Oh what a Christmas Day

The next American Girl doll!

What a beautiful mess!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve with Reggie's family was a blast.  Julia and Krista planned most of it, from the games to the food, and everyone was willing participants of both.  The night ended with everyone using their presents from Matt & Maya - boxes of indoor snowballs.  With this crowd the snowball fight still needed to be outdoors - it was loud and crazy and fun.

Hannah's favorite member of the family is Krista's dog

Audrey got a mermaid tail for a present

Uncle Matt helping Addy play with her new doll.
All of Reggie's brother's have daughters and it is
nice that they can continue their skills with the next
generation of girls.

After we got home it took a while for me to kick everyone out of the living room so that Santa could fill the stockings. This year finding stocking stuffers was especially fun.  Reggie and I wanted items for the adults that were especially unique/strange/fun.  This included the longest and most festive looking shoe horns, pencils from Sprouts that are supposed to grow herbs, and National Geographics from the month and year of each kid's birth.  I also got a kick of going to Deseret Industries every time I was in Utah during the year and found treasures in the form of LDS books. (Deseret Industries is like Goodwill, and is run by our church, so many of the donations are LDS books, music, movies, etc.)

And for the girls - well, I love when stockings have happy faces peeking out of them.

21

We can't let this month go by without saying HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY SAMANTHA!  I'm glad her schedule makes it so that she's home for her birthday.  She brings a lot of joy into the house.

Because of the holidays some good friends happened to be in town, from Utah, and they helped us celebrate.

Christmas Cookies

Alcatraz/walking in December

Who knew that Alcatraz included such a beautiful walking trail?

On Christmas Eve we all took the ferry to Alcatraz.  It was a perfectly clear, cool day.  

The tour is done by head phones.  You listen, follow the directions of where to go next, and pause it

if you need to stop for a moment.  It worked perfectly, and with a little bit of patience we got through the entire tour.  

Grandpa

I"ve been able to go to Utah several times the past 2 years, meaning Reggie has not seen Hillary's kids as much as I have.  But he makes up for it big time through Skype and times when they are together.  Who could ever forget Grandpa Hanaike?

For Christmas Grandpa got "Maui's hook" with a card from all of us

telling him thank you for all he does for us. (If you've seen the Moana movie it makes sense.

If you haven't, check out the video below.  Actually, check it out anyway.  We love it!)

Advent Calendar/Drawers

Our way of counting down the days until Christmas was done with drawers - one for each day, filled with a candy for each person and a slip of paper stating what story or scripture we were going to read that night.  The girls were adorable when it was their turn to open the drawers and pass out the candy.     It was a great 25 days.

Lester's lists

Having 14 people living together in the same house, even for just a week, can be a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of work.  A few Christmases ago, when our family started growing with sons-in-laws and grandchildren, I found myself regretful by the time everyone went home because I had spent most of my time in the kitchen.  People had offered to help but I had turned them down.

The next year Reggie & Lester came up with an ingenious plan - Reggie asked if Lester could come up with some kind of schedule for each couple to plan and cook at least one dinner while they were here.  Lester went above and beyond and came up with a rotational schedule of dinner, dishes, living room and devotional, with details of what each job entailed.  Everyone agreed to it and it has been a wonderful, ongoing tradition, which has made my holidays much more meaningful and fun.

Lester also came up with a list of possible fun places to explore in San Francisco, if we wanted.  It's been a great holiday.

And here is one of my favorite pictures - "the stockings hung by the chimney with care" representing all of us, and cute little Audrey in person.

babies

Part of the reason I went to Utah this weekend was to help Hillary on the plane with her little ones.  I was of some help in the airport but by the time we were boarding the plane I was feeling sick.  I ended up vomiting and spending much of the flight in the bathroom.  Samantha had been sick that day but was luckily feeling much better and was a great help with Audrey.  When I was in my seat, near Hillary & Hannah, I felt very impressed with what a wonderful Mom Hillary is.

I have certainly had those thoughts about Julia too - about how great she is with her girls.  Being on the observational side now I am struck again with how much patience and self-sacrifice it takes to be a mom, from the moment of pregnancy through forever.  I have always hoped that my girls would choose to have babies when they and their husbands wanted them and felt inspired to have them, and not out of any pressure to be a typical Mormon woman.  I see how hard they work and I also see the  sheer joy on my girl's faces - pure love for their babies in the middle of all the craziness - which shows why they & their husbands have made the choices they've made.  And then I look back at how crazy Reggie and I were to have so many kids, so close together.  We had each one of them when we wanted and when we felt inspired to do so, and I hope the pure love I had for them was showing on my face too.  So if by inspiration my girls choose to be what others see as the typical Mormon woman, or not, there's nothing wrong with that, either way.

I am now on the mend.  It was about a 12 hours virus.  But I can't help think about all the newly pregnant women out there who have a few months of morning sickness to endure.  I am in awe of them, I wish them luck, and think that they, along with my girls, are absolutely in the category of "strong, successful, independent women".  I am also grateful for the daddies that are right by their side, doing whatever they can to help.

TEMPLE SQUARE LIGHTS!

It was very cold so I was taking pictures as fast as I could, in order to keep moving, hoping

I was getting some good ones.  It was beautiful and very crowded and full of the

Christmas spirit!

There were nativities all over Temple Square, including the one above, on the water, with floating lights.

In the Joseph Smith center they had someone playing Christmas carols on an electric

piano and a pile of instruments for the children to pick up and play along; Hannah was

rocking the maracas.