Us Olsons: January 2018

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We tried to keep things as simple as possible this holiday and focused on enjoying the holiday and focusing on Christ. It was a master plan that we will try and repeat every Christmas. Once again, we did our favorite Christmas tradition which is placing a piece of straw in the manger for each good deed we did for the month. The boys love filling the manger and I love how it focuses us on Christ and doing things to make others happy. This year we started a new tradition and it was wonderful. Each night after dinner, we would light two candles. As the candles burned, we read scriptures about the Savior. By Christmas Eve, we had burned through both candles and had learned more about Christ. The boys learned that Christ is a healer, miracles happen, Christ is a teacher and he teaches through parables and that He loves us. I looked forward to doing this every night.

Foster and I made cookies. chocolate pretzels, and chocolate frosted browning for delivering to friends. I let the boys pick who they wanted to deliver the goodies to. Foster picked our 80 year old neighbor Leon who lives alone. Not only did he deliver the treats to Leon but he spent a half hour in his house asking him all sorts of questions. At least two times later in the month, I couldn't find Foster, only to find he had left the house to go visit Leon. It melted my heart.

A Month of Festivities

Both boys got to sit on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas party. James and Jacob could not be separated at the party so they sat on Santa's lap together.

James Christmas list:

Lego Killer Croc Set

Giganotosaurus Toy

Godzilla

Watering Hole Play Set

Foster's Christmas List:

Fart Gun

Gumball Machine

Godzilla

Zombie Craft Set

Another Christmas tradition is Gingerbread House building. This is always a fun night. This year we talked about how we can make a happy home and we each gave examples as we built our gingerbread house. It was a great FHE and the house turned out magnificently.

Scott took some time off work throughout the month of December which meant we could spend some quality time as a family. We went on bike rides, he took the boys to school in the mornings, we went to parties and visited all of our favorite Christmas lights. It was so nice to have so much down time together.

Bike Riding at Miramar Lake (Poor James was still in school)

Candy Cane Lane with hot chocolate is one of our favorite holiday nights.

Scott and I got a babysitter and spent an afternoon on Harbor Island getting lunch. It was a beautiful day in our beautiful city. And the cake, I still dream about it.

Foster had his very last preschool Christmas program with his bestie Charlotte. These two have loved going to preschool together and next year they'll be headed to different elementary

schools. It makes me want to cry when I see how fast these two are growing up.

Hiking Torrey Pines in the warm December weather.

Christmas is Finally Here!

After counting down, the big night finally arrived. We spent the morning at church listening to beautiful music and hearing a message of Christ. It was a great way to kick off the day. Once we got home, I was in the kitchen baking and getting ready for our evening. It was a great night with delicious food, a nativity program (forced on everyone by ME!), a visit from Santa and exchanging gifts. Mom and dad made sure everything was perfect and we left feeling like we had a truly magical evening.

Makeshift Nativity. I wrote the script and Foster helped with the costumes.

Santa's annual visit to Grandma's. Both boys told me that they knew it was Grandpa and not the real Santa but that the real Santa is so busy on Christmas Eve that he sends Grandpa to Grandma's house.The Grandpa Santa is always well received.

After our great evening at Grandma and Grandpa's it was Christmas jammies and bed for these boys so Santa could get to work.

Christmas Morning

The boys woke up early but not too early and were very ready to see what Santa had brought. James got a watering hole play set, jurassic world watch, and some dinosaur erasers. Foster got a Zombie craft set, a gum ball machine and Zombie toys.

After a wonderful Christmas morning, we went to Mi Ani's house for a delicious brunch and gift exchange. We had a perfect day followed by a long Winter's nap!

Scott and I surprised the boys with a basketball and basketball hoop.

Christmas night we decided to have a Jerusalem style dinner, on the floor next to the fire. We called it Bethlehem Baskets dinner. We ate hummus, pita, grapes and pomegranates. Then we snuggled up and watched our annual Christmas night show, The Snowman. This was my favorite evening of the month. Snuggled up with my favorite people and dog in the world.

