More Christmas Celebrating

Christmas Eve is always a whirlwind of celebration at multiple locations.  With family on both sides all living nearby, there are plenty of party options and we usually try to hit all of them.  The day started out at my sister Misty's house in Bountiful.  We had a great lunch of paninis after which we presented my mom with her Christmas gifts.  As usual, I took lots of pictures and came to the realization that I am the only person taking pictures or videos anymore at family gatherings.  Why is this?  Do people not want pictures/video anymore?  Do they rely on me to document things?  I do it because I don't want to forget these moments which I'm almost positive I will at some point.  

 Merry Christmas from the Sharples family!  

The Mayfield Family

The Blake Family minus Maddie who is currently serving a mission in Malaga, Spain.  

Uncle Mike hanging with the little ones. 

The Mayfields teaching Simon about Norad and the ability to track Santa's route around the world.

Grandma with 11 of her 15 grandkids (Quinn couldn't make it that night)

These two cousins lost one of their front teeth on the same day!  

Later we moved on to Zach's parents house where we opened Christmas jammies and exchanged cousin gifts.

Simon loved his Battlestar Gallactica jammy shirt chosen by Dad of course.

Jake, Kingston, Simon and Baby Paul (not a baby anymore).

Grandpa built this festive snowman to greet the grandkids as they arrived.

Paul and Vicki with 11 of their 17 grandkids 

Back at home, Connor and Emmy got to work wrapping their sibling gifts.  Connor was so proud of his wrapping method (a.k.a. an impenetrable forcefield of duct tape) that he even made a YouTube tutorial on how to properly wrap a present for your lady friend.  He's quite the online comedian.

 

Simon was a little nervous about the big man in red coming in our house that he wanted to sleep with Emmy so they somehow made a twin bed work for 2.  He claims he didn't sleep all night. 

Stockings don't get "hung" at our house without any kind of a mantle to hang on, so they get set out on the couch.  We have quite the rag tag mismatched set of stockings.  Both Zach's and mine are the original ones from our childhood crocheted by our respective grandma's.   And as you can see, there are tentacles coming out of Emmy's for some strange reason.  

Santa always leaves his gifts on the piano with very distinctive handwriting so the kids will KNOW that mom and dad wasn't behind it.  Simon wouldn't let me just put out Oreos and milk.  They had to be freshly made chocolate chip cookies so I started that process at 9:00 p.m. Christmas Eve!

Stocking stuffers and the hardest for Santa to come up with.  Simon loved this pokey little guy.

It was a missionary Christmas for Connor.  All he asked for was money to be able to entertain his girlfriend for the next 2 weeks (blog post on that to come soon), so we stuck money in every missionary item that we could buy before knowing where he will be serving (i.e. don't know what language or climate he will be in).  

Emmy opening the typewriter.  Zach had been dangling a carrot on this gift for at least a month so the anticipation was high, as you can tell from Connor's face :)

"NO WAY!"

HAPPY GIRL!

Emmy's vintage Christmas

Emmy has become somewhat of an old soul lately.  Maybe it's a fad or maybe it's her.  Either way, it makes me a little happy as I fancy myself to be an old soul myself.  She had a Christmas wish to get something vintage - a record player, typewriter, camera... just something old.  Zach happily took this task and ran with it when he went searching for a typewriter on Ebay.  He found this 1930's Royal typewriter still in working condition.  It's not even electric, just pure mechanical.  There isn't a piece of plastic anywhere on it.  The keys are glass and metal.  He took it a step further and found all sorts of vintage pencils, stamps, a letter opener, cannisters with more ink ribbons, papers.  He had so much fun putting it all together.  As a finishing touch, he typed the opening line to Moulin Rouge, one of her favorite movies, and left it in the typewriter for her to see when she opened it.  Of course she loved it all.  It has been fun to see her use it, at least once a day.  It's been out on our kitchen counter and we all take turns typing a little something.  We joke that she should do her homework on this and see what her teachers say.  

Day of the Dead makeovers

Cousins Sydney and Kate Blake came to hang out with us one night recently.  While Simon, Kate and I decorated Christmas cookies, Emmy and Syd got to work turning themselves into Day of the Dead sugar skulls.  I'm not ever sure what that is, but they look pretty cool!  

Indexing for FamilySearch.org

I discovered a fun hobby in November.  I decided to learn how to do indexing for the FamilySearch website which is a volunteer transcription effort that helps make genealogical records freely searchable online.  Basically, I look at scanned images of birth records, death records, shipping manifests, census records, etc. (usually handwritten and at least 50-100 years old) and manually type in the names and information I see.  The handwriting is from a different age and looks quite different than it does today so that is part of the allure and challenge for me. It kind of transports me back to that time a little.  It's so interesting to see how people died (lots of flu deaths and babies that died at birth).  Emmy decided to get in on the action and was hooked from the start as well.  She indexed a name of a 14-year-old boy who died and really felt a connection with him.  It was so sweet.  

