This year a little elf named "Plain" (named by the girls) made an appearance in our home. In the weeks leading up to Christmas he frequently moved around finding all kinds of sneaky hiding spots. The girls loved this little guy and enjoyed searching for him each morning. However, when they woke up Christmas morning and saw that Plain had "stolen" their Christmas - tree, presents, stockings, etc. - they weren't so sure about him!
Luckily there was a note right next to Plain explaining that he hadn't stolen Christmas, he had simply moved it. He and Santa had decided that with 11 adults and 9 children, there just wasn't room at our house for everyone's Christmas to fit! He provided the kids with a clue that would send them off on their adventure of "finding" Christmas!
(we had mixed reviews on this deviation from the Christmas morning norm - as you can see in this picture. Azure was near tears and it took some convincing for him to be ok with the change in events while Castle was thrilled with the idea of playing hide and seek with the Christmas presents!)
Heron was our designated note reader and Lili was quick to decipher most of the clues.
The first clue sent us out to the airplane teeter-totter at the park...where we found the second clue hiding up in the tree!
The riddle we found here sent us on a drive to find the final clue... at the GSB color wall!
Castle definitely wins the prize for being the most excited about the scavenger hunt!
The final clue sent us to the MBA lounge where "Santa" had set up our Christmas tree and stockings for all the kids. The Christmas scavenger hunt was a huge success and in the end the kids were all happy with the adventure - after they saw that their stockings and gifts were all intact!
Who knew Christmas at Stanford would be so wonderful? The campus was virtually abandoned and we had the place to ourselves! We went home in shifts to shower and make food and then we just spent the rest of the day lounging around and playing with our new toys. It was heavenly.
The best part of these big family holidays is watching the girls with their cousins. They just love being together and it feels so good to help them continue to develop relationships with each other. I treasure the memories I have of holidays spent with my cousins and I love providing those memories for our sweet girls. Satchel and Serelle are like two little peas in a pod - they could play together for hours and they rarely have trouble with sharing. It's pretty incredible!
These two cousins are getting so grown up! They loved playing together and switched quickly and seamlessly from dress-ups to Barbies to crafts to cooking, etc. And we had our first, but certainly not last, exposure to grade school humor. Heron introduced us to this version of "Jingle Bells":
"Dashing through the snow
On a pair of broken skies
O'er the hills we go
Crashing into trees
The snow is turning red
I think I'm almost dead
I'll wake up in the morning
And have stitches in my head
Oh! Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...."
The girls sang this version exclusively for the next three weeks - it's lovely, isn't it?
There's just something about the joy and surprise of children on Christmas morning. Priceless.
Kylan and I spent hours searching for the perfect gift to bring back for the girls from our trip to India. We looked at jewelry, dolls, traditional Indian costumes, etc., and we finally settled on these hand-carved wooden jewelry boxes. The idea came, in part, from a jewelry box that my dad brought me back from a trip to Spain. I still have that jewelry box and treasure the memory that my dad got it for me on one of his trips - we hope the girls love and enjoy these jewelry boxes for years to come!
By far the highlight of the day was the chance we had to talk to our missionaries (both Kylan and I have brothers serving missions). The advent of Skype has changed the Christmas morning "phone call" in all the best ways! There's just something about being able to see their faces and expressions as they describe how they're doing, what they're doing, etc., that makes them feel so much closer than they really are. We didn't get a picture of Andrew, but this photo of the Lundeen's just hanging on every word that Kade says portrays the excitement we felt for both of our missionary conversations. We sure love these boys and are so proud of the work they are doing - the hour we had to catch up with each of them was the best gift of the day!
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