Jet Setters

November was our month for travel. Scott took a trip to Europe for work which included four countries in five days. I took a trip to Georgia to visit Meranda Rockett and then we packed up the car and the four of us drove to Park City for Thanksgiving. It was whirlwind but worth all the jet lag.

Georgia

My first trip to The South was wonderful. It was as charming as I always imagined it would be and so was my hostess. I was there four days and I'm dreaming of when I can go back. Lush woods, lakes everywhere, delicious food, amazing shopping; It was completely picturesque.

On my second day, Meranda drove us to Asheville, North Caroline to visit The Biltmore Estate. It was such a treat to see so much history in such a beautiful setting. The smoky mountains were breathtaking and to top it off, The Biltmore was decorated for Christmas. After our tour, Meranda took me to The Grove Hotel to have dinner on the veranda. We were able to watch the sunset over the smoky mountains. We kept joking about our romantic dinner date.

We did lots of shopping and eating in Atlanta and I was so impressed with the city. My favorite part of the entire trip was spending time with an amazing friend. Can't wait to do it again!

Park City Here We Come!

This was the boy's first trip to Utah and they are officially fans. When I told Foster he could live at BYU he could scarcely believe it (we're starting the brainwashing now). Park City was dusted with snow the day before we arrived and the boys were SO excited. They loved playing in the snow until Foster (without gloves on) started screaming that his hands were on fire. Opposite actually, they were frozen. Once they figured out that gloves and snow boots are their friends, the snow became even better.

This was taken outside of our hotel room near the pool. The boys played here for over an hour. Sadly, after our first day the snow began to melt and never reappeared. I don't think they'll ever forget the fun they had that first day. I know Scott and I never will.

We had a blast walking around Park City's Main Street, shopping and eating....mostly pizza of course. For some reason, pizza was the official food of our trip. We were all DONE with pizza by our third day. We also visited the Park City Museum which told the story of Park City's transformation from a mining town to a ski town. And if you ask me, a shopping town.

The boys were very impressed by Temple Square and the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. It was so fun to be with them in such a special place.

Foster was pretty sure this pioneer log cabin was his new house. He was all ready to move in.

If you ask me, the best part of the trip was tubing at Gorgoza Park. We went on opening day and the crowds were few, the snow was slick and it was the time of our lives. Jamie and Peter joined us for the fun and everyone had a great time. At the very end, Foster insisted on going all by himself. I knew that I couldn't stop him so I let him go. He carried his tube up the moving walkway to the top of the hill, went over and said something to guy at the top and the next thing I know, the guy is pushing him down the hill. The kid makes it happen. James was old enough to ride down from the very top and without hesitation he went over and over again. He is turning out to be our little daredevil. After two hours and with frozen hands and feet, we headed back to hotel feeling extremely happy.

If you ask James and Foster, their favorite day was when we visited Grandma Millie and BYU. They loved the Bean Science Museum and they are both convinced that if they attend BYU, they will work here. It was very cool and we were so glad we went.

Meeting Grandma Millie was a treat. Foster just kept telling her how beautiful she was and both boys asked many times later in the week, if they could go back and see Grandma Millie. She was so sweet with James, telling him how when she was young she was very shy too but as she got older she grew out of it. She told him they had a lot in common.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We spent Thanksgiving at The Grand America Hotel. It was just the right amount of fancy. The hotel was decked out for Christmas with Christmas windows and a giant gingerbread house. And Thanksgiving dinner was decked out with all the regulars like sliders and passionfruit tarts.....okay, not the usual fare but we did have turkey and mashed potatoes and it was GOOD.

I remember looking at the ZCMI windows in SLC when I was a little girl so it was so fun to see my boys look at these Christmas windows.

Yeah....Im pretty sure this is not allowed.

Our Utah trip was one we will never forget. We were in such a beautiful place with people we love, having a blast. Some of my favorite memories from the trip are the ones where we were in the hotel room(complaining of all the noise from the common room), watching movies (Edward Sizzorhands) and using the bath bombs we bought at the grocery store. The ordinary things feel pretty magical when done on vacation!