CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas!...heard at 5 a.m.  Chase had asked me the night before what time he could get up, I said (without thinking) "oh not before 5".  I don't know for how long he was standing over me but at exactly 5 a.m. he was wishing me Merry Christmas.  We got everyone else up, and got ready to see if Santa came.  Lined up ready to run down the hall.....

Santa had indeed stopped by our house, and brought everything they had asked for.  Kelsey got some new clothes, a very nice toiletry bag, makeup, lotions and shower gel, new ear buds, makeup accessories,  scarfs, a new movie, Starbucks and quite a few "green" bucks in her stocking.  From Mom and Dad were new clothes, Nicholas Sparks new book, and a new blanket I made her. 

Chase was ecstatic to get a Nintendo DS, DS games, and the rest of the Diary of a wimpy books he doesn't have.  From Mom and Dad was a blanket, book, and new clothes.

 He was pretty much content to sit on the other side of his game player all day.

Sadi was in monster heaven.  She had asked for 6 Monster high dolls specifically and Santa had left her 10!

Besides her monsters she got a Monster High movie, her 3 chocolate bars she asked for, and new hat and gloves (monster high of course).  From Mom and Dad was a new blanket, new Junie B. Jones books, and new clothes.

Santa even left a great big gift for Broozer.  He must have been a good dog.

We received some really special gifts from the kids.  They had made ornaments in school and Sadi had made us a new calender that was really a surprise.  Helping out so much in school I usually see some of what they are making for the parents, but I didn't have any idea about this calender project they had been making.  Each month has a different art project and they wrote in all the days, and months themselves. 

We spent the day playing, eating, and visiting.  Matt's parents brought his Grandma down for the day, and Kyle also made it out for part of the day. 

We had a big Christmas dinner and then everyone wanted pictures of this and that, him and her, the generations, the girls, the guys, etc. 

Some may think this picture didn't turn out, but this is a true Christmas picture to me:  Someone jumps out of the picture, someone is blurry, someone can't be seen all the way, someone is seeing if they are taller than their mother (no you are not), someone is staring so hard in one direction they looked possessed, someone is missing, and someone is making a dorky face.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

This year we had Matt's parents and his brother visiting for the week of Christmas.  It changed up a bit of what we usually do for Christmas Eve but we did try to keep with most of our traditions.  It was hard to pull the kids away from all the electronics, but I at least got one helper to bake cookies for Santa (I may or may not have used Chocolate to bribe her).

We had lots of delicious food and then it got pretty loud in here!  It was time to cheat  play games.

The first year I moved out here I started a tradition that has really been the one tradition that I look forward to every year.  Each member of the family has to come up with a short Christmas related game for everyone to play.  I don't know how I missed getting pictures of some of them(guess I got caught up in the fun).  This particular game was called Christmas in 10....

You had to sit back to back and one person had to tell you what to draw using only shapes/lines in 10 clues and then you had to guess what the picture was when you were done.  We got some really great drawings, and some that were pretty funny.

Kelsey's game was called Do you want to build a snowman.  Using a dice taking turns you had to try to be the first to build your snowman.

Chase decided on a game he did as a presentation with his class called Face the star (played like face the cookie).  Pretty funny facial shots you get when you are playing this one.  Grandpa was determined to win this one.

I didn't get any pictures of Sadi's game.  She read us a story about Hanukkah, which she learned about in school and was really excited about, then we played dreidel and even got a piece of gelt(chocolate coin).  It was definitely nontraditional but fun.  The kids and David made up a cute little play they preformed for us complete with props and costumes they made themselves.  Can you guess what character Sadi played?  I particularly loved the red paper glued to her nose.

As always this jolly man stopped in for a surprise visit.  He even brought a few surprises. 

Sadi thought she knew this Santa but was really very hesitant and not quite 100 percent sure she wanted to sit on his lap.

Kelsey still sat on Santa's lap even though his bag was empty...or so he said.  Way down at the bottom he dug out a nice little gift card for her.

 

Time was passing quickly and as it was getting later it was time to prepare for THE big guys arrival.  We tracked his progress on Norad, selected the best cookies to leave him, and got the stockings ready to be filled.

 Sadi and Chase sprinkled their magic reindeer food out back for Santa's helpers.

Santa had written a special letter saying before they went to bed that he would lift our elves magic for just a few minutes so we could give them a hug and say our goodbyes.  He promised that if they were good they would be able to return next year.  Although they are a bit naughty, these little guys have really been a big part of our family for the past month. 

FINALLY it was time to get everyone nestled in their beds...easier said than done.

Christmas Gifts

The week leading up to Christmas break is somewhat a blur now.  It was filled with parties, get together with friends, and lots of wrapping, surprises, and time together.  This year the little kids had a few friends they really wanted to make sure to put on their gift giving list.  We set to work one day making something fun and useful.  A chocolate snowman with gloves for a hat! 

