Christmas

We were mean parents this year.  We aren't an early bird family, and church was a nine so we weren't going to wake up early just to open presents.  Buddy says he woke up at six and saw the clock but we didn't hear any kids up until 7:30 or 7:45.  We slowly got up, ate a normal breakfast and got dressed for church.  Had church been the normal three hours, we might have been nice and opened presents before, but church was only one hour today so we figured they could wait.  They got to pull one thing out of their stocking before they went out the door. 

An hour of church that was actually really nice, lots of singing, even with Buddy bouncing excitedly next to me wanting it to be over.  Then we hurried home and back into PJs so we could recreate Christmas morning like we'd just woken up.  The kids sat at the top of the stairs and drank a glass of orange juice waiting for us to tell them they could come down.

And then chaos (or as Princess Sparkley says, "CH-A-Ose") ensued.

To sum it all up: Legos, more Legos, movies, more movies, Star Wars guys, Rapunzel people, doll bunkbeds (made my Grandpa M), doll bedding (made by Grandma M), books, camping supplies, cooking gadgets, sleeping bags, clothes, candy, more Legos, more candy, strange food requests (Buddy: baloney, Little Guy: Cheese balls, and PS, so she wasn't left out of the weird food from Santa, syrup to make Strawberry milk) and some puzzles. 

Christmas Eve

The kids spent all day staring at presents under the tree, debating which one they would open first, bargaining with their siblings ("I'll open your present first if you open mine first,"etc.), and if you were Little Guy, declaring "I'm opening all of my presents first."  Around 1:45PM, Buddy declared it the most annoying day ever because it should be 4PM and it wasn't even two yet!!  And finally the day turned dark and the festivities could begin.

We started by eating out at a Chinese restaurant across town.  This is our third year going there on Christmas Eve and I think it was the first time we haven't been the only customers.  There was an older couple at the table next to us who complimented us on how well behaved our kids were when they left.  That was nice of them.

After dinner, we came home, read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened family presents.  Typically we would open all non-Santa presents on Christmas Eve.  This year we restricted it to just immediate family presents so Christmas Day would have most of the presents.  We mixed it up a bit this year too by starting with the youngest, having each person hand out the presents they got for everyone.  I liked doing it this way I think.

Then off to bed, making sure to leave a plate of cookies for Santa (as long as the Elf on a Shelf that Princess Sparkley made didn't eat them all first).

Holiday Photo Shoot

 B thought it would be funny to have Little Guy lounging across the coffee table in the middle of the picture.  Each of the big kids needed a turn as well.

Holiday picture photo shoot one.  I didn't realize until we were done that I'd taped the Santa hat ball on backwards. Argh!

Merry Christmas!

 

click to enlarge

Winter Art

Snowglobe (idea from here)

If I lived in a snow globe... I would make hot chocolate and go sledding every day. I would also play with my Husky!

If I lived in a snowglobe... it would snow all day and I would probably build snowmans.

If I lived in a snowglobe... I would drink lots of hot chocolate because it snows every day in there. I would also play in the snow a lot. I would probably make a HUGE sledding hill.

Snowmen from a different perspective (idea from here)

by Princess Sparkley

by Buddy

by Little Guy

We had some homeschool friends over for a low key

Christmas party when we made the above snowmen. 

 

And I had the kids draw a roof top scene from The Night Before Christmas. (idea from my brain)

by Princess Sparkley

by Little Guy (he didn't have room for reindeer so he drew an engine on his sled. And Santa is throwing snowballs.)

by Buddy

Next week we're doing this and drinking hot chocolate.

Nativity

Our Fisher Price nativity scene has repeatedly been taken over by plastic frogs.

Christmas in Town

Via friends on Facebook I found out that Santa would be riding to town on the VRE last Friday night and lighting the city Christmas tree.  The city parade would be the next morning (we skipped it this year). 
We saw a bunch of trains roll into town (mostly carrying commuters).  It was crowded.  Finally through whispers and shouts in the crowd we realized Santa had gotten off the train and was making his way toward a tractor drawn hayride to head towards the tree lighting.  I was able to lift the two older kids enough that they could spot Mr. and Mrs. Santa's heads.  B had Little Guy.

Then we ran into our friends the Js and walked over to the tree lighting with them and their three little ones.  Afterwards, they came over to help finish up the pumpkin squares I had leftover from book club the night before. 

Christmas Decorating

I'm not usually in the habit of decorating so soon after Thanksgiving*, but I'm hosting book club at my house on Thursday, so for Family Home Evening last night we decorated (everything but the tree). 

I got to hang up my stockings board you'll remember from here.  And, I created a Christmas countdown all on my own, sort of... I got help from  this and this. 

Here's a zoom in on my countdown.  Behind each number (which I'll upgrade as soon as I decide what I really want them to look like) is an activity such as: drink hot chocolate, warm PJs in dryer before bedtime, drive around to see Christmas lights, bake cookies, etc.)  The kids helped paint or cover the clothes pins, come up with activities, and colored the numbers for me.

*Last year, we went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and I was hosting book club at my house just a day or two after we got home, so we actually decorated before we left town, BEFORE Thanksgiving.  That's given Princess Sparkley some crazy ideas.

