Cronin Family: In short... the month of December

Christmas was a slew of activities. I think we celebrated daily the entire month of December. I certainly felt like we were on the go for a good portion of the month anyway. We got quite the variety of activities in from family gatherings, to gift exchanges, to spiritual experiences. What a fun filled month!

We started the festivities with a tradition of Rocky Mtn Dermatology. Have I mentioned I have a really generous boss? He footed the bill for dinner and put us all up for a night in a hotel in Ogden. We had a 20’s/30’s themed night and were encouraged to dress up. “Prizes” for best costume were mentioned. So of course we ALL dressed up! It was so fun to go and see everyone and all the creativity. We had a lot of flappers walking the halls! And check out Charlie Chaplin! Haha. I spent almost 2 hours trying to figure this dumb hairstyle out. No self respecting woman would ever spend that much time on her hair! I think my hair is just getting too long for a 20’s style. The time was worth it though… cuz I won the grand prize! It was my first grand prize and will probably be my last.

Jaedyn had her first Concert for school. They were told to dress in a Christmas type costume celebrating their favorite letter… uh… just how is that done? So here’s our little present. Jaedyn loved it at least.

She giggled as she told me that after she walked into the class where the group was meeting several of her classmates wanted to “open” her. But then, who could resist such a gift J It was funny to watch the kids up there. You could get a sense of little personalities blooming and you observed some kids singing their hearts out, some trying their hardest to pretend nothing was happening, some truly oblivious to anything happening, some snickering with their friends and smiling shyly. It was fun. Can you guess which of these Jaedyn was?

Tina flew in and was here for the concert. She came a few days before the Cronin get together in Salt Lake and was able to get some snuggles in with Ebony. It sure was fun and very helpful having her here! We love it when Grandma visits!

As I said the Cronin holiday get together was in Salt Lake. We rented a VRBO property and most of Chad’s siblings were able to make it. We didn’t do anything too adventurous, just took advantage of the time together to visit and let the cousins play.

Well now I take that back. After sledding one day, we jumped in the hot tub to warm up. Aunt Summer has a bit of spirit and suggested we jump out and roll in the S*N*O*W. So we did. Why? I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time. Haha. And Jaedyn (what a sport) joined us! Brrrr. No pix. I’m 6 weeks post partum at this point if you get my drift.

Aunt Summer also played a role in saving our mornings. She and Grandma Tina came brimming with craft ideas and supplies and every morning when the kids woke early (cuz that’s what kids do) they took it upon themselves to babysit and craft with them while the rest of us slept in. My heroes! No seriously, BIG thank you!

The cousins had a great time for the most part. Jaedyn gets a little overwhelmed with big groups of people and I’m putting it mildly when I say she’s sensitive to stimulation. Poor kid. Hopefully there was no real harm done J

At this point I'll insert a word of advice. The house was fantastic, the hot tub was perfect, the company was phenomenal. But if you ever get together with a big group of people and lots of young children and the house has a pool table... hide the balls! We looked for hours for one missing ball. One. It never surfaced. They charged us $50 for a whole new set! Chad asked them if he could take the rest of the set then and they never responded. Boogers.

I don't even remember where it was, but one of the days we took the kids to an indoor ... uh play place? They rode the rides for hours and didn't have a lick of fun.

Ok just kidding. They were thrilled. It was fun watching them on the rides. There was one that had benches and spun around fast in a circle. So fast that the inertia would push you to the outside of the bench. I rode with Lilia and about squished her cuz I forgot about that small fact and she was on the outside! I really had to pull on the bar to keep from squashing her flat!

Did I mention it went fast? This is Lilia right before I squished her!

Oh how the kids adore Aunt Valerie!

A trip to Salt Lake isn't a trip without a visit to Temple Square. As we walked in there was a feeling of quiet and peace. People were whispering and soft music was playing around the model of Temple Square close to the entrance. Jaedyn was watching the videos that play around this for a few minutes and then she walked over to me and quietly whispered, "Mom, I feel love here" and gave me the sweetest hug. Amazing that this 5 year old can be rough and tough one moment and quietly touched by the Spirit the next. It was such a gentle scene after some struggles during the weekend that it brought tears to my eyes. What an intuitive young girl to feel those feelings and be able to recognize and identify what they were!

Christmas morning was spent in our own home. We wanted to have a quiet personal Christmas. It started out so great! We had Jaedyn hand out gifts and we all opened them one at a time. Jaedyn was so excited to hand out gifts and was so sweet in her enthusiasm to enjoy what each of us got. She was tricky to shop for this year, I think she’s kind of in between phases of little girl and wanting to be a bigger girl. We kind of missed the mark on our gifts. Luckily we had the girls each pick a gift out at the store that they thought their sister would enjoy. Lilia picked a glowworm. Yes, you know the infant toy that sings while its face glows? Jaedyn was ecstatic! Who’d a thunk?

Lilia was hard to get to open gifts because everything she opened she wanted to spend time playing with and we had to keep telling her to put stuff down so she could open a gift. Maybe next year she’ll just be content with a single gift?

See my stockings? At the Boyd holidays we drew siblings and exchanged gifts and my amazing sister-in-law cross stitched these for us! I could have cried when I opened them cuz I was so surprised and so grateful and excited! Plus I KNOW these take tiiiiiiiiiime! Thank you Kellie!

(And who agrees with me that these nutcrackers need to GO?! I'm totally outnumbered here, the kids love them as does Chad, which is how we came by the hideous things in the first place! Help!)

And thank you Wes and Rebecca for the amazingly gourmet fondue dinner! They served up a 3 course foundue, complete with your marinades for meat, cheese for bread, apples and veggies, and 5 different chocolates for dipping anything your heart desired. Mmm Mmm! A new tradition has been born J