Merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebration

When I texted the BYU kids about Sunday I told them we would have a merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebration and whoever knew which book that was from got extra fudge.

Liberty texted back it was from Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree and I hope that girl got enough fudge because she deserved it.

We had a nice time Sunday.  My parents and grandma joined us so we were 13 for dinner.  After an existential crisis about which dishes to use and how to set the table (because I only have 12 Christmas bowls), we ironed it out and the evening went off without a hitch.

After dinner I set my mom to stirring the fudge and put Emma in charge of decorating the tree.  Emma has an eye I trust and a bossy authority her brothers don't question so it worked.

I gave my dad the hooks to manage.

I only took one blurry and incomplete picture.  Everyone was in front of the tree so nicely in a sort of action shot of decorating and I grabbed my phone and in an instant everyone dispersed.

There's Mark with the hooks and Mark II going to get a hook, that's Braeden's friend Anna, then Emma and Braeden and Liberty barely in the shot.  Freja and Zack were helping with the tree too and they all did a great job.

I gave up with pictures so it's not very well documented but we were having a good time.

We mixed four different kinds of fudge:  oreo, candy cane, salted peanut and cranberry pistachio.

Everybody wins with fudge.

The kids stood around the piano singing and Liberty played for them and it occurred to me that here we've been having this amazing pianist to dinner every week and have not utilized her!

(I'm all about exploiting talented people for my enjoyment.)

After everyone left, we ran one more load of dishes in the dishwasher. (I wouldn't let my mom or Liberty wash dishes though they tried.  I am a firm believer in making dishes wait their turn for the dishwasher.)

Then I collapsed in the chair in a tired heap.

Merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebrations can be exhausting.

We Facetimed with Grandma Geri and are excited to see her later this week.

Later in the evening, Braeden texted a picture of his tree that he, Anna, Emma and Freja had decorated:

Emma commented he didn't take a picture of the star so he added this:

I love that Emma and Freja are still being creative together.