Christmas

This was a wonderful Christmas because we had 3 grandparents to celebrate with us. This is the first time we celebrated Christmas with Michael. I was disappointed when I found out that two of my children had discovered their "big" Christmas gift. We usually limit our Christmas budget to $125 for each child because I feel that is a sufficient amount to give nice gifts but not enough to spoil or try to keep up with the other families. This year I went over that amount to buy the big kids new Kindles. I justified it with the fact that they recently dropped in price and were much more affordable than past years. Plus, my kids love to read and I am tired of Erin carrying huge novels in her backpack to school. Her teachers allow the kids to bring in Kindles for reading. Unfortunately when Erin was looking them up on Amazon.com, it told her that I had recently purchased 2 of those items. Eric let it slip on Christmas Eve. Nathan asked for one gift and that was a Lego Agents helicopter that goes with his big Agents truck from last Christmas. He spotted the box under the tree that he knew was his helicopter. So 3 of my kids knew their gifts. What a disappointment! I will have to be much more sneaky next year.

Eric and Erin LOVE their kindles. Unfortunately I didn't realize that they have lots of games of them too, so they use them for gaming as much as reading. At least most of the free games are word games...slightly educational. Nathan loved his new helicopter and Zach liked his new Lego Police Station. It even had little toilets in the jail cells. How cute is that!

This year I assigned the kids a sibling to buy for and gave them each $50. Erin bought Nathan a Lego Robot to go with his Agent set.

Eric bought Zachary a new Arizona Cardinals comforter and sheet set.

Nathan bought Erin a stuffed animal horse, a puzzle, and the Lego game Creationary.

Zach bought Eric the new Wii Donkey Kong Country game with the guide and t-shirt.

They each bought their other siblings small presents with their own money. I gave Mario a copy of my blog that I had printed into a book, a book filled with pictures from all our vacations since we were married, and the Axis and Allies game.

Mario gave me a Pedicure gift certificate, some small bowls, a medium Pampered chef bar pan, and the Pampered Chef covered baker. The consultant (Zach is good friends with her son) was very generous and gave him everything 50% off. I guess she let him use some extra host points that she had that were going to expire.

Christmas Eve

Mario started a tradition of making a big breakfast for Christmas Eve dinner. Mario doesn't come from a family with many traditions, so I was happy that he started a tradition for our family. He tried to get out of it this year since his dad was flying in at 5 pm. He thought I should make the dinner and he would go pick up his dad from the airport. I convinced him that his dad would be fine if my dad and I went to get him. So Mario made us a big dinner of pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Erin made chocolate pancakes for dessert.

We kept up our family tradition of our annual Nativity Puppet Show. Eric narrated and Erin played some hymns. The boys held the puppets. It was a tradition started when I was young. My parents always had the four kids act out the nativity until we were too old. Then we always read the story from the Bible on Christmas Eve. I was glad to continue the tradition with puppets that I had made in Cocoa Beach at least 10 years ago.

Mesa Temple at Christmas

I had heard that they decorate the Mesa Temple grounds with hundreds of thousands of lights at Christmas. So on Wednesday, we took the kids up to the Temple to enjoy those. Eric and Mario did baptisms first and then Mario took the kids to see the new Narnia movie while I went through a session. We ate dinner and went back to see the beautiful lights. The kids wanted to stay for the outside musical that started at 7 pm but it started to rain so we decided to head home. Maybe next year.

While we were at dinner, Mario's dad called and asked when he could come visit. We have been trying to get him to visit all year. So we convinced him to come for Christmas. We spent the day Thursday preparing for Grandma, Papa, and Grandpa Perez to come.

Hiking

I am loving Christmas break. It is so nice to have Mario home everyday to do fun things with us. Since moving to AZ, Eric and Mario have hiked frequently with the Boy Scouts. But the three younger kids and I haven't done much. The desert hikes aren't nearly as appealing as all the great hikes we have done in Guam, Hawaii, and Monterey. Mario has been wanting to take us on a hike that is about an hour and a half away. I hate long car rides, so I suggested we do a local one today (even if it meant a desert hike). We did a nice hike that was completely flat through Saguaro National Park. It was just under 3 miles and very easy on my knees. I complained that this was most of the scenery:

But then Mario reminded me to look up at the beautiful mountains. As much as I don't love the desert landscaping here, I do love the mountains.

