Hayden and Sydney both opened Nerf guns and they were excited because they wanted to buy some but did not want to give up allowance money for it. Maura opened a tower of Pip Squeak Markers and Michael found a tie, dress socks, and a Food Network magazine in his bag. Everyone got some chocolates, including me! Michael also got me a great gift, a new griddle.
The kids had fun celebrating, but especially for Maura, it will be a long wait until her birthday in June. She was right there wanting to blow out the candles and open up gifts.
Since we are thousands of miles from our family, we opened up the birthday celebration to the missionaries serving in our ward. Michael is the ward mission leader so they are over here quite a bit. It was their P day and they had just come from dodge ball with their zone so they were not in their suits. After dinner we played Ticket to Ride.
Sydney was so excited to take a birthday treat into her school class. I made 24 cupcakes and drove her to school the morning of her birthday. Later, we would have a party at JoAnn Fabrics with 12 of her school friends. Happy 9th Birthday Sydney!!
First, you have to round up a lot of cardboard and cut it into rectangular shapes and cover it with aluminum foil. Then you need to cut basic house shapes from graham crackers with an electric knife. This is definitely Michael's area of expertise.
If there are a lot of small children involved, glue the houses together in advance so they can start decorating ASAP and they don't have to wait for frosting to dry and their house to take shape.
Next, put out a ridiculous amount of candy. If you have little to no will power, buy items that look great, but taste bad. Hint, Necco candies are great for roof tiles, but taste pretty bad. This way you don't gain 5 pounds just from participating in the event. The kids will find the M&M and Skittles and all of the mainstream candy anyway and will eat until they are sick, but oh well, it is only once a year.
Finally, let the fun begin. While people decorate, keep making huge quantitites of frosting. The stiffer you make Royal Icing, the better. We have blown out hand held mixers in the past making icing, but this only adds to the legendary event, besides, it makes a great story! 
This year Hayden tried something new and signed up for the sixth grade chorus. He had hoped to join band or orchestra, but couldn't because he did not play in fourth or fifth grade in New York which is required to play at the middle school level. He did not know if he would like it, but it has been something positive.
In December, the chorus performed and it was a packed house. Even though we were at the high school auditorium, it still was not large enough. Eventually, the decision was made to divide the concert into two parts. They made all of the family members of the 7th and 8th graders leave the auditorium. Then they sat everyone who was there to watch a sixth grader and they performed. Then we cleared out, the family members for the older kids filed in and the concert resumed. It was a hectic night, but in the end, Hayden performed and did very well.
The next night, we had the chance to watch Sydney perform at her school. Each of the third graders was asked to wear a costume that reflected another country or culture. Sydney decided to pull out the massive sombrero from the basement costume box. Hey, at least, we could spot her easily!
Sydney's class sang a lot of songs, and they did a a lot of hand actions for too many verses. Little did we know that she nearly passed out because she had a heavy, wool blanket draped on top of her in addition to that huge sombrero, and was packed in like a sardine next to a bunch of other sweaty kids. She was adorable up there, but needed a shower when we got home! Nothing says, "Merry Christmas" like a sweaty eight year old singing Hava Nagela (sp?) in a sombrero. Happy Holidays! 
It started out like any Saturday morning, until the phone rang and a friend in Utah played the BYU fight song over the receiver. Then the mood changed. Although our new neighbors probably did not understand what Michael was up to, he added this "U" to the lights in the front yard before the kickoff. We all wore red and geared up for a great football game.
Michael threw a great party. There were 20 or more people in the house, all cheering for red or blue. We had red 7-Up, blue Kool-Aid and plenty of red and blue food items.
Despite our spirited efforts, the University of Utah lost in overtime to our rivals, the Brigham Young University Cougars. "Rise and shout" all you cougars, it was your year. 
My mom is famous for giving me recipes. Almost every time that I have seen my mother in the past 20 years, she hands me a stack of recipes. This year I decided to put one to use and make these turkey favors for our Thanksgiving table.
Sydney actually assembled them while I fought the hot spots in our crappy microwave trying to melt the caramel enough to make them stick together. She gets the credit for pulling this project together, and thanks to Michael for cooking his best turkey and stuffing yet so that I had time to mess with favors and table decorating!
In the end, we fed 23 of us this year. We are truly grateful for new friends who have lovingly befriended our family and who continue to make us feel welcome here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving despite being far away from the immediate family. 