I was really struggling to find something thoughtful for the teachers as well as something they wouldn't just see as another gift to adorn their desk.  When I saw how cute the friend gifts turned out I decided to make some for them but used socks for hats and paired them with some lotion.  Kelsey also made some for her girlfriends.

At Chase's Class Christmas party one of his friends came up and thanked me for the gloves he said he loved them and now his hands wouldn't get cold since he didn't have any.  I didn't know at the time that Chase knew this and was particularly excited to give this gift to him.  Melted my heart :)

Run Gingy Run

This year we were planning to decorate gingerbread houses but were surprised one morning when the elves had brought us a package of gingerbread men to decorate!  Sadi could not wait to get to work decorating this big guy.  If we hadn't run short on decorating supplies I am sure that he would have a lot more "dots".

Chase was sure he needed to use the entire tube of icing somehow on his because then you would know it was a "man".  Luckily it was a small tube :)

As with every project we do Kelsey takes 8 times as long to finish hers making sure it is perfect and then wishing she had done it different although it always turns out to be so cute!

This particular ginger man had all of about 30 seconds to make a run for it before he was dismembered.  If you know my kids, it won't be hard to figure out whose this one belongs too.

Elves

Many of you have asked what our elves have been up to, so I thought it was time for an update on what these three little hooligans have been doing while we are sleeping.  They brought some delicious treats back from the North Pole for breakfast, baked by Mrs. Clause herself.

They have been having fun getting into everything!  One of their favorite places is the bathroom.  One morning we found Jack getting fresh with the cologne,

Suzy was putting on every holiday bow she could get her hands on,

and Jingle was getting his shave on.  Daddy was not amused in the morning when he could not find his shaver.

They had a syrup sippin' night,

and decorated the tree with lots and lots of candy canes.

Jack was content to just chill under the tree while the others were messing with the lights.

One morning we woke to find they had built a fort and were telling ghost stories.  Chase and Sadi were sure they were trying to scare Suzy.

They found my cell phone and were making what I can only assume were crank calls...they had the phone book open to the "naughty and nice" store.

This morning we found they had written down many of the things they have been observing at our house and not all of them were nice things.

Suzy wrote what I assume is a warning: 

 He's making a list,

checking it twice,

Don't be naughty,

Just be NICE!

Sadi made sure to read them all and decided they had forgotten a few things that she has done that are nice (a little worried quite a few of the naughty things they noticed were hers) so she added a few of her own including this gem:

"Do not cut others".  Not sure if I should be worried that this is what she has been controlling the urge to do.  None the less please tell Santa!

Baby it's Cold Outside

On Saturday we woke to a nice big dump of the white stuff.  We typically don't get snow where we live (well enough to even still see by noon anyway that's about how quick it melts).  My kids begged and begged to go out in the snow.  Again since we don't get snow, we don't really have snow gear...to which I TRIED to explain.  Despite my warnings they insisted on going out. Okay....

 It was a fun start, throwing snowballs, making snow angels,

they even made a good attempt to build a snowman.  I think the birds may have not been preparing for winter to well because the second Chase left this guy a huge flock of birds came in to eat his delicious nose!

But just shy of 20 minutes the fun was O.V.E.R.  It was followed by ranting and well....

Anyone else want a little extra snow?  I am so over winter already.

Trimming the Tree

This year we debated about buying a real tree or an artificial one(We had a bit of a mishap with our tree last year and I was worried we would repeat it).  The selection looked slim at our usual place of purchase, it seemed to far to drive to gamble on a tree farm out of state, and all the artificial ones looked...well kind of drab (and way overpriced).  As soon as Thanksgiving was over the kids were ready for a tree and we still hadn't found one.  So I gave them a choice to put up their little trees or wait for the big one.  No surprise they wanted to put up their own trees.  So we opened the much anticipated ornament box, and let them deck the trees.  Sadi's of course is pink, pink, pink!

The deal was their trees had to go in their rooms and Chase was more than thrilled with this idea(although he thinks he needs some extra presents to go under it).

 Kelsey's tree is the most full with ornaments from years past.

We started a tradition (or rather Matt had a tradition when I moved out here that we adopted) of letting the kids pick out an ornament each year to put on the tree.  We have had a dispute for quite a few years now about one ornament in particular.  Kelsey swears it is hers.....as does Chase.  To be honest I'm not sure whose it is, but every year it is the same feud.  We pull out the box, we talk about whose we think it is, we pull out photos from Christmas past trying to prove who it belongs too.  We have narrowed it down to which year it came from, however in all photos from that year both kids are blocking their trees so you can't tell whose tree it is on.  So...for the past few years it goes back and forth from tree to tree.  We are now photo journaling ornaments......

We did eventually find a gorgeous tree a few days later, a real one, and it smells amazing!  Of course I had lots of helpers decorating this tree too.