A California Christmas

With a sudden pending adoption, our Christmas season felt a lot more stressful than usual this year. It was also exciting as we all had so many happy anticipations.

We still did a lot of our favorite activities though, such as baking Christmas cookies, making pumpkin bread, and caroling. Austin learned "Picture a Christmas" in Primary this year, and he loved to sing it. So, that is what we sang while caroling.

 
Austin also got to visit Mr. and Mrs. Claus who dropped by our neighborhood dentist's place.

This year we drove out to see Nate's parents and other siblings that live in California for Christmas itself. Luckily, the weather stayed clear during our planned travel days. We enjoyed our stay with Nate's parents and had fun going to Christmas parties with them, caroling, and playing games. On Christmas Eve we set out to view Christmas lights. We visited one particularly decked out cud-de-sac that is apparently well known for its extravagant light displays. Agreement to participating in this Christmastime fanfare seems to be a prerequisite for joining this little neighborhood. We did have fun walking down this street enjoying the vast array of lights and other decorations.

Unfortunately though, Austin was in a bit of an obstinate mood and worked hard to frown for all our pictures. I must say though, he can give out a very good frown...

We also visited a home with a nice light display synchronized to music, and we drove through a large neighborhood that all put out paper bag luminaries for Christmas Eve. After returning from our outing, we read the Christmas story from the Bible again before going to bed.

Christmas morning we got up and looked at our stockings before heading to church. We all found some coal in our stockings this year...edible coal made from Rice Krispy treats that is...

Along with other treats and fruit, Austin was also delighted to find some crayons and washable markers with his stocking.

After church, some of Nate's other siblings came over, and we all opened gifts. We all received some very nice and generous gifts.

Austin was delighted with his glow-in-the-dark tracks from
Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Austin got the blanket he had been asking for. Sometime early this last summer, Austin saw the blanket yarn at a craft store and was very interested in it. I explained briefly what it was, and he decided that he wanted a blanket made from this type of yarn. I didn't think much of this at the time, but then he kept asking for such a blanket over and over. So, I decided to make him one that would fit on his bed for Christmas.

Austin with his new blanket

Nate with his new socks from Austin

Very nice drill bit set Nate gave me

I took this picture of Nate with his new ferro fluid. He was (logically) confused
by this since it was in bubble wrap and thus couldn't even really be seen.

Austin with his new front-end loader I made for him.

We quickly realized that it was good for Austin to actually be with his cousins this year while opening gifts so he could learn how to share new toys and how to respect other kid's with their new toys. As a current only child who hasn't even had any other cousins on my side of the family until this year, these ideas were new to him. He has been accustom to all the toys at Christmas being for him - at least since he can remember...

The kids also had some fun with all the extra bubble wrap left over after opening gifts. Austin and his cousin Wilcken stuffed their shirts with the stuff to look bulky and strong.

Unfortunately, the traditional lack of balanced meals on Christmas day in Nate's family and the abundance of sweets lead to Austin becoming sick that evening. Luckily though, he was fine by the next day. We all went to the park that afternoon. We spun helicopter toys into the air and played a family game of tag.

Nate's dad was feeling particularly adventurous, so he asked the couple that was slack-lining nearby if he could try.

That evening Nate's parents held a large family home evening with a traditional special dinner for their family: dessert waffles. This was a bit much for me, especially following the junk food extravaganza of the preceding couple days, but almost everyone else seemed to love it.

Tuesday evening was our last night in California. We went to a birthday party for one of Austin's cousins and took a picture of all of Nate's family who was there.