Welcome 2011

We had such a fun New Year's Eve this year. My parents came over and watched the little two so Garth and I could take Carter and Sydney to first night Spokane (which really should be called "last night") We got to go to a ton of shows, out to dinner at the Olive Garden, stayed up really late and it was ALL FUN! No diaper bags, no toddlers on and off your lap 100 times, no whining or tantrums. I love all my kids dearly, but it was really fun to go out with the "big kids" and have a stress free fun evening. These two danced like they had "ants in their pants" so well at the Eric Herman show that they won a free copy of his DVD!Gotta love the overpriced junk you can buy. Carter bought a light saber and Syd chose a pink braid that clips into her hair and lights up. Only the necessities!Our favorite show was the Brothers from Different mothers (although the Celtic band and dancers were awesome too). At this point we were getting a little worn down and went home when it was over. You can't tell in the photo that we froze our butts off. Single digit temperatures are not my favorite.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Worthwhile Tradition

I'm not sure how this tradition got started, but sometime when I was a kid, my parents started a "Gift of Love Jar." When the decorations came out in early December, so did the jar. Next to it were small pieces of paper to write down gifts of love. The catch was that you could not write them about yourself. You had to notice other people doing something nice, helpful or loving for you or for others and write it down. When we were kids, we used to do extra things just hoping our name would pop up in the jar. We might sneak around making people's beds, or do dishes without being asked etc. Then on Christmas Eve, after all the celebrations, we would open the jar and read all the gifts of love that were given throughout the month. A few years ago, my brother gave us each our own jar and we have continued the tradition in our house. For some reason, we didn't do gifts of love as a whole family this year so on Sunday after Christmas, we sat down in our little family and read the gifts of love. The value of this tradition was reinforced for me as I read paper after paper that Sydney had written. I helped her write her first one and gave her an idea of what should be written down but after that she was on her own. I was touched by the fact that she noticed the nice things people did for her and thought to write them down. If you are looking for a new tradition to start in your family, give the "Gift of Love Jar" a try. It will bring your family and increase in service to one another, and an increased appreciation for how much others do for you on a daily basis.

Our Christmas

After all that fun with the three families, it was hard to believe that my kids were going to get more. I wondered if they would loose some of their excitement. . .what a silly thought. Santa was really on his game this year and all his gifts were a HUGE hit!
Olivia loves her Dora doll. Dora is one of her clearest words!
Derek is a big fan of the CARS movie. He got this awesome garage and some new cars to go with it. This toy has been played with by every kid of every age that has come over since Christmas morning.

Sydney was so excited to get some zhu-zhu pets (and the Beauty and the Beast DVD she's holding).

The real Christmas miracle is that I bought Sydney 3 outfits and she likes them all! She can be a bit picky about colors and styles. If they make her itch? forget about it, she will never wear it.

I woke up Christmas morning to the sound of golf clubs hitting the floor. Apparently Carter needed to be reminded that when he wakes up, he's supposed to come get us. He was already downstairs checking out his big gift.

Too bad he has a cast on his arm and there is insane amounts of snow on the ground. It will be a while before he gets to use his new golf clubs.

Whew. . .it's over. I love Christmas, but I also love when it's over!

Frederickson Christmas

We continued tweaking Frederickson tradition. We usually all meet Christmas Eve for dinner, the nativity, and a program. The past few years, my mom has had 50+ people at her house. The Rippy group decided it was time to break off and do their own thing. However, Kelly, the oldest cousin decided to plan a Christmas brunch where all the cousins could get together and visit since we don't get to see some of them any other time during the year.

While we were eating, we got hit by a "flash mob" (inspired by this one on youtube) my brother Bryan stood on his chair and started belting out a Christmas song, then my mom joined, then Bryan's wife, my other brother and his wife. It was awesome and totally unexpected. Hopefully we will tweak again next year and not do a program. It was cute, but got a little long. I'd much rather play games and let the kids interact. Carter sang for us. . .

Sydney choreographed a dance to jingle bells. . .

and Derek sang "I Love to See the Temple" He knows every word to the song but at the end he sings "this is my FAVORITE duty" instead of SACRED duty. So cute.

After brunch, we headed to my mom's because we didn't want to go all the way back home. We played and cooked and napped then everyone (all my siblings and one aunt and uncle) gathered for dinner and the Nativity.

My little angel was the angel and read her whole part by herself!

It was a long day, but I loved it. This picture of the kids in their new jammies pretty much covers the emotions of the day. . . some tears, some smiles, some craziness, lots of love!

Giannetto Christmas

After our first Christmas celebration, we packed up the car and headed to Canada to celebrate Christmas with Garth's mom, Tony, and Grandma Yvonne.
On our way there, Derek kept saying "I have to go skiin' mom." He wouldn't let it go so the first day there, we headed over to the little magic carpet. I made Carter come for moral support and figured he couldn't do too much damage to his cast on the magic carpet. We started on the kid one but after 2 or 3 tries, Derek insisted on going to the bigger one to be with Carter.
The magic carpet ride.
He completely loved skiing! He wouldn't turn or slow down, I had to chase him down the hill and stop him occassionally to keep him from really wiping out. He did hit the snow a few times but it didn't bother him at all. He'd just look at me and ask if I could get the snow off his face. Right here, he was saying over and over "I gotta catch Carter!"Later I gave Sydney her first present from us, this adorable ski coat, and took her out also. She is much more cautious (she and Carter have that in common) but we had a really good time. She has mastered turning right but for some reason really struggles turning left. We'd start a run way on the left side and finish way on the other side.
The great thing about Big White is all the activities they have to choose from. For as many years as we have been going, we have never checked out Bingo night. Theresa stayed home with Olivia and we all went and had hot cocoa and played Bingo. We were surprised that the lodge was packed and I thought our chances of winning were pretty slim.

To my surprise, Sydney won a round and she won us a 2 hour family pass to the tubing hill (one of our favorite things to do!)How does this happen?

The greatest gift of the whole week was the freedom to play with my kids. Theresa and Tony were so willing to watch the kids so I could ski with Garth or take older ones while little ones napped. It was truly a gift to enjoy my family all week!

Hamilton Christmas

Christmas started a week early at the Farm. Garth was thrilled about the fried chicken a potatoes his Grandma made! After we all stuffed ourselves, we opened presents.

Sydney worked very hard on this gorgeous ornament for Norm.

Derek loved his red neck pickup and four-wheeler (in the background you can see our favorite gift we gave. . .a stockpot/strainer for Grandma Ele that she loved.)Just what every house needs. . .a nerf machine gun. I am finding darts all over the house now!

Olivia loves babies and this one came with a cute red wagon to pull her in.
Garth isn't a fan of toys with little parts but you can't beat building Lincoln Logs with Dad!

Broken

Two days before Christmas break, I got a call. It was Carolyn at the school. Carter fell in P.E. and hurt his arm. She wasn't sure how bad. . .splinted it. . .thinks I should get it checked out.
After two hours in urgent care, it was confirmed that Carter broke his arm. Technically speaking, he got a buckle fracture in his upper wrist. The nurse assured us that if you are going to break a bone, this was a good way to do it (except that it was his right hand and he's right handed). They wanted to wait a few days to cast it but since we were heading to Canada for Christmas with Theresa, they went ahead and did it the next day. Carter chose a lovely blue color despite the doctor trying to convince him that a red and white candy cane cast would be super cool.
We even got done in time for him to head to school for a couple of hours and fill it up with signatures before school was out. He is pretty proud to be the first one in our family to break a bone. I am hoping he is the last!