A pause between holidays

A belated Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year to all of you! We had a great few days in Richmond with our families. My family seems to be growing every second while Scott's is kind of shrinking. As far back as I can remember, we have always drawn names for Christmas in my family; when we were all kids we drew two names but now that we're all grown up we've created a rotation so everyone gets everyone else (over the course of 10 years!) and we give family to family. Someone chooses a theme; this year my parents chose "Christmas without a paycheck." I was extra excited that my sister moved back from Albania just in time for Christmas because it saved me some serious shipping! We finished a family project and gave it as their family present. I took some pictures before we gave it away. It turned out pretty darn cute. Scott stained the wood, I cut out all the felt and we glued everything together for Family Home Evening a couple weeks back.

The kids did a really good job (except for Bubba - he was determined to make that last wise man by himself and had all his pieces glued just any old place on the block and would not let me touch it. I had to distact him before it all dried and fix it). And it kinda makes me want one of my own, but then my SIL gave me this cool "Knitivity" book of knitted nativity figures, so I just might work on that for next year. Have I mentioned I love nativity scenes?

We did our usual routines for Christmas Eve and Christmas Days:

Christmas Eve breakfast with Scott's parents and sister then we all exchange gifts with each other.

Over to my parents' house where the kids play outside for hours at a time while the grownups wrap, clean and cook.





Christmas Eve festivities: eat, sing all the Santa Claus Christmas songs, act out "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" sing all the baby Jesus Christmas songs, ending with Silent Night in English, then German, and finally act out the Nativity story while Dad reads it from the Bible. Then we all get to open one present, my kids always open pajamas and a book so they can get right into their jammies and go to bed when we get home (home being Scott's parents house in this case).

At home we write notes to Santa, leave him cookies and milk, and this year Silly had some reindeer food he wanted to put on a plate outside next to the chimney, because that's where they would land, then off to bed.

Scott and I go back to my family's houses where the girls fill stockings and the boys string the string presents. We had a new-comer to the stringing this year, and we neglected to give him sufficient guidance, so his strings were a little out of control (maybe a lot out of control) but sure fun to watch.

Once that's done it is back home to put all the presents under the tree while the kids are asleep.

This year they woke up at 5:15; there have definitely been years when Scott and I were up that early, just waiting and waiting for them to wake up. We open all the presents, play for a bit, then head over to my brother's house for stockings and breakfast.

Cakes reading Santa's answer to her note

Nerf gun! Scott has been begging me to let him get Silly a Nerf gun for ages, I finally gave in, even though he isn't six yet.

 

 

Next, across the street to Mamie and Papop's house to open more presents.

 

Usually after that, we go to Scott's mom's family gathering for lunch, but that didn't happen this year, so it was just lunch with his family, then lastly, back over to my M&D for clam chowder, crab legs and mud pie.

And that is Christmas for us. A little crazy, huh? For the last many years Scott and I have ended up at the very least annoyed with each other, at the worst having a major fight over some little Christmas Eve detail, so this year I wrote everything down as detailed as I possibly could, made him sign it, and included that he was not allowed to ask me any questions other than what time something starts or ends and whether or not the plan has changed. He refered to it as a gag order, which might not have been too far from the truth, but it worked! He did admit that he appreciated having everything written down, but he didn't like signing it. I'll make some adjustments for next year.

Oh, I almost forgot all the hilarious things Silly said:

I know where Frosty lives - Winter Wonderland!

For Santa, is it just December where you have to be good, or is it all year?

In the car on the way to Richmond I was listening to Wicked, after Defying Gravity, he asked, "Is that a Christmas song?" Not so much.

And one from Bubba - we gave him this little kid version of the Millenium Falcon complete with all the characters, all the good guys at least. He kept talking about an angel, asking where his angel was, we finally figured out he meant Yoda! Hey, he's got a robe on, right?

Pre-Christmas Festivities

We never spend Christmas Day itself at our own house, so several years ago we decided we needed to do some fun Christmas-y things around town so our kids have some Christmas memories associated with home and not just Richmond. Several things have become annual events: the Chesapeake parade, Christmas in the Country and the Triple R Ranch, Polar Express and lights at Norfolk Botanical Garden and making cookies.

Today we spent about 5 hours making cookies. Amazingly, Bubba was the best, longest lasting helper of the three kids. He knows how to work that mixer too. I convinced the kids we should try a couple new things so I didn't have to make sugar cookies because I hate rolling things out. We made candy cane cookies which involved three colors of cookie dough, twist any two together and shape it like a candy cane. Silly was working on twisting his together and asked, "Mom, is this fun?" Apparently he wasn't quite sure. Here's the end result:

They've each picked out a few friends and teachers they want to take cookies to, so we'll probably do that after church tomorrow.