Connor giving his two cents about what he thought the handwriting said.  It helps to have more than one person to figure out some of the harder to read handwriting.

Emmy chose to make this one of her value projects for Young Womens and did a display of some family history stuff and her artwork she has done this past year for Young Women in Excellence.

December Adventures

DECORATING:  Our front room looks a little different this year thanks to the purchase of these awesome oversized leather chairs. However, there is no room left for our beautiful artificial tree so we went for a much smaller, real, flocked tree.  I chose to put up all the homemade ornaments that my kids have made me over the years instead of our beautiful white house ornaments (except for this year's ornament which I did use) because of limited space.  It turned out to be such a cute sentimental tree, although quite messy.  I will never do a flocked tree again.  

Simon wanted to make this banner and I think it turned out so cute.  We sewed construction paper to a ribbon.

My sister-in-law Kate Farley in Philadelphia is very creative when it comes to floral arranging.  She made one of these homemade wreaths and posted it on Instagram and I told her I had to have one so she shipped one to me.  I loved it.  Real berries and everything.  

JAMMY LIGHT NIGHT:  We joined our friends, the Dansies, on their annual tradition.  We caravanned in our minivans to get Starbucks hot chocolates and Krispy Kreme donuts in our jammies and scoped out some pretty awesome Christmas lights in Utah County.  Natalie and I were a funny sight.  Everyone else's PJ's just looked like casual wear.

I love holding my kids.  It doesn't matter how big they get.

(OK that was taking it too far.)

The house next to this one had a sign that pointed to this house and said "ditto".  

CRAFTING: A little Christmas crafting with Misty and my mom.  We made these cute candy jars.

TRIP TO SEE SANTA:  Simon almost didn't want to go see him this year which made me sad.  We had to convince him.  

CHOIR PERFORMANCE: December wouldn't be right without attending some kind of performance.  In years past, there have been 10-20 performances just in December and just for Emmy.  This year there was only one - Emmy's choir performance.  Here she is with her cousin Mikayla who is in the 8th grade choir which performed the same night.

DICKENS FESTIVAL:  It moved to the South Town Expo Center this year which lost a little bit of the charm that the old fashioned buildings at the Fair Grounds held in my opinion.  We mostly go to stock up on our favorite balsamic vinegar which is sold there every year, but I also look forward to some of the costumed people wandering around and Dickens plays being performed.  Zach calls it the winter Utah Fair and there are a lot of similarities but it has become a Christmas tradition.  

Emmy and her friend Joseph Andreason posing with a dead Jacob Marley.  

Making homemade candles

GRAND AMERICA HOTEL WINDOW WALK:  We tried to eat dinner at the Little America Cafe across the street from the Grand America but there was a line a mile long (why?) so we ended up eating a much nicer dinner at the hotel restaurant next door.  The windows at the Grand America were a little different this year.  Instead of showcasing how different countries celebrate Christmas, each held a very artistic scene depicting the different departments of the North Pole.  

FARLEY FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY:  Erin hosted this year's party in her new house in Alpine.  There was plenty of space for all 23 of us.  There were impromptu musical numbers (mostly from "Frozen") and a white elephant game. 

Mom, Erin, Me

Misty and Quinn

My brother-in-law Mike is a master at conversing with people and making them feel like what they have to say is interesting and important.  He does this with each niece and nephew and I love him for it.  I need to take notes.

Zach made his amazing bread cheese appetizer which everyone agreed has to be part of future family parties.  SOOOOO good.

There were some great white elephants this year.  I picked up this lederhosen apron earlier in the year for this very purpose.  My nephew Spencer won it along with the soundtrack to "Frozen" and a big tub of Swiss Miss hot cocoa.

Misty loved the handerpants that Zach brought! 

Simon was super happy with his white elephant - the WORLD'S LARGEST whoopee cushion.  Until it blew a hole the next day.  

THINK TANK CHRISTMAS PARTY:  The Five Alls was the location for this year's company Christmas dinner.  Our numbers were small with just eight of us including spouses.  After giving Carlos and Glen their bonuses, Zach gave the wives (including me and Allen's wife) a chance to earn some Christmas cash by playing a Think Tank trivia game called "Bringin' Home the Bacon with Think Tank" that paid cash for correct answers.  It was hilarious.  We were each given a little skillet to hold our winnings.  

SLEDDING:  After a pretty awesome storm, we went sledding at Sugar House Park.  Connor and Emmy opted to stay in the warm car (the stinkers) while Zach and I took turns going down with Simon.  He sure keeps us young!  Teenagers don't make you get out and do stuff like that.