January 15, 2015

Catching up on Christmas - Part 2


The kids actually slept in Christmas morning until a reasonable hour. If memory serves me, it was sometime between six and seven o'clock.

But my memory doesn't always serve me well. I could be thinking about last week, or last night, or last Christmas! I'm not sure now... hmmmmm.


Anyway, I was trying to think of a clever caption for this photo. How about this? "Mom! I don't like getting presents! Send them back to Santa!" 


Shouts of joy and excitement were heard as Hubby and I tried to bury our heads under the pillows.

It didn't work.

But we made the early birds wait until everyone else was awake.
And if they dare wake someone up on purpose, they would lose a present!

Eh hem... not that we would ever threaten such a thing.

And Hubby didn't make them wait while he took a shower either.


Nope.


It was all good though because Jackson was the last one up.


And was completely confused as to why everyone was so dang chipper!


And stared at the gifts in confusion.


Waiting for daddy...


And waiting...


Finally!

Per tradition, gifts are opened one at a time, going from youngest to oldest.


Jackson really wasn't sure what he was suppose to with the thing. He just kept swatting at the paper while the kids were anxiously shouting encouragement.

Which only had him swatting harder.


We finally gave him a hand before Claira expired from the torturous waiting.


We kept things super simple this year.

I'm kind of on this "anti-stupid-toy" kick. We mainly got educational or hands-on stuff.

No electronics and no dolls/figures or things that they would play with for a day then never touch again. Because my kids aren't really into that stuff anyway.

They THINK they are for about a week. Then they aren't.


The kids are still young enough for that to work.

I was the most worried about Jacob. I thought that perhaps he would be disappointed in one of his gifts.


Nope. He LOVED it.


Now, before you shoot me, just know that Alayna did get other "girly" things. But Hubby thought we should wrap up her new bike tires and give them as a gift as well.

Once again I was surprised at how happy she was with them!

She does love her bike though and was sad when the tires gave out.




Okay, worst picture EVER of Joseph. But I wanted to post it anyway because I loved the other kids faces so much.




I guess I didn't take any other pictures of Savannah's gifts. Oops.


Shared gifts!



Books!


Lots of family stuff!



My favorite thing of all was when Hubby and I opened our gifts from the kids.


Hahaha! I just couldn't stop laughing!


After presents and stockings were unloaded, we tried out my new waffle maker!

I even decided to give one of the waffle hacks a shot.


The eggs cooked pretty well and the kids thought it was fun!

Except Claira.

She refused to touch the "weird eggs" because they were "eestusting"!

All-in-all, we had a lot of fun!


So the rest of Christmas break looked at lot like this:


The kinetic sand was a hit!



Until they started leaving their creations out on the floor (the table was full of other Christmas projects) and Jackson thought it was hilarious to throw it around the kitchen.

*banging head on table*


To Be Continued.....

January 12, 2015

Catching up on Christmas ~ Part 1



Writing about Christmas before January is over? Boo-yah! Clearly I am on a roll this year!

Or not.

But lets just all pretend, okay?

As you know, I have been a lame-brain this last year (terminology taken from "Houseboat" with Cary Grant) and didn't decorate our house for a single holiday.

*gasp* Mortifying. I had to eat a whole bag of chocolate to make myself feel better about it.

But before you come after me with pitchforks and torches, I will have you know that I really stepped up for Christmas.

I even went so far as to bust out the tree. *patting self on back*


Even if that tree is STILL the not quite 6-foot thing Hubby and I bought our first Christmas.

I prop it up in food storage boxes so it appears taller.

I think it does wonders for its self-esteem.


Jackson was pretty enthralled with the whole thing,



In past years I have tried to have some semblance of order on the tree.

This year I gave up on that entirely and just let the kids do their thing.


Okay, so I DID move around a couple ornaments. But only when there were ten or more snowflakes on the same branch.



And for the first time ever, Hubby put the lights on the house! Wahoo!


I have always done it in the past.

Except last year. Having a nine month pregnant woman waddling around the roof top would not have have been the best idea.

Interesting? Sure.

Terrifying? No doubt.

But definitely not wise.

I have my moments.


And yes, the kids have their roller blades on. Because that's what you do right? Roller blade in the frigid air because there's no snow yet?


While I may have stepped up in the decorating department, I managed to fail Christmas Eve.

This is my family eating dinner Christmas Eve.


I know everyone looks incredibly grouchy (except Jackson) but I promise they weren't.

Well okay, Claira was.


What were they eating?


Frozen, (well, cooked of course) from a box!

*hanging head in shame*

I'm not even the one who cooked it. Hubby did!

In my defense though, I was gone a lot of the day.

*sigh* Okay, lame excuse.


After our rather fabulous holiday meal, Hubby watched "White Christmas" for the first time ever!


Yes, Claira. I'll take your picture,


Where was I? Oh yes.

So we all watched "White Christmas".


Jackson especially loved the singing and dancing.


We may have to watch is all year long just so Jackson can bust out his dance moves.

After the movie was over, the kids tackled me and frantically exclaimed that we hadn't made chocolate covered carrots for the reindeer!

Seriously, cookies for Santa was an after-thought.


I can't remember who's fault it is that this tradition even got started.

Mine, or Savannah's.

I'll just blame her.


Jackson, what are you doing?




Ta da!


Jacob said the carrots were specifically for Comet, and that next year we could make carrots for the other reindeer. 

I seriously doubt Comet was allowed to play reindeer games later that night.


Well, we eventually were able to convince the kids NOT to sleep in the living room, and NOT to sneak upstairs because they thought we had gone to sleep.

So Santa was finally able to come by.




And hubby and I actually made it to bed by midnight.

We rewarded ourselves by eating chocolate-covered carrots.




Just kidding.
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