December

This month has been a wild one. We were busy every single day. I like to be a little busy, but not that busy. I honestly hope that we have nothing to do in January. I'm sure I would get bored after a couple of weeks.

A few days before Christmas I asked Kendi if she knew what Christmas was all about. She told me, "Santa!" I felt like a failure as a parent. I think she sensed my disappointment and tried to guess again, "Snow?" We had been reading a Christmas Story everyday in December and I tried to keep most of them religious so I wasn't sure why Jesus didn't come to mind. On Christmas Eve it was Kendi's turn to say the family prayer. When she asked Heavenly Father to tell Jesus "Happy Birthday," I finally felt like a pleased parent again. Aydri is almost old enough to understand everything about Christmas now. She had figured out who Santa is, but never quite understood what he does. On Christmas morning we had to wake up the kids to open presents so we would make it to church on time. Kendi was so excited and jumped out of bed, but Aydri couldn't have cared less if Santa had come. She kept pulling the covers back up and rolling over. I finally convinced her to let me wrap her in a blanket and hold her. She didn't even care to open her presents. She enjoyed watching her sister open and play with hers. I had to let Kendi finish Aydri's presents so we could get ready for church. I hope she always has a selfless attitude throughout life. Later in the day, Kendi turned to me and said, "This is the best day of my life."

On Christmas Eve we had plans to do random acts of kindness all day. We wanted to focus on serving others and also help the day pass quickly. I was surprised at how many ups and downs I felt throughout the day because of this. We started by having the kids color some Christmas pictures to deliver to elderly people at the rest home. The lady we visited was sweet and glad to see us. We had the girls pool their own money together to buy a present for a child staying in the hospital for Christmas. I really wanted this one to work out because I figured medical expenses and being stuck in the hospital would dampen someones Christmas. Turns out, our hospital had zero children admitted when we got there and the people that were working were grumpy toward us. This really spoiled my mood, but Jared felt like it would work out for the best. Jared had suggested taking doughnuts to the workers who probably didn't want to be there on a holiday, but I didn't think they were as needy as a lot of other people. Boy, was I wrong. They could have used a mood lifter. We also left some change taped to the vending machines next to the ER. Next, we paid for someones lunch at a drive thru, hoping they were travelers. That was fun because the employees were just as surprised as the travelers were. Then we took doughnuts to the fire department. They were very grateful and showed the kids around the station. We also took doughnuts to the police department and gave them the child's toy. I felt really good about this because they told us that they often respond to domestic situations or accidents where small children are involved so I felt like the gift would go so someone who really needed it. All in all it was a good day and it got us into a Christmas Spirit. The kids were zonked out before we even got them home that night, which made things easier on all of us.

It was my families turn to have us for Christmas and it was fun to have everyone there. Tammy and Adrian made it from Missouri with their baby, Levi. Cari brought her boyfriend, Joe, and his nine year old son, whom Kendi has a blast playing with. Stacia brought her fiance, Jed, and his three girls, whom Kendi also enjoys playing with and Jana brought her recently engaged fiance, Joe, whom were planning on getting married a week after Christmas. This all made for an interesting and joyful Christmas. All of my siblings work in the medical field and it's not very often we can all be together on holidays.

The wedding was simple, but nice. They got married in the Bountiful Temple and had a luncheon afterward. We left the girls in Cedar with Jared's family, which was a hard decision to make, but so much easier on me and the girls. I haven't gotten used to the idea that Jana is married because it was so quick, but we can't wait to get to know Joe more.