Christmas Morning

Christmas was on a Sunday this year, so we got dressed in our church clothes before we ate our breakfast.

Ok, we did hair AFTER breakfast and opening presents. :)

Guess who?

No make-up = the blanket shield.

We spread out a sheet and ate breakfast upstairs in the movie room.

This year we had a delicious crockpot breakfast casserole along with cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Yum!

Rylee is being a good sport and letting me photograph us...even without her make-up on.

The traditional line-up... youngest to oldest.

We decided to see what Santa brought BEFORE church... and would open the remaining presents AFTER church...such torture. :)

Treyson showing off one of his gifts from Santa...goggles.

Nice.

Abree got a cute little "teacup pig".

Have I mentioned she LOVES pigs?... because they are PINK, of course. :)

Rylee is trying out her new cup.

She's been wanting one of these for some time now (?).

Taylee showing off some of her favorite gifts... pink zebra-striped duct tape and Sharpies in a variety of color.

This girl LOVES her craft/school supplies!

After digging through our stockings, we had plenty of time to relax and finish getting ready for church. And yes... I finally got around to taming Abree's wild bedhead. :)

Christmas Eve

After reading the Christmas Nativity story, we passed out our family exchange gifts. Abree received a cute fabric flower headband from Rylee.

Notice the one Rylee is wearing in her hair...ya, sorta like that. :)
Abree gave Rylee a flat iron holder... made from a pot holder.

Treyson was given a pom-pom/marshmallow shooter from Taylee.

My gift to Taylee.

Treyson came up with this gift idea all on his own. He traced the Jazz logo onto nice watercolor paper, then painted and framed it for Jason's desk at work.

Grandpa Waite received Stampede basketball tickets from Jason.

Jason made the ticket holder for his part of "homemade". :)

I received a chalkboard sign from Dad. He had Amber help him come up with the idea and make it. I LOVE it...and have used it for many occasions.

Christmas Craftiness

Christmas is a time for crafts... for me at least.

This is the tree skirt I made, inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. It didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined..or like the picture, but I think it's alright. The girls even commented that they wished they could have it as a skirt to wear. Guess I can take that as a stamp of approval. :)
I also saw this on Pinterest..keychains made from Jenga blocks. I LOVE these. They are so easy to make and so versatile. These are the ones I made for each member of my Primary Presidency for Christmas. I thought they could keep their primary keys on them.

See? So versatile..each one so different.

I drew Taylee's name for our Family Christmas Gift Exchange. I saw this saying and technique on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for her. I painted it orange, because she says this is her favorite color.

Guess I could have called this post, "Crafts Inspired from Pinterest".

Concerts Galore!

At our house, the third week in December, was the week of Christmas choir concerts.

Sunday, we started off the week with a Stake Music Concert. This big production included a full orchestra and many lovely numbers.

Thursday, was Rylee's highschool choir concert. We loved the closing number where all the choirs surrounded us and sang their last song together. Saturday, was the Cantus Winter Concert. The choir was composed and crisp. Rylee-Melissa-Eliza

And then on Sunday, we went to the Institute Christmas Concert, directed by Craig Spjute. It was fun, relaxed and family oriented. Good thing, because Abree and Treyson were about to keel over from too many concerts and too much refinement for the week. :)

Service

I'm so far behind, I'm having a hard time getting motivated to complete these posts. I do want to document what we did, so I'm warning you, these next few posts may be brief.... and not very creative.

One of our favorite days was when we volunteered at the Boise Rescue Mission warehouse. The guy in charge there knows what he's doing and makes it fun. When you first arrive everyone is asked to "sign in". Their sign in sheet, is literally a bed sheet. When it's filled, they hang it high on the warehouse wall, along with several others.

Grandpa Waite had come to town for Christmas, and was staying with us, so he came along to help. (Rylee was at choir, of course!)

We were just a part of the big group that showed up that night. There was probably 50-60 people there to help that night.

We got to help fill "food boxes". We formed an assembly line, beginning with someone opening paper grocery bags (grandpa's job), then someone put in canned fruits, then veggies, then a few fresh potatoes and onions, then dried beans/stuffing and finally some sort of boxed dessert (cake mix/brownies/muffins/etc.).

In preparation for our Annual Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt, we made popcorn snowmen again.

We put these cute snowmen on the door handles of the families who donated.

Our donation collection was a success!

Our favorite thing collected were the frozen turkeys...several were donated this year.

Lesson learned: Keeping the area of collection localized is critical. This year I opened up donation to Facebook and received lots of great response all over the valley. I underestimated how long it would take to collect everything. Keeping it simple is the way to go. :)

This night, our service focused on the Humanitarian Center.

We made felt puppets...

and wove hats on plastic looms.

We also had intentions of making plastic canvas blocks and taggy blankets, but ran out of time.

The kids all had a good time weaving the hats. Taylee was especially loving it. She even said out loud that she wished she had her own loom to make hats. She committed to start saving her money to buy some.

Little did she know... Jason and I had already purchased a set for her, for Christmas. We couldn't wait for her to open them... we knew she was going to LOVE them! :)

12 Days of Service

Last year in December, we started a new tradition.... "the 12 days of service".
Because of busy schedules and lack of good planning, we didn't get the whole 12 days in. This year, I wanted to be more organized and was determined to do better.

We had a planning FHE, where we brainstormed service ideas and scheduled our calendar.

Here are the activities we decided on:

1. Free movie on us. Went to a dollar movie and paid for people in line behind us ($20).

2. Leave a note and treat in the mailbox for our mail carrier, thanking them for their service.

3. Volunteer at the Boise Rescue Mission.

4. Service babysitting. Babysit for free, while parents go Christmas Shopping.

5. Volunteer at the Boys/Girl's Club.

6. Go look at Christmas lights and leave notes of appreciation on the decorated houses we really liked.

7. Annual Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt...that's not really a scavenger hunt. :)

8. Work on Humanitarian Kits from the D.I.

9. Gather/donate clothes to a homeless shelter.

10. Give hot chocolate to a bell ringer.

11. Leave notes and candy canes on car windshields wishing a Merry Christmas.

12. Bring a treat to a 24-hour drug store employee that is working on Christmas Eve.

I'm happy to report, we DID better...but not 100%. Still working on getting all 12 days in.

Maybe, the 12 days aren't the point. :)

I wanted to create something to refer to, so we knew which service activity was coming up. I created this pom-pom advent countdown and hung it up by our stockings.



The advent countdown was cute, but still has some need for improvement. Next time, I will put date/day on each activity, so my kids have no reason to ask what's next.




Another cool thing to report... during our service week, my friend posted on Facebook about a family in need. I responded with questions and asked if we could help. She gave me the kid's names and ages. I went to my "gift stash" and found 3 gifts for each of the 4 kids.

My kids helped to wrap the gifts and then we delivered them to my friend, to be given to the family in need.

It felt good to fill a need and be prepared to give spontaneously.