Christmas Traditions (lots of them!)

Growing up in a German family, we had a lot of traditions, which I love! I think traditions keep a family close and give you things in common with each other. Over the years, Dan and I have continued a lot of my family's traditions and started our own.

Temple Square

We drove downtown the Sunday after Thanksgiving, then hopped on Trax in the "FREE" zone and rode it a few blocks. The kids always love riding Trax.

It was a little crowded but not too bad and it was a little chilly but nothing like how it would have been if we would have gone a couple weeks later!


Yes, Brooklyn is breathing! Hahahaha! "Mom, I can't put my arms down!" She didn't move a muscle or make a peep the whole time we were there!




Our city's First Annual Tree Lighting


The tree is little but what do you expect for the first tree lighting? Just wait a few years......

The kids also got to see Santa while we waited for the tree lighting.


The Festival of Trees

This tree was done in honor of our sister in law's, Cassie, dad who passed away in July. It was a Jazz tree because he was a HUGE Jazz fan. The tree was amazing! It's been a hard year for Travis, Cassie and her family and we want them to know that we are still praying for comfort for all of you. We love you!

This adorable Curious George Tree was decorated by a friend of mine, Audra, and her sister in law. They dedicated it to 2 children who died this past year that both live on Audra's neighborhood. Some of the artwork displayed was even done by one of the little girls who had died. Here's a link to Audra's blog with more details http://themightystrongarms.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-greatest-christmas-present.html

It is always so fun to start off the Christmas season with the Festival of Trees. Oh and getting some delicious scones while we were there is fun too!


St. Nicholas Day

On December 5th, we set out our boots so St. Nicholas can bring a present and treat. This is a German Tradition. The past few years he has been bringing movies. Bless his little heart!

This year the kids wanted to leave cookies and milk, which they had never done before. They also wrote a note to specify which movies they wanted. Good thing he brought the right ones!

They were so excited! It gave us just a glimpse of how Christmas morning will be this year!


Christmas Lights at Thanksgiving Point
We really like doing this because we get to stay in our nice warm car while we look at the lights.

I love Zane's expression in this picture!

At the very end they have the Nativity story.



Decorating a Gingerbread House

This was actually our first year doing this with the kids. We bought a kit at Costco, but when we opened it up some of the pieces were cracked. There was no way I was going to take it back at that point so we decided to decorate it the best that we could.

TADA!!!!!

Then they promptly began eating it and smothering their faces with frosting!

Then the house collapsed! Better luck next year!

Advent

This is another German Tradition. The 4 Sundays before Christmas you gather together to sing songs, tell stories and eat treats. We also light candles; 1 the first Sunday, 2 the second and so on. For the last Sunday, this year we decided to have the kids act out the Nativity while Dan read from the scriptures. The kids were so cute!

Lindsay was Mary and Zane was Joseph

Gavin played the Shepherd and a Wiseman. That little dog is supposed to be his sheep.

Brooklyn was Baby Jesus

Here's Gavin as a Wiseman giving his gifts.

The kids even set everything up themselves.

Brooklyn 6 months

I can't believe our little Angel is 6 months old! This has really been the fastest year of my life. It feels like I was just putting Christmas decorations away and now here we are pulling them back out again. Brooklyn turned 6 months old on December 5th. Her 6 month checkup was on December 8th. Her stats were:

Weight: 15 lbs 14 oz (50%)

Length: 25 in. (25%)

Head: 44 cm (75%)

So she's still smaller than our other 3 kids. But her head is getting up there, just like the other kids, but is still little compared to the boys' heads which were off the charts until they were over 1.

She rolls all over now and laughs the cutest little laugh you've ever heard! Her eyes twinkle when she smiles, which melts my heart. She's had yet another cold which brought on another ear infection, so that would make 4 ear infections. We have an appointment with our ENT doctor in a couple of weeks to talk about tubes. Her Excema is under control with just Aquaphore, which is good.

She moves all her bed now. The other day I went in to see if she was awake and she was quietly playing with her toes. I called her name and she looked up at me and smiled. Such a doll!

She has been really funny about baby food. She LOVES the vegetables and was refusing to eat the fruits for quite a while. Just this past week, she started opening her mouth when we gave her applesauce. This picture is her first time in her high chair. Looks like she likes it!

