Molly and her Christmas Buddy--Gramma Kathy

Good thing gramma came into town this year for Christmas. Molly kept her seriously occupied all Christmas morning.

Gramma playing with Molly's new Christmas game, "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." Molly spanked her.

Gramma was Arial and Molly was Giselle--both red heads. They played by "Molly's rules."

Now the buddies are cooking up something "delicioso" for breakfast.

Molly hasn't figured out that Gramma Kathy is grandma to 17 other grand kids. She thinks she has her all to herself. Gramma Kathy treats Molly that way too.

Wii Had A Wonderful Christmas

Christmas was great this year. We had my mother-in-law here and it was the first time she spent Christmas Eve and day with us. Here are our Christmas highlights.

I think we are the only family in America that didn't have a Wii. Luckily, Santa took care of that this year. Wii have had a blast with it. Cooking Mama is my personal favorite game.

Nice serve Rusty, NOT!!! Ben totally kicked your butt.

Sam shares EVERYTHING, even his "Fruit By the Foot" with Gramma.

Most pictures I take of my kids opening presents get instantly deleted because they don't really "capture" what I'm going for. This one, however, is a winner with Ben. He was truly excited about this Harry Potter dvd.

Molly woke up about an hour after the rest of us, and was not disappointed with all her princess gear and Bitty Baby accessories that Santa left her.

Another favorite Christmas picture. Meg has asked for a digital camera for three years now. And it was pink no less.

Ben's Christmas can be summed up with two phrases, "DS games," and "BYU paraphernalia." We gave him not only a BYU hat and sweatshirt but a rug that is 7 feet long and looks like the BYU football field.

Sam got a cheetah rug from Santa and made good use of it later that day.

Rusty and I gave Molly a play kitchen (if it looks familiar it's probably because it was the one at Costco). Molly loves it. I actually find Meg playing with it as much as Molly does.

Around 3 p.m. we headed to Rusty's aunt and uncle's house for dinner and more presents. The day was beginning to wear on Molly.

Lisa and Paul gave us a "Whirley-Pop." We have made some GRRRRRReat popcorn with this.

My kids made safety pin bead bracelets for Grammi, Gramma Kathy and Aunt Valerie.

Every Christmas night the kids and Rusty sleep in the living room so they can just wake up the next morning and start playing with their new stuff. Gramma Kathy slept with them, but only lasted about 5 minutes before going on Meg's bed. There's a shot of Ben's rug.

A few days after Christmas one of our favorite families in the world came to visit and stay with us. . .The Waltons.

We love to be with them and their kids are such great examples to our kids. Thanks for coming. Sam, Sydney, Meg, Ben, Peter, Katie and Molly.

Christmas Eve

We began our Christmas Eve a little early--on December 23rd Rusty got stuck at the office and we decided to make treats galore while Christmas music was blaring in the background. Molly is unwrapping Rolos for a delish recipe that tastes like "Turtles."

First step, place square pretzels on a cookie sheet and position a Rolo in the middle of each pretzel. Bake for 4-5 minutes at 375 degrees. After the cookie sheet is removed from the oven, gently place a pecan half on top. Let harden for a couple of hours. Yum-meeeeeeee!!! This is a great project for kids 6 and under to work on.

My new "trick" for sugar cookies is to 1/2 the recipe. No, I didn't mean to type double the recipe, 1/2 it so that the are not two million cookies to frost, and worse, gulp, eat.

Can you say "Rug Rat?" I swear I did her hair at one time or another that day.

Sam's masterpiece.

Which one (s) for Santa?

Christmas Eve is about tradition in our family. Rusty's Aunt and Uncle have for years done the same thing on Christmas Eve. It begins in the early afternoon with going to a movie, (this year we saw "The Tales Of Desperaux" (I LOVED this movie). Then we all go to a Mexican restaurant. The reason for this: the last day (15 years ago) that they were with their 18-year-old son Mark, they spent the day doing just this. This year Uncle Mark even brought a picture of him to dinner and told my kids a little bit about him. He officially dubbed it the "The Mark Charles Blackwell, Jr. Annual Christmas Eve Mexican Restaurant Dinner." It was great.

