Christmas 2020

Our Christmas card:

Christmas this year revolved around the basement; the goal was to have the basement done by Christmas, and a lot of our gifts had to do with the basement. (And because Curt spent every spare second in December working on the basement...all the Christmas prep fell on me! Which is totally fine, but was busy and hard.) 

We passed our final inspection the day before Christmas Eve (wahoo!!), and a gift to ourselves was moving in our new couch on Christmas Eve morning. I had found the couch a few weeks before on facebook marketplace for a steal of a deal, so we bought it and put it in a storage unit until the basement was done. I knew the couch was going to be big, and a little tight for the space, but based on the measurements the guy gave me, we thought it would fit just perfectly. Well...apparently the guy was off on his measurements...by 2 feet! And like a ninny, I didn't measure it myself beforehand...so when we moved it into the basement, it was too big. (face palm) We went back and forth for a week or two, trying to decide what to do about it, because we really liked the couch! But in the end, we were able to find a new couch that we liked even better, and we sold the first couch we had bought--and even made an extra couple hundred dollars profit off it! (too bad the new couch we bought was more than twice what we paid for the first couch...!)

First couch--it just took up so much space! And the biggest problem was that it didn't leave room for the foosball table on the side (you can see the poles of the foosball table hitting the couch):

Second couch:

Brand new, better color, and it fit the space so much better! (leaving room for the foosball table on the side)

*We're just calling the new couch the BMW couch, since it cost just as much as Curt paid for his BMW, haha (face palm)*

Anyway, back to Christmas Eve. After moving in the new couch (the first one, haha), we did our traditional 5-minute activities. The boys were obsessed with the game "Among Us" at this time, so they combined their minutes to play Among Us as a family--real life version (because it's normally a video game). They went all out and made costumes and supplies--it was impressive. And it was actually a lot of fun to play together!

It's essentially a game of mafia, where one person is the secret imposter who "kills" people while they're doing tasks, and you have to try to figure out who the imposter is. Curt was dead here, while the rest of us were deciding who to vote on, haha:

And Calvin made these "dead body" signs, just in case you weren't sure if someone was dead or not, hahahaha:

For my 5-minute activity, I chose to watch a few of my favorite family videos:

And Curt chose to eat the yummy bread and cheese and meat that the Santamaria's just happened to drop off right before his turn, haha. Perfect timing!

Hallie's cute Christmas Eve dress (and the booties were my favorite!):

Christmas Eve night, we went down to Curt's parent's house, where we had a nice dinner and opened gifts with each other. With all the babies (Hallie and the twins), Mike & Chris decided it would be easier to do our big gathering & gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and then instead of getting together on Christmas Day as well, they visited our individual houses separately (so that we could put babies down for naps and everything). It was very kind and thoughtful of them. 

Cute girls in (not planned) matching outfits:

Grandma & Grandpa with all the cousins in their new pajamas:
(Chris pulled off the impossible and found matching pajamas for everyone in all the different sizes...!)

Another cute picture of the babies in matching pajamas this time:

Our family picture:

Best gifts of the night--Axe body wash & deodorant for Tucker, haha, and a giant hand to hold Diet Coke for Curt:

After getting home and getting the kids to bed, Curt & I were up much later than we expected, getting everything ready for the next day:

Here's the video of the morning:

Curt's big present from me & the boys was a brand new set of the full Calvin & Hobbes collection--the boys have destroyed his comic books over the years, and Curt kept telling them they'd have to buy him a new set...so they pooled their money (and I helped quite a bit haha), and we got him the full boxed set! He was pretty excited. :)

My big present from Curt was a new coat!!

And then the big family gifts were for the basement--a legit candy vending machine, a popcorn machine, and a PEBBLE ICE MACHINE!!!

The ice machine was a bit of a splurge, and it was made possible because Curt was able to sell a few things (including his Christmas gift from Simple Nexus, which was a Nintendo Switch Lite that we didn't need haha), and then we found someone selling it for a fair price on facebook marketplace. (actually, we got all these things off marketplace for really good deals!) All three of these things have been so nice to have, and we love and use them all the time!!

I could stop right there and just say that the rest of Christmas was great...but in all reality, it was a rough day. It was nice not having to go to anyone's house and being able to stay home all day (our first time ever!), but then we were stuck with each other ALL DAY...and we could have used a little change of scenery haha. The boys ended up trying to break into the candy machine while Curt & I were taking a little nap, and they were all fighting, and then the saddest of them all--Bronco accidentally dropped the battery to his new power wheels, and the battery broke completely, rendering the power wheels useless, after less than 2 hours of using it. (face palm, crying emoji) Looking back now, it wasn't THAT big of a deal, but back then, combined with our lack of sleep and the house being a mess with all the Christmas stuff everywhere, and Curt coming off 2 months straight of finishing the basement...it was rough. Thank goodness the weather was somewhat nice, and the neighborhood kids were out, so the kids got to go outside so we could all have a break from each other, haha. And we had a nice dinner by ourselves to end the night.