The kids had fun taking little side trips off the trail.

After hiking, we made a quick stop at Subway and then to Cold Stone next door. Then we decided to go to a park that the locals describe as a little oasis. It doesn't have the typical Arizona landscape because it has a pond and hot spring. There were lots of palm trees. Some say it reminds them of Hawaii, but I don't think they must have ever been to Hawaii. I guess it really is as close as you can get in AZ though. It was a nice break from the cacti. The kids had fun jumping the springs and watching a huge snake cross the path.

Christmas Break

We are looking for fun activities to do with the kids. We are planning movies, hikes, rock climbing, and a trip to the wind tunnel where the kids can fly for a couple minutes. Today we started our 2 week break with a picnic at the park, some football, and jumping in a pile of leaves. We ended the park visit with Mario throwing the kids into the pile and then stuffing their clothes with itchy leaves. I ran off before he could catch me. They had a lot of fun.

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Zachary's Birthday Gifts

The boys each got a Nintendo DSi for their birthday. I had originally bought each of them a new one, but Eric decided he didn't need his anymore because he had an Ipod Touch. So he sold me his DS for $60. So I returned one of the new ones. Then I had a dilemma on which twin would get a new one and which would get a used one. But then I found a Groupon special for 50% off horseback riding. Zach has been begging to go horseback riding, but every trail riding company requires the kids to be at least 7. So, I decided to give Zach the used DS and also a sunset trail ride with Mario for his 7th birthday. It was a good deal for Zach because he didn't even know his DS was used until he questioned me about spending so much money on new ones. He knows that I am cheap and don't normally spend so much money on birthdays (or Christmas). I then admitted that his was used but as a consolation prize he got to go riding. So he was very happy.

2010 Christmas Letter

I asked Erin if she would like to write the family Christmas letter this year. She was excited that I asked and she went right to work on it. Her brothers didn't give their approval to what she wrote, but I told them they could write it next year and add their rebuttals. They should be fun to read. Zachary is still fuming over Erin's comment that she is the favorite. He doesn't get that it was a joke. Regardless, here's Erin's cute letter:

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas! I got assigned to do the Christmas letter this year…. Warning! This is from my point of view, so it may make you laugh.

Dad’s doing a great job at his work and is getting pay raises from doing well on language tests such as Portuguese and other random languages I didn’t know he spoke (he probably just guesses, he has nothing to lose). Even though he studies a ton for his language tests (not really) he still finds time to play ping pong and spend time with us. He spent 6 months at a resort (more like a tent) in Afghanistan this year.

Mom is continuing to always keep the house clean and keep up with us kids. We’re a lot of work! While dad was gone, she took us to Florida and the Grand Canyon. I wonder if she feels bad about leaving dad out of the once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Eric is keeping up his grades as always, surprising since he spends all his time flirting with my 6^th grade friends (not joking). He surprised us all when he told us he was going to run cross-country. Then another big surprise was when he told us he was going to start wrestling.

I (Erin) also ran in cross-country but decided to pass up wrestling. I keep up with my grades even more than Eric (not surprising). I love to read and spend a lot of my time in the kitchen. Although my parents won’t admit it, I’m the favorite of the family.

Nathan continues to love and adore Winnie the Pooh. He’s in love with his 1^st grade teacher, and when he came home from school the first week, he said his teacher was his girlfriend. He still plays with Legos, and he also played flag football. He had a lot of fun even though he hasn’t learned to be competitive yet.

Our family wouldn’t be complete without Zachary, who is always making people laugh and doesn’t even know it. He also played football, but wasn’t competitive until I showed him how to win. He loves our dog Buzz and the football team the AZ Cardinals.

This year, we have much to celebrate especially since we are all together for Christmas and we hope you also have a great Christmas. Thanks for reading.

Love, Erin