Tonight we went to the Triple R Ranch. Bubbs and Silly were thrilled with the tractor-pulled hayride. Bubba kept saying he was going to drive the tractor, which I was a little afraid might turn into a meltdown, but he was perfectly happy with the ride. Cakes was the only one that would ride a horse, again. She also climbed the rock wall. She was rather impressive.

Silly saw this rock later and declared himself a rock climber too.

Somehow in the next ten seconds after that he lost his little angel he'd made. We couldn't find it anywhere; he went on and on about it being the most beautiful rainbow angel he'd ever had and now he'll never have another one. But then we went and ate and he hasn't mentioned it since.

On the way home I was telling Scott about these Star Wars snowflake patterns my sister found which led to him saying, "Should this be the year I get my Stormtrooper costume?" Cakes immediately said, "I think no year should be the year 'cuz I don't wanna be embarrassed. People would laugh at you like 'hahahahahahahahahaha' and then they'd be looking at us and that would be embarrassing." We were cracking up laughing and then she said, "It's true!" I told her I know it's true, that's why I'm laughing so hard.

And finally, in our very own neighborhood we saw the most hilarious Christmas light display ever. Really, when have Christmas lights ever made you laugh out loud? These ones will.'

That's for all my huntin' relatives. Scott said this guy made it himself. I just might have to see if he'll make one for my brother. :-)

Techincally, this is still Fall...

This is really sad, but one reason I am looking forward to winter and some freezing temperatures is so I don't have to see slugs on my front and back steps anymore. Anyone else have this problem? Why do slugs like my steps? Blech. How do I make them go away, other than hoping for weather too cold for them to venture out from whatever little cracks they hide in?

I just now copied all of my pictures from November onto my backup hard drive, or rather I tried to, because I was down to just four more little videos and I was informed that I am now out of space. Bummer.

And now, even though I am 95% done with the Christmas shopping, I must backtrack to Halloween and such.

Silly (I was thinking as I put him to bed last night that I should perhaps change his nickname to Dimples...) had a few more stellar soccer games. 





He's so awesome. While I'm talking about him I should share the hilarious things he's said recently.

October 28th - As I'm putting him to bed he tells me, "The night is like a magical thing; it splits the day and when you wake up, it's a new day. It's like a dream.

November 10th - He coached Bubba through the whole alphabet, "Bubba, say 'A'" all the way through Z. He skipped a few letters here and there and he had to stop and say the alphabet to himself real quick every now and then to remember what came next. It was adorable.

November 30th - "I know why I only speak one language - I was born in America!"

December 1st - He asked me who is in charge of the whole world; I told him, politically speaking, no one is (there'd just been something on TV about Pres. Obama). He answered, "Jesus is in charge of the whole world!" I explained that we believe that, and so do lots of other people, but not everyone. He immediately asks, "Well then who do they think made all the trees?"

Anywho...

 

We stopped by our local nursery for some pumpkins. The boys were determined to carry their own pumpkins. Bubba lasted about 10 feet.

We went to our ward Trunk or Treat; which was great (possibly because I had nothing to do with it!) where we finally convinced Bubba that he should wear a costume so he could get some candy. I had a backup plan should he refuse. He has a ghostbusters shirt that I was going to put on him so he would at least be Halloween-ish. He finally gave in to the pterodactyl.





Cakes and all her cute friends, plus the boys



Bubba dumped shredded cheese all over the kitchen, but he did his best to clean it up, with some help from Charlie...





We sent an "army guy," a pterodactyl and a pirate girl out Trick or Treating. They quit surprisingly early.

 Bubba woke up like this the next morning...

from what I later determined to have been a peanut butter cup. It was smooshed all over his bed, even his wall. Still not sure how he managed that in his sleep.

We had fun at Mamie's Second Annual Fall Fest. This year they provided a raincoat for bobbing with apples. One child did end up soaking wet, but it wasn't one of mine.

 

There was a big leaf pile to jump in and Mamie put together a leaf scavenger hunt. She traced and copied all the different leaf varieties from her yard and all the kids had to hunt for the matching leaves. It was pretty fun. Mamie also made lots of donuts, we roasted hot dogs in their lovely fire pit area. Dad was showing Scott all the yard work he'd done all summer. He was one busy man, but that's nothing new for him. If he's not working at work, he's working in the yard.

And then Scott and I got on a plane headed for Hawaii...