December @ the Ricks Home

Yes, it's almost summer and I am finally posting about December! Life got super busy for a while but I didn't want to just skip ahead. Our family went through some pretty crazy things over the last few months and I want to document it the best I can.

I started December off helping set up for our Stake's Annual Christmas Festival. I help set up all the scenes for the live Nativity and anything else that needs to be done. I really enjoy helping and hanging out with some of my favorite ladies ever! We always have such a fun time with lots of laughter and new inside jokes, such as the staple removal technique I innocently called the "squeeze and yank"! I also get to paint the scenes. I didn't even know I could paint like this until I was asked to help a couple of years ago. I love that I get to paint and use that talent. Last year I painted a new star scene and extended the scene in the shepherd's room. This year I repainted the star and city for the shepherd's room.
I had taken the canvases home so I could work on them in my garage. Sunday night at 9:30 I got a phone call asking if I could bring them to the church right away because the big, strong men were there building the sets. I asked John if he could drop them off since he was leaving for work because he was on a midnight shift that week. If he did, he would be late to work, so I had to drive it there myself. I loaded the canvases in the van and backed out of the driveway. As soon as I was out of the driveway I could tell the front driver side tire was flat. I jumped out to check, and sure enough, it was totally flat! I climbed back into the van and prayed out loud. I explained to Him that I HAD to get it there and my husband would not be able to help me if I got stranded...alone...in the middle of the night. I said in my prayer that I knew Heavenly Father could fix my tire and that I could make it if it was His will. After I finished with my prayer I just started driving to the church building. When I got to the church I immediately checked the tire and, to my surprise, it was fine! It looked completely normal! I was so relieved! I grabbed the canvases and hurried inside. About an hour later I headed back to the van to drive home. I was shocked that the tire still looked fine. I made it home and went to bed thinking I must have imagined that it was ever flat!

The next morning I needed to go back to the church. When I went to tell John goodbye he said, "Where are you going? You're tire is completely flat!" I excitedly replied, "I knew it!!" Which wasn't the reaction he was expecting. So I explained what happened the night before and he was just as surprised as I. Wow! I had experienced a real, true, physical miracle! It is still SO amazing to me when I think about it! I'm getting goose bumps!

I spent that entire week working on Christmas Festival stuff, building and designing, and helping with everything that needed to be done. Here's a few quick photos of the rooms for the live Nativity. We transform the back end of the Stake Center. I think it's pretty amazing!

I hardly had any time with my family. I left early every morning and got home very late every night. I was so happy for the two trips to the temple with John that week. It gave us some much needed time together!

One thing I absolutely LOVE about the Christmas Festival is that John sings in the choir. The choir does an awesome job and I always look forward to the concert. My heart is always so full when I get to watch and listen to my sweet husband sing!
On the last night of the Festival after the final concert performance we all stay to clean up everything that took us a week to put up. We asked my mom to drop our kids at home on her way home, since we'd be staying much later. We told them to use the garage door opener to get into the house so we didn't send the keys. Not much later we get a call from the kids and find out the garage door opener won't work! What?!! So we had to skip out early on clean up. We did get quite a bit done though, but we still felt bad. During our ride home I told John the Spirit warned me to give the kids my house key but I ignored it and thought, "Nah, they can use the garage door opener." He told me he had the same thought! Ugh! I hate when I do that! When I "back talk" the Holy Ghost! 

We apologized over and over to my mom who was trapped in the car with our kids for half an hour! She told us not to worry about it, that she had a great time talking with her grand kids. 

When we got inside Gavin and Jordan were super excited about something and Aryn and Natalee were trying to quiet them down. Then Aryn brought out a cake she had made just for Daddy! She even wrote an awesome note to go with it!

It was so sweet. We have awesome kids!

Jordan turned 6!! At first she wanted to plan a party at home then decided on Chuck E. Cheese. She and her friends had a great time! 

Jordan has her first wiggly tooth! Her friends have started losing teeth, so she had been asking when she would have a loose tooth. 

Andrea came over for our annual cookie making day! We made so many yummy treats! Like these mint chocolate truffles!

Aryn REALLY wanted to make peanut brittle. The first try was more of a peanut taffy. 

The third time was a charm! Finally something brittle enough to break into chunks!

I bought some Christmas crafts to entertain the little ones. I looked over and all the big kids were playing, too! 

Even Andrea!!

We ended the day with our traditional baking day dinner - yummy, salty chili - to counter all the sweets we were tasting all day long. It was a PERFECT day!

John called me on his way home with a song he had made up to sing to our friends as we delivered our Christmas treats. Some of our friends weren't home and totally missed out! Click on the box below to hear our awesome song!

We had our Christmas card photos taken and ready to go but we never got them to the mail box. Then we decided to make them more of a Happy New Year card but, still, they didn't make it to the mail box. So here is a digital version of our Christmas card. Feel free to print one out and hang it on your fridge! Hahaha!

We had a wonderful time spending Christmas at the Broadhurst's house.

I made mustache mugs for everyone. So fun! Check out our "mug shots." Heehee!

When we were shopping for Jordan I found a doll that eats, pees, AND poops!! John said, "What little girl wants a doll that poops?" "Every little girl. Ever." I replied. So we bought the amazing pooping doll. I'm not sure John believed me until my niece Jayna proved me right. She threw a fit and cried forever because her doll didn't poop like Jordan's doll.

Gavin was so thrilled with the Star Wars set we gave him that he fell to the floor!

More random photos of Christmas...

This photo of Jordan makes me think of the line from Despicable Me. "It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!!"

The last morning at my parents we ALL got a stomach bug! Everyone was running to the bathroom and carrying around bowls. It was awful! Jordan didn't even make it to her bed when we got home. She passed out curled up with her zebra in the middle of the playroom floor.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday filled with lots of love and laughter!