Christmas

Alright, back blogging. Here are some stories.

Christmas was a new experience this year. What's happened in the past is Richard and I have fretted over what to get each other, set a budget, and then had a really nice day together. Richard started the tradition a few years back of making hot cocoa that morning and putting it under the tree, then waking me up for presents. We usually get each other just two or three gifts each, and it's just a nice day. The last three Christmases have been a little different because of Rachel, but all it's meant is that we buy more presents and a baby sits on our lap while we open them for her. It really hasn't been too different. Last year was more fun, because Rachel was almost two and really enjoyed ripping up wrapping paper so we wrapped each movie individually and let her open those and had to make sure to let her open what would be her favorite gift last so she could get a chance to open all of them. She also had her own cup of cocoa last year, and she loved that. She became quite addicted to it during the week of Christmas :)

This year was different, as Rachel is now almost three and old enough to really understand the fun things about Christmas. She helped with the tree a little bit, she helped us build a gingerbread house, she got to look at Christmas cards that we got, and she saw the presents under the tree for weeks before hand. We tried to take her to see Santa but that was a fail of epic proportions. Just so you all know, Santa's lunch break is from 1-2 pm at both the Provo and Orem malls. We got there at 1:05 lol. Anyway in preparation for the visit, we asked her questions about Santa and got her to understand that he would bring her a gift, and ended up getting her to believe that it would be a coat that she wanted. Hey, you gotta start 'em young, right? So she was excited for her coat and asked about it all the time.

This year we were mostly unemployed for Christmas. I kept trying to get Richard to talk about a budget for each other, like we had done in the past, but he would never say anything about it. So we went mostly budget-less :) I had ideas of what I wanted to get for each of the kids, and took care of their shopping mostly by Thanksgiving. I also sneakily bought Richard's gift on one of my trips, so I was mostly done. But then we had to buy Pixi gifts for Richard's family, and Richard went a little crazy at the Lebkuchen sale at BYU bookstore. Then we decided to get my dad a super nice knife, and instead of me just making one book about our first year of marriage to give to our family we ended up buying the story of how we met for all of our parents. The books are close to $20 each. To sum up, we spent a LOT of money on Christmas. But you know what? The money didn't matter to me. At all. I'm probably one to not spend much money on other people, and Richard will spend everything he owns to make someone else happy. This year I think I finally caught up to his giving spirit of Christmas, and it was wonderful :)

In addition to all that specialness, this was the year Rachel would finally get that rocking/bouncing horse that had been sitting in the garage for two years. I was SO excited to finally put it to use, and to be done trying to avoid her questions every time she saw it in the garage.

Anyway the strange part of Christmas came Christmas Eve, when we got everything ready together. We've always done our own thing in the past, because it was always for the other person. But this was really the first year that we, as parents, were giving Christmas to our kids. So we worked on cleaning up that dang horse, wrapping last-minute gifts, cleaning the room and packing for our trip to Logan the next morning, and getting everything set up just right. Then we went to bed, just before midnight. We planned out how the next morning would go: Richard would go upstairs and work on the cocoa, while I went in to sit with Rachel. Richard grew up with the tradition of singing Christmas song on Christmas day until his parents came to get all the kids, and it's one we'd like our kids to carry on. So I went in and woke up our sweet little girl and tried to get her to sing a couple Christmas songs. She was super sleepy, so it didn't work to well...Richard sat out in the living room waiting for us to start singing so he could come get us. It took a while for him to realize we were practically whispering in her room :) He came in, and we went out to the living room. The first thing Rachel saw was, of course, that huge horse, and she went right for it. Exactly the reaction we were hoping for :) Then we all had our hot cocoa and dug into our stockings for some morning goodies while we unwrapped our presents.

