Merry Christmas!!!

I don't even know how to blog the last few weeks.  It was busy.  And busy is good.  But then it got hectic, and crazy, and I'm not sure if I was able to enjoy it.  Note to self, schedule in a few less things.  Then when your niece gets married, or you need to help a friend whose apartment has been robbed while they are out of town, or help a friend whose basement is flooding on Christmas day, or when you LOSE YOUR PURSE and spend a day panicking, (or all of the above) it is all okay.  I made it through this holiday, but just barely.

But, here are the awesome things that happened this year.  (Let's focus on those.) 

--This should probably be a bunch of separate blog posts, but instead it's coming at you the way it came at me...fast and furious!

Last Sunday night was the umpteenth annual carolling party.  Here are the original kids from the party.  It started when Clark was a baby, with Sylvia, one of the original moms.  This is likely her last year with us, so we went to carol to her.  Lots of wet eyes in the Butterfield house.    

Here are the original parents of the group that were well enough to be there.  Missing were the Rathburns and Chambers.
I spent Monday frosting cookies, cleaning that up and then making gingerbread houses.  One of my favorite traditions, but OH SO Messy!

Tuesday was the short-awaited wedding of my niece Paige.  (Short-awaited because they got engaged 6 weeks before the wedding.)  My kids have already had multiple lectures about how they are FIRED if they do this to me.  But everyone held it together and the wedding went well.  

Paige's husband has a sister my girls' age.  They are so excited to have each other!

There was a fair amount of down time, thank you iphones for helping occupy the children!

One of our favorite of Derek's cousins, Fran, came up to hang out with us (and be one of the bridesmaids).  LOVE her!

Maren and Benny before the reception.  

The 23rd was STAR WARS day!  It was such a fun movie!  The only problem was that as I was heading to the movie, I had a thought that I should not take my purse, that I would forget it.  Ignored the thought, took the purse.  Spent the entire day on Christmas EVE panicking, and trying to find my purse.  Finally a theater employee went and looked in the spot where we had been sitting.  It was tucked behind the chair in front of mine.  When she called me to say that she found it, BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!

For dinner we wanted something fun--something not so common in Utah.  Korean BBQ!  It was super yummy.  Very restless kids by the end, but it was good!

During my search for the purse, I couldn't remember if I was wearing it in the restaurant.  Should have looked at this picture.  Not there...

Christmas EVE!  Once the purse was found (at like 4 pm) I could finally focus on the party that started at 4:30.  So not much time.  Luckily I had most of the games ready.  The costumes were a bit lacking.  I'm going to work on that this year.  Need to gather up a bin of nativity costumes!

Shepherds

Wise Men

The whole crew.  We had the Barber family from church with us.  Thankfully Brittain also plays the piano!

Silent night in Japanese!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Clark was the winner of this Reindeer ring toss (for failing at the Christmas Carol guessing game...)

I told the kids that Santa might come on Christmas EVE again since Daddy had to work on Christmas Day.  Libby said, "Maybe Grandma Geneva could forget our pajamas again this year and we could go and get them?  That would be a great diversion!"  And it was!  (Genius idea Libby!)

Christmas "brunch"/lunch.  Ben loves his new PJs, except they are so big the pants kept falling down.  Hilarious.  

Sarah and her "twin" cousin Emma.  

Clark and his girlfriend Anne Marie.  I'm a big fan.   

Derek and Sarah.  Stronger EVERY Day!

Most of the crew.  Paige and Paul had already left to have family pics with his family.  And you can only see Geneva's back...but we are there!  

On the way home from Christmas lunch, we got the message that a family in the ward had a basement flooding.  So we went over there to help.  By the time we got home I had no juice to get them to gather their gifts for a pic.  So, there will be no way to solve the bet about which gifts came on which year.  But I had them each take a pic with their favorite gift.  Sarah: ukulele, and her clothes too.  

Ben:  Spiderman Lego Junior set (although he was pretty darn excited about the electric shark that can swim in the bath with him, the potato head super heroes, and everything he got).  

Libby:  Sarah's ukulele I guess.  She got some sculpey and duct tape to craft with.  Also both girls got an American Girl (knock off) scooter.  We will see what they end up actually playing with...

