Christmas 2010

Well. Christmas has come and gone. It was maybe that craziest we've had in a long time. But it was definitely fun being home in Utah for all the festivities...

tuesday night:

we drove down to lehi to my sister's house for our second annual gingerbread housing decorating extravaganza (not pictured, still waiting for the pics). i don't think emily, zach and i won the competition, but we did have some awesome roof shingles to show for it.

thursday night:

each year on the 23rd of december, it's the frandsen family christmas party with all of my dad's siblings and always a good time. we always do a sub for santa for a family in the neighborhood of the aunt/uncle who hosts that year. then at dinner, there is always a lively discussion about politics, sports (namely utah vs. byu banter), or movies, and this year wasn't any different. at the end of the night, grandpa frandsen likes to tell stories, bear testimony, and finish up with a cat vs dog fight for all the kids that he's been doing probably since i was will's age or before. will got to see the fight super up-close this year. i'm not sure he really knew what he was getting himself into.

friday:

this year since we would be sleeping at my mom's house on christmas eve, we figured we should stretch out the present opening activities as long as possible. so we started on wednesday or thursday night, and then finished up most of the presents we were giving to each other on friday morning, leaving the ones from my parents/siblings for christmas day.

emily got me my long coveted obama chia head and apple's magic trackpad, plus some other cool stuff. and i made emily this wooden bike rack from a design she found on one of her craft/design blog months ago. william thought it was necessary to inspect my work to make sure it was good enough for his mother. i made two. one for emily's road bike, and one for my yet-un-purchased road bike...

and will got a million cars/trucks/things with handles, and noise makers. he couldn't have been happier.

friday night:

we have always done christmas eve with the ushio side (my mom's side) and this year wasn't any different. we played the usual games (like a reading of the night before christmas for money), acted out the nativity scene (will was both a sheep and a donkey at various points), put the little ones to bed, and started the real games. boys against girls again like always, and like always, not a very prudent decision.

before we could put the kids to bed we had to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn to guide the flyers to the right house.

saturday morning:

christmas morning was chaotic and awesome. running down the stairs and into the family room was almost more than william could handle. all the kids loved their toys and santa hooked everyone up.

william got a sweet tool/work bench that was a big hit with the kids of all ages. for some reason, will liked putting the snake light up to his forehead, which made his mother cringe...

plus sometimes he had more fun sitting on his presents fully wrapped, that is until he got them unwrapped...

this is a lap blanket that emily crocheted for my dad when he gets cool sitting in his wheelchair. he and my mom loved it. what a talented little craftster i married...!

we finished the day off by leaving my kind mother stranded to put 6 crazies to bed so the we could all go see True Grit. great flick. thanks mom for watching the little ones...

all in all it was a great christmas. like i said, maybe the wildest we've had in a long time. but i only imagine them getting wilder for the next several years to come...!

speaking of high school . . .

just came across this picture yesterday. oh memories . . .

annual christmas party

this year we had our high school friends' christmas party at our house. we had a lot of fun, although we sure did miss steph, ade, and michelle. we ate some food, had some laughs, reminisced about high school (sorry hubbys . . . ) and exchanged some awesome white elephant gifts. here are a few pics of everyone showing off their new treasures. for sure the award for "most creative" goes to christy, who made two t-shirts with a couple classic high school sayings: "preesh" and "let's go somewhere and promise to be friends for ever." i'm not exactly sure who coined "preesh;" it was one of the boys--reese or josh or dj or someone. and the second saying is from our darling dede. who else could have come up with such a classic phrase???

here are nick and jamie showing off their new shirts.

christy and les with their enema, desk clock, and kitty calendar.

dede with her new bump-it and james not displaying his home pregnancy test and tweezers with a built in light.

amy, pheobe, and dj with their "preesh" shirt and music playing snowglobe.

and peter and me with our bath glove and Teachings of Joseph Smith book. hmm. i guess someone knew that we need to be better about reading the lessons before sunday . . .

thanks for such a fun night everyone!

sell outs.

check the new header. it's sorta what we had in mind for our christmas card this year. somehow after mind-numbing piddling around on the internet/photoshop for the right holiday greetings card solution, we finally gave up, sold out, and ordered some awesome costco templated christmas cards...

why is it so difficult to do your own thing in this modern world of D.I.Y. and technologies...?

december 1st.

it's december 1st, which means it's officially time to deck the halls.

