Why we love Christmas....

Could it be the fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast? The search for the reindeers lost jingle bell? A treasure hunt throughout the house? Enstroms toffee? Staying in your pajamas all day? Seeing the delight on your childrens faces? Or, watching them play contentedly all day long with each other?

Brandon found Cupid's bell way to fast this year. By the time Santa and the reindeer make it to our house the bells have a tendency to fall off, or to have been kicked off, one way or another bells get lost in our home. Santa asks the boys to find the bell for him. Some years it takes all day to find, other years, like this one it takes about two minutes.

Jenny sent me a box of Enstroms toffee- for those who haven't had the priviledge of tasting this fine confectionary delight your taste buds ( or hips) are certainly missing out! My grandmother used to send us a box each christmas- it is one of those tastes that reminds me purely of Christmas. It was one of the best suprises of the year.

We got Andrew some Moon Sand- i thought it would be a fun alternative to Play do, which he loves, but two days into it I am not a fan of Moon Sand. Anyone have any experience that makes it not a mess to clean up?

As we were getting the boys in bed Christmas night Brian spent some time reminding them of the real reason we give gifts and celebrate. Matthew in pure six year fashion says in all seriousness "It's not about giving, its about GETTING!." and concludes it with a huge grin!! I suppose we have a little work cut out for us next year....

The Polar Express

One of Matthew’s birthday presents was a ride on the Polar Express. During the month of December the Grand Canyon Railway magically transforms into the Polar Express. You board the train and head magically to the North Pole where Santa boards the train and gives every child a large silver bell. The ride is complete with hot cocoa, which is as”rich and thick as melted chocolate bars” and cookies. The waiters on each car are dressed just as they are in the story. They have done a wonderful job in recreating the story. On our way home from the North Pole our waiter had everyone singing Christmas carols, with friendly competition between parents and children, or one side of the car against the other. The kids really got into it! We learned moves to the Twelve Days of Christmas which will forever be forged into my memory. Our waiter, a large portly man, leaped down the length of the train during “lords a leaping” and while singing the chorus to “Deck the Halls” the Fa-la-la-la-la’s were done in time to a Rockette style high kick. The kids enjoyed the energy and the adults were wondering which team he was batting for.

We stayed the night in Flagstaff and took the kids sledding Friday morning. We had a great time- a few bangs, bumps and bruises- but nothing a fast trip down the hills couldn’t cure.

Dawn, Brian’s older sister, spent this last week with us. She is on winter break from her PhD studies at Mizzou. She is finishing her thesis up this spring. Three of her five job opportunities lie here in the great state of AZ. You can bet we are rooting for any of the three! The boys love to have her come (so do we). Andrew monopolizes her time, loves to come snuggle with her and always wants to sit on her lap, not his chair when she is around.

The boys tried snow boarding down a few smaller hills with the sleds- this is Brians attempt at it. I didn't keep clicking fast enough..you can guess what the results were...

Matthew is 6

Matthew had his 6th Birthday last week. Matthew doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve like others in our family, so you have to look for other clues that he is delighted and excited. He couldn’t sit still at dinner, he chose to go to Ruby’s Diner, and when we went to bed he couldn’t go to sleep. LEGOS. A remote control monster truck and a Suns jersey were the highlights of his birthday. He wanted a soccer birthday cake, which wasn’t terribly hard to make, but the frosting of it was a different story… I had a three year old helper whose fingers were into all the frosting and repeatedly kept trying to steal spoonfuls of frosting bites…then there was the two-month old who would stay in his bouncy seat. A half hour project took almost three!

It's a Christmas Miracle....

yes, Stephanie computers exist (I have actually sat down to update the blog), something akin to Yes, Virgina there is a Santa Claus. Between, school, birthdays, christmas and Primary there don't seem to be very many spare minutes. Some happenings of the last month....


The Tanks name has now morphed into King of the Cat Nap. If we are in the car during the morning, I can get about an hours nap out of him, otherwise it is about four ten minute naps here and there before lunch, I know it will eventually consolidate but until then I am quickly relearning how to do things one handed.







Zachary was blessed on Dec. 2nd. Both our parents were able to be here which we were very grateful. We were delighted to have a full house for a few days.

We attended Matthew’s Christmas concert. The week leading up to the concert he told us he had a surprise for us at the concert. We repeatedly tried to get it out of him. But he kept his lips tight. The big moment came on the last song when he stepped out and got to do a few do-si-do’s on stage with a girl from his class. He can do a great do-si-do, but when it comes to the shimmy at the end, his Teuscher genes kick it and the hips barely moved.

On the final day of preschool before winter break Andrew told us,” We can’t wear clothes to preschool today.” Thankfully we had a head’s up from his teacher. A class of kids in pullups and little undies would be kind of funny! The translation was they were to wear their jammies not their clothes to school.

On mornings when Andrew doesn’t have preschool he and I often play games. One of his favorites is to play Battleship. One problem emerges, all of his moves are hits and all of my moves are misses. He gets his numbers and letters mixed up and he will call out a move of ‘FG’ or “123”.

Remember high school biology class? Genetics? Punnett Squares? Zachary (we believe) has proved Brian is a brown eyed-heterozygote. Zachary is suspiciously looking like he will be our blue-eyed boy ( the other three are brown) I am blue eyed ‘bb’- which means Brian is ‘Bb’. I have always wondered whether I would get child with blue eyes.


We give the music program at the boys school an A+++. The music teacher never ceases to amaze us with performances she puts on. Brandon had his Christmas concert before we left for Flagstaff. Old habits die hard- when concentrating he tends to stick his tongue out ever so slightly. As part of the tambourine line- we saw that concentration evident as he remembered to get his rythmns right! As so many people try to make this Christmas season generic and de-emphasize the Christmas part of it we were greatful to see the school teaching them songs about the birth of the Savior and not just “santa songs”