Sarah already beat me in Battleship.  Bad news.  

Derek has already constructed the Lego sets Santa brought.  He hates home projects.  Loves lego projects.  How can I made home projects seem more like building with Legos?
Until 2016, Love from the Norton home!

Santa Pics

Yep, I was busy getting other things done (and cooking my contribution to the potluck).  So when we got to the church for the holiday brunch I realized my children looked like a hot mess.  Clothes that were too small, wild hair, etc.  And other kids looked much more polished.  But I took pics of them with Santa anyway, and vowed that I would dress them more nicely for the next event.  (Which was today--and THAT didn't go well--with Libby especially, helping me to realize why I hadn't pushed it on Saturday for the brunch.)  So I'm going shopping tomorrow. They have growth spurts at such inconvenient times!

Libby told Santa that all she wants is "My Generation" stuff.  (For American Girl Dolls, the Target brand).  Oops.  Forgot about that when deciding on gifts.  

I braided Sarah's hair on Thursday night to give it some texture for the Nutcracker.  Boy did it work!  She is telling Santa that she wants an iPhone.  Good luck with that!

Blurry, but all 3.  Rocking their crazy out fits.  

Derek took Ben on an outing to Toys R Us to scout out what he wanted.  Derek took him (I'm sure) only to the Lego section of the store.  Surprise!  Derek (I mean Ben) is getting Legos!  But he told Santa exactly what set he wanted--the one we have already purchased.  Sweet score.  1 for 3?  That isn't bad.

Our Nutcracker, SWEET!

Get it?  The Nutcracker Suite?
Anyway, we made it.  Sarah did a great job in all 6 shows.  I felt like finally by the 6th show I was getting the hang of having fun and hamming up the pantomime on the stage for the party scene.
My hip is a WRECK from all the standing in my t-strap jazz shoes (they have a very slight heel).  I haven't had socket pain for about a month.  It's BAAAACK.  But I'm icing and hoping that return to normal life will mean the inflammation will go down.  Might be a cortizone shot for me after all.
But if I do the nutcracker again I'd like to do some actual dancing.  Maybe that can be my goal for when I am healed up!

Here are some pics to record  how amazing Sarah looked in her costumes.  She loved being a mouse.  She was also the biggest Bonbon, so this is her last year doing that.  She is already planning what she wants to do next year.

My Party Girl Gown and the cutest mouse.  The studio owns all the costumes, but my dress only had a top, no skirt.  So I went to DI and found this one for $8.  Pretty darn perfect.  

Sarah came up with some great poses!

The director, Miss Sue (she is my teacher when I take Jazz too!)

The mouse on set.  Sarah was the mouse who did a cartwheel onto the stage.  Cartwheels are not her strong point, but she got better and better at them each performance!

And the Bon bon!  

We had some great family come see us!

Instead of flowers after the show, I usually give the girls a nutcracker themed gift.  Libby chose this nutcracker for Sarah while we were at Disneyworld.  Libby was super proud of Sarah and shouted out her name just as she was heading off stage.  Sarah looked up with the cutest O mouth.  Everyone in the theater got a chuckle out of that one.  

It was Grandpa's first time seeing the show!  Grandma enjoyed it--like she does every year.  

Two more people saw the Nutcracker for the first time this year!  Derek has always had wrestling during their performances in the past.  I think he enjoyed it more than he expected to.  Ben's commentary was great (I watched the 2nd half with them).  He was super excited about the set for act 2 and exclaimed that he could "EAT THE WHOLE CASTLE!"  His favorite dance teacher was the sugar plum fairy, so he loved that part.  It got a titch long for him, but he endured.  

Sarah with her fellow Bon Bons and Mother Ginger.  (The Bon Bons come out from under Mother Ginger's skirt).  

Sarah with the Mouse King.  She had the important job of bringing his cape off stage after the Nutcracker kills him.  

The scenery for Act 2--that Ben wanted to eat.  

I love this little dancer!  It was fun to just spend some time with my middle child.  She is always so good and helpful, that sometimes she gets overlooked.  We even got to eat out together between shows on Saturday.  IHOP.  This girls loves pancakes.