Christmas Eve

Here are Memere and Papa with the six grandkids right before Christmas Eve dinner. We have a tradition on my side of the family to get together Christmas Eve for dinner and gift giving. Therefore, both my sister's family and mine celebrate Christmas Day with our in-laws. It is nice that we can see everyone on both sides of the family each year at this holy time.

Earlier in the day (actually, it was the night before since my dh had to work Christmas Eve, but I forgot that until just now and I'm not going to reload all these photos again) we did present opening with my parents (Memere and Papa) and my sister's family. We always do that separately from our aunts and uncles and our cousins. We used to do it Christmas Day before we were married.

"How great our joy! JOY JOY JOY!!!"

Baby Bear did not get into the spirit of present opening. He waited for someone to open his gifts and then played with them. These are just a few of the wonderful new toys they received.
He got two phones from my sister and her family. TWO!!! He had no problem texting with both hands. They also gave him some really cute clothes.One of Baby Bear's gifts from Memere and Papa was this really cool rocket tent. He really enjoys playing with it. Brother also enjoys it quite a bit.Sister received all three High School Musical movies from Memere and Papa! She loves them. How did we go from princesses to American Girls to High School Musical so quickly? She's only seven! Oh well.Memere and Papa also gave her the cd player (Boom Boom Box as she calls it) she's been wanting. Let it be known, we all have every High School Musical song memorized (from all three movies) since she also received the soundtracks from my sister's family. It's also been tough to tear her from her room since Christmas. If only she'd keep the volume down!Memere and Papa got Brother the Buz Lightyear he's been wanting. It has a laser light, wings that pop out, and talks! (Baby Bear began coveting it and Santa had to quickly send a rush order to the elves at the workshop for Christmas Day).Brother also received this HUGE and, of course, fabulous gun from my sister's family. Cousin J, was more than willing to put it together for him. Boys and their toys.

What a wonderful time we had. We're looking forward to seeing them all again in January for Cousin E's baptism. Oh boy!

December Crafting

One of the many things I did to entertain the kiddos during their Christmas break was pull out the ol' waterpaints. I feel awful saying this, but I believe this was the first time poor Baby Bear had ever gotten to actually paint. He loved the idea of it, but didn't do much actual painting. Mainly he just tapped the brush on things or tried to eat it.Sister, on the other hand, loves to paint. She really loves crafting of all types. As you can see, in only a brief time she'd covered many coffee filters (we had tons left over from our clothespin ornaments) with color. Then, she took out some large white paper and made a pretty garden painting on it to give to Grandma. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of the finished product.Brother was not interested in painting at all. He chose to play with playdough instead. As you can see, he's not really big on "making" anything. Mainly, he enjoys rolling it, covering things with it, and cutting it up. Fun was had by all and fortunately not too big of a mess was made. Yippee!

Christmas Ornaments

We made our annual Christmas ornaments for the grandparents today. I hadn't really expected it to take all day, but since it did, I'm glad we waited until vacation began. It actually went really smoothly considering how long it took, how difficult it turned out to be, and how little there was that Brother and Baby Bear could do on them. Sister is quite the crafty girl and made hers almost completely on her own.

We always make a set for each pair of grandparents and also one for Mom. Sister actually made two for Mommy since she decided to make each of the grandparents a different color. I only have photos of the gold and pink/red color since I had to go back to the craft store this evening to get silver glitter paint and silver ribbon for the blue angel as gold was the original plan for all of them. (I must admit, the silver and blue is very pretty, though.)

Brother decided his Toy Soldier had to have a sword. Actually, he wanted a sword, lance, and riffle for his soldier, but settled for just a sword).

Sister really liked picking colors of paint, glitter, and designs for hers. She also embelished each by writing a song into the song book. She was very disappointed that you can't really read it very well on the ornament. Still, it's the little touches that make an ornament special.

Baby Bear didn't really help make his snowman, but he did enjoy the extra snacks all day as Mommy needed him to stop grabbing at the paints and glitter.As you can see, the kids had a pj day today. Unfortunately, Mommy had to break down and get dressed to get that silver glitter paint and ribbon from Michaels. Too bad people think badly of you for wearing pjs in public.

Christmas Programs!

Both of the big kids had Christmas programs this past week. Sister's concert was on Thursday evening. It was really wonderful. The entire school sang several times together and the selection of songs was fabulous. Big time kuddos to the new music teacher (though we did enjoy the previous one and wish her well in her retirement).

Brother's class participated in a pageant along with the junior high group. It was really fun to see all the boys dressed up as shepherds and the girls as angels. Sister enjoyed participating in the sing-a-long; she refused to go up onto the stage, but used our decorative candle as a microphone. Memere, Papa, and Baby Bear were great audiences for both performances.
After the pageant, Santa came by as a surprise. The Knights of Columbus also supplied gift bags from Santa, a magician, and someone to make balloon animals (such as Brother's reindeer).
The three kids had no problem letting Santa know what they wanted even though this is the third one they've seen now this December. You have to say something three times for someone to remember, right? Baby Bear even sort of liked this Santa. At least he's gotten used to sitting on a strange man with hair covering his face enough to eat his candy cane calmly. He even almost smiled at Santa. We're almost ready for Christmas at our house. Just a couple more jobs on our list and then it's celebration time.