BTW, although it's not a great picture of them, the girl to the left of Paul is his fiance, Lisa Jackson. We are so excited for the upcoming wedding in March. The reason this picture is so horrible is because Rusty thinks he's so funny when taking a picture to say, "One, two, three. . ." but takes the picture on "one" or "two" when NO ONE is ready. Ha, ha very funny, Rusty.

Aunt Valerie and Molly finishing up their tacos.

Should we call this the "Blackberry Club." NERDS!!!!

How many kids can say that they hang out with their GREAT grandmother better known at our house as Grammi.

I said, "Say Santa is coming in a few hours." I love their expressions in this picture. I also love that Sam ripped yet another knee out of another pair of jeans.

Gramma Kathy (I didn't misspell Grandma, that's the way she signs her name) came for Christmas this year. It was so fun, she stayed for four days.

After the movie and dinner we headed to the Blackwells' home for treats, wassail and caroling (my kids are almost to the point that we don't have to sing slow for them to accompany us). Afterwards, Rusty and the kids told the story of Luke 2 (Molly's assisting with the puppets) and then. . .

. . .Uncle Mark talked about Samuel the Lamanite and lit a lamp that stays lit for a day and a night and a day. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about read Helaman chapter 14. Ben got the privilege this year to light the lamp.

When I was preparing for Santa to come, I saw that Sam had put a sign up on the fireplace welcoming our guest.

To finish up the night we read "T'was the Night Before Christmas." A perfect day in my mind. Too many things to name to be grateful for. But you're looking at five of them.

The Christmas jammie tradition is also alive and well in the O'Brien home.

"I Want. . . "

Molly's school Christmas party included the necessities to make ANY preschool party successful. A happy meal with a "My Little Pony" as the toy surprise. I was only mildly embarrassed when she told her teacher, Ms. Kelly, that she now has "three My Little Ponys from McDonald's." Hey, don't judge, it's been a tough month. I'm in survival mode.

Okay, this is a PERFECT "Santa picture." Besides the fact that our Santa looks 23 years old, I love the way she's so excited to tell him what she wants. Three through six are such great ages for Santa.

My friend Kristy Hamilton was making me laugh really hard. Santa seriously can't be over 30! Molly had no clue though.

A few days later we were getting ready for the annual ham, funeral potatoes (I've been to a few funerals and never eaten these), green jello salads (see below if you thought I was just exaggerating the "typical" church Christmas party), and hard rolls. I'm not being negative. We LOVE the annual Ward Christmas party. It's just you know what type of food to expect at each one. I love to get Christmas shirts for my kids (however, I have not worn a "Christmas sweater" since 1999--I hope).

I had to explain what Sam and Ben's shirts meant to Sam. The shirt reads: "I Don't Do Mistletoe." But this only fueled him to ask every "couple" at church if they were looking for mistletoe. Sorry if you were one such couple.

I have a friend who has an embroidery sewing machine and does the cutest things for me.

The table was wrapped with paper the kids could draw on. I forgot to bring Sam's picture home. Just be sure that it was priceless.

Love the green jello salad--as did Sam.

An age-appropriate Santa. I hated that Meg wasn't with us. Her BEST friend since she was three had a birthday party that same night, and we gave Meg a reprieve from Santa. It was sad that she chose the birthday party over the Christmas party. I'm trying not to say no as much, especially to her and Ben so that when I do it won't be, "My mom always says no."

The first year that no one is crying while forced to sit on Santa's lap. We've come a long way baby.

O Christmas Tree

We decided this year everyone needed their own Christmas Tree in their room (mostly because we were really bored, and Rusty was out of town for a couple of nights and we needed something "productive" to do). Molly and Meg had "table top" Christmas trees while Ben and Sam shared a 4ft tree for their room. This year the decorations were slim, but next year they will put ornaments from their Grandpa Mick and Grandma D. on them. They each have received a different Hallmark ornament each Christmas.

I let them do what they wanted with their tree. My new mantra "let it go."

As you can see, Molly's ornaments are only on certain branches and the garland is located on part of the tree. She did it all by herself.

Sam was SOOOOOO excited about this and made any cost and effort totally worth it.

Meg's request was that we could do silver and blue to match her room. She's the only one who didn't sleep with the tree lights on. She likes it pitch black when she sleeps.

The Sunday-before-Christmas photo shoot.

Will they still let me dress them like twins when they're 17 and 14? Doubtful.


Christmas 2008