Christmas Time

Ethan, the only Jentzsch cousin for Scarlet, came to visit! It was actually a really good visit! Scarlet and he had the best time. They played together a LOT!!! Ethan was really good with her. It was really cute to watch.

They played a lot of hiding/peek a boo games and chased around the room.

Sliding off the fireplace together.

Greg wasn't satisfied with any tree skirts, for sale, so I made one. We really like it and you can flip it over for a completely different look.

I was really excited to break this guy out. I bought him in Germany to remember our "German Christmas" and he's never been put on a tree until this year. I love him.

And I love my stained glass ornaments. They warm my heart, every year.

It took us forever to find a star. We suddenly bought one at Target a week before Christmas, but what a difference it made!

This is Steve Jones. Greg's "kindred spirit". He's in school still because he's going to be a surgeon so we almost never see him. But it was Christmas Break, so he came over to play video games until 2 am a few times with Greg. It probably would have gone longer, but I would usually wake around 2 am and poke my head out the door and tell him to go home. We love Steve. They also love to go rock climbing together.

Scarlet officially cares about what she's wearing now. Alteast her shoes. She LOVES her black sunday/church shoes. She'll bring them to us, all the time, to put on her foot. And she gets upset when they fall off and bring them to us to put back on. It was really funny, too. Christmas Eve, Randy have her a bunch of clothes and she got really excited and held them up to her. I was really surprised!

Christmas Eve, one of Greg's presents was in a sealed can.

Christmas Morning.

Greg has a little guitar tuner, that you blow threw and Scarlet LOVES to blow on it. I thought it would be really fun to get her a harmonica, and she thinks it's really funny to blow on it. It's more difficult than the tuner, but she can do it.

Greg and I were SO excited to give her this. A Dora the Explorer Doll. Oh man, she knew what it was right away and said, "Dora!" She watches Dora everyday. She LOVES it!!! She asks for it all day long. That and Pooh. She NEVER gets sick of Pooh. She'll watch a 20 minute episode and ask for another and I usually let her 'cause I'm busy doing something, anyway, and want her to be distracted, but she never makes it 10 minutes through the second episode. But Pooh, I'm ashamed to say she can definitely sit through 50 minutes solid. She LOVES Pooh. I wish I didn't know she can do that, but when you're making dinner or scrambling to get something done, it's hard to turn the tv off.

Christmas morning, before church. Randy bought Scarlet a bunch of clothes and this cute dress was among them. I was so excited for her to wear it!

This was yesterday. I bought these over the counter reading glasses years ago and never ended up using them. We punched out the lenses for Scarlet to play in. She loves them.

I don't want to write about Christmas, because I'm sure I'll forget something and I'm tired. But it needs to happen.

Christmas was GREAT!!! Really, a great Christmas Season. At first it was a little stressful, because there was a lot of "back and forth" with Greg's schedule. It took awhile to know for sure if Greg had any days off. His normal schedule was to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after. His sergeant offered him the whole of it off, without Greg even asking for it, and he said yes immediately. But then another officer on his team "bumped" him because he wanted the weekend off and he has seniority over Greg. I understand, but Greg asked if he could just have the day after off and the guy was like, "Too bad." His sergeant gave him crap because Greg has a kid, and no one else does, so he wanted Greg to have it off, but the guy wouldn't budge. Oh well, we actually got enough after all. Greg got Christmas Eve off and the day after Christmas off. Which was GREAT. I love Christmas Eve. To me, that is Christmas. Christmas Day is over so fast, but Christmas Eve is always a day event. And it was great to get the day after Christmas because then we could go to my parent's a day earlier.

Since we were going to be in town after all, for Christmas Eve, we decided to do a nice dinner and invite Greg's family. Pat and Randy had all their kids asking them to come for Christmas, so we feel really lucky they stayed with us. I think Scarlet persuaded them, but it's also our last Christmas here, for who knows how long, if not indefinitely, so we're really glad we got to share it with them. Otherwise, it would've just been the 3 of us! Lonely!

I decided to do a turkey for the first time and it turned out AMAZING. It was WAY simpler than I thought it would be and quicker too. And it turned out incredibly tasty. Greg said it was the best turkey he'd ever had. That normally he doesn't even really like turkey, but that he LOVED this turkey. And I knew it was true when Pat asked me for the recipe. That's when I knew it must really be good. It was Chef Brad's Recipe. He's awesome. Check him out. I am going to do this turkey the rest of my life.

