The Philippines had been celebrating Christmas for 3 months and now we were finally ready to join them. I love this picture.

The kids were really creative with the ornaments this year. We had to put them SO HIGH to keep them from Marius, but then Brighton and Scarlet couldn't keep away from them either! They would take the ornaments and decorate things with them, bring them to me saying it was a Christmas Tree. As much as I didn't like it, I loved that they thought of it and did it! So creative! What a great little idea! 

Marius was snugglin' Daddy.

More snuggles for Daddy!

Christmas sugar cookie decorating!!!! Yea!!!! I can't stop eating these. Seriously- I can't.

 Our ward had a "Night in Bethlehem" christmas party and a lot of people dressed up. It was fun. We ate pitas, hummus, chicken, etc and it was neat to have that kind of food. I thought it was really fitting. I thought we looked pretty awesome. Greg looked the best and I didn't take his picture!!! I whipped up these outfits the day of the party and I felt pretty good about it.

The kids have been building spectacular forts. They gather all their toys and put them inside their "house". I love to see their creativity!

It was raining pretty good one day and Marius ran around and sat in deep muddy puddles and even found a MASSIVE snail. The shell was HUGE and beautiful and that poor snail was traumatized by Marius's thumb, crammed inside and slime oozing everywhere. Awesome.

It has been taking some serious convincing to get Scarlet and Brighton outside these days. They've been so into their pretend play inside they want to do nothing else and are NEVER interested in going outside anymore! I convinced Scarlet this day. I just love to see my kids explore outside.

Greg has picked up the piano! He has a few weeks off school and out of nowhere he decided he would teach himself again. And within a few days he went through the entire first book series we bought for Scarlet. Amazing!!!! I really have been so impressed. Really amazed. Never knew anybody could progress that quickly. I bought him a couple books with popular songs in it for him to keep learning. I love listening to him play. It makes me realize how much I really do love the piano. I even love listening to the simplest melodies and still think it's exciting and wonderful. I love being able to answer his questions, it makes me realize that I have a skill.

 Marius is adorable and will bring his chair all the way out from the playroom to sit at the piano with us. It's so cute!

I've been making a point to play more piano as well. This has all been possible because we've been watching less TV. It's been so nice to have quieter nights, focusing on more fulfilling activities.

Marius loves to be naked. If he's grumpy and I pull off his diaper and let him run around- suddenly he is HAPPY!!!! He's just a little nudist at heart. He can't keep his diaper on. Cloth or disposable- he just rips that thing right off if he doesn't have pants on over it. And sometimes he'll take off his shorts so he can take off his diaper and will just suddenly appear naked. It's the worst, but he is really cute.

I threw a Christmas Party for the kids. We had a 5 moms and 16 kids. I played the ukulele and the kids sang Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells. I did really good! I felt so good! I've never been able to accompany anybody like that and I didn't really practice too much in preparation. The kids loved it. They just kept asking to sing more and more, so we just sang them each a bunch of times. It made me feel really good. I made a bunch of ornaments in the shape of a star for the kids to paint. That was a hit. There were a couple games, I read a few Christmas books and I had a couple moms bring cookies and frosting to decorate. It turned out really nice. I was happy about it.

This is Christmas Eve. We changed it up this year . . . no big turkey feast. We did artisan bread, bri cheese, grapes, oranges, peppers and german sausage. It was so good. It was so much less stressful! No work to get ready and no mess afterwards! We've been convinced- this is our new tradition! I want to make the holidays easy so that I can be relaxed and spend it with my family. I don't want to be sweating in the kitchen and know there's a massive mess waiting for me. That is no way to celebrate. We were going to have fudge, but never got to it- so no sweets! Can you believe it? But it was totally ok! We watched Home Alone and Greg and I loved it.

Christmas morning . . . the kids come in- Greg points and says to Brighton, "Look you got a bike!" And Brighton says, "But I don't want a bike." Oh man, that was a surprising start to the morning. We went pretty simple on the gifts this year. We really like it that way.

Watching them open there stockings was pretty adorable. They were so excited about everything they got. It was cute.

Greg made German Pancakes with apples in a butter cinnamon sauce- YUM! A seriously decadent breakfast. It may be the beginning of a tradition. We've done it a couple christmas mornings now. We've talked a lot about our family traditions and I've been stressing out about it like we have to have them now, because if we change them every year- the kids won't remember it. Then I remembered- even if it takes us 5 more years to settle in on a Christmas routine- it will still be around a decade that the kids will experience it before leaving home. So I've realized I can let the urgency go and just let us try things out 'till we realize what we like.

I have realized though- I like simple. Simple gifts, simple meals, simple schedules- makes for relaxing and enjoyable moments with my family. Not rushed, not stressed, not work. I don't like it that way! And I feel like that's how I've made it in the past (just a little) and I want to really avoid that here on out.

After we did presents we went to our new friends the Fearns. They have two kids the same age. Greg met Brad at the embassy and Sarah stays at home too. We like them a lot. I was really excited they invited us over! It was really relaxed, they made us breakfast and the kids ran around and played with all the toys. Scarlet gets along REALLY WELL with their son. It makes me so happy to see them play. They really like each other. I've missed Scarlet having good friends. Now we just need to find one for Brighton!

Marius starts Nursery this sunday- WOOHOO!!!! I can hardly believe all my kids will be someone else's responsibility. Brighton will be in PRIMARY!!! That is so weird to me!!! He keeps saying he wants to stay in Nursery. I feel bad for him. Because of Kyrgyzstan, he only got to go for 5 months!

Marius has been cutting 3-4 molars all at the same time AND been sick. It has so not been fun. Like the worst moments since his birth. It's been horrible. I feel bad for him- clearly- he feels like total crap. But it is soooo hard to take after so many hours of crying, whining and clinginess!!!! He just cries and stomps his feet and all I can think is, "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU WANT!!!!!!" It's been the worst. I can't wait for it to end.

A couple nights for Christmas, on a whim, we took the kids to a light show in Ayala Triangle Park. It was AMAZING!!!!!! All these trees were lit up in the park and would flash along to music. It was sooooooo much cooler than I ever thought it would be. I can't wait to come again next year. It was amazing and so fun to experience with the kids. The Filipinos know how to do Christmas right. Everything is decorated! EVERYWHERE!!!!! It's so beautiful! And so fun! And everyone is so religious- you just say "Merry Christmas!" I love it. Whenever I'm tired and worn out I start to get bugged about living abroad- but as soon as our date night rolls around and I get out with Greg I always say without fail, "I love it here!" This place really has been awesome.