Goodbye Christmas... Hello New Year

Notice the time? 12:19 am! This is when Tim and I finished getting everything ready for Christmas morning.

Christmas and New Years were wonderful, although I do have to admit that I'm thankful that we are back to our regular schedule. Vacations can wear you out! Tim devoted a ton of time to Bar study. The kids have loved playing with their new toys. I enjoyed reading three great books from the Great and the Terrible series. And we all enjoyed many a nights together with the Pahrump Gent family clan playing games, eating, and telling/listening to stories.

Zion had a blast playing with all the wrapping paper on Christmas. Seriously, why do I ever get the young ones anything else? This is where they find their true joy in presents. The kids picked out a few books for her and she has loved having them read to her. On New Years eve I started weaning her off nursing and as of yesterday we are officially done. She likes her ba-ba. I couldn't have asked for a better transition from nursing to formula. In 15 days she can start drinking whole milk. My how time flies.

Gent loved Christmas. This past Monday I took down all the Christmas decorations. When Gent recognized what I was doing He ran up to me balling saying "You can't take away my Christmas." I then had to explain to him that there is a time and a season for everything...and to not worry because we have Valentines to look forward to now. Poor little fella, he cried on and off the rest of the time I boxed everything up. He is my son for sure and I can empathize. I hate saying goodbye to Christmas. I made sure to give him lots of love and comfort when I placed the last box in the Garage. His favorite present this year was his Huffy trike from Santa. It's small enough to ride around in the house. If I ask him to grab something for me or to bring something somewhere Gent insists on riding his trike because he says he can do the job faster.

Ellie was blessed with a Kitchen from Santa. We have had a couple of great dinner parties, breakfast buffets, and dessert fests in her bedroom. It’s amazing how skilled her cooking is in the fake food department. If only I could cook a meal and clean my kitchen as fast as she does with hers. Another gift was Barbie roller skates. Just as Gent insists on riding his trike to do odd jobs, Ellie does the same only with her skates. And there is no way in heck she is faster with those on. She has to grab onto anything and everything to keep her balance as she tries to get from one place to another. Every day she is improving but it will be a while before she'll be ready to take on a roller rink by herself. It's fun to see her enjoy her gifts so much.

Like I mentioned above, our New Years was wonderful. We rang it in with our family over at my oldest brother’s house. I actually left Tim over there with the kids around 10pm so I could join the other Youth Leaders over at the 4 ward Youth Dance. Earlier that day our ward along with my older brother Will decorated for the event. It looked fantastic. Will’s expertise in Christmas light arranging/hanging is a nice skill to have around. We didn't end up getting our family to bed until around 2am. It took our poor kids at least three days to recover from that one.

Happy New Year!!