Christmas

We usually spend Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's house and have a traditional candle-light dinner. This year, though, Grandma and Grandpa had to be up in Idaho for a funeral. We missed them! We managed to have a good time on our own, though. Kevin and I were in the mood for fried chicken. So that was our Christmas Eve dinner: fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, fruit salad, and lots of biscuits! We did manage to light a candle, too.
After dinner, we had a family program. We talked about the little drummer boy and his gift to the Savior, and then we had each of the kids play a Christmas song for us on their instrument. We thought of gifts to give the Savior in the coming year and read the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon and Bible. Then we sent those little ones (and the big ones, too) off to bed!

Kevin told the girls that if they woke us up before 7am, that they'd have to wait until 10 to open their presents. In the end, it turned out that they set their alarm clocks wrong and they didn't get up until 7:30! I thought that was quite nice, really. Here they are while dad makes them smile for the camera before they can storm the room where Santa has left gifts for all of them.

Santa brought a laptop for Savannah and iPods for Sarah, Megan, and Mariah. That makes us sound RICH, huh?? Actually, they are all Hong Kong knock-offs that I bought on eBay. Let's hope they last over a month! :) Hey, they might! And they were excited to get them. Cheyenne got a new bike and Calianne got a cupcake kit and a gumball machine (just for the record, that is a lot more affordable than an ipod -- even a Hong Kong iPod -- and that's what she wanted!)

Later, after our traditional Dad-provided french toast breakfast, we opened gifts under the tree from each other. It was a lot of fun. Savannah shopped for everyone at the antique mall (one of her very favorite places) and Sarah crocheted a scarf for everyone. The other girls shopped for each other at the dollar store. It was fun to see how excited they were to give presents to each other.

After weeks of Bethany unwrapping presents and having to rewrap them, on Christmas morning she wasn't very interested. Probably because she'd probably finally learned that she wasn't supposed to unwrap presents! With a little prodding, though, she managed to get through to most of her presents. It was fun to watch her. She is trying to talk more and more. Mostly this results only in lots of jibber jabber, but she has mastered the word, "MINE!" This, accompanied by her already mastered dirty look, convinced many of her sisters to surrender their gifts to her, even if only for a minute or two. We knew she'd give them back.

On Christmas day we just hung around and played with gifts. We had take and bake pizza for dinner (loving it!) on paper plates with Root Beer. I think that's pretty festive. That night Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik made it back from Idaho and stopped by to make our Christmas complete.

We had a really nice Christmas. What a blessing to have all our children with us and to enjoy them at these fun ages. I wouldn't trade being with them for anything in the whole world. I know we will always remember these fun times.

Here's to more fun times in 2010!

The Cruise

We left Thursday afternoon on December 17th to go on our cruise. The night before, however, Sarah's orchestra gave us a send-off concert! It was her first orchestra concert ever. I thought she did a great job (and the rest of the orchestra, too). They played many favorite Christmas songs, but started off with "Twinkle Little Star" which I suppose is mandatory to playing any string instrument.

Kevin and I flew to Long Beach on Thursday and boarded our ship on Friday. We were so excited!

About halfway through dinner, when the ship pulled away from the dock and started chugging through the seas, I did start to have second thoughts. The motion of the boat made me a little sick. Luckily, we slept through most of it and we woke up to find ourselves in Mexico -- as proclaimed by this giant flag!

We had a great time shopping in Ensenada. I had been to Mexico a few different times with my dad growing up, so I felt comfortable with the town and the people and on asking for a different price! One shop owner saw us with all our bags and said, "Hey big spenders! Now you come in my store! It is my turn, eh?" We just laughed and had a good time and spread our money some around Ensenada.

That night our ship chugged out to sea again. It didn't bother me as much that time and Kevin and I spent some time walking around the ship and seeing the big show. The next day, Sunday, we were at sea all day. The ship dropped anchor and the seas were calm. Kevin and I found some lounge chairs up on the top deck and watched the sea and talked about our kids and things we want to do. We ate really well all day and in the afternoon we went back to the main showroom and watched a funny show called "Love and Marriage" and then watched their Christmas show, which was decidedly lacking in spiritual content, but I suppose was a good effort. We also watched a movie in our room that day, too. It was fun and relaxing.

Monday was officially Kevin's birthday. Happy Birthday, Kevin B.!!! By Monday morning, we were ready to head home and see all those little girls that we call our own. We got home without any mishaps and were able to give the girls all the Mexican skirts we'd bought in Ensenada (as well as the necklaces with their name written on a piece of rice!) Don't they look lovely??

We even made it back in time for Megan's birthday! She is now officially eleven! Happy Birthday, Megan! We love you!

The girls spent the time we were at the cruise with their Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik. We never could have done it without them! We are so grateful for all their hard work! They even had a birthday dinner waiting for us when we arrived back on Monday so that all these birthdays could be celebrated. It was the greatest! We love you Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik!

It's a boy!

We found out on December 14th around 12:30 p.m. that Skinner #8 will be a boy! Kevin had just finished telling the sonographer that we had seven girls so far and the sonographer said, "Well, this one's not!" At which time there were many exclamations. I laughed -- which is awkward when someone's trying to do an ultrasound of your belly. The sonographer said, "You can go ahead and cry if you want to." I thought he was talking to me, which I thought was weird since I didn't feel at all like crying, but I found out later that he was talking to Kevin who said that he just about did start crying. He's a good man and he loves his daughters, but this'll be fun for him, too!

We then started talking about how we won't even know how to raise a boy. The sonographer, who has both genders in his offspring, said, "You just raise them exactly the same. The only difference is that this child you can teach to pee standing up." !!! I love that. It is my favorite quote, so far!

