Christmas Post.

I finally finished my journal of Christmas Day and I put it with my Christmas Eve post. Feel free to take a look. :)

Christmas is officially over at our house

On Saturday we finally got together as a family and tag teamed taking down everything Christmas. The kids did their own little projects while ML and I took turns working on the major stuff and picking out pictures to put in our adoption profile. It feels great to have that checked off the list, but on the other hand taking down all the fun lights/trees/decorations etc. always seems to leave our home feeling a little less warm and cozy to me. I made this comment to ML and so he starts singing, "I CRY THE DAY THAT I TAKE THE TREE DOWN...". lol (That song has never been one of my favorites.) :P

Back to Christmas 2007:

Warning: All the lists are not highly entertaining...mostly for journaling purposes, but pictures are always fun. :)


We started out the morning with opening our stockings:



MC’s:• a baby ballerina doll that MIL got because it looked just like her














• scrapbook paper (cut into various smaller sheets/to make small pages)
• glue
• scrapbook kit (embellishments and paper)
• card making kit
• a paint your own mini tea set
• chapstick
• chocolate bar
• mini embosser
• mini stamp set with four color stamp pad
• lotion
• angel necklace
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens


BR’s:
• book on how to draw dc comics with markers, pencils, eraser
and drawing pages
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• a paint your own race car night light
(it sounds too immature for him…but it was free when I got MC’s paint your own tea set…he liked it well enough) :P
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens
• wii steering wheel


ML’s:
• brass collar stays
• 1 pair smart wool socks
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• drawing pencil set
• 2 DVD’s (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3)
• tooth brush heads for his sonicare tooth brush
• massage lotion










Mine:• love spell lotion
• 2 other lotions (massage)
• chocolate bar
• Mac makeup

MIL’s:• coconut bar
• Mac makeup
• 2 pairs of Christmas socks

FIL’s:
• cashews
• mandarin oranges
• chocolate bar
• Benchmade knife sharpener
• Handkerchiefs
• I'm not sure what else...MIL and I kind of had fun finding random things and sticking them in. :P

Then we moved on to opening gifts. We start with one person (I can’t remember who it was this time) and then that person gets to pick the next gift from under the tree for the next person.

Family:
From IMITIMUINC: Wonderful and soft knitted throw that everybody loves to cuddle up with

From my parents: A game called "LIEbrary" it's like balderdash except you have to make up the first line of real books and try to sound convincing all the while trying to determine which one is the real first line. (I got duped every time!!)

From "Santa":
• Portable DVD player
• Game called “Pop Belly”. You have to try NOT to pop the belly of various pigs as you fill them up with discs piggybank style.


MC:

From us:
• ½ a bike
• pants

From MIL and FIL:
• ballerina outfit
• create your own ballerina doll

From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• the other ½ of the bike :P (in case anyone is like Amelia Bedelia and needs clarification: The bike was not really in 2 pieces, it was just from 2 parties.) ;)
• Christmas tree ornament
• some books

From my parents:
• Tinkerbell watch
• calendar
• CYO hoola hoop


BR:

From us:
• Mater National Championship wii game
• 2 lego sets

From MIL and FIL:
• 2 MORE lego sets :P

From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• VTech game system
• some games for VTech
• books
• Christmas tree ornament

From my parents:
• Superman watch
• calendar
• noise making slime
• CYO character hat


ML:

From me:
• Patagonia long underwear (top and bottom)
• tie
• sweater and dress pants
• tracing paper
• 2 pair dress smart wool socks

From the kids:
• $50 megaplex gift card

From MIL and FIL (his parents):
• the latest and greatest titanium Leatherman

From my parents:
• calendar
• cruise/trip to the Mediterranean!! :P


Me:

From ML:
• new quilt for the new king size bed!! Yay
• king size sheet set (I got to open it early though because I got the bed on the 21st) :P


From MIL and FIL:
• blender
















From my parents:
• calendar
• CRUISE!!


MIL:

From FIL:
• crystal Eiffel Tower

From us:
• red sweater


FIL:



From MIL:
• vehicle back up camera
• noise canceling headphones

From us:
• 5.11 tactical pants
• knee pads to go in tactical pants






After the melee of gift opening was over MIL and I made a brunch and the kids and ML and FIL played Mater National Championship for several hours!!



(Breaking, of course, to eat!) After the brunch, MIL and I went up to her room and did ear candles in her ear that gives her troubles once in a while. It all went well until we set off the fire alarm. :P BR and FIL played more "Mater National Championship on the wii while MC and ML made MC's CYO Ballerina that she got from MIL and FIL (whew, is that enough acronyms for one sentence??!!?)

Then ML, my kids and I went over to my parent’s house, opened gifts and ate leftovers (we missed the main Christmas dinner). :P I and my kids also got to talk to my little brother on his mission in CT. ;)

Christmas Eve ...It's about time

I feel like my brain is mush lately. As I go about my day I'll think of things to write about but then as I sit down at the computer for a few seconds everything escapes me... so I've decided rather than write anything current I'll just tell you about Christmas Eve. :P I know, I know I've been quite the slacker blogger lately, oh well. C'est la vie.

