Christmas Memories 2011!

Visits with Santa at the Ward Christmas Party.



Making sugar cookies for the goodie plates for friends and neighbors.

We stuck to the traditional Schaeffer Christmas Eve dinner - filets, Caesar salad, cream corn, rolls, and Martinellis. Yummmmmy!


New Christmas jammies.

Reading the Christmas story from the scriptures.

Singing Christmas carols accompanied by Savannah on the piano.

The traditional The Night Before Christmas.

Reindeer food


and cookies for Santa!

Waiting to go down Christmas morning!

Look what Santa brought? Bikes for all the kids!



Some favorite gifts - Legos...

the Wii...

Monster High dolls.

I found out I love Legos as much as Noah.

We finished reading A Christmas Carol.

A wonderful Christmas!

Savannah's Christmas Concert

Savannah absolutely LOVES playing the piano and I absolutely LOVE listening to her play. I never have to ask her to practice, she just sits down and plays each and every day, sometimes several times a day. Last Friday we got to enjoy hearing Savannah play two beautiful Christmas songs she had prepared for her Christmas recital, I Saw Three Ships and Angels We Have Heard on High.


Angels We Have Heard on High was a duet with her teacher, Kamberlynne. They sounded terrific! If I knew how to put video on here I would have. Unfortunately I am not that technologically skilled so the picture and my words of praise will have to suffice.

Each student received an beautiful ornament with the pieces they played at the recital written on the back.

I am so grateful that Savannah has such a wonderful teacher.

Noah's Christmas Celebration

Friday was Noah's preschool Christmas program and party. The kids sang several songs for us as well as recited a few poems. They were all so cute!

Of course Noah was most excited that his prop for one of the poems was a Transformer.



Following the kids' program was the party which started off with a fun snowman craft. Good thing Noah had David there to lend him a hand.


And of course what Christmas party would be complete without a visit from Santa! Tops on Noah's wish list? Legos! Lots and lots of legos!


Santa gave each of the children a gift; Noah's, much to his happiness, was a Superhero book.

Parable of the Ten Virgins

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of participating in The Ten Virgins musical program for our Relief Society December meeting. What a spiritually uplifting meeting it was!
"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom." (Matthew 25:1)

"And five of them were wise, and five were foolish." (v.2)
I was Malka, one of the foolish virgins, who, although I loved the unique design of the lamp the shopkeeper had made for me, didn't feel I needed to light it because I had "lived in the village for a long time and could see just fine in the dark".

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." (v.5)

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all the virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out." (v.6-8)

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut." (v.10)
Thank goodness the only singing I did was with the whole group, a beautiful song called "When He Comes". I am so grateful that I got to be a part of this program and enjoy the company of such fine women who played the other virgins in the story. They all did such a fabulous job and the ones who had solos blew me away with their amazing musical talent.

After the program we got to enjoy the wedding cake!

This meeting has definitely led to much pondering and personal goal-setting in my life so that when the bridegroom comes I will not be like my character Malka, begging others for more oil, but will be ready to greet my Savior and go in with him.

Multiple Visits

From the tooth fairy, that is. We are on a tooth-losing rampage over here at the Pierce house. Between Savannah and Xander they have lost 5 teeth in the past two weeks. The tooth fairy has been extra busy around here!

Until Savannah lost this tooth...

The kids decided to sleep under the Christmas tree on Friday night and Savannah, being the diligent girl that she is, placed her tooth that she had lost earlier that day under her pillow.
Just for a little background information, we actually have two tooth fairies who serve our house; that way if one forgets or is too tired to fulfill her job, the other tooth fairy usually helps out and remembers to deliver the money and collect the tooth. Well, this particular Friday one of the tooth fairies was extremely sick and the other one just plum forgot to take care of business. When I went downstairs Saturday morning one can imagine my surprise when Savannah announced that the tooth fairy had found her downstairs and left $2 for her. After I had questioned Savannah for several minutes trying to find out how this had actually happened, Savannah said that when she expressed disappointment to Xander that the tooth fairy had not come, a few minutes later Xander told her to check under her pillow again because maybe the tooth fairy had just come late. Savannah was extremely excited to find out that that had been the case and the tooth fairy had once again delivered. Obviously I pulled Xander aside a little later and asked him about the incident. With joy and excitement he told me that he was the new tooth fairy and that he had wings and special tooth fairy powers but that I couldn't tell Savannah what he had done. I asked him where the tooth was to which he replied that he had put it in his office. Needless to say I was so touched by Xander handling this "tooth fairy crisis" on his own and giving Savannah some of his own money. What a special little guy he is! Our two tooth fairies might be out of a job!

B-Ball Time!

Because the time commitment of indoor soccer is very minimal we decided to sign Xander up to play basketball as well. (Thank goodness there is only one conflict with games in the entire three months of play.) So far Xander has thoroughly enjoyed learning the game of basketball. Although he is one of the youngest on his team and the only one who hasn't played before, he seems to be quickly picking up all the nuances of the game. He couldn't have a better coach which we are so grateful for. His coach is extremely positive and patient and does such a great job with all the boys in helping them understand and learn the fundamentals of basketball. Saturday was Xander's first game and I must admit I was a little anxious to see how he would do out on the court.

He played in the forward position and did a great job on defense and going for the rebound.


Unfortunately his teammates didn't get him the ball all that often even though he was open quite a bit so he was a tad disappointed that he didn't get a basket. We told him there's always the next game.
And the final score of the game:

Thank goodness Xander's team was the one with the 6 points. Definitely not a high scoring game; nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to watch Xander play and cheer his team to victory!

It's Beginning...

Maybe it's because of the nice, warm weather we've been having lately. Maybe it's because we aren't visiting family this year. Whatever the reason I have just not been in the Christmas mood yet this year. Here we are, already several days into December and I'm feeling a tad bit like Ebenezer Scrooge. One of the best ways to hopefully work myself into a happy, holiday mom was to get a Christmas tree into the house stat! Saturday morning we all headed out to our local Home Depot to find the perfect tree. As we searched through the trees, Noah picked up a broken tree branch and while standing amongst a bunch of Christmas trees, raised the branch above his head, closed his eyes, and said, "Pick me! I'm a Christmas tree!" It was pretty cute. (The reenactment picture since I was without my camera at Home Depot.)

The kids are always so excited to pull out all the ornaments and find their favorites from years past.

All lit up and ready to be decorated!



This was Xander's year to put the angel on the top. I'm glad he's smiling for the picture because he was actually quite terrified to be up so high.

Having a beautifully decorated Christmas tree and other decorations throughout the house have helped a bit. Daily doses of Christmas carols and the wonderful messages from the First Presidency on Sunday night haven't hurt either. I'm still trying to find that holiday spirit but for now I'm just happy that the kids are feeling it.