Pre-Christmas Fun

I first have to start with our Polar Express night.  We, as a family, watched Polar Express and then put the kids to bed.  While in their beds with lights out, I got hot chocolate warming up in the crockpot and made sure my list of houses-to-see was in Steve's hands and the Minivan express coupons were in mine.  Steve then blasted a CD of the sound clip from Polar Express with the train whistle and Tom Hanks yelling "All Aboard!"  "Well, are you coming?"  I ran upstairs, peeked my head in the kids' rooms and said, "Well, are you coming?"  Totally confused, I told them to get their shoes and coats on and gave them their tickets.  I also gave them a scavenger hunt with a list of decorations they needed to find.  The house above is in Ashbury and is unbelievable!

This one was one of the last ones we saw.  It was in downtown Naperville and was also superb.  The house next door had an arrow posted pointing to this house. :)  My favorites were the homes that had their lights coordinated with music on a certain radio station.  How do they do that?!  That is amazing!  Upon returning home, we ate cookies and had hot chocolate (with the song playing on a loop in the background of course--thank you Steve).  The kids couldn't believe that we did this.  It was just as fun for us as it was for them!

Gentleman's Rule!

This was one of our early Christmas gifts this year--tickets to a concert by this up and coming a capella group, Gentleman's Rule.  All seven of us had a blast!  

Evan (at the right) was patient enough to wait for the guys to all sign his program.  Pretty cool!

My beautiful Emma had her big holiday performance for Young Naperville Singers at NVHS.  I could pick her voice out of that huge choir.  She's amazing!

Carter's 5th grade band (and other bands from other schools) got together for a concert.  Not too bad for kids who had just started playing instruments 6 weeks earlier.  Carter is doing really well with the sax and has advanced further than any other student at school.  

Finally...Christmas Eve

We had to invite our special friends again, Elder and Sister Bryson who will be leaving the mission next month!  Sister Bryson was the Relief Society President when Steve was serving on his mission and he had to take the chance to serve her while she was on her mission! We were also excited to have Deborah Hatchett and her mom, Helen, come again.  Plus, this year the Jensen family came!  It wasn't a big crowd, but it was intimate and fun.

Emma was thrilled she didn't have to convince anyone that she needed to be Mary.  Lizzie was happy to be Elizabeth, because that is her name.  The two girls were a crack-up as they both pretended to be pregnant and have John leap in Lizzie's womb. :)

The 3 Jensen men were great wise men from the East.  Braxton played out the role of Joseph well.  Elder Bryson was a terrific Angel.  Evan shepherded better than expected.  Grandpa Bird tried to keep up with the story, but was sometimes distracted as I was doing my best signing the scripture story (along with all of Steve's quips).  Of course, the part they all look forward to is where we get to be evil and try to stone Samuel the Lamanite with our marshmallows.  Samuel was hungrier than usual and found the chocolate mint stones to be quite tasty.  What a stinker.

We ended with a few songs, including Elder Bryson singing "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" to my playing on the piano and Barry Jensen doing his famous skit where he acts out a sport by using his head as a ball and then we have to guess which kind of ball it is.  He is amazing!  No hearing person could do it because we think so differently than the Deaf.  

My biggest reward was Holly telling me she was grateful to give her boys this chance to see how hearing people celebrate Christmas. I'm just glad that they are patient enough with my signing and interpreting that we could all enjoy each other's conversations and enjoy being with each other.  It was late when everyone left, but we still had to finish the evening by reading "The Night Before Christmas" and opening our new pjs/sweat pants.

We all went to bed excited, but crashed quickly!