Haul out the Holly!

It's that time of year -- we need a little Christmas NOW!  With Thanksgiving over and company gone, we promised the kids we'd put up our Christmas tree this weekend and let them start the decorating.  You would think the excitement of this news would inspire all kinds of cooperation, but you would think wrong.  After trying to convince the kids all day long to clean up the family room to make room for the tree, they FINALLY got it done around 5 PM today.  To be fair, Scott and I certainly slowed things down a bit as we arranged and re-arranged and RE-arranged the family room half a dozen times trying to figure out the best configuration for our existing furniture {plus TV and piano} and a tree, but still.  Our plan for an early bedtime for all of the kids tonight was definitively tossed out the window as we made a mad dash to the Home Depot to pick out our tree this evening at the end of an already very long day.

 Non-sequitur pic -- Scott took the girls to see "Frozen" yesterday while I stayed home with the boys.  Ethan was going to go but then changed his mind when the Wii called his name.  

 Daddy-Daughter Date!

 Fresh cut Christmas trees!

Thankfully, once at Home Depot, we found our tree almost immediately and were on our way home in a jiffy.  While Scott brought in the tree and set up the stand, I scraped together a truly random dinner of oatmeal for half of the family and chicken tortilla soup in the blender for the other half.   After making everyone eat,  I let Alex "hang" his basketball ornament on the tree before putting him to bed and then I sat on the couch and got comfy as I took pictures and watched while everyone else worked their magic. 

 Ethan is our lights boy.  Every year he's the one helping Scott untangle and wrap the lights around the tree.  And despite the look on his face here, he really is happy to do it. 

 My favorite of Scott's vintage ornaments -- E.T. phone home!  Hahaha.  This poor little guy has seen better days.

 Jane was bursting at the seams with excitement waiting to put the star on top. 

 Scott remedied her version of "on top" of the tree once she was distracted with hanging more ornaments.

 My two little kindred spirits.  Bonding over the Little People Nativity set.

And that was that.  Despite the fact that I wanted the kids to be in bed by 7 o'clock and that didn't actually happen until 9, the evening was still lovely and ended on a better note than it started.  So, I'll take it!  Happy holidays to me.  And to you.  :)

Flashback Friday -- A P-Town Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day -- 2000

Ahh the good old days!  Hahaha.  Attending a college 'cross country made traveling back home for Thanksgiving pretty much impossible while I was in school.  Out of the 4 years I was at BYU faring for myself during this holiday time, however, only ONE was actually spent IN Provo on my own.  {Although, obviously I wasn't COMPLETELY alone.  Cue Natalie!} 

At some point during the fall of our Junior year, Natalie and I got to talking about (and salivating over) all our favorite Thanksgiving dishes while killing time at her job in the copy center of the good old SWKT {or "swicket" as the cool kids say} on BYU's campus.   At some point in our reveling, we decided that we wanted to make our very own Thanksgiving dinner that year and include all of our favorite things. And include them we did.  When we set our minds to do something, we get it DONE, dang it!  Haha.  I honestly can't remember everything we made, but I do know that Natalie killed it with the turkey AND a ham, and we worked together on a banana cream pie that was to die for.  We also hosted the tired, poor, and huddled masses who had nowhere else to go in our student ward at church.  To say it was an interesting conglomeration of people gathered together for the big day would be an understatement.  Hahaha. 

When looking at this picture, I agree with Natalie in saying we totally rocked Thanksgiving 2000!  Hahaha.  As my bff commented when she emailed the photo earlier this week, there are so many little details in this shot to love -- "Those plates.  The phone.  The mexican vanilla.  Our clothes.  This is awesome!"  Yes.  Yes, it was.  And a happy memory for sure.  :)

{And just in case you're dying to know what I did the rest of the time I was in college -- I spent Thanksgiving of my freshman year up in Logan, UT with a friend at his grandparent's house; sophomore year was spent in Salt Lake City with the gracious Nagel family (good friends who had moved there from New Orleans) who took pity on me and my sister, Emily; and senior year I spent in Vernal, UT along with Emily and another sister Sarah, as we stayed with my dad's aunt and uncle and their ginormous clan for our entire Thanksgiving vacation.}

Happy Holidays!

Turkey Day and Prep

We are definitely approaching the most wonderful time of the year!  I love the holiday season.  Even though it gets crazy, chaotic, and hectic at times, it is STILL one of my favorite times of the year.  Fortunately for me, none of the craziness has quite hit with full force yet and only the fun and festivities have been ringing through.  

We've had the excitement and anticipation of a visit from my mom and 3 of my siblings to look forward to for the last few weeks and then last weekend, the fun kicked off unexpectedly earlier when Scott and Ethan joined my brother-in-law on Saturday to cheer the cougars on in the BYU-Notre Dame football game at South Bend.  

 Cute little Ethan before he froze completely to death.

Putting on a brave face partway through the game. 