Christmas Lists

Princess Sparkley's list can be found here
Buddy's list can be found here

But since Little Guy "I thought I did have blog" doesn't actually have a blog... here's his list*:

Mace Windu Jedi Starfighter - Lego
Grievious Chase - Lego
Slave One - Lego Star Wars
Utz Cheese balls
Cars 2 - Tokyo International Circuit Lego ($84)
Cars 2 dvd
Any of the bad guy car action figures from Cars 2
Cars 2 - Escape at Sea Lego ($19)
Storm Trooper Star Wars guy (by Galactic Hero like this but Target has them too in packs of two or with ships)
Hoth Echo Base Star Wars Lego ($84)
Sith Night Speeder Star Wars Lego ($24)
Jedi Defense 1 AND 2 ($60 and $30)
Lego Road Construction Building Set (here) (for ages 4+)
Sleeping Bag (one that can actually keep him warm on a camping trip)


*Little Guy's list was compiled by PS while he pointed at the Lego catalog.  Please, don't buy him $60 Lego sets or anything else that is ridiculously expensive. 

Ornaments

As we were taking down the Christmas decorations I decided I should document which ornaments were gifts which years. For the most part, I've written it on the ornament box or on the ornament itself, but as you can see, there's still one question mark year for me and some of the others were educated guesses.



Little Guy was my helper, you can see his hand in some pictures. The ornaments work their way from left to right, youngest to oldest.

I need to do this with the books we exchange with each family at Christmas on B's side. Now that it's become a pretty regular thing, I'm worried that I'm going to give the same book twice.

There were a few years where we exchanged ornaments as gifts with B's family. Here's 2006:



And last year, we went to The Nutcracker in Richmond with the P family and Grandma and Grandpa M. The Ms bought Buddy and Princess Sparkley each an ornament. I think we figured Little Guy was too little to care.

Santas

Since Princess Sparkley was busily earning her Nutcracker badge, I had to come up with a similar, first grade type assignment for Buddy. We read a book about Santa and then Buddy had to draw me four different Santas that all looked very different from each other.



Top left: Mrs. Claus
Top right: Santa
Bottom left: Policeman Santa
Bottom right: another Policeman Santa

Can you tell what this kid is obsessed with?

The Nutcracker

To secretly help Princess Sparkley earn a Nutcracker Girl Scout badge (that she got for Christmas), I had to give her assignments that she thought were school related and specific to 3rd grade since Buddy only had to draw one picture while she had to create a dance, draw several pictures, read the story, etc. Here are their Nutcracker pictures.


by Buddy
The different faces across the top are Buddy's interpretations of the first few songs on the soundtrack and how they make him feel.


by Princess Sparkley

Away in a Manger

As part of a homeschool art/language arts lesson, we read the Christmas story and looked at different artists interpretations of the nativity scene. Then the kids drew their own.


by Princess Sparkley



by Buddy

Playing with Christmas Presents

Light Saber fights.
Lego building.
Puzzle building.
Princess Sparkley looking at her new fancy cupcake decorating book.
Little Guy being a super hero and jumping off the 2nd step.

2010 Ornaments

On Christmas Eve Eve we open ornaments. This year only the kids got new ornaments because our tree is small and we own A LOT of ornaments already. I've done a bad job recording and marking the ornaments each year so I figured the best way to remember what the kids get each year is to take pictures of them with their ornaments.


Princess Sparkley- a snowglobe-esque snowman.
Buddy - a soccer playing snowman.
Little Guy- a Santa flying a glittery airplane.

Tree Pillow

Sorry, couldn't post this until after Christmas presents had been opened
... presents made with love for Grandparents.


Grandma and Grandpa L
(button tree = top two right hand corner pictures)
Idea from here.
The big kids helped sew on some of the buttons while Little Guy dumped all the buttons out, sorted them and handed them all to me. I think for my kids' ages and abilities, we should have done something more like this or this. Or just made a smaller tree with less buttons. I didn't realize how out of hand and heavy the fabric would get with all the buttons.

Grandma and Grandpa M
(embroidered tree accented with fabric markers)
Princess Sparkley started this as a project at Activity Days at church. She designed it herself, embroidered it, and colored in some of the intricate details she'd designed with fabric markers. Then we were out of town for Thanksgiving the week they finished it and I never heard back from any of the leaders on what to do... so we just made it into a pillow our way.

Candy cane pillow. Idea from here.
We made a set for each set of grandparents. Each kid drew me a candy cane that I used as the template for one pillow per set. PS's candy cane is the red ho-ho-ho one. Buddy's is red and white striped. Little Guy's is red, white and green striped. Buddy and PS and even Little Guy helped stuff the first set of candy canes. Then they lost steam and I finished up that set and the second set.

Christmas Morning

Waiting on the top step to drink a glass of orange juice (B's family tradition) before going down to see the Santa presents.




Top left corner. With some Mod Podge stuff, scrapbook paper, and a weekday pill organizer, I made Princess Sparkley a necklace organizer.

Little Guy hugging a soccer ball pillow (which wasn't actually a Christmas gift) while wearing THREE soccer ball whistles, which were high on his Santa list. (The one he actually wanted is just like one Buddy has and is shaped like a soccer ball, but we found a three pack of whistles with a soccer ball on them for $1, and that was perfect for him.)

PS with an Our Generation Doll. She got one from family and one from Santa!

Buddy opening a giant box. He was super excited about how big it was. Inside... a giant container of cheese balls!

Buddy with his Lego airplane from Santa.

Little Guy with a short cape I made him. The big kids have capes that they wear now and then and have been wearing lately. So I made him one but the inside fabric is trucks and tractors and had to be a certain direction and I only had 1/2 a yard in my fabric box... so he got a short cape. But I customized it with an L for him. He liked the idea until I buttoned it on him.