Kim made us do a Christmas card this year. She said it's the rule when you move. Obviously we're not in it. Who would've made the kids smile and taken the picture?
After a couple hours of swimming and rock climbing at the gym the kids still had patience for "ginger bread" houses Friday night. They were so proud of their graham cracker houses - theses are maybe half the pictures they beckoned us to take. We debated forgoing this event because it just feels really messy and wasteful ... okay, I was tired and didn't want to do it. But, I'm glad Kim made us do it.
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| Looks like Myles heard something inside his house and got the side of his head stuck. |
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| Confidence is key! |
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| Got milk, er ... meringue frosting? You can always count on Myles to have something. |
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| Ethan quickly changed construction methods after observing two crackers stacked vertically on each other hardly support themselves. |
Christmas Eve morning was spent prepping and cooking food, cleaning, crafting, and getting ready to go to mass. Yes, a Catholic mass. We decided going to our own church Sunday morning was not going to fit in the day's plans. Christmas only falls on Sunday once every 6 or 7 years. Our first mass was interesting. We value new experiences and opportunities to learn about and from others and wish to pass that on to our kids. Now I know where the Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan's version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen comes from :-) ... or visa versa, either way, it was fun to sing, as were the other familiar Christmas hymns. We came home and opened our family drawing gifts that we made for each other.
Kim will blog about that because that's her favorite part of Christmas.
Christmas morning began with Cedar crawling into our bed at some middle-of-the-night hour. She has a stuffy nose so her breathing made us all not sleep very well. At 6:00 she asked me if I could get the boogers out. I helped her get in the shower while Kim slept. Cedar thought she saw a bug or a spider. I poked my head in past the cold shower curtain and didn't see anything. I told her to sing The Eency Weency Spider. A few seconds later she started to scream and cry while still singing the words. She jumped out of the shower. She showed the "spider" to me. I told her it was a coffee ground from the body scrub she made (with Kim's help). The falling water made it jump around looking like a spider or insect ... and a VERY small one at that. Cedar was happier with the boogers out and crawled back into our bed. I took my shower since it was too late to go back to bed.
Fast forward - the rest of the kids made it downstairs to see what Santa brought and put in their stockings. I went upstairs to turn the heat on and found dog vomit in the family room where Christmas morning was to be spent. First things first .... then we made the kids wait even longer by making them eat a great huge breakfast that Kim made. We just know hungry children turn into monsters and ruin everything, so to prevent that Kim made French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. With that the kids didn't seem to mind waiting a little longer. But enough was enough and very soon after breakfast they were ready. They put the presents into piles and Ethan complained (with control) that we always go from youngest to oldest. At last, the result of much work, thought, time, and energy of giving became noticeable as anticipation turned into smiles and exclamations of gratitude.
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| waiting for breakfast with an appetizer stocking orange in the sled Santa brought |
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| warming up his bum over a heater vent |
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| Her first Barbie - thanks Grandma Hendricks |
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| Her first motorized kitten :-) |
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| Kim proudly stated several times how she did not worry about the mess. |
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