Christmas Day

I felt pretty unprepared going into Christmas this year.  It’s my second Christmas in a row that I’ve been pregnant and I lacked much motivation and energy for going all out.  Though let’s be honest, I'm not really the type to “go all out” even if I’m not busy growing a person.  Our decorations were minimal this year, we left most everything pack up in boxes and only took out the basic necessities.  The kids spent one evening after Thanksgiving fluffing the tree while Justin and I were out on a date and then on a separate night alone at home the girls stayed up late working hard on putting together a “surprise” for us.  When we got home they had several 3D paper snowflakes made for us to hang in the windows.  They made them last year as well and I love them!

As far as gifts we kept it fairly simple – as usual.  My Mom sent us money for each of the kids (and adults) and to be honest that covered mostly everything Justin and I purchased for the kids.  Santa on the other hand splurged and got the kids a Nintendo 3DS for them to share.  It’s been a huge hit and it’s been great to have a second DS in the house for the kids to play together with.

So onto Christmas Day.  As I mentioned we told the girls they couldn’t make a sound til 7:30am.  Right at 7:30am they were in our room asking if they could wake up Jason and Katie.  We told them to wait just a little bit longer.  I headed downstairs around 8am to get breakfast started and thought they would be down any minute.  Then I heard Justin getting in the shower – oh, the torture, right?  By the time he was done sprucing up, all four kids were sitting on the top of the stairs anxious to come down and see what Santa had brought them.

I had a little help with my stocking

By the time we were done with the stockings breakfast was ready.  We took a little break to enjoy breakfast and then it was time for presents.  The kids drew names again this year and were able to pick out a gift for their “Secret Santa”.

Abigail bought Katie a package of tootsie rolls and a etch-a-sketch

Carly picked out a “Candy Shop” book that she knew Abigail wanted

Jason got Carly the Jenga game

And Katie got Jason a nerf football

Abigail wanted to give each member of the family something.  For Jason’s gift she spent hours making a car out of paper and cardboard.  She found the instructions in a craft book we checked out from the library.  She painted the car green, crafted the wheels out of modeling clay, it was impressive and the thought and love behind it made it even more special.

Throughout the year whenever the kids would say they wanted something I told them to write it down.  So by the time December rolled around they had quite the list.  Most of the things were small and inexpensive.  In fact Abigail showed her list to someone and their reply was, “most of this stuff are things my parents will buy me anyhow.”  It may sound strange, but that comment made me happy.  It is so important to me that my kids don’t feel entitled to things.  Another proud mom moment was right before Abigail handed me her wish list she said, “I'm going to look through this and make sure they are things I'm going to use for awhile.”  How stinkin’ responsible is that?  That’s not so say she didn’t want anything big, she asked Santa for a iTouch, but she knew it was unlikely and let him know she would be happy with whatever he decided to give her. 

Carly just got a peek at the package of easy bake oven refills from Grandma Kesler. 

Jason’s favorite gift was a nerf gun.  Our first gun in the house.  He’s already had countless hours of entertainment from it; in fact it’s been a fun toy for the whole family.  (Did you notice Carly’s reaction in the background?)

Katie was thrilled to get her very own coloring book

And even more excited to find stickers inside

Abigail was excited to finally get a new winter coat

The girls will forever remember Christmas of 2012 as the year they scored mounds of duck tape.  They’ve already spent many, many hours creating with their stash.

As we were opening presents it started snowing – the perfect Christmas touch.  We stayed in our pajamas all day.  Played games.  Ate yummy food (and lots of candy).  Skyped with Grandma Kesler in Hong Kong.  And enjoyed spending time together as a family.  The kids were so happy with everything they received.  A perfect Christmas Day.  

Pre-Christmas

The days leading up to Christmas were filled with more fun parties and get togethers with friends.  There was also a bit of stress and drama.  Justin had been planning on taking Christmas Eve off, but then decided he’d rather go into work with the assumption and hope that they would let everyone go home early.  Like I’ve said, he’s all for getting “free stuff” and getting a few hours off of work while saving a PTO day was worth it… to him :)  Anyhow, turns out we had some last minute issues arise with a couch we {finally!} ordered for our family room.  Going into downtown Bellevue on Christmas Eve wasn’t at all what I wanted to do on Christmas Eve, but if we didn’t take care of it we’d have to wait til after the New Year.  So Bellevue it was.  Justin and I met up at a convenient park-n-ride.  As I got out to let Justin into the drivers seat I noticed a wallet on the ground.  My first inclination was to just ignore it, I didn’t need anything else to deal with that day, but of course we couldn’t.  Inside the wallet was a Microsoft ID so we tried to call Microsoft to track him down, but hello, it’s Christmas Eve!  Long story short, we finally got in touch with him via facebook and since he lived close to where we were we ended up driving it out to his house.  Yes, totally a good deed, but it still felt like a major inconvenience.  I felt really guilty leaving the kids home alone for hours on Christmas Eve, but not guilty enough to turn down Justin’s offer to go out for lunch after we’d finished at the furniture store.  Don’t worry the kids don’t mind – they got to watch Christmas movies and play the DS while we were gone – pure heaven for them.

Once back home it was time to start our Christmas Eve traditions.  First off, making cookies for Santa.

