play on Saturday. My dad took us all to Lamb's, where I used to work as a waitress. It's always a fun place at Christmastime. Later, it was so much fun to put on our swimsuits in the middle of winter and sit in the hotel's indoor hot tub watching the ice skaters and Christmas lights out the windows. It's great to get away from all the to-do lists and be downtown during the holidays. Araceli got the royal treatment and slept in Coco and Bill's room. She missed out on Xanthe's extended good night's. It was like "The Waltons" in our room for about twenty minutes. Xanthe would say, "Night night, Mama. Night night, Daddy. Night night, Tee-Tone." Whenever someone giggled, she would say, "A quiet! A go apeep!" Finally, I took her for a walk in the lobby. I told her if we were really quiet, the monster from Golda's play wouldn't find us. She went right to sleep after that!
Three: Silent Nights. Sometimes you have to catch "silent" in the middle of the night around here. I don't know why I woke up at 2:00 in the morning and ate all the gingerbread, but it sure was fun. I sat on the couch and admired the lights on the Christmas trees and thought about how much fun this time of year is.
Four: Finding goodies on the doorstep and Christmas cards in the mailbox. Who doesn't love that? I don't want the Christmas season to end, yet I can vaguely remember what life was like before the holidays, and I liked it. So it will be nice to get back to a quieter routine. But not yet! Let the festivities continue! Bring on the fudge!
P. S. Happy Birthday, Trajan and Josh! (Separately, of course!)

Good for the Soul

Ruby and Freestone did a fabulous job at their guitar recital tonight! The family had to divide and conquer this evening, with Scott partying with his sibs at Jenny and Jeremy's (hope you're having fun, guys!) and my dad and me taking a few kids to the recital while Coco watched the others. The recital was at Peter Prier's recital hall, and I got to see the man himself and give him a big hug. Peter was such a mentor to me when I was in violin making school. He even came to our wedding ceremony at the SL temple.
Anyway...Freestone was the smallest student in the group. He looked so cute up on the stage sandwiched between the bigger boys. He surprised me and willingly performed his "Kids on the Bus" song with the group. I'm sure I was beaming like the most annoyingly proud mom ever! The best part was Free looking at the bigger boys in awe. I think he gets it more now, where we're trying to go with this whole guitar thing.
Ruby played her solo piece beautifully, accompanied by her teacher on his guitar. She never seems to get nervous. On one of the group songs, she learned it TODAY at her lesson, and she got up there and played it with everybody, like it was no big deal. She learned it 4 hours ago! I could never do that. I was so proud of her! (Is this a blog or a "brag?!")
On a side note, (no pun intentded:)) Freestone told his teacher today that yes, he could play his song, because he was using his super powers. Whatever it takes, kid! I hope you always use your super powers to play music.

Happiness

Sarah gave me the best gingerbread recipe. My kids and the "Scheuller cousins," as Ari and Free call them, went to town rolling out dough and being creative. A few of the cookies even made it to the oven. Jake (an actual cousin!) came over to help eat the cookies. It was funny to watch them sneak around the corner, grab a cookie and run, as if I didn't see them. Ruby and Golda were thrilled when I gave them carte blanche with the frosting after school. So much more fun than homework! All the things I thought I "needed to do" kind of fell by the wayside today. It turns out, gingerbread was what I really needed to do. I mean, January is no time for gingerbread. Ya gotta do it now. To steal a quote from Tiffany's blog:

"Happiness...not in another place, but this place. Not for another hour, but this hour." -Walt Whitman

Not Smarter Than a 5th Grader

Well, it's 10:47 PM and Scott and I have been exploring decimal multiplication, which is not as fun as it sounds. Golda has been having a little trouble in math lately, and I am no help. When I see a math worksheet, my eyes glaze over, just like they did when I was in 5th grade. Tell me if you had this quandry today: "A can of dog food weighs 0.6 lb. Arthur's dog gets 0.5 can of food for dinner. How much does the dog's dinner weigh?" If you know the answer already, shut up. If you just give the whole can of food to the dog and hope he doesn't get sick, then you are my kind of person. I want to tell Golda that when she is a grown-up, she will have a calculator built into her cell phone, she will not weigh dog food, and she will not go around measuring things with bar graphs. But I can't. I have to stay up late figuring out how to help her feel better about math so she doesn't struggle like I did. Besides, I've got to know this stuff for when Ruby hits 5th grade. My 5th grader can do a lot of things I can't do: She won a gold ribbon in ballroom dancing last Saturday. She got to the second-to-last round of the geography bee today. She wears matching socks almost every day. Even my 3rd grader can do things I can't. Cursive. Fractions. Remembering things. Last week, I set a platter of cookies on top of the fridge. I said to Ruby, "When I leave for my party tonight, you have to say, 'Mom, you forgot the cookies that are on the fridge,' OK?" And that is EXACTLY what happened, just as I was walking out the door empty-handed. Good thing I had the foresight to involve Ruby, huh? What I'm not sure about is whether I was always an imbecile, or if it happened after I had kids!

Faux Crafty

This is for my crafty friends. If you are not crafty, please avert your eyes, or you might become queasy. Michelle Crane, you can look because this is the craft equivalent of making 11 dozen ginger snaps and 4 different kinds of fudge. :) These are my neighbor gifts. Works in progress. I'm going to include a taco soup recipe with the Tabasco and a gift tag about a hot holiday season. All the Dopps will appreciate what Golda said about giving out hot sauce: "That is so sad. That's like giving Jenny Neeley garments." Jenny laughed when I told her, so I think it's OK to tell you!
Tonight was our annual trip to the mall to see Santa with my Aunt Tricia. She took Ari, Free, Xanthe and me to dinner, then to see the big guy. Thanks, Tricia! That was fun! Xanthe was brave and got close enough to Santa to grab the sucker he offered. In the picture, she was glaring at Santa. I hope the real Santa doesn't know how she feels! I have caught myself saying, "Xanthe, if you're not quiet, we'll go see Santa." Or, "If you don't say sorry, we'll go sledding right now." I know, I'm the worst parent ever. Xanthe hates sledding so much that she cries when she sees her coat. Don't worry, we never take our kids sledding against their will! Especially since the only good sledding hill at our house leads straight into the gully. Keeps the kids busy trying to claw their way up the steep hill out of the deep ravine for hours. No, really, they love it! I did the same thing as a kid, on the same hill. I got out every time. Once, my brother lost one of his moon boots, and we found it in the spring. Ah, the good old days!

Babes in Toyland

Last night was Golda's opening night of Babes in Toyland. The long hours of rehearsal and sleeping in sponge curlers came to fruition as Golda finally got to shine onstage in front of an audience. The play was great...kids loved it, grown-ups loved it. It was funny, too. Aunt Loretta came and brought O. with her. They were so nice to support Golda. Thanks! I think O. might be contemplating a career in theater, she enjoyed the play so much!
If anybody is looking for a fun, cute, professionally produced show to take kids to over the holidays, this is it. It's only 90 minutes, with an intermission. Golda is in the 13th at 7:00, 15th at 1:00, 17th, 18th, 19th and 28th at 7:00 and 29th at 1:00 and 4:30.
Anyway...this all sounds a little braggy...I'm just excited about the play. :)