A Wonderful Surprise!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Del's, and we had a great time with both of our families.  After a delicious Christmas dinner and a fun time singing carols and exchanging gifts, Del's parents had a wonderful announcement.  They had received their mission call a few days earlier and saved it to open with us all.  It was exciting and a little teary as they read that they were called to serve for 18 months in the Cleveland, Ohio mission!  We will miss them immensely, but we are so excited to have them serve a mission.  Another big shock came when they read that they would report on January 17th, and they realized they only have 3 weeks to get ready!  It will be an exciting whirlwind at the Symons' home.

I have incredible in-laws, and I am so happy they love me and accepted me right into their family 21 years ago.  I feel very blessed, and I am so proud of them.  I can't wait to see the amazing things they will do in Ohio!

The Stockings Were Hung...

 Well, the stockings weren't exactly hung.  They're always too heavy for that because we like to have lots of presents and goodies stuffed in them.  When I was little I liked the stuff in my stocking best, so I always try to fill them with fun stuff.  Our rule is that the kids are allowed to open everything in their stocking when they wake up, but they can't touch anything else until 8:00am!  And if they wake us up before that they lose a present.  That's the threat anyway--we've never had to enforce it, of course :). 

Emma was excited to see the Christmas dress I made for her American Girl doll, Samantha.  I was pretty impressed with it, too, especially considering that I made it in an hour and a half on Christmas Eve!  Talk about procrastinating!  Maybe I'll learn for next year. 

Other than that, her favorite gift was a pair of green sweats.  Oddly enough, she's been begging for sweats for months.  We heard big squeals when she unwrapped this gift!

 

Here's Maren's pride and joy, a Nikon Coolpix.  She has wanted a camera for a while, so we knew that would be her main gift, and she knew it, too, after she opened the memory card in her stocking!  She's already been having lots of fun taking candid photos of everyone, and I can tell that I'll be the subject of many bad, blackmail-worthy pictures in the future!

 

About a year ago, Chris adopted Grandma Nielson's acoustic guitar and has taught himself quite a bit.  He got some guitar software and some great pictures to decorate his new room around (when that new room gets finished).  He also loved his cool, new jacket and earphones.  An electric guitar is already on the Christmas wish list for next year, but I'm hoping it dies out.  I love the sound of an acoustic guitar, but I don't know about the noise of an electric one! 

 

Of course, most of Devin's Christmas was mission stuff, so here Devin is holding a super-cheap mp3 player.  He has a really nice Zune, but they aren't allowed to have an mp3 with video capabilities on their mission, so he had to downgrade!  It was pretty hard finding an mp3 player that didn't have video and wasn't a piece of junk!  We've all been laying claim to the Zune while he is gone, but he says he's going to hide it.  Probably a good idea.  His other mission stuff included a suit, 10 white shirts, ties, socks and other various items.  The one thing he was surprised by was a nice Kenwood car stereo we bought him.  His old one didn't have a display, so you could never tell what station you were on.  It also had a broken tape deck.  He can plug his mp3 player into his new one, so he was very happy.  It took Del and Devin a couple of hours installing it, but now they're having lots of fun with it. 

 

Del got lots of practical gifts, like Carharts and tools, but I did get him a new watch.  Here is a picture of him searching for the watch pin, which he lost while trying to take a link out.  Fortunately, we had a spare pin because we never could find the one he lost.  Other than that Del's favorite gift was probably a couple of seasons of the old Mission Impossible series.  They loved watching our other ones in Island Park in the evenings after a long day in construction, so I got him more couch potato supplies.

  

I don't think I've ever had any Christmas pictures with me in it before since I'm always the photographer (and I prefer it that way), but Maren took this picture of me with her new camera.  I love my new sweats and fuzzy scarf.  The splashy silver purse is great, too, and I've already got it loaded up.  Of course, Santa has an easy time with my presents, since they are just handed over to wrap. Del and I both prefer it that way, since this way I love it all and everything fits great!  

We had a terrific Christmas, and we hope you all did, too!

Some Holiday Magic

Once again we got to enjoy a fun evening, thanks to Emma's talented little self.  She loves to perform in plays, and this time she had a main role and several solo parts as Beverly in "Holiday Magic."  It was very fun, and she was so happy to have her grandparents come see the play.

These are some of her favorite performing pals.  Britlyn Vincent, on the left, has been her buddy since birth, since her mother, Kassie, and I are great friends.  Madison May (left of Emma) and Rebecca DeLoach (right) are friends she has made in CMT (Children's Music Theater) over the past year.  CMT has been a wonderful opportunity for Emma, and we have loved watching her grow more confident about performing.