So here's our Christmas Eve: We started out the day, well let me amend that, ML and BR started out the day by going sledding. I got to sleep in, (which I quite enjoy, refer to previous post: "Late Night Addictions", nope still haven't gotten over that one...maybe this year.) After sledding ML went with his dad to a shooting range and got to try out some "really cool, big guns!" I'm not sure if I got the quote right, but you should have seen the grins on their faces and the sparkle in their eyes when they got back and told us all about it. While they were gone the kids played on the wii, of course, and ML's mom and I worked on dinner and we took MC and ran a few quick errands. We had a nice turkey dinner when we were all back home. We'd thought about taking tracks downtown in the evening after dinner but as we looked outside at the terribly blizzardy weather, we decided that it was a perfect night to stay at home and cuddle up in front of....the TV. So we watched Mr. Kruegar's Christmas, read the Christmas story, opened pajamas, and then watched The Polar Express. It was a great evening, well spent!

Christmas is torture :(

Due to various reasons:

*My lack of being prepared ahead of time

*My family of origin's tradition of waiting until Christmas Eve (after the kids are in bed) to put out the gifts

*My kids' former belief in Santa (they found out last year)

We have waited, for the most part, until Christmas Eve to put out any presents. Well, for some reason (partly because they know about Santa), this year, I decided to put out presents as we wrap them or as they got sent to us. So for weeks now there have been presents under our tree and slowly accumulating more. After the first few were there BR comes to me and asks if they can open their presents. I tell him that we are going to wait for Christmas just like we always do and he proceeds to get all teary eyed, with the trembling lip and all. Similarly, MC has spent hours looking at the presents, shaking the presents, speculating which ones are legos for BR (which she's determined to be most of them, even the ones that are clothes or books), wondering which presents are hers (we don't have labels on most of our presents) and bemoaning the fact that she wishes they could open them now or that Christmas would hurry up. These behaviors, which were very unexpected (I somehow forgot that we'd never done it this way before and expected my kids to think it completely normal), has sparked conversations about different traditions/practices. My MIL mentioned how she never put names on her presents either and how she figured it added to the excitement, wonder and anticipation for her kids. We decided to find out what ML thought of it when he was a kid. He said it was pure torture.

Big Scary Santa

We had my family Christmas party on Saturday and my mom had arranged for her brother, who is at least 6'6", to show up at the party dressed as Santa and bring gifts for all the little kids and give them all a chance to sit on their lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The kids all had such varied reactions to him it was pretty hilarious! First of all, Santa himself was a hoot. My uncle is an interesting character and I guess he was trying to talk in an old grandpa voice but the effect was kind of a wobbly, high pitched sound that didn't quite sound right, even to the kids. Then the beard/hair my mom gave him to wear was so slick that it kept slipping around and he couldn't keep his hat on and further it was so bushy that he couldn't even see properly through all his hair.
So he came walking in the front door and one of my 2 year old nephews walks straight up to him and says, "Are you big?" We all bust up at that but he's fearless. He sits on Santa's lap and proceeds to ask Santa what he wants for Christmas. After the first little guy is done, Santa asks in his high, wobbly voice if the other kids would like to sit on his lap and my other 2 year old nephew starts crying and shaking his head and runs to his mama. MC was watching all of this dubiously and quite unsure how she feels about the whole thing and it doesn't help when she sees other kids crying and running to mom. So she comes and sits next to me and asks me who it is. I tell her that it's Santa and she reminds me that she found out last year that we are Santa (mom/dad). So she tells me that it's Papa (my dad) but I point out my dad in the hall and that puts her a little over the edge and she starts to cry also. I whisper in her ear and tell her who he really is but tell her to keep it a secret. After that she's barely ok with going up to sit on his lap and talk to him, just long enough to say that she wants a dolly for Christmas and get her present from him, but she keeps her eyes straight ahead the entire time.
One of my older nieces who is notoriously shy (she's BR's age) surprises me by prancing up to him with a big grin on her face and sits on his lap for a while and tells him all about what she wants for Christmas (she however has known for several years the truth about Santa so it must have seemed like a big game to her).
BR didn't seem much affected by the whole thing, he was excited to get his gift and tell Santa what he wants but I couldn't tell what he thought about the whole thing till this afternoon when he brought it up again. He mused, "I wonder who that Santa really was at Grandma's house. MC looked at me with a twinkle in her eye...thrilled to be in on the secret.
All of this brought back memories of my childhood when we'd have a Santa come visit at some party or other...it always freaked me out a bit too.

Miracle Moments...

Well, we've had a few "miracle moments" in our lives this weekend...First of all, I was at a "Pampered Chef" party with my sisters on Friday night when My Love (ML) sent me a text telling me that he'd pulled my daughter's (MC) tooth and that she was very brave. Well, I write back that I'd had no idea her tooth was loose enough to come out. His reply was that it wasn't, but there was a tooth coming in behind it so he'd wrapped some floss around it and pulled it out. To MC it was a miracle that she'd finally lost her first tooth! She's SOOO excited to tell everybody all about her tooth and show them. When my dad saw her today he told her that she had a hole in her smile. She laughed and laughed over that one. :P It's great fun.


Well then on Sunday I suddenly got inspired to put up my Christmas tree. So the kids and I did it in a few hours while we listened to Christmas music. And now it's up and we're all starting to feel more in the spirit. The miracle part is...that I actually got my tree up before the second week in December!! I don't know if that's ever happened before, nor may it ever again. ;o