Happy New Year!

Our New Year tradition has become fondue night! We invited the Twitchells over. They brought pizza fondue along with breadsticks and cheesecake fondue with pumpkin donuts, gingersnaps, brownies and strawberries for dipping. I made cheese fondue with vienna bread and veggies to dip, meat fondue (hot broth) and three sauces, and a chocolate orange fondue with tons of dippers (pound cake, shortbread cookies, vanilla wafers, pepparkakor, brownies, apples, pears, dried apricots, pretzels, and marshmallows).

We had way too much food to eat! But it was fun. The kids played in the basement on the computer and the PS2. The grownups, along with Ben and Abby, played Out of Context in the dining room.

We rang in the new year at 11, or rather, shortly thereafter because we weren't quite ready on time. We had noisemakers, hats and bubbles, as well as non-alcoholic bubbly drinks.

Museum of Science & Industry

Since we all had the week of Christmas off, we decided to go to the Science museum. It was CROWDED!!! Apparently everyone had the same idea. We had tried the day before to call the museum to reserve Star Wars tickets (we got 4 with our membership) but only got a busy signal for 2 hours. We got to the museum at 9:30 when it opened and went right to the line at the members desk. It was a long line, but not nearly as long as the line for the non-members! Some museum employee came by and told us that if we already had a membership, we didn't need to stand in line. We could get Omnimax tickets at the theater or at the members lounge!So we went straight to the members lounge to see what we could do. There was a line there also, but not nearly as long. When we had moved up to the point that we were second in line, Nate dropped to the floor and said, "Can we go home now? This place is boring." We had been at the museum for two hours and had yet to see an exhibit!!

Even though Star Wars was booked clear through the 4th online, the woman in front of us was able to get the 3rd. We chose to get ours for Saturday the 5th. We also picked up Omnimax tickets, and headed off to see the museum. It was, however, nearly lunchtime and we thought maybe we should try to beat the lunch rush. It was a futile attempt, because I believe the lunch rush probably lasted all day!! And the prices were way too high. Next time we'll pack a lunch.
But the museum was great, and we stayed until 5:30. We still didn't see every exhibit. There was too much to see. It's a good one to get a membership to, because you can't see it all in one day.

Christmas Day

The kids slept in, but only until about 8. (Normally they sleep in until about 9!) They got up and opened their stockings in the family room. Since their stocking gifts included those little boxes of sugar cereals, they had a grand feast for breakfast!Charles and I got up not much after the boys did. So we switched to the front room where the tree is and handed out the gifts. Nate was so much fun--every gift he opened was 'awesome'! Tim had to pose as cheesily as he could for every picture. Then we got dressed and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. This year the Worlton clan all waited until everyone was there, which was wonderful! We love to see everyone opening their presents. It took a while to get through everything, but it was fun.
Our family spent most of the day there, playing games, doing puzzles and just hanging out. When we did finally go home at about 7:30, the boys immediately plugged in the new Guitar Hero for PS2. In Ben's words, "This is freakin' awesome!"

Christmas Eve

(Eventually, I'll get this week caught up! I'm doing one day at a time, though!)

For Christmas Eve, we went to the Worltons. Mom had made Roast Beast for dinner (beef and ham). How very fun! She also made yummy mashed potatoes, broccoli, a spinach salad, her world-famous rolls, and a banana cream trifle for dessert.

After we all pigged out, we had a white elephant gift exchange among the adults. The funniest moment had to be Paul with his Christmas boxers. Karen ended up sporting some major bling.

We had a Family Home Evening where a member of each family shared an impromptu talent. Then we opened a gift. We had brought our own to open, because we have the tradition of opening jammies on Christmas Eve.

This year, Charles and I had very little wrapping to do on Christmas Eve, unlike years past. We stayed up late on Christmas Eve Eve to get it done. We were a day early this year. I guess next year's goal should be to have it done two years in advance. :)

Swedish Christmas

This year, we celebrated the Wren family tradition of Swedish Christmas on Sunday the 23rd. It's supposed to be done on the 24th, but since we want to be able to spend time with the Worltons on Christmas Eve day, we've switched it to a day earlier. So we eat Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, 'pigs feet', boiled potatoes, Swedish cucumbers, salad, cheese and crackers.
Then Julburglar (he's supposed to be Jultomte, but he always comes dressed like a scary winter burglar!) comes and delivers all the presents from Mormor. After that, we had our fourth of Advents and ate lots of cookies. God Jul!

Christmas thoughts

It's that busy time of the year, and as a result I'm way behind on my blog! A few comments--

Nate has been asking when he can be in the Nate-tivity again. He really loved being a shepherd this year!

Jon was able to go on his first temple trip this past week. Ben wasn't able to go because he had a band concert. Jon had his concert the night before. Here's a video clip from Jon's concert:

Sweet little boys

I went to wake up Tim and Nate one morning, and this is what I found. They have bunk beds. Tim tells me that when he wakes up early in the morning (possibly from Charles leaving, since the garage is right under their bedroom) he climbs in bed with Nate and goes back to sleep. He says Nate doesn't mind. I suspect Nate doesn't even know.

Today while posting, I resized some photos to email them. I noticed a photo in the resized pictures folder that fits nicely in this post! I could probably have pictures of each of my boys sharing with Nate, because they all adore him and rarely ever fight with him. It might be because, as he tells us, he is so cute, or it might just be because he is four and hasn't yet started a mean stage... Anyway, here are Nate and Greg.