Spoils:
I got the kids both a Sunday outfit, which I was super excited about because Christmas was ON Sunday, so they would get to try them out on day 1. I also got them each a pair of PJs, and Rachel's came with a bathrobe that she has been sleeping in ever since :) Rachel also got a coat, and Reuben got a pillow to snuggle with once he gets big enough for that.
Richard went a little crazy at the game store, and honestly we still have to try out the games he bought. I got him 7 Wonders, which is amazing. We've played it dozens of times since then. And he got me jammies and socks, which is all I asked for :)

After Christmas morning downstairs we trekked upstairs to join my family's festivities. My mom got just one gift for each of her grandkids (well, Reuben got two because his were cheap). Rachel got a huge keyboard pad that you walk on, and she loves it. My mom also got a "grandma" present, which stays at her house for when the grandkids come over, which was a teeter-totter. Trevor and I put it together when he was here on Sunday, and Rachel and Charlotte LOVED it. They played on it for about 20 minutes before we pried them off to go to bed.

My dad LOVED his knife :)

So after all the presents it was off to church. I played my violin with the ward choir. Oh that's a story in and of itself...

Every Christmas Richard's sister Julia asks me to participate in her ward's Christmas program. She and her husband run the choir in a Spanish ward in Provo, and it's kind of small as you would imagine, so choir pickings aren't as great as in a normal ward. I'm very glad to help out every year. This year, like two years ago, they sang a version of The First Noel that was set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. I love the song, it's very pretty, but I HATE the melodies from the Canon that the arranger threw in. It's as though he took his favorite three melodies from the piece and stuck them in, in no order, wherever they would fit. I guess it worked fine for a choral piece, but you have to understand - I am a violinist. Pachelbel's Canon was WRITTEN for the violin. It has been ingrained in my musician's heart ever since I was a small child, and I love it. I've played it many many times, and I could not stand to play what this man had written. I'm sorry, I just couldn't. So I spend one evening re-arranging it. I took the original piece and found a recording of the choral version on Youtube, and I spliced. It took me three hours, but by about 11:30 I had a working violin "obligato", if you will. Then I had to cut and past individual measures out of the piece and put it together into two pages. Oh don't worry, it was a project :) Anyway it turned out pretty good, and it sounded great with the choir.

My dad walked through the room as I was putting the finishing touches on and said "We're singing that in our ward, did you know?" I did not. I asked him if they had a violinist to play with them, and he said he didn't know. I resolved to talk to the choir director at church the next day and see if I could put my 3 hours of arranging to use in more than one performance. Turned out they did NOT have a violinist, but the director was willing to listen to my arrangement and see if she thought it would work out. We met up after Sacrament meeting the next week and played through it with the piano as she sang to herself, and afterwards she said "Yes. I think that will be very nice." So I went to rehearsal on Christmas Eve, and it sounded amazing with the choir. I was very excited. And a little nervous...I hadn't ever played for my own ward before. Playing for Julia's ward was easy because no one knew me. LOTS of people know me in my own ward.

The performance was great, and the entire Christmas program was very special. I enjoyed sitting with my sweet Rachel while Richard walked around with Reuben. After church we had a quick lunch (that mostly involved Lebkuchen and soda), then took off for Logan. We left a HUGE mess in the living room, but Reuben really needed to go to sleep so we had to get driving. It was an uneventful drive, and we arrived in Logan as the first guests at Dave's house, not the last as we had anticipated. So we had lots of relax time before dinner.

Dinner was fabulous. Richard's family knows how to put together good meals. Except that there was an entire counter filled with goodies that taunted us all for the rest of the week. After dinner we had Christmas again with Richard's mom and Aunt Debbie. They got us a LOT of books! I was so excited to see all the new board books for Rachel and Reuben. They also got a few new outfits, and lots of candy that Rachel has hopefully forgotten about. We decided to postpone the program we had planned until tomorrow, as dinner had started late and presents were consequently quite a bit later and kids needed to go to bed. But when we had it, it was great. I played O Holy Night on my violin amidst several stirring performances from Richard's nieces and nephews, and followed lastly by a great rendition of Were You There? sung bu his niece Janessa in Spanish. It was all very beautiful. There's so much talent in that family, and they love to share it. That's something I hope we can cultivate a love for in our children.

For the rest of the week we basically stayed up way too late, ate way too much sugar and crap, and had a TON of fun with Richard's family. Richard and his brothers were up until the wee hours of morning most nights playing WoW, but we did get a couple good games of 7 Wonders in. It was a great week, and we loved spending time with the Logan Gwilliams :)