Zavoral Villa!

This post is a continuation of the previous one. Also for ADULTS ONLY. Parental discretion is advised. Okay, so we think we figured out how to do Santa in our home so that our children know from Day 1 that Christmas is about Christ's birth, Santa is not real, we keep them from telling all their friends and cousins, and we still have fun as a family with imagination, traditions, etc. First, we teach our kids about the Lord's birth all the time during the holiday (and throughout the year, too). We act out stuff, we read the scriptures, we draw pictures, we read kid stories. We also make it a point to talk about all the amazing miracles that happened to people during Christ's conception, birth and afterwards- both in the Bible and Book of Mormon. We make it magical because it IS magical! We get our children to imagine what they would do if they were Joseph or Mary or a shepherd or sheep. We get them to imagine what it would have been like to hear about his birth or see the new...

This post is for ADULTS ONLY (kids need parental permission to read this). And it is not intended to offend anyone. These are just my thoughts and feelings of how I view Christmas and Santa, so if you become offended, that’s your own fault. As a little girl, I was a faithful believer in Santa Clause. I wrote him letters, made him cookies, and sang odes to him all year long. One year, my sister and I got his signature when he came to our house during the night. Every year, I prayed for him and I probably even prayed to him. And why wouldn’t I? He sees me all the time- just like God. He knows when I am doing what’s right- just like God. So it seemed natural to talk and beg him for things I wanted- just like I did with God. It’s important to note that I faithfully believed in God, too. I knew that Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and we wouldn’t have the holiday without Him. But I also knew that Santa was real. And no matter how you shave the ice, no matter how much Mom and Dad tried to put...

We got a chance to spend a few hours with Jeremy's high school/church friends Ian and April. They married each other and have two darling kids. We played together at a new park in Jeremy's neighborhood that we didn't know about. It was fun playing with Tanner at the park. I realized that I hadn't been to a park with him in months. That's one of the things that sucks about being a working mom.  This is when we discovered that Tanner can hang on things. He's probably been able to do this for a while. These little guys are just 1 month apart. Also during our visit in Sacramento, we met up with my Auntie Lorna and my twin cousins. (Fun fact- I have twin cousins, Jeremy has twin cousins and Tanner has twin cousins- three different families with twins!) We met up in Stocktown, had lunch in a hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint, and then took Tanner to the Stocktown Children's Museum. We were pleasantly surprised at how cool the museum was!  Here's Tanner's mast...

We had a really fun time in Sacramento for the Christmas break. We were there for 10 days! As a Zavoral family, the gang did a lot together including playing basketball, playing racquetball, going to the movies to see Les Miserables (half of us hated it, some liked it, and I was the only one that LOVED it), and then the boys played more basketball. We went to several of Matt's high school basketball games and watched his team win a tournament.  Tanner loved cheering and hollering for the team. He would clap at random times, and cover his mouth to yell (trying to cup his hands around his mouth). He also became a low rider watching on Daddy's shoulders. At the end of one of the games, Jeremy took Tanner down to the court. Here's Tanner practicing his dunk. He hangs onto bars and rims really well now! Since this trip, Tanner has been obsessed with basketball. As a Zavoral bunch, we also enjoyed lots of yummy meals together. This one is New Year's Day food, including severa...

On Christmas Eve, we went over to the church to set-up for the Davidson family party. The family is too big to have dinner at anyone's house, so we use the Relief Society room at our church to eat, sing songs and play games. After we decorated the room, everyone played basketball. Tanner really wanted to join in, too. The Christmas Eve party was really nice. (But we didn't get any pictures). Highlights of the party were 1) Surprising Zach (our brother) and Katrina (his new wife) with a wedding cake and pretending it was their wedding luncheon (they eloped last month), 2) I played the piano while the cousins performed the Nativity, of which Tanner wanted to have NO part in. Instead, he whined and cried most of the night because all he wanted to do was play basketball in the gym and drive Gma's Flinstone car. I think he had a fever, too, because he was really sick that night. And 3) Singing with all the married cousins "On The 12 days of Christmas, my Drive-Through gave...

Tanner loves the Nutcrackers. He says "cawkuh, cawkuh!" for "cracker" every time he sees a nutcracker. He likes touching their noses and beards and making the mouth open and close. We attempted to decorate the tree. Most of our ornaments are the glass balls/bulbs, so naturally Tanner kept braking them. We decided the tree would just have a star this year.  Tanner is trying to blow up the ornament in this picture.  Tanner is really good about sitting still through 10-15 minutes of Baby Einstein. It allows us to get ready for work or do a bunch of cleaning without him in the way.  He is getting really good at using a fork. He calls the utensils "poo" for "spoon."  The big day for me this December was directing the winter assembly at school. It is a tradition that I started 4 years ago, and it involves the entire student body- preschool to 8th grade. This year I decided to make it a really big deal by having the assembly themed after How the Grinch ...