The Fire Truck Santa Stops By

We gave the kids their Christmas pajamas early so they'd be able to wear them when Santa came by riding the fire truck on Tuesday night. As you can see, the boys' pajamas are Buz Lightyear and Sister's doll has a matching nightgown. They loved them and with as cold as it's been around here lately, they needed some additional pairs of warm pajamas. We had to hunt down Santa a couple neighborhoods away because he was taking too long and the kids were up way past their school night bedtime. Brother was the first to jump up on the truck to see Santa. Fire trucks and Santa all wrapped into one was Brother's idea of a great time. I think he did tell Santa a couple things he wanted for Christmas in between questions about the truck and asking if he could drive it. (For those of you wondering, that was a no.)

As you can see in this next shot, the Grinch also rides around with Santa. He's a pretty nice Grinch since he brings dog treats for your pets, but the kids are more scared of him than Santa Claus.

Sister was next, after I forced her up there. She actually sat and told Santa what she wanted, but kept a close eye out to make sure the Grinch didn't return. Baby Bear didn't enjoy Santa at all. Fortunately, Santa was very understanding and we just snapped the photo and moved on.

Then it was home to bed to have some sweet dreams about fire trucks, Christmas, and candy canes waiting to be eaten (since they'd already had their teeth brushed that night). Fortunately, they were all ready to go in their comfy, warm pjs.

Christmas Cookie Decorating

It's December, so it must be time for the annual cookie decorating party with Grandma and her best friend, Betty! On Sunday we headed north right after mass to join Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle B at Betty and Del's house for some Christmas cookie decorating. Grandma and Betty have been getting together to decorate cookies since Daddy was a very little boy. Baby Bear had fun playing with Uncle B while the big kids started working on their cookies.

Daddy decorated some cookies too. If you don't decorate, you can't eat is the rule.Here's a shot of Grandma, Uncle B, Sister, and Betty decorating cookies.Grandpa let Baby Bear wear his hat. It's a tradition to get a photo of each of the kids in one of Grandpa's hats.

Baby Bear vetoed the decorating idea and decided cookies were best minus all that extra stuff.

Brother Bear decorated his required number of cookies so he could eat some, then watched one of his favorite movies on Uncle B's portable dvd player, Kung Fu Panda.

Sister was quite the cookie artist this year. She decorated 13 cookies and used many different techniques including painting the frosting on with a paint brush.

A little down time for Mommy and Daddy while Baby Bear takes his afternoon nap on Mom.

Grandma shows Baby Bear Betty's tree.

Thank you to Grandma and Betty for another fun Christmas cookie decorating party!

Next year we'll have to send Sister to it earlier since she has now graduated to a cookie decorating artist.

Santa Visit

Last Saturday we went and visited Santa at one of our local tree farms. As my kids have never been thrilled to "sit on Santa's lap" we haven't paid to see a Santa since Sister's first Christmas. Baby Bear had to be bribed with candy canes to stop screaming and let go of my shirt so I could step away and get a photo. Brother and Sister both had their "lists" ready for Santa when asked.

After visiting Santa, we went out back to see the reindeer. Unfortunately they weren't in their pen. Maybe it was too cold for them. Fortunately, I was able to get a good photo of the three kiddos for our Christmas card this year. Baby Bear had to be bribed with my cell phone to stay in the photo after Brother had tried to "hold" him which is why Baby Bear's shirt is untucked. All in all, I'm just thankful they are all smiling and in one place. My expectations for photo sessions have certainly decreased as the number of children in the photo has increased.
We've been lucky to have some beautiful sunny weather, though it has been extremely cold for around here (down to 6 degrees a couple nights). They are predicting snow soon. We just pray the snow doesn't keep family from joining us again this Christmas like last year.

Here's a quick update on Baby Bear. He was approved for the RSV (a respiratory illness that can be especially dangerous for children under two-years-old) vaccine again this year. It requires a total of five shots in a four month period of time. He has another tooth that started coming in earlier this week. Most of the time, he thinks he's a big boy. It's difficult for him to accept that he has to sit in a carseat instead of a booster, a high chair instead of a regular chair at the dinner table, and when he's in a group of kids, he'll always go with the bigger kids rather than playing with the ones his own age.

A Thanksgiving Full of Family

This year brought quite a few changes and some new traditions to our annual Thanksgiving celebration. Obviously, we missed Great Aunt Sissy (my grandmother's sister) who passed away shortly after Thanksgiving last year. In addition, we also missed my uncle, aunt, cousins, Lisa, and Tyson who celebrated up in Seattle this year. Fortunately, we'll see most of them on Christmas Eve.

The biggest tradition change this year was the location and turkey photo. For as long as I can remember, we've celebrated Thanksgiving at my uncle's house. Every year, the kids posed for a photo with Uncle G and the cooked turkey. Up until last year, even us (now much bigger kids) were in it as well as our children. This Thanksgiving that tradition transitioned. Here's the next generation of turkey photos. Our children and my dad (and mom) with the cooked bird.

The cousins had such a good time together, even though Cousin E looks like we're torturing him.The girls had fun playing with their American Girl dolls. The bigger boys set up an ambush for anyone who wanted to walk up the stairs. Baby Bear discovered his love of singing into a microphone.

Cousin M got her nails done. Do you like them? It's the new trend. (=Getting a photo of the five of us was much more work than it should have been. At least we got one shot that looks okay of everyone. It only took about twenty pictures and two cameras.

The cousins came up the day before Thanksgiving, so the kids had lots of playtime together.

Cousin M, Brother Bear, and Baby Bear in their "fort". Baby Bear loved being under it and spent most of the evening there. The two biggest kids had fun going on an adventure with a map. Fortunately, in the end, they found the treasure.

Little Momma M holding the two littlest ones. Baby Bear is almost a year older than his cousin E.