S + D + d + p + d: Christmastime with the Agle family

On Tuesday, December 6th we drove 10 hours to visit my sister, Lizzie and her husband, Dan and their six boys (Soren, Anders, Karsten, Oskar, Jesper, Magnus, aka "Paggy") for one week. Oh, what a week we had!

I did so much swing pushing the first day that I suffered from some pretty bad pain in my wrists for the following two days. Aging - not fun!

I love Oskar's sunlit hair in these photos.

Paggy has become quite the expert at making grilled cheese sandwiches. So, he wanted to show off his skills for his guests. They were yummy sandwiches!

We played dozens of games during our week out there.

While searching Lizzie's bookshelves, I found a series of books about fairies and herbs. Penny said she had no interest in the books. That is, until I started reading, and then she wanted to read them every day. With permission from Lizzie and Dan, we borrowed the series until the next time we see the Agle family.

As usual, we did a lot of juicing. The fruits from their trees are so good! The mandarin oranges are especially ripe right now.

Paggy was a great help to me, and not only with the juicing. He helped me make food, pick fruit, do dishes, etc.

Diana doing some squeezing.

The fruits (juices) of our labor.

On Thursday, December 8th we had the pleasure of attending the Millennial Choirs & Orchestras (MCO) Christmas concert in Costa Mesa, California. Soren, Anders, and Karsten were among the choir members. They did a fantastic job.

Here we are on Lizzie's back deck ready to head out to the concert.

Karsten, Anders, and Soren ready for the big event.

Taylor, Sam's sister, currently lives near Costa Mesa. She came to the concert with us.

Anders, Karsten, and Soren posing outside the concert hall.

The Agle Family

Beautiful, inspiring performance.

Diana needed to use the bathroom during the concert. She saw the large mirror in the bathroom and decided she wanted to turn her hair into a mustache.

On Friday, December 9th, Lizzie watched the children while Sam and I went to the San Diego Temple. This photo was taken 10 years ago, just before we were married.

We tried to recreate the photo 10 years later.

While Sam and I were at the temple, Lizzie kept the kids entertained with a variety of activities.

Admiring their water art

The kids made various LEGO creations and tested them in the water.

Douglas's LEGO boat

Penny's crocodile

Paggy, Jesper, Douglas, Diana, and Penny playing Sequence.

Look who wanted to read more fairy books when we returned from the temple. Penny, the girl who wasn't interested in them.

Playing Christmas charades with the kids

Penny, Jesper, and Diana as wisemen bringing their gifts to the baby Jesus.

Speaking of wisemen, on Saturday evening, December 10th, we attended Lizzie's ward Christmas party, where we ate yummy food and sang "caroloke" (karaoke with Christmas carols). At one point toward the end of the party, three wisemen (the ward bishopric) came in to distribute gifts to the children. Dan, my brother-in-law (Lizzie's husband), is the wiseman on the right.

On Sunday, we attended the church meetings with Lizzie and family, and later that day Lizzie prepared hot chocolate and popcorn and we headed out in their large van for a Christmas drive to see the lights at the San Diego Temple and two neighborhoods in the area (Christmas Card Lane and Candy Cane Lane). Unfortunately, the lights at the temple were not functioning properly, and the temple grounds were closed, possibly due to a heavy rainstorm earlier in the day. The lights in the two neighborhoods were awesome.

Diana and Penny fell asleep on the hour-long drive to the San Diego Temple.

Jesper, Douglas, Diana, Paggy, Oskar, Penny, Karsten

These two photos are from Candy Cane Lane.

And these three photos are from Christmas Card Lane. This is Paggy hanging out the side of the van. We drove slowly through the neighborhoods with the sliding door open.

On Monday morning, December 12th, Lizzie, Douglas, Paggy and I went out into Lizzie's soggy backyard (we got a lot of rain over the weekend) to pick and juice more fruit. We picked navel oranges, tangelos, satsuma mandarins, and Valencia oranges.

Once again, displaying the juices of our labors.

Karsten, Jesper, Douglas, Paggy

On one of our days in California we made a large quantity of crepes (10x the recipe - approximately 75 crepes) to eat with Nutella and other tasty toppings. The crepes only lasted half the day. So, the kids resorted to using tortillas with Nutella. After all, it's the Nutella they wanted. The crepes and tortillas were simply vessels to transport the chocolate yumminess into their mouths.

Reading the fairy books again, this time using a flashlight.

Once a month, Lizzie hosts a group of youth from her home school co-op and they work on family history. Lizzie's calls it The Gathering Place. Sam enjoyed participating with them this past Monday. Based on what I saw during those few hours, Lizzie is doing a great service for the youth, and the kids love spending time together.