I'm a totally awesome Mom. You unrolled the entire roll of toilet paper? Okay, fine, take it to the toy room and rip it up, but I'm not cleaning it. You are!

This morning we celebrated Joseph Smith’s birthday by singing and blowing out candles (in bran muffins). We celebrated the Sunday before Christmas by opening our books. The boys are particularly excited about the Big Machines books; Wesley and I enjoy our BYU Studies journals addressed to James E. Faust. We love this tradition. Although we miss the anticipatory time with family, we enjoy this time to form our own little traditions with devotionals, singing, stockings, gifts, and way more food than we need.

Zilker Park revived “The Trail of Lights” this year. Zilker is one of the biggest parks in downtown Austin, famous for a huge tree made of lights. They solicit businesses and (select) families to make light displays, then the public can walk through it for free. Light tunnels, trains, cutouts, all of that. A fire truck. Concessions. Even live music. All for free. We thought a Monday night would not be too crowded—wrong! We left our house at 5:30. The supposedly 20 minute drive turned into almost two and a half hours due to traffic all going to the same place! We arrived back home a little after 10:00 with tired boys. It was fun, but so crowded the boys couldn’t see very well. We did park at a mall then shuttle over in a school bus. This was the highlight of the week.

We invited friends to join us for our holiday dinner on Friday—you just can’t beat ham with fresh crescent rolls, sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, green salad, fresh fruit, and pumpkin pie. Yum. We’re eating (then freezing) leftovers until we leave Tuesday evening. The boys slid into performance mode for our friends, to their great entertainment. Our friends were also impressed by the enthusiastic versions of the alphabet song linked with athletic prowess. These boys know how to throw and run and climb. I moved the piano bench after Lincoln embraced the nativity on the mantle, but they turned over the car seat belonging to our friends and tramped across the keys. Ah, life with boys. Then again, when the Primary sang for the Christmas program a little girl (maybe 5?) resisted going up. When her mom finally convinced her to join the group, she dramatically rolled her eyes and mumbled the song. Ah…life with boys! Levi chucked one of his trucks across the aisle shortly after that. I’ll take it.

Levi tells knock-knock jokes. We don’t know where he found this ability; we don’t tell knock-knock jokes (or didn’t before this). He has one joke in a fast language stream: “Knockknockwho’sthere. Anyone. Anyone who. Anyone no one. Goodbye.” He made books out of index cards all week to help him (somehow) in his missionary work. He rediscovered snuggling during rest time. For some reason, he’s wanted us to hold and carry him all of a sudden. This is to the point that he cries at the top of the stairs when I can’t or won’t carry him, usually due to feeding Keller. He waited through an entire feeding before I came up. When his brothers nap, we read stories and have quiet time. He just directed Wes, “This is how we snuggle.” He also informs me that he wants “small kisses” from me. I guess this is opposed to horse kisses? Sweet boy. When Keller started crying in the car, Levi told me that he “will talk to the baby so he will not be sad.” Levi fell asleep on our way home from the temple and woke up when we stopped, wailing, “I want to be at the temple!”

One morning around three a.m. Lincoln sauntered wide awake into our room. We said, “The sun is not awake yet. It’s still time for sleep.” To our astonishment, he turned around, went to his room, and shut the door tight. He didn’t come out again until 7. Wow. Even when he’s exhausted he acts pretty much the same, but the late nights have been wearing on him. He’s fighting a cold again and is wired as he runs laps around the house saying, “Football player!” When we went to the temple yesterday, he dashed straight to the grass, “Football player!” He spent hours this week throwing, chasing, and falling (in place of tackling, phew!). All this exercise is essential since he adores sweets. Peanut butter cups, cookies, pie, candy canes, he wants it all. He also sings impressively well. I love “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” so the boys have heard it a lot. Lincoln sings, “Rejoice! Rejoice!” on the right notes. “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells” are his favorites. He dances all over, singing along.

Keller had his two-month well check on Wednesday and weighed in at almost13 pounds. He may barf, but it doesn’t seem to impact his growth! He’s in the 75^th percentile for weight and 85^th for length. He’s showing signs of being able to extend his night time sleep and has done quite well at night (despite some crazy scheduling). He loves, loves his brothers. Lincoln likes to kiss him on his tummy and back. Keller stares at him like he’s crazy. But if Lincoln just looks at him and talks, Keller kicks and wiggles and coos emphatically. I wonder if the big boys have helped him practice the pouty lip, because Keller can giggle and smile then swoop into the most pathetic little sad face. Darling. I shouldn’t love it, but I do. I love seeing his personality come through; he’s amazingly tolerant. I’m grateful. He’s excited to be cuddled by you!

Other stuff happened. Here’s a review: I read an interesting YA biography of Charles and Emma Darwin, The Darwins’ Leap of Faith. Interesting and worthwhile. Wesley has been problem solving and discovering new things for his models. Our home teacher is from Mexico and agreed to speak Spanish with us—in fact, he taught the lesson in Spanish (Levi kept looking at us like, “What the--?”) We basked in a few 80 degree days and now we’re down to the 50s. And somehow most of the gifts have not been demolished. Merry Christmas to all and we’ll see you that night!