We waited until everyone was home for dinner before we told the girls. They were so excited to know by that time that it was hard to get everyone to sit down. After the prayer, Kevin told them it was a boy! Then there were many more exclamations and much screaming (mostly from excitement, I hope). Before the screaming had even stopped, someone had called Grandma Gazdik and put her on speaker phone. Upon hearing the news, she promptly began to cry. She managed to sob how happy she was. To which I couldn't resist replying, "You sure don't sound happy!"

Then there were many fights over the phone as the girls called one friend after another to tell them, "It's a boy!!!" I don't think any news has ever traveled so quickly.

There were some concerns expressed, though. My oldest daughters all declared they will NOT change his diapers and they thought the sonographers comment about teaching him to pee standing up was GROSS! Heh, heh. Looks like they're going to have a lot to learn!

They are also very concerned that boys are MEAN. I assured them that we would teach him not to be mean. It is too bad that they've had this experience. Why is it that boys are so mean? Especially to the ages between 8 and 14? I don't know. Perhaps they will all learn to be more understanding of that part of a boy's life, as well. We can only hope!

I keep having realizations of how this will be different. First good things like, I won't have to do his hair! Kevin can have a legitimate reason to attend Fathers and Sons -- with one of my children!! Kevin can take him to the bathroom! Then other things hit me like, I'm going to have to do cub scouts!

Heh, heh. I guess this will be a learning experience for all of us! Having a boy is going to shake things up around here. But we are ready. Bring on the adventure!! It is going to be so fun for us.

Bethany has taken to wearing her coat around the house. We are pretty sure it is not from cold, but more from a desire to always be ready to go. On this day, she wanted her coat and a shawl and a bag. Whenever she sees anyone move toward the door she says hopefully, "Go?" Whenever I get my coat on, she follows me around the house while I round up last minute things and says, "Go? Go?" When I finally pick her up and step outside she says joyfully, "GO!" What a thirst for adventure, huh? Last Sunday, I picked her up and took her with me to deliver something to a neighbor -- since she already had her coat on and all. It was like negative 5 outside. We didn't get four houses away before she started looking at her hands in consternation and saying, "Owie!" Yes, Bethany, there is a very good reason that we don't "go" more often in freezing weather!! Not that she understands that though. She continues to wear her coat around the house and ask to go.

Megan had an exciting moment this week. She finished her 10-week chess club. Remember that she didn't know anything when she first attended? Well, they have been having a tournament for the last few weeks and guess what? Only one person in the whole club could beat Megan! She came in second place and got her name announced to the whole school. We think she is pretty cool.



We started basketball practices this week. Kevin is coaching Sarah and Megan's team and they have practice Monday from 7-8 and Wednesday from 8-9. I am coaching Mariah's team and we had practice M and W from 3-4. It made the week pretty busy. Kevin and I both love it, though. Oh, and so do the girls!

We still managed to make treats for teachers, etc. this week. We dipped pretzels this year. I liked it as a project because it involved everyone all at once but also was pretty simple. We delivered Saturday morning. Yeah! Merry Christmas! We had an especially good time delivering. The weather warmed up (mid 30s!) and Megan and Mariah started throwing snowballs at their dad. I could tell all that softball playing was paying off. The rest of us just sat in the car and laughed!

Also on Saturday, but in the afternoon, Sarah talked me into taking her to a local performance of the Nutcracker in which a friend of hers from school was going to be dancing. Savannah and Megan and another friend came along. It was really fun! The two princes were from professional ballet companies but the other dancers came from the different classes of this ballet academy. It was really fun to watch the little girls dance with their dolls and then up through the ranks to the toe-shoes and the soloists. My goodness! What a lot of effort. The dancing was beautiful and the music, of course, . . . well, that Tchaikovsky was a very talented fellow. I really had fun. And the girls did, too!

While we were at the ballet, Kevin made snowmen with Mariah, Cheyenne, and Calianne. Yay for warmer temps and a fun dad!

Oh, babies and Christmas. Isn't that something? She loves the lights the best!
On Monday, we decorated our tree! Kevin brought it home after work. The girls were so excited. We already had the decorations out and they decorated the tree in 0.3 seconds -- or something like that -- it was really fast. We did listen to Christmas music and found spots for our multiple child-proof nativities. It was a fun night. I think we got so many smiles in this picture because of the excitement of the self-timer on the camera! Will Mom make it in time? Quick! The light is flashing faster! Beth even thought it was cool.

On Wednesday night, we went to the junior high to listen to Savannah sing in the school choir concert. They did a great job, sounded beautiful, and Savannah looked lovely. She loves the school choir dress. I think that even if she didn't like to sing, she would join the choir so she could wear the dress! She does love to sing, though, and it shows in her face. It was fun to watch her! (Those are four-strand braids, by the way, and I did them! Woohoo! Go me!)

On Saturday we had Mariah's "friend" birthday party. Don't they look like they are having a spectacular time??

We played games, made bracelets, ate pizza, opened presents, broke a pinata, and had cupcakes. In between it all, those girls were incredibly silly and had a spectacular time! Happy ninth birthday, Mariah!

Also this week, Kevin and I went to the ward choir dinner at the high school with friends from our ward which has become a holiday tradition for us and we really enjoyed, as usual. And we had the ward Christmas party where the primary children sang "Away in a Manger" accompanied by guitar. That was beautiful. I liked that alot.

The other night, after we had put everyone to bed, Cheyenne came back upstairs -- which is not at all uncommon. Kids come up, we send them back down -- at least twenty times (it feels like) before they stay down. I said, "Cheyenne! What are you still doing up?" She sighed and said, "I just really love being awake!" That made me laugh. I don't think I have ever gotten such an honest answer! And I remember feeling that way as a child. I definitely lost that somewhere along the way, though!

Merry Christmas! We hope all is well with all of you!