I totally botched the gravy and I was so upset about it. But I know exactly what I did wrong, and won't do it again. I just KNOW it would've been so good if I would've not done a particular something! I was supposed to cook all the gizzards with the left over veggies I stuffed the bird with. Well, I also stuffed the bird with LEMONS and I put those in the gravy as well. It was HORRIBLE. There was this bitter lemon taste to it and it just ruined the whole thing. All the incredible broth just wasted. So sad. Oh well. Live and learn. The whole day was going really well, I basically did the whole thing by myself- turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, gravy and Pat made the stuffing. Greg helped me move the turkey around because I was afraid it would slip and end up on the floor, otherwise I did the rest! I planned it so it wouldn't be stressful, but I was still a little nervous. The day went really smooth until I botched the gravy and suddenly I was so down about EVERYTHING. "This dinner isn't good enough. Your parents aren't going to like it. Nothing is going to taste good. It's going to be horrible. It's such a pathetic dinner." Greg told me I was freaking out and everything looked great. I whipped up some last minute gravy that still disappointed, but I served it anyway. Somewhere towards the end of all the preparation, I started feeling positive again and the rest of the night went great! I didn't make any sweets, which seems sacrilegious, but I didn't want to stress myself out with too much to do and we had REALLY incredible hazelnut chocolates on hand so we just had that for dessert.

It went really great! It was funny, because there were a lot of things that my childhood Eves had- sparkling cider, (I forgot candles, I meant to do that), turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls. But it was weird, like I was betraying my family name to not only not have an incredible abundance of sugar, but to have anything homemade at all!!!! But, I don't know . . . it just WORKED. And we kept saying how it wasn't a stressful day, it was relaxed, we had delicious food, and candy and it was great! So I think we're gonna do it like this every year! We did the traditional, open family gifts and we read about Christ's birth in the Bible, sang Christmas songs (but we added some fun ones, not just the hymns) and finished the night with Elf. Oh yeah, Greg read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. We love that poem. So in a lot of ways, it was just like how I grew up, with a couple of twists. I loved it. Greg did too. It was the first time we did it ourselves! And it's nice, because here on out we're probably going to be by ourselves, and it's nice to know we can make it happen. I'm so psyched I can make a turkey. I seriously thought about it for days afterward. I thought it was going to be so hard.

Christmas Day was pretty short. We woke up and had Scarlet open her "Santa" gifts. It was really cute. After opening one gift, Scarlet really had it figured out that something cool was in the present. It was fun to watch her unwrap everything. She got great gifts from everybody. It's nice, usually I stress out about gifts, but I know her so well right now. So I knew she'd love every gift. And she did! Then we rushed to church and I played all the hymns, of course, along with 2 primary songs and another composition for a trio. It was a little crazy. Today a fellow piano player thanked me for Christmas, saying it was a "one woman show". That made me feel good. We were originally planning on not being there. I wonder what would've happened if we were gone?

It was really weird, because the ONLY christmas hymn, planned for the WHOLE MONTH of December was xmas day- Once in Royal David's City. Which is a great xmas hymn, but it's not the first one I think of when I think CHRISTMAS. There are so many other CHRISTMASY hymns. And that was it. I was complaining about it all month (because I know all the hymns before we sing them). So right before church starts, I'm playing prelude and the bishop decides to not sing Though Deepening Trials, on xmas day and just throws Angels We Have Heard on High at me. I was a little annoyed, because I thought it was absurd to be singing about TRIALS on xmas day and we had ALL MONTH to decide this and now I didn't even have time to practice it once, but it went fine and I WAS glad because it was ridiculous not to sing a christmas hymn!!! I am happy to be ending this calling. It has been stressful. I don't want to say a lot of WIERD hymns have been picked, because I think all hymns are great. But the music chairman (or whatever she's called) keeps picking hymns that nobody knows! Like all the hymns in one meeting! What is the point of that? Nobody sings. Anyway, that's only ONE struggle we've had. In 2 months it will be over. But I wonder if I'll just get called again. I actually don't mind it at all. But last week I was informed of 4 hymns and 2 prelude hymns to play THE DAY BEFORE. That is not enough time to prepare. I'm sick of things like that happening. It is not very respectful, in my opinion.

