Surprise! We're taking you to LEGOLAND California!

Since the boys are completely obsessed with Lego's, Jeff and I decided to give them LEGOLAND for Christmas! We surprised them Christmas morning with a letter explaining that we were all flying to San Diego, California the next day to go to LEGOLAND! They were so excited!!! Icing on the cake was finding out that Grandma Peterson was coming with us!

LEGOLAND was everything we all dreamed it would be! Everywhere we looked there were amazing creations made entirely out of Lego's! And the rides weren't too big or scary for the boys... plus Will was tall enough to ride them all, and there were tons of activities and fun things to see and do in addition to the rides! But let's face it, the $100 shopping spree they each got was their favorite part!!

But besides that... here are the boys' top three favorite things about the trip:

Will- 1) "Riding the Dragon was wicked fabulous. I almost peed my pants!" (Jeff says he laughed the entire ride!)

2) "I got tricked on the fire truck ride... I went to the wrong truck." (We came in 3rd...)

3) "On the cars, I kept crashing into people!" (But they still gave him his driver's license at the end.)

Drew- 1) "I liked the shopping because I got to choose what I wanted."

2) "I liked miniland... all the statues and buildings from around the United States."

3) "I liked the car ride the most because I learned how to drive a car."

We flew into San Diego on Friday and flew back to Utah on Sunday... It was a short and sweet trip and worth every penny! (We got a great deal on tickets through JetBlue)

Besides the trip, we had a nice Christmas with all the traditions we've come to anticipate... New jammies on Christmas Eve, stockings filled with goodies from Santa, decorating candy houses, going to see the lights, and more!! Still, Drew tells me everytime he sees me how thankful he is for the trip to LEGOLAND and how much he enjoyed it. It makes me so happy to know that we can provide this kind of awesome memories for our kids! It was a fantastic Christmas!

A Christmas Eve Treat... Ho Ho Ho on the Radio!

The boys had the awesome opportunity to visit Jeff at work on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa on the radio while watching him pass across the sky on the radar screen. It was the first time Will has ever been able to actually SEE where his dad works, since we are not allowed into the "Restricted Area" after 9/11. So it was cool because the boys got to form a picture in their heads for all the times I explain to them that "Dad's at work", and they also got to chat with Santa and ask him all the questions they'd been dying to find out.

Will asked "Do you make all the toys or do you buy some at the store?" which I thought was a very insightful question and I was eager to hear what Santa had to say about that.... Luckily Santa explained that he does BOTH (which explained the tags he sometimes forgets to take off...)

Drew wanted to know how many elves Santa had. Santa said he had hundreds and that they have a big party up at the North Pole on December 26th to thank them all for their hard work.

They were so excited about their little chat and couldn't wait to get home and go to bed so they could wake up and see what Santa had in store for them....

Latkes and Yule Logs and Santa, Oh my!!

Teaching my children diversity is a tricky thing... but it's a challenge I accept, love and look forward to! There's more to the Winter Holiday's than Christmas (although my boys love that one the most) and it is my pleasure to teach them (and myself in the process) about all the wonderful beliefs people of the world hold.

This year Hanukkah and Winter Solstice fell on the same day... so we did Winter Solstice first and celebrated just like our ancestors did by celebrating the birth of the new SUN. We had a feast with Kelly & Danny and their boys, read books about Winter Solstice, decorated a Yule Log to burn in our backyard, Jeff & Danny dressed up as the Oak King & Holly King and pretended to battle (which all the boys LOVED!) then came into the warm LIT house and ate Yule Log then went downstairs to play Rockband... All was authentic except for the Rockband part;-)

The following day we celebrated Hanukkah as a family by lighting the Menorah, feasting on Latkes with sour cream and applesauce, watching a video about the Maccabees then quizzing the boys on their knowledge rewarding them with Gelt (chocolate coins) that we then used to play the dreidel game. We read books and listened to music and had a wonderful celebration! But we only celebrated Hanukkah for one night, instead of eight.

So the week before Christmas was a busy week, but I'd like to think we all enjoyed every minute! I could go on and on about each of our celebrations, but that gives you the general gist...

Our Top 10 Memories and Achievements of 2008

I decided to post our Holiday letter on here for anyone who reads this blog, but didn't get a letter. Enjoy...
1. Wendi got to work at the Sundance Film Festival as a production assistant for Entertainment Tonight. She met celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Black, Allan Alda and more.
2. Wendi and Drew got backstage passes and got to meet Rob Thomas and the entire band of Matchbox 20. Then Jeff and Will met up with us and we all went to the concert together.
3. We went on a family vacation to Florida and Georgia and showed Drew where he was born, reunited with old friends and visited beaches, swamps and theme parks.
4. Jeff displayed his fine carpentry skills by putting up crown molding throughout the house, converting the closet in the office into a built-in desk for the boys and building us a shed from scratch using his own ingenuity, no prefab! He also put up a tile backsplash, installed a new sink and made wooden rubber-band guns to sell at the Festival of Trees. Who knew he was so crafty? You all just thought he told planes where to go!
5. Drew and Will performed in a musical production with Up With Kids. Drew was Nemo and Will was Flotsom.
6. Drew worked hard in Cub Scouts all year and has earned both his Tiger AND his Wolf! His favorite things to do are swim, build with Lego’s, draw, make music, read and lounge around the house. He’ll be 8 on February 6th.
7. Will, at 4 years old, is reading on a first grade level, builds awesome Lego creations, colors in the lines and loves to draw, do puzzles and play games. He LOVES animals and wants to be a vet when he grows up. He’ll be 5 on December 10th.
8. We mastered Rock Band on our Wii and have turned into the coolest family band since the Partridge family! Even Will can rock the drums!
9. Will was my little press buddy and accompanied me to interviews and events I was writing stories about all year long. He always behaved well and I think he may have a future in Journalism ahead of him… at least as long as he’s staying home with me!
10. We started a family blog so if you really want to know more about the happenings in our lives, you can check it out at http://www.wwjdbergstrom.blogspot.com/.
We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Bring on the Winter Holidays!

For the 3rd year in a row, Rachel came over and helped me beautify my tree... We do it the same every year so we're getting really good at it. But it's a love-hate thing... I hate putting it up, but I love it when it's finished and I love the way it changes the atmosphere of the whole house. It makes me happy, so it's worth the effort!

Thanksgiving with the Bergstrom's

We celebrated with Jeff's family this year. It was fun and the kids had a good time.

Do you remember these? We made turkey's out of apples and gumdrops... I remember doing these when I was a kid and thinking it was pretty special, so I decided to bring the stuff to make them to the Bergstrom's for the kids to make. They all thought it was pretty cool too.