Some Reflection

This has been a season of lasts for us.  It kind of sneaked up on me, and I wasn't really expecting it.  I first noticed it when I was asked to be in charge of Emma’s Halloween party. I was rolling out Playdough pumpkins and ghosts for 28 children to play Halloween Playdough Pictionary, just like I do every year, and I realized it was the last party I would plan as a room mother.  Emma will move up to Franklin next year and enter a world where Playdough, birthday cupcakes and room mothers are not quite as welcome as they were in elementary school.  Sniff…. 

After spending the past 14 years planning and attending book fairs, science exhibits, walkathons and art contests, it made me a little sad.  It's strange to be leaving a chunk of my life behind that used to take up so much of my time and energy.  I'll miss it all.  Well, except for being PTA president!  That is a load of work that I’m happy to have in my past!

Last week I noticed these changes even more when I attended Emma's Christmas program and realized that it was my last grade school concert. Every year I look forward to hearing one of my kids sing about "Dashing through the mashed potatoes and the candied yams." That's always been their favorite song at school-- "Christmastime is no time to diet!"  My favorite concert was the year Chris was in 3rd grade and he was chosen to sing a solo in "We Three Kings."  He looked so cute in his costume, and sounded perfect, especially when his voice cracked a little. I'm so glad our video camera was working that year!

Another last event is coming up soon, since it will probably be our last Christmas with all of us together for a while.  Devin will leave on his mission in March, and then by the time he gets home Chris will leave on his mission (and then who knows about Maren and Emma?!).  Maybe when they are all gone Del and I will start a new tradition---Christmas in Cancun!

Things are changing and the Symons family is growing up, whether I like it or not.  And really, I do like it!  I love the fun new things they are involved in as they get older.  Maren just finished up basketball season, and her team took 2nd place in the tournament.  Chris has been learning to play the guitar, and he's getting really good.  Emma had a lead role in her holiday play at the Children's Music Theater last week.  And Devin is learning great construction skills while he gets ready to leave for Tijuana.  This new phase with my kids so grown up is lots of fun!  It's just a little strange, that's all, when in my head they still seem like this:

 Sometimes I miss those little monkeys.  And I'll miss making Playdough pumpkins.

All Wrapped Up!

HO HO HO!

Here it is, December 5th, and I am completely finished with Christmas shopping and wrapping (even down to the stockings and Christmas candy)!  Wow!  I'm feeling impressed with myself!  I'm also feeling more than a little poor.  Kids are so much cheaper when they are younger.  Those dumb, coveted Zhu Zhu pets are only $6.99.  So much less painful than the Christmas lists of teens!

Adios Amigo!

 The moment we've been waiting for has arrived!  It actually arrived on Thursday, October 28 at 10:30am when I was home by myself and had no one to tell!  I was so excited to see the envelope from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I took a picture of it so Devin could see how good it looked!  (Really, it looks like it's time to repaint our mailbox!) 

I was jumping around yelling, "It's here!" but the kids were at school, Del and Devin were in Island Park building a cabin, and Olive (dog) and Millie (cat) didn't care.  I called Devin on the phone, but he and Del were up on the roof, so we couldn't talk much.  When Emma came home from school I told her, and at first she was really excited.  Then it hit her, and she said, "That means he'll be leaving soon.  I'll really miss him, Mom."  I thought it was sweet, especially considering that he's usually a total pest and loves to pick on her!


We waited until this morning to have him open it, so we could have grandparents and siblings there, too.  We realized that he is the first of the Nielson great-grandchildren and Thompson great-grandchildren to serve a mission, which is very exciting! We have speculated about so many places that he could be called to, but none of us guessed it right (unless you count my Dad, who said he bet he was NOT going to Denmark, Korea, Iran or Afghanistan.  Yep, Dad, you were right!). 

You are hereby called to serve in the Mexico Tijuana Mission...

When Devin read "Mexico Tijuana Mission" my first thought was, "They teach the gospel there?  I thought they just partied in Tijuana," but then we remembered that President Monson just announced the Tijuana temple a couple of weeks ago in conference!  It will be so exciting for him to serve where a temple is being built, since temples always offer a tremendous opportunity for missionary work.  He's really excited and will have plenty of time to get ready.  He'll report at the MTC on March 9th, so we'll probably have his farewell on March 6th.  He'll keep working with Del until then to earn money for his mission.

The Papers Are In!

We're now officially taking bets on the location of Devin's mission! (Just kidding! :)

For now Devin's location is Island Park to earn some more mission money. He's been working for Del and his Dad and brother, who have a construction business together. They're building a large addition onto a cabin. Since Devin just finished helping on the Extreme Makeover set, they tease him about knowing everything about construction and he teases them about being extremely slow! After all, the E.M. home was built in 4 1/2 days and it's already been over a week! Maybe he'll be sent to a mission where he'll have to teach people to build homes and church buildings and all of this experience will come in handy!

Del served a mission in South Carolina, my father served in New Zealand and my grandfather served in Australia. I think it would be wonderful if he went to any of those missions, but he is excited to go wherever the Lord chooses to send him, of course!