Michael Jackson cookies

So my good friend Ginger makes the best Oatmeal/Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are so good that at my monthly girls night we always ask her to make them. And I usually try to bring a few home for Dan to thank him for taking care of the kids while I'm out gallivanting around with MY GIRLS! I got the recipe from Ginger so Dan could bake them. Yes, I said Dan. I don't like to bake or cook for that matter. But I do usually cook dinner by force, but Dan usually bakes the goodies. In fact, there are many times late at night Dan will say, "I need a treat." Then he breaks out all the stuff to make cookies or snacking cake or brownies. The last time we made the Oatmeal/Chocolate Chip Cookies he decided to name them "Michael Jackson Cookies". I didn't get it at first. Then he explained that they have both Milk Chocolate Chips and White Chocolate Chips, so they are Black AND White! I laughed my head off. So that is what the kids call them now, not really understanding why Dan named them that....so we thought. The other night Dan was making them and I was in the kitchen with him. We overheard Lindsay telling Zane why they are called Michael Jackson cookies. She said, "See Zane, there's white and dark chocolate chips in them. And you know how Michael Jackson is black, but then he put white powder on his face to make him look white? Get it? That's why." Then they laughed. So I have NO CLUE where she got the whole "white powder on his face" bit, but Dan and I couldn't stop quietly laughing in the kitchen. Then Lindsay wanted to turn on the song "Thriller" and do the dance while Dan was baking them. Where do they come up with this stuff? (I posted the recipe on my family's recipe blog)http://itsachuckroastyoustupidox.blogspot.com

The kids doing their Thriller dance while eating their cookies

Ouch!!!

(These pictures were taken before it got really swollen!)

So Dan isn't very graceful sometimes. He plays soccer almost every Tuesday and Thursday morning with some guys in the neighborhood. Then they decided to do Thursday nights as well (twice in one day? I don't know why). Anyways, last week he went to play Thursday night. About 10 minutes later, he came limping into the house. He'd been playing for only about 3 minutes, when he planted his foot to kick the soccer ball and rolled his ankle! He said, " I didn't even get to break a sweat yet!" I'm kinda mean and laughed at him at first. Then the next day I saw how swollen it was. It's been almost a week and he's still limping. But the swelling is going down. A few years ago he pulled a ligament playing soccer and he often re-pulls it when running. So I guess he's not playing soccer for a while so it can heal!

All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth.....

And a little purple convertible with 4 seats so she can drive her siblings around the drive-way and an Ipod, and a Zhu-Zhu pet Hamster and a fishing pole and an Easy Bake oven....the list goes on. So Lindsay lost her 4th tooth on Sunday, November 29th. This one she pulled out all be herself while Dan and I were still asleep. She had Zane in the bathroom with her as her support. They used about 40 tissues trying to pull it out, but she finally got it out! The tooth Fairy left $2 (because she pulled it herself she got more money!).

So the list above is really what she wants for Christmas. She's only 6 1/2!!!!! I told her Santa has a budget too and he usually doesn't bring kids $300 gifts (that's about how much the little convertible is) and mom and dad don't spend that much either . She said, "we'll just have to see". She wrote her letter to Santa the day after Halloween and mailed it. I keep telling her that she will need to be grateful for what she gets. We'll see what happens Christmas morning.

Thanksgiving 2009 aka Skousen-palooza!

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. EVERYONE was able to be here so of course we tried to cram as much as we could into one day since we're not all together very often. We ended up calling it "Skousen-palooza" because of everything we did. Thank goodness we were able to reserve my parent's ward house or we would have never fit everyone! We started out Thanksgiving morning around 10:00 with family pictures. You can imagine with 38 people what mayhem that was. But I think they turned out pretty good. (thanks to "Beans" for coming and taking the pictures!)

This is what happens when you have 8 kids!

We bribed the kids....we told them we'd do some goofy pictures if they would smile good for the other pictures. It totally worked!

Granny Annie and Grandpa Harry with all 21 grand kids!

Top left-right: Jennifer, Karen, Melissa

Middle left to right: Me, Laurel, Amy, Heidi

Bottom: Matt

After like 4 hours of picture taking (I'm not kidding either) it was time for the feast! It was delicious!

Andrew was falling asleep!


Mary, Harry, Riley and Brooklyn



Matt, Lauren and Mattison live in California. This was their first time meeting Brooklyn. Matti loved her!

Jenny, Ben, Noah, Mollie and Carter live in Arizona. This was Mollie and Noah's first time meeting Brooklyn


So after dinner, we did crafts, games, movies a fish pond for the kids and few people actually got a nap (I was not one of them). Then we spent a few hours filming "Skousen's got talent.......or do they?" Everyone did something and it was a lot of fun. By then it was around 7:00 pm, so we got out leftover turkey and made sandwiches, etc.... then dad set up a big screen in the cultural hall. We watched "Skousen's got talent.....or do they?" and all of out Christmas videos that everyone made early so we could all be together when we watched them.(ours is posted below). That was the highlight of the whole day! Everyone's was so clever and funny! That is such a fun tradition.

THEN (sigh) we celebrated November and December birthdays with cupcakes and birthday wishes. We also decided that since we were all together, we would do our Christmas gift exchange a little early. We picked names (couples choose another couple and grankids choose another grandkid).

We also decided we would get our parent's gift early so we could see them open it together. We got them a Scanner that scans negatives and pictures and makes them digital. They loved it and of course we children will get some use out of it too (snicker~SNICKER!). after clean-up we were out of the church by 11:00 pm!

So it was a very busy day but it was so much and we made a lot of good memories. We better start planning Thanksgiving 2011! Hahahahahaha!