Christmas Morning

Gooood Morning!

The kids spent the night in the family room upstairs together.
Jason and I prepared breakfast and brought it up to eat.

We ate our (new) traditional crockpot breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Yum!

Before we go see what Santa brought, my kids LOVE it when I ask them to line up youngest-to-oldest... not.
But I make them do it any way, because it's tradition!

Everyone headed to their couch or corner.

Jason had been wanting a dashboard holder for his phone. I guess he was on Santa's "nice" list and found one by his stocking.

We each received cereal by our stockings. I got Craklin Oat Bran...yum!

Piggy bakingware with cake mix, frosting and sprinkles...Abree's "gift of learning".

"The Boy Doodle Book" for Treyson's "gift of learning".

Taylee was crossing her fingers, and hoping to receive the book on her wish list, "The Mark of Athena--The Heroes of Olympus book 3". Wish granted..happy Taylee.

Abree's face says it all...

she was excited about getting a new doll (American Girl type). Her name is Ayla and she has beautiful red hair.

Treyson opened pet bedding as a clue to his "want gift".... 

2 turtles!

He named them Scooter and Lucy.

Taylee said she was confident that she would get her "want gift" off her wish list... an i-pod!

She was right.

For Rylee's "want gift" received a charger/radio/speaker unit for her i-pod and some i-tunes gift cards.

Jason gave me a new quilt set for our bed. I appreciate the thought and care he put into coming up with something that he thought I would really like. Thanks Honey!

Each year, as we continue our "3 gift rule", I find myself wondering if it's going to be ENOUGH.

Will the kids be disappointed? Will they focus on scarcity, rather than abundance? Am I scaring them for life? Will they "get it"...and eventually appreciate it?

This year was no exception...I worried, then was once again reminded that it was ENOUGH. The kids were excited and happy. We played together and enjoyed one another's company all morning long.

It was a joyful Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

As part of our Christmas Eve tradition, we opened the gifts from our family gift exchange.

Jason received the dice game FARKLE made by Abree.

Rylee received a purple yarn-wrapped scarf hanger made by Treyson.

Abree received a cute handmade ceramic ocarina bear made by Taylee.

An ocarina is a small wind instrument with a mouthpiece and holes for the fingers.

I received a decorated/repurposed mail sorter from Rylee.

Treyson received a fleet of robot snacks (drink box, applesauce, Laffy Taffy, raisins and a spoon) from me.

And Taylee received a duct tape crafting station from Jason.

He used a little shelf, a shoe organizer, bookcase shelving and some containers for the station.

"EVERYTHING IS COOLER WITH DUCT TAPE!"

The extra effort of homemade gifts is always worth it in the end. It's so fun to see the excitement of giving... and receiving.

Christmas Eve Service

As a part of our Christ-centered Christmas, we served dinner at the homeless shelter, on Christmas Eve.

 We were excited to be chosen to help this year..we've missed the opportunity the past 2 years.

It was different than I expected...less formal and not very long, but still a good way to spend the evening. Grandma McKinley joined us in helping to organize and serve dinner to all the hungry men.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornament

I've wanted to make these ornaments, since I saw them on "The Sew*er, The Caker, The Copycat Maker", over a year ago. But I couldn't figure out how to do the nativity silhouette. Then Vanessa started offering the cut out silhouette in vinyl. I was so excited I ordered 3 sets! 

The vinyl cut-out is placed on a bulb-shaped transparency (my friend Chris let me come over and use her fancy Cricut machine for that), then rolled up and put into the ornament. (It takes a little maneuvering with tweezers to get the transparency to cooperate.) Then you snip off the excess transparency, replace the cap, add "snow", a ribbon to hang and top it off with a bow.

I love how they turned out!

I gave them as gifts to my Primary presidency, to my "Favorite Things" person and to some family members as well.

3rd Annual Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt

For the past few years, our family has made an effort to focus our Christmastime more on Christ.

We tried the 12-Days-of-Service route, but I discovered 12 days in a row, around Christmas time, with busy schedules, wasn't practical...and was actually adding to my stress, rather than making me feel Christ-like.

This year, we kept it simple and sweet. We chose a few service oriented nights and let the rest of December play out as it will.

One of our service nights was our annual "Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt". We sent an invitation via Facebook and told friends/neighbors we would be picking up supplies for the Boise Rescue Mission as our FHE activity.

We usually begin this activity with some grumpiness and complaining, but end up generally having fun and enjoying one another's company...this year was no exception. :)

Abree's Christmas Program

The second graders put on a "Christmas Around the World" program.

Abree got to play a drum for one of the songs.

Although I got there "late" (before the program started, but after most of the seats were taken) she found me and kept her eyes on me the whole time.

The kids did a really cute job and knew their parts well.

Way to go Abree! Love you!