We decided we wanted to make something special for Christmas breakfast, even though we didn't have much time. So after church I made german pancakes with sauteed apples (in butter) and hot cider from fresh squeezed apples. It was really good! And really easy. And it felt special. Well, after that Greg rushed to work and that was that. I think the rest of the day I tried to pack everything so we could be out, early the next morning.

I always loathe to drive with Scarlet. The only bad memories I have of Scarlet are of her screaming in the car and there's nothing I can do. This is the only time she screams. And it's horrible. It has improved over time, but still exists. Well, it's a miracle. She slept in the car. She NEVER sleeps in the car. She ALWAYS wakes up 40 minutes later and that's the end of it. She slept until Eugene, it was incredible. So she whined for the last 20 minutes and then we were there. It could not have gone better. Then we hung out and ate lunch with Pat, Randy, Laurel, Chris, Jeff and Hillary. Scarlet got to run around and we got to be out of the car. I was a little stressed of lingering too long. I was really anxious to see my family. It had been a long time!

Before we left Eugene we decided to get a DVD player for Scarlet. It took a couple stores to find one, but we got one and OH how it saved us. She watched Winnie the Pooh for over an hour. I wouldn't say that was her preference, but it kept her distracted. The last 1/2 hour, 20 minutes were a little challenging, but hey- that is sooooo much better than an hour and a half that is challenging. We are SOOOOO glad we bought that thing. Even if it's the only time we use it. And the drive back went pretty much the same way. She slept the 1st half, and watched movies the 2nd half. Oh man, and on the way home we stopped in Grants Pass and ate at a Vietnamese restaurant and it was soooooo good. We both had Pho, it's a soup. I want to go there again. I wish it was in Medford.

My parent's house was just as I thought it would be . . . relaxing. It was great. My 2 younger sisters were there with their husbands. It had been over a year since Greg had seen Danielle or Clay and almost a year for Amy and Mike (I think). I hadn't seen Clay in over a year, as well. It was good to see everyone. The boys played a lot of video games. And a lot of games, in general, were played by all. It was fun! We played a different game every night. Oh yes! Jake and Lyndsey's family came too, but only for a couple nights, which was a bummer. It was a little funny, but annoying. Everyone stayed up late (including Greg) except me. I just can't stay up late anymore. So we would get up with Scarlet, in the morning, and no one would be up for another 3 hours. It was weird, because Scarlet slept worse than ever, and I really wanted to whine about it, but I couldn't because Amy was nursing all night long and Miles woke up Jake and Lyndsey literally all night long too. And it wasn't half as bad as that, so Greg and I had to whine to each other. I pray that this next baby will be as angelic as Scarlet has been.

I gotta say, I think my hilight of the week was battling my sister Danielle on Dance Central 2. I was laughing so hard. It was so funny. I was really glad that Clay and Mike battled too. It was so fun playing it and watching others play it. I've been sick ever since we got home, so I haven't played it. I'm sad.

The weather was crumby so we couldn't go out. I was really hoping to get Scarlet in the sand. She hasn't done it yet! Which just seems criminal. Every Arnold has a baby picture of them eating sand in the summer. It's tradition!

I'm pretty sure Mom made waffles every morning, which was nice. It was the first time I totally enjoyed the whole grain waffle experience at Mom's, because Greg and I have made the switch this year. Along with the REAL maple syrup, not the corn syrupy stuff. Mom's been doing this for years, and it always bothered my taste buds a PINCH, but this year it was mmm mmmm good.

Oh, how could I forget? I got to meet MADDIE!!!! She was so scrumptious and FUN! She reminded me of Scarlet so much because she was such a good baby!!! And she SMILED a LOT!!!! Which Scarlet did as well. It made me really excited to have a baby! Scarlet really loved her too. It was cute. When they first met, she laid on top of her and gave her kisses. It was really sweet. It was kind of nice to see that it will work with 2 kids. It was really funny, because when Scarlet was 2 months old (Maddie's age), I went to a family reunion and my sister Rebecca kept saying, "You're feeding her again?! Every time I turn around you're feeding her! It's all you do!" And I thought it was so funny, because I was thinking that I wasn't feeding her as often I as I did when she was younger. That is ALL I could think when I saw Amy. Seriously, nursing that baby all day long. And I just cringe to think of the all night long. I don't want to think about that part. I just want to pretend like I won't have to do it myself in 6 months. But it was really crazy. It was so all consuming! I had just forgotten. And I just felt like my sister Rebecca.

I think that was Christmas. I have more to write, but I'm too tired.