Next year we're vowing to do only one gift per kid or something like that--even though we didn't try to go overboard, we ended up with way too much stuff!! We'll have to figure out a better way to structure Christmas next year...

But all in all, it was still a great Christmas, and I'm so grateful we were able to spend it together as a family. The Lord has blessed us so much, and we are so, so grateful. 

Smith Family Nativity 2020

The first Sunday in December, we worked together as a family (and used all the zoom skills we've been learning all year, haha), and acted out/recorded/made a Nativity video. We made it for the purpose of "giving" it to Landen to go with his 12 Days of Christmas--we figured a fun way to share the true story of Christmas was to act it out ourselves! ;)

It clearly wasn't professional (we used kitchen towels and superhero capes as costumes, haha), but it came together so much better than we expected, and we had a lot of fun doing it. Definitely my favorite memory of the Christmas season this year.

 

We had a lot of funny moments while trying to make it, so Tucker put together a bloopers reel that's pretty hilarious:

And then this is a picture to show the behind-the-scenes. We borrowed a green table cloth from our neighbors, the Nielsons, which worked out perfectly!

It really was a lot of fun to put together. Working on projects together as a family makes me so happy. 

December Phone Pictures

 We kicked off December with the drywall being delivered for our basement...and from then on out, the basement pretty much took up any and every spare second of Curt's time:

Drywall was the only thing we hired out, and they were amazing and got it all hung in one day! We were so excited to go down and look at it as a family that night, and because it was so dusty, we all wore bags on our feet so we could take the bags off and throw them away when we were done, and everyone thought it was pretty funny, haha:

For Christmas this year, we made a 12 Days of Christmas package for Landen, with symbols of Christmas. We gave him a book with descriptions of different symbols of Christmas, and a little tree with ornaments for each day, and a little present to open each day that corresponded with each symbol. It came together really well (even if it got a little stressful at the end...), and we hope he liked it!

I worked hard and stayed up late to address & put stamps on all of our Christmas cards one night, and then the next morning as I went to gather them up to take them to the post office, I found that Hudson had taken a pencil and drawn on almost every single one...! (while I had been helping the big boys with online school) I was too tired to do anything about it, so I just put them in the mailbox as they were (and then did a social media post to explain, haha). Oh the joys of having a two-year-old!

The only picture we have of Jack our elf this year. And since Curt was doing the basement every night and I was left in charge...this was about the most creative place he hid, haha:

We woke up one morning to snow, and Tucker, bless his heart, went out and shoveled it first thing--before we were even out of bed! Bless him.

Cute Hallie! She smiles really well when I take selfies of us...so I end up taking a lot of selfies with her, haha:

Hudson playing with the ornament container, hahahaha:

More Hudson shenanigans--with a spool of floss:

A picture of our Christmas tree with our new ornaments we made this year:

I don't remember when this was or what we were doing, (or who took the picture?!), but it pretty accurately describes/shows our family trying to sit on the couch together:

Tucker had an appointment (over zoom) with the Bishop...and this is how he dressed (face palm, crying face emoji) Gotta love the 2020 look! (and Tucker was called as the new Deacon's Quorum Class President!)

And then this was the look for tithing settlement (again, over zoom), hahahaha:

Here's the big boys doing a trick on the trampoline (in the dark!) that they wanted me to record: 

My mom had a really rough month, finding out she had a kidney infection and having to get daily antibiotic infusions, and having terrible reactions to the antibiotics that caused all kinds of problems. My siblings and I put together a 12 Days of Christmas for her and took turns taking her gifts and spending time with her, etc. It was neat to be able to come together to do that, and so good to be able to show my mom some extra love and attention.

The last few weeks before Christmas were really, really hard, and one night in particular I was at about my wits end without any dinner ready, when our neighbor Rebecca called and said she was bringing dinner over. Tears were shed, and I was reminded that the Lord truly is aware of us and blesses us through the hands of others. What a tender mercy. This was my post on social media post about it:

I knew going into this holiday season—with Curt trying to finish the basement in the evenings at an accelerated pace—that it would be hard. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do as much or as many activities as I would like or as much as we have done in years past. And, for the most part, things really haven’t been too bad, and I’ve been able to keep somewhat realistic expectations. But the past week has been really hard. Curt has been working even more crazy hours, and I feel guilty that he’s up so late working so hard and that I’m not helping him, and he feels guilty that he’s downstairs all the time not helping me with the kids upstairs. And for whatever reason, the kids have felt like this is a great time to be even more crazy than normal, haha. 🤪 And then just the normal stress of trying to get all the Christmas preparations done, on top of everything else, has been utterly exhausting. And so tonight when things didn’t go as planned and the kids were hungry and I didn’t have anything ready for dinner...a call from my neighbor saying she was bringing over dinner (out of the blue) was truly heaven-sent. 😭🙏🏻😭 I’ve tried to participate in some of the #lighttheworld activities with the kids this year, but we’ve done far less than I’d hoped. And even though I’d much rather be on the giving end...being on the receiving end tonight, receiving dinner at a time when it was such a blessing, strengthens my testimony that the Lord truly is aware of us and takes care of us through the hands of others. ❤️ Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to serve others this season, and thank you @rebecca.35 for serving us tonight. 😭

During the whole time Curt was working on the basement, I put the kids to bed by myself every night. It was fine at the start, but by the middle of December, it got SO hard, and I was emotionally and physically beat. I decided to do an insta story showing the whole routine I went through, and after recording it all and realizing it took about an hour-and-a-half every night...I realized, no wonder I was dying!! This is probably the hardest/longest bedtime routine we've ever had, and I'm glad I was able to document it. Thankfully, now that the two oldest boys are down in the basement, and Hallie is done nursing, bedtime has gotten easier. (though it's still hard, haha) But hopefully it won't be this hard and long ever again...!

Tucker got to help Curt put up shiplap one Friday night, and he really enjoyed it! (And Curt said he was actually pretty helpful!)

He did get a little injury though, when he was trying to hold one of the boards above his head and it slipped out of his hands and gashed his eye...but thankfully he was fine and no stitches were needed.

Curt's white head after painting with the sprayer:

The first time I found Hallie sitting up in her crib!

Celebrating Christmas with my family before Cory & Allie headed out of town. It was a low-key night with just pizza and gifts (and ugly sweaters haha), but it was fun!

Curt even emerged from the basement and put on his Christmas jacket for the occasion. ;)

We did a yummy hot chocolate bar after opening gifts, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed:

Collin & Rachel gave the boys this mini pool table, and they were obsessed with it for a long time. They loved it!!

I was on the hunt for a couch for the basement from the minute we started finishing it, and I came across this DownEast feather sectional on facebook marketplace for a screamin deal...but it was a few weeks before the basement would be done. So Curt, bless his heart, borrowed a trailer early one Saturday morning and picked it up and rented another storage unit to store it until the basement was ready. (And then...spoiler...when we finally put it in the basement on Christmas Eve, it was too big for the space! face palm. So we ended up re-selling it and finding a different sectional instead...which was nicer and brand new, but much more expensive...)

Our master bedroom became overrun with boxes by the time Christmas came around...! Thank goodness for amazon who did all of my shopping for me, haha!

We got this little Santa outfit for Duke...and he was not a fan, haha. Poor little guy!

Mike & Chris took all the older cousins a few days before Christmas and had a day full of fun activities for them--it was the best thing ever! (They wanted to give them some fun time together to do older kid activities without the babies & Hudson.) The boys were so excited to be able to spend a full day with the girls, and it was SO nice for me to be able to have a full day to get more Christmas preparations finished! Win, win!! (though I'm pretty sure Mike & Chris were exhausted by the end of the day, haha)

We did our advent calendar with gifts of togetherness again this year, and we were able to keep with it pretty well, even with Curt working his tail off in the basement. Things were just more simple, and we had to do most of them without Curt. I didn't document very many of them, but here were the gingerbread houses the boys made one day:

Sleeping by the Christmas tree. It always sounds more fun than it ends up being, haha. Calvin ended up going upstairs to his bed during the night because he couldn't sleep well. But at least we made the effort!

Sad day. Curt was trying to blow out the dust from the charging port in his phone, and his idea to use the air compressor ended up backfiring...and it blew out his screen. (face palm) But the silver lining was that he was eligible for an upgrade on our plan, so he was able to get a new phone pretty quickly. (it just cost us some extra money we weren't planning on spending...)

The week after Christmas, I finally broke down and started potty training Hudson. This will require a separate post on it's own, but in a nutshell: he got pee down SUPER fast--he barely ever had any accidents, and he was a champ! The poop, however, was a whole separate issue that took months to work out...and we're just now finally getting the hang of it (as I'm writing this...) But he had a whole fan club of supporters with all his brothers cheering him on! :)

Yay Hudson!

New Year's Eve selfie with miss Hallie:

And a New Year's Eve kiss at midnight!

We had a pretty low-key New Year's--we invited Cory & Allie and Collin & Rachel, and we ate lots of yummy (non-healthy) food and chatted (and played games? I can't remember...). We put the two littles down to bed, and then we let the older three stay up until midnight, and they loved it.

Goodbye and good riddance, 2020!!