Christmas Roundup

Last post of 2013.  Alas I did not post nearly as much as I wanted, but there is always next year!  I hope to post more than once a month in 2014.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind. We squeezed as much into our Christmas season as possible.  We had a play date with our dear friends, the Ketchums.  We went to the girls' daycare open house.  We went to the Nutcracker.  Matt took the girls to see the movie, Frozen, and we visited with family.  In between all of that, Matt and I worked, we shopped, and we wrapped!  Then of course there was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  (A significant portion of Christmas Eve was also spent wrapping, and Matt even did some shopping!)  So here are our stories.

Our friend, Hollie, offered to have a play date with the girls, while we shopped a couple of weeks before Christmas.  It was awesome.  Matt and I were really able to get a lot accomplished that afternoon.  And the girls had a wonderful time!  Hollie being the creative and prepared one that she is had cute, holiday activities planned for the kids.  They made little "stained glass" votive holders, Christmas ornaments, gift bags, and other neat things.  And most all, they got to spend time with their friends.  Hannah just misses Quinn so much.  So she absolutely loves getting together to play with her.

We also went to the girls' open house at daycare.  They always have a lot of fun activities in each class room, and of course, Santa Claus was there.  The highlight was Hannah's class singing Feliz Navidad at the beginning of the evening.  It was awesome!  Then they went into each classroom to make ornaments and decorations and decorate cookies. They even got some reindeer food!  Emma located her favorite teacher, Laura, early in the evening and was attached to her at the hip, literally.  We had to pry her away from Laura when it was time to go the other building to see Santa.   They were very excited to see Santa.  Hannah was quite nervous, but she did good.  Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of it handy; they are on Matt's other camera.

Alan, Jayne, Josh, Chelsea, and Steve came over the Thursday before Christmas.  Jayne brought the girls big stuffed horses, which of course, were a huge hit.  They were galloping around on them.  Even little Emma likes to ride her horse.  She walks around with it between her legs and says, "ga-lop, ga-lop".  We had a nice time visiting with everyone.

Then on Saturday, we took Laura and Hannah to see the Nutcracker.  We took them to a fancy dinner at G. Michael's first, which was a quasi success.  The food was, as usual, awesome!  But the kids would have been just as happy with McDonalds.  They had crab cakes and green beans, and they did OK but really didn't eat that much of it.  They absolutely LOVED the Nutcracker.  Our seats were fourth row from the stage, and when the curtain went up for the first time, their eyes were as wide as they could be.  They were mesmorized the whole time.  Hannah was exhausted and struggling to stay awake by the end.  But she was determined not to miss anything and never fell asleep.  Not surprisingly they have practiced their dancing several times since.

Monday before Christmas we went to Matt's mom's in Logan to visit her, Michael, and Wendy.  We had a nice visit, and the kids made some crafts with clothespins and stickers.  We enjoyed some good food and company.

And just like that, it was Christmas Eve, and we had not wrapped all of the gifts.  Now - we had started Sunday night and made good progress.  And we had planned to be done Monday night, but Emma decided that she is not going to be a good sleeper anymore.  We tried to get her down for 2 hours, and she would not go.  So she slept on top of Matt the whole night!  Hence no wrapping was accomplished.  Christmas Eve was a frenzy.  Matt and I took turns wrapping and tending kids.  He even went out to run errands and shop too.  We had to leave for Mass at 3:00, so we had to start getting ready at 1:00.  By the time we got to church, I was frazzled to say the least.  But we made it, and it was enjoyable the rest of the evening.

Our tree this year.

We went to the children's mass, and Father Bob read Piper's First Christmas to the children at the alter for the homily.  Laura and Hannah went up to the front.  Then as soon as Hannah made to the front, she turned around and came right back.  She was too afraid I guess, or maybe there just weren't any snacks, so she wasn't interested.  I don't know, but she found her way back on her own.  After church, we went to Ellen's house for the evening.  She had cooked us dinner and other treats, and we had a fun evening.

Christmas morning was as awesome as it could possibly be!  Laura and Hannah woke up at 7:45, not too terribly early.  They were so excited.  We came downstairs and opened gifts for awhile.  Matt and I loved watching them open each gift and get excited.  Laura had gotten each of us a gift at her Secret Santa Shop at school.  Matt's was particularly touching.  She told the helpers that her daddy liked to watch Ohio State football games.  So she chose an Ohio State sled Christmas ornament for him.  He loved it.  It was so sweet.  Emma didn't wake up until about 10:00am ish.  I guess she was tired from a late night Christmas Eve and from a late night the previous night when she didn't want to go to sleep.  Either way, when she woke up, we let her open her gifts.  I was surprised how well she did unwrapping gifts.  She loved it.  Then the girls played with their gifts for awhile while Matt put toys together.  We ate breakfast and had to hurry to get ready and head up to Papa and Grammy's.  We had an enjoyable afternoon there, eating, opening presents, and visiting.  It was a perfect day.

As soon as Emma saw Great Grammy sit down with her pie, she toddled over as fast as she could to get some!

This one is actually not Christmas day.  It's a week or so before Christmas, and Hannah was making a crib for baby Jesus (Ernie).  The construction paper was the straw.