Scott headed over to Kristin's on Friday night with Ethan, Grace, and Sophie in tow while I stayed home to man {or woman} the fort with the two little ones.  Grace and Sophie were thrilled to spend the weekend with Hannah, while Ethan and Scott drove over to the game with Blake on Saturday morning for what was apparently the coldest home game in Notre Dame history.  Or something like that.  Hahaha.  I'm getting my "facts" from Ethan, so they're either incredibly accurate or I have misunderstood him completely.  Scott said the wind chill at kick-off was 9 degrees and by the time the game was coming to a close Ethan was crying from the cold.  They waited out the 4th quarter in one of the heated restrooms and then after the game was over met up with my brother Freddie {who had also gone to the game} and took him back with them to Kristin's and then on home to us on Sunday morning.  

 Helping with a Costco run.  If only I could depend on my children to bring everything in for me each time I go...

 Getting prepped for the big day!

It was fun having Freddie here for a few more extra days than he would have been otherwise and it was super helpful to having him around to help entertain kids and clean up all their messes.  Scott took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off of work and while the kids were still at school on Monday and Tuesday, I took full advantage of the time to run lots and lots of errands by myself {grocery shopping without dragging kids along is a luxury} and treated myself for all my hard work with a hair appointment on Tuesday afternoon.

 Shameless selfie at the hair salon.

Mom, Amy, and Jacob made it here safely on Tuesday night and the Thanksgiving party officially started once we were all together under the same roof again.  Fun has been had, games have been played, and stories have been told as we've spent this holiday season together.  Being with family is the best.  And one of the particular best things about a Hansen family Thanksgiving is that we always eat early {none of this supper time fare -- the turkey is served at noon!} and we tend to sample things as they become ready {as in half the French Apple Pie I made for Thanksgiving day was eaten on Wednesday night around 9}.  Hahaha.  

French Apple Pie -- courtesy of my friend Leia over at Eat it and Say Yum.  It was delicious.  Definitely a pie we will be repeating for next year.  Although next year we will need to make two.  :)

Our Thanksgiving morning was started off bright and early today when I woke up around 3 in the morning and discovered that Jane had somehow made her way into our bed and was nestled in between Scott and I, sound asleep and snoring and oblivious to the fact that she was taking over both of our spaces.  I managed to fall somewhat back asleep, but the morning was started for good a little before 6 when Alex -- our roommate while company is in town -- woke up and tried to make a run for it so he could wake everyone else up to play.  I managed to hold them both off until a more reasonable hour of 7 before letting them go downstairs while I got breakfast and then the rolls started for the day.

 Hahaha.  This picture that Scott snapped with his phone cracks me up.  Apparently Alex and I were the only ones who got the memo to wear striped pajamas last night and apparently we all look REALLY concerned while watching a Behind the Scenes special on the making of the new Sound of Music production starring Carrie Underwood on live TV.  

 Aunt Kristin's crescent roll recipe was a special request from the kiddos.

 Little helping hands.

 {And my mom wins super granny award for all the games she's played with the kids this week.}

 Lovely centerpiece created by mom with some lemons and greenery she found outside.

 Lovely tableware set by Jane who was a super helper with the task.

 Jacob and Amy -- our poor little invalids.  Jacob is still recovering from a concussion he suffered playing football a few weeks ago and Amy has been sick with a head cold the whole time she's been here.  {Being sick on vacation is the worst!}

 Grace and Freddie

Crazy hair on Alex courtesy of Grace.

Our tie-dyed flower child chowing down on Thanksgiving dinner.  {Which for the record I ate while still in pajamas and glasses.  Hashtag I love an informal dinner.}

Once our meal was eaten, everyone branched out and did their own thing for a few hours.  Some people napped {such as myself}, some people watched football, and other people watched movies or did whoever else knows what.  Once Alex woke up from his nap, however, I decided it was now or never if we were going to attempt a family picture while we still had people in town to take it for us.  So, after giving Scott a SUPER quick haircut and getting everyone else ready to go, we dashed out in the nick of time before we lost the light for the day.  The end result?  The easiest, fastest, most painless family picture we have ever taken!  No lie.  It helped that I had already arranged the position I wanted everyone to stand in for color balance sake, and mom's suggestion of bringing a stool was perfect for raising the height of Sophie and Jane while we had Amy snap away.  Ethan was excited that we got to use our thrift store tripod and I was excited that the pictures actually seemed to have turned out really great! 

Ethan was easily the most excited when I brought this $8 tripod home from the thrift store a couple of months ago.

 Setting up the shot.  I kind of love Jane's facial expression here.  And her owl sweater.  Hahaha.

 Mom helped to tame Alex's crazy Grace hair.

Here are the fruits of our labor:

 Notice the death grip Sophie has on Alex's chin.

 And the expression on her face here as well.  Hahaha.

 Aren't they just too cute for words?

 Awww.  The Lovebirds.

 My personal favorite shot of the day.

 And photo-bombed by Grace.

 She really wanted to be in the shot.

 Final front porch shot for mom.  I've grown a halo.  Rightly so.  Not.  Hahahahaha.

I have no idea how I did this, but I love it!!!  Hahahahaha.

And there you have it! The anatomy of a Thanksgiving vacation.  The only sad part about it is the ending.  Mom, Freddie, Amy and Jacob have to leave tomorrow morning, but I'm SOOOO glad they drove up to be with us.  If only we could all live near each other! Then the party would NEVER stop.  Hahahaha.  :)