while they were down visiting grandma and grandpa frandsen over thanksgiving, jill and steven (peter's sister and brother-in-law), and their kids went up and chopped down their own christmas trees. because i was sick, we weren't able to go, and so they were nice enough to cut us down one and bring it home for us. so tonight we got out our boxes of christmas decorations, turned on some mariah carey's all i want for christmas, as well as some good old frank sinatra christmas, and the soundtrack from elf, and we rocked around the christmas tree as we got a-decorating. it was a fun night and we love our little, tilted christmas tree!

will was totally enamored with the string of lights and he was such a good little helper hanging them on the tree (when he wasn't trying to run off with them, that is).

now it's time to bust out the wassail and mistletoe! merry christmas everyone!

weekend of firsts.

this weekend was a weekend full of firsts.

first of all, emily and are celebrating our first second anniversary. it was amazing.

as you can see by these pretentious slippers, we stayed at the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria in Park City, thanks to a sweet military discount. seriously, one of the raddest hotels we've ever stayed in!

we left Will with my mom for two nights, his first overnighter without us.

which meant, we got to dine out late, sleep in later, hot tub in the snow, work out at the same time, listen to sales pitches about "investment opportunities," lounge around with nowhere to go and nowhere to be for the first time in a long time.

and since it was a perfect park city weekend, it wouldn't be complete without a little snow fest, which meant we got to try out our car for the first time in the snow to see how it would fare, i'd give it a B-, but we did make it back to pick up Will before my parents' church, just in time to witness Will hold his first grudge at his mom for leaving him for a couple of days.

he got over it soon enough. soon enough to enjoy his first snowy play day, his first inadvertent white wash as he biffed it in the snow, and of course his first snow man. even though, he's our little southern beau, he definitely loves Utah, it's snow, and all his new firsts...!

the holiday season has begun...

once halloween is over, something very special happens.

a certain something begins to appear.

a certain delicious yellow beverage makes its annual debut.

i'm just so glad that my son loves it as much as i do...

nothing makes me happier.

bottoms up: like father, like son.

ps. this is his 6th shot of Nog. he could probably do more, but we have to help him find his boundaries/limits, something i didn't learn about egg nog until my freshman year at college. that was an ugly time for me...

also. i made my first commercial tonight too for NIKE's new Lebron shoes: Lebron 8. NIKE wishes they could use my kid...

my little helper

will is such a good helper. he especially loves to help load and unload the dishwasher.

sometimes with halloween candy.

sometimes with his puffs.

and sometimes he likes to help with the silverware.

ensign peak

on saturday, we went on a little family outing and we ended up at Ensign Peak. neither peter nor i had ever hiked ensign peak before, so we decided to give it a try. with william in his stroller. at the beginning, it was no big deal. a nice little monument with a paved path.

things changed rather quickly. the paved path turned to dirt, rocks, and make-shift steps made of wood logs. still no big deal for someone walking. (or should i say someone over the age of 1, or anyone that has more than just one month's experience with walking.) but with such an amateur walker, peter insisted that we continue to push will in his stroller. i told peter that if he wanted to take the stroller, he could push the stroller. so he did. and it was pretty funny. and it took us a really long time to hike 1/2 mile.

we finally made it to the top. and we had a pretty fun time. the view was awesome and will got to stretch his legs. i just kept worrying that he was going to try and run down the face of the mountain. oh, and he kept trying to run up to a couple that was trying to enjoy a romantic afternoon together. sorry guys.

all in all a fun afternoon! and on the way home, we stopped for a treat at jamba juice. don't worry, will did in fact succeed in spilling his entire cup full of acai super anti-oxidant jamba all over his carseat. awesome. i know we were asking for it by letting him hold his cup, but it made him so happy and he looked so cute. now (even though i did my best to clean it out) i have nightmares that every time i put him in his seat he'll get a stained purple bum . . .

family spook evening

it's pumpkin time. and nobody does pumpkins like peter's sister, jill. she and her family had us over for dinner and FHE pumpkin-style last night. we had a great time. jill made pumpkin soup, a rice dish cooked in a pumpkin (it was sooooo good! i'm really sad we don't have a picture . . .), pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and pumpkin dessert! yum. seriously. it was so good and we were so full driving home last night.

after our pumpkin delights, we got a-carving. peter's pumpkin is very impressive. he carved out a perfectly anatomized set of chompers. it looks awesome.

the kids carved little pumpkins, which took some serious skill. here we all are showing off our spooky creations.

kate and jane were super good carvers themselves, but they also helped me scoop out the "cobwebs" from the inside of my pumpkin. thanks, girls! and thanks tews for such a fun night!