OtterPops: Leading up to Christmas

Leading up to Christmas both Lillian and Jonas had singing performances associated with their schools, and we all participated in the church Christmas Party that was put on by Jared's brother (and his wife) who live in our ward. Jonas joined with his preschool and another co-op group to sing at a local nursing home and it was comical, but cute to see them perform and do some service.

At Lillian's school the whole 1st grade performed several multi-cultural holiday songs and you could tell they had all practiced very hard. They knew every song and action and Lillian was even chosen to have one of the speaking parts announcing the next song which she was very thrilled about. My parents came into town to attend her performance and it was fun to have them join us.

Jonas in the back (with green stripe shirt and santa hat) at the nursing home

With Grandpa and Nana after the performance

Lillian in her classroom after the performance

Our three older kids also had the opportunity to participate in the Nativity re-enactment at the church Christmas party since I was helping out by providing costumes, a script, etc. Jonas was thrilled to be a sheep, Jocelyn was lead shepherdess and Lillian was the angel.

It was difficult to get a good picture, but here are a couple...You just can't beat children on a stage in costumes and they did a great job singing the nativity song at the end.

We also hosted two different hot chocolate parties at our home leading up to Christmas as an excuse to have all our friends get together for the holidays. We used Jared's Grandma's recipes for hot chocolate and biscotti which are always a hit, and then had all our friends bring an appetizer to share. I am not very good at taking pictures while I am hosting a party, but here are a couple that I managed to take. All the kids went crazy on the trampoline with glow sticks and the toy room has certainly seen better days! When you unleash 20 kids under age 8 on the house when they have been fed a whole cup of sugar and the parents are too busy chatting to control them, it can only be great fun, right???

In the couple days leading up to Christmas we were so excited to have my youngest sister, Kelsey, and my parents join us. We had some lazy times watching Christmas movies like "While you were sleeping," "the Grinch" "The Santa Claus" and " "Little Women" but we also went to the Tech Museum and IMAX movie (thanks to the generosity of my friend Angela who has a season pass). Since we had an awesome ratio of 4 adults to 4 kids (jared ended up working that day) my kids were in heaven being able to see and do whatever they wanted to instead of me trying to count heads and limit the exhibits we attended. It was a lot of fun. It had been probably a decade since I had been to that museum and there was something for everyone!