In addition to all of the fun activities we did during this season, we also spent plenty of time just watching our favorite shows and reading our favorite books.  The favorite book and movie of this season was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  I bet we watched it at least four times.  And I can't even count the number of times I read the book.  We also watched Santa Claus several times this season, along with Christmas Vacation of course.  It was a great Christmas, and we still have a few get togethers with friends to go.  Even though it was busy, it was worth it.  The years just keep going faster, and I want to make as many memories as possible with my kids and enjoy every holiday to the maximum.

Another year in the books.  Here's to a new year with new memories and good times with those we love!

Christmas Festivities

The Christmas season is in full swing here!  I'm trying to think back over the last couple of weeks, and everything is a blur.  (Of course, I have blocked out the awful football game last weekend.  As far as I'm concerned, the last game of the season was that glorious win over tsun.)  Matt and I have enjoyed shopping, decorating and preparing so far.  Last weekend could not have been more perfect.

It started with a snow day for Laura on Friday.  We got dumped on by mother nature, which made for a fun day for the kids.  They played outside in the snow with the neighbor girl, even little Emma.  Emma really wanted to swing on her swingset, but I couldn't get her boot through the leg hole in her swing!  She did go down the slide a few times though.  She really couldn't run well in the snow, so she couldn't keep up.  And she got frustrated.  When they were worn out, they came in for some cocoa and cookies of course!

Earlier that day, Laura and Hannah iced and decorated cookies from Cheryl's that a friend gave them.  It was a great afternoon activity.  Matt started decorating the house, while the girls and I worked on the icing.  He set up the Christmas village and the mantle.  It started to look festive in our house.

Then on Sunday, we went to church early and met my parents afterwards.  Then we all headed down for our annual trip to Saum's Tree Farm in Amanda.  We have been going there for about five years.  The girls walked around looking for their tree.  Every one that Laura picked, Hannah didn't like and vice versa.  After a while, it was getting cold, so Mom made the final decision!  It turned out good.  Laura told me a couple nights ago, that she wasn't sure about this tree in the beginning, but she likes it now.  We got it home, and it was decorating time!  The girls really enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree this year.  I couldn't believe how fast it went, with them able to hang ornaments!  They each liked to hang the ornaments that they had made in past years and ones that had their names on them.  Emma entertained herself by pulling stockings and garland and other house decorations out of a tub.  Shockingly she really has not tried to take ornaments off the tree of take pieces out of the Christmas village.  She has tried to take Johnny, our Elf a couple of times, but that has been the extent of her destruction.  She must know Santa is watching!  So now, the house is all decorated, and we are getting more and more excited!

This week Laura shopped in Santa's Secret Workshop at school.  She bought some gifts for us and brought them home to put under the tree.  She is so looking forward to giving them to us.  She tried to convince Matt to just let her give them to us now, but he held out and told her to wait til Christmas.  She's growing up so fast.

Last night we went to the Christmas open house at Hannah's and Emma's school.  The kids had a great time.  It started with Hannah's class singing a song, Feliz Navidad, Matt's favorite.  She was so sweet!  Then they got to do all sort of activities in each room, like cookie decorating, ornament making, etc.  And finally, there was a visit from Santa, which was probably the highlight.

Hannah is saying some funny things lately.  She will tell one her jokes, and then she will end it with, "Wa wa Wa Waaa."  It's hilarious.  She has been playing with Emma so well lately too.  She will try to play barbies or babies with her.  But it usually ends with Emma stealing one of her dolls, and then Hannah crying or yelling.  Emma usually just wants to play chase.

Emma is developing verbally by leaps and bounds lately.  She is really starting to say everyone's names.  For awhile it was just mama, dada and rara (Laura).  Now she says ana (Hannah) and onna (Donna, her teacher).  She will even say small phrases.  When I give her fruit snacks (her most favorite thing) or her sippy cup, she will say, "Thsss (thank you) mama."  It's so sweet.  When she doesn't want something, she says, "nananana."  She is still quite physical.  She will hit and scratch and lash out in any way when she's mad.  She doesn't bite as often, but she still does it once in a while.  She got Hannah tonight.  Poor Hannah is usually her victim around here.  She is such a good sister.  She always comes back to her and gives her hug to let her know that she forgives her.

One of the kids favorite activities in the past several weeks is playing Uno at night.  Laura got it for her birthday, which I may have mentioned in a previous post.  But anyway, they love it, and we have to finish each evening with a couple of rounds.

Another favorite thing right now is the sponge rollers.  Laura likes to have me put in the sponge rollers in her hair after her bath at night.  We don't do it every night, since it's kind of time consuming and our time in the evenings is limited.  But we did it one night this week, and of course Hannah wanted  it too.  So I put some rollers in her hair too, even though it's already curly.  Well after I was done with both girls, Emma plopped herself right in front of me.  I said, "Oh, you want curlers too?"  And she nodded her head yes.  So I put a couple of rollers in her hair.  Then she promptly got up and started dancing around the living room.  Let me tell you her dances are hilarious.  She holds her hands up in the air in front of her and moves them like a rapper, and then she has this slow motion up down move with her legs.  It is so funny!  And she loves to dance.  So whenever any music is playing, on the TV, radio, or even in church, she is doing this move.  I will have to catch it on video sometime to preserve it for all posterity, or at least to embarrass her later in life :)


A random picture of all of the girls stuffed in a car cart at Kroger.