Porter Post

Jayce read a Winnie the Pooh book to Jack and the best part was every time Jayce said something like, "and then Pooh said..." Jack got a fit of the giggles. Boys. :-) Nutella toast at Bammy and Grampy's! We took the boys to the aquarium. As usual, Ben wanted to do something daring. We saw the lights on Temple Square with the boys for like five minutes and then had to rush over to dinner at the Red Iguana. It's a hole-in-the-wall place in downtown, but it was yummy and the boys did great there. It was passed bed time and we had rushed all over the place with them, so it was a huge relief that they were so entertained there. It reminded me to take off the cranky pants and be grateful. I snapped a quick shot of Jack and Ben sharing quesadilla across the table with each other. :-) More shots from Christmas Eve:

We tried out a new Christmas tradition this year and I must say it was one of my favorite things. The boys made gifts for each other and us and then exchanged them on Christmas Eve. We wanted it to be separate from the gifts they would open Christmas morning so they wouldn't be overshadowed by the fun and fancy toys under the tree. Jayce and I have been wanting sock puppets for another parenting thing we want to do, so it was a win-win to have them do those for each other. I had the most fun helping Cameron make them for Jack & Ben. He's just at a good age for it and he really got into picking out what he wanted to use for each brother. Getting Jack & Ben to do focus in on them was a little like pulling teeth at some points, but the pay off Christmas Eve was worth it. They were so excited when they opened each other's and they all fell asleep with their sock puppets still on. :-)

A friend in the neighborhood gave us their old tree last year and we're very grateful. For the first time, we put up OUR own Christmas tree and we think it's a keeper. We went and bought lights at Costco and I really wasn't sure if we would be coming back with white or multi-colored lights. I love white lights, and Jayce likes multi-colored. These lights do BOTH! I couldn't have been more excited. Cameron had his hip hop performance. A lady in our neighborhood teaches dance out of her basement. Cutest. thing. ever. He's second from the left. His after performance bribe. When Cameron gets really nervous about something, small bribes work really well. We're not above it. ;-) The cute thing was that the performance started at 7:00 and he normally goes to bed around 7:30/8:00. He yawned a couple of times right in the middle of both of his dances and while we were eating ice cream he said, "Mommy, I'm just sooo tired." Santa came to B...

Our first year doing gingerbread houses, but I think we'll stick with it and make it a tradition! The boys really loved it.

In an effort to make Christmas more about giving than receiving, I had the boys pick out some things to take to the kids at Primary Children's after reading about some of the needs on their website. I had hoped we could hand deliver them, but understandably it's not allowed because of germs. Instead we watched a video on YouTube and some of the videos of our friend, Carter, who has been dealing with a brain tumor for a while now. You never know how meaningful these kinds of things will be for pre-schoolers, but I was really glad that we did it. Cameron brought it up multiple times throughout the month and I'm hoping some of those sweet children are really enjoying the gifts. A thank you note arrived from Primary Children's a couple of days before Christmas, which I really appreciated since it was another way to remind the boys what Christmas is all about.

I recently finished the book, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I'm guessing it took me a couple of months to work through it, but it was well worth it. Just a caution, you might get the urge to put all of your children into rowing and you may find yourself adding "attend a regatta" to your bucket list. I have never really enjoyed watching sporting events (except for the Olympics), but this author pulled even me in. I felt like I was there experiencing it in every way. I was the athlete in the boat, the coach anxiously watching from the side, the opposing team, and the spectator for each exciting race. Even when I knew what the outcome would be, I still felt like I was on the edge of my seat reading it. Some specifics that I like about it: 1. Every athlete and sports enthusiast can make a good case about the difficulty of "their" sport. MAN does Brown make a great case for rowing! Over and over again too. It made me really respect a great row...