Carly’s “don’t take a picture” of me face

Oh, there it is again

I had been planning on making potato soup in bread bowls for dinner (a Holly friendly take-off from the Hipwell tradition of clam chowder), but our late lunch didn’t leave Justin or I very hungry.  I think the kids ended up with a fancy Christmas Eve dinner consisting of various leftovers.

After dinner we introduced a few more ornaments from our “25 days of Christ” activity and read the story of Christ’s birth from the family bible my family read from each Christmas.  

We talked about acting out the nativity – the kids determined I would be the ideal Mary (being “great with child”) and Justin would be a fitting donkey :)  In the end though we just listened to Justin read the scripture passages. 

I mentioned last year that I wanted to start the tradition of having the kids open pajamas on Christmas Eve.  It almost didn’t happen, but the girls pajamas arrived via UPS that very day and Justin was able to pick some up for Katie that afternoon.  The kids loved their new jammies!

Jason was being really silly that night - likely a combination of Christmas excitement and too many sugar cookies

Before heading up to bed, the kids put out their letters to Santa and a plate of cookies.  I was particularly impressed with Jason’s drawing on the right.  He’s becoming quite the artist.

Abigail and Carly have requested that I not post the inside of their letters this year. 

The kids were in bed by 8pm and we didn’t hear a peep from any of them til morning at our agreed upon time of 7:30am.

Ice-Skating

Justin came home from work on Thursday with free ice-skating passes.  Since Justin was taking Friday off we decided it would be fun for the girls to invite a friend to join them on the rink.   I’m not much of a skater myself and it’s certainly not something I’m willing to endeavor while pregnant.   We had one pass leftover that we offered to Jason, but he decided he would rather stay home with me and Katie and play with his buddy Everett.   So Justin loaded up with van with five excited girls and treated them to a fun morning on the ice.  They didn’t have skates large enough for Justin’s gargantuan feet so he took pictures instead.

Apparently there were a few spills, but plenty of friends to lend a hand.

Merry Christmas!

Tis’ the Season

Tis’ the season for holiday parties!  Thursday evening I enjoyed having dinner with the ladies from church at our Relief Society Christmas celebration.  The theme was “Christmas in the MTC” which sounds boring, but they pulled it off in a really fun way.  The speaker, our new home teacher, was awesome.  So engaging.  Justin had a couple work parties on Friday, one in which he won a $150 gift certificate to a swanky restaurant in Bellevue.  Since college Justin has been called “King of Free Stuff” he always seems to win things at conferences, etc…  over the years he’s won an iTouch, iPod Nano, a basket of hair products from a salon back in the day he didn’t cut his own hair, a $500 VISA card for participating in a survey for the software he uses at work, and so on.  Of course I’m glad he wins, but what I’d really like him to win are the contest for free cars, vacations, etc…call me greedy.

Friday night our new neighbor friends had a party with several couples from church.  It is always fun to get to know people more personally.  We had a great time and came home with some interesting white elephant gifts.   Justin made a comment later that night that it is going to take years for us to really get to know these people.  We love our new area, but we lived in Auburn for 10 years so we really knew our friends.  We’d seen them have children, then watched some children go off to college, get married, have kids of their own, we had history with them - we were there when their families went through difficult challenges and life changes – relationships like that take time.  Thankfully, we are close enough that we still have and enjoy those friendships (though I miss seeing them as often as I'd like), and we get to work on creating new friendships as well.

Saturday morning was our ward Christmas breakfast.  The girls haven’t been feeling well the past few days, but we thought they were well enough to go.  Carly invited a friend from school to go with us several weeks ago and they’ve both been very excited about it.  After breakfast Santa came to visit.  Abigail wasn’t feeling up to sitting on Santa’s lap and for some reason Carly opted out as well, though her friend still waited in line and spent some time with the big guy.

I was surprised that even without their older sisters leading the way, both Jason and Katie were excited to sit on Santa’s lap.  Apparently Jason asked Santa for a phone (say what?!?!)  Later I asked him why he wants a phone and he said, “So I can play games like on Daddy’s phone.”  

I’m not sure if Katie put in any specific requests.  I think her only motivation for sitting on Santa’s lap was to get the candy cane afterward.

Tis' the season for winter colds as well.  Carly came home early from school on Thursday with a fever and sore throat and stayed home sleeping most of Friday.  Abigail came home from school on Friday and spent all evening and most of Saturday conked out, missing both of her basketball games.  When I woke up Sunday morning I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was down and out as well.   I mustered through having friends over Sunday for dinner, only to spend all night miserable.  Katie woke up last night at 10pm, 2am, 5am with a burning fever and we’re keeping each other company in our sickened state today.  Four down, two to go?  I hope not.  

Katie’s First Haircut

We usually cut the kids’ hair ourselves, but for the first haircut I’m pretty sure I’ve taken each of them to a professional.  Last week it was time for Katie to get her first haircut. 

Her before shot:

She was super excited all the way there.  She had her choice of sitting in a Navy airplane or an NYPD police car.  She chose the airplane.  Every day since then she tells us multiple times, “I got my haircut in airplane!”

Once that pink cape when on, Katie went into some sort of emotionless trance until it was all over.  She wouldn’t talk to anyone (including me) and forget trying to get her to smile.  

Usually I leave chain salons disappointed, but the gal did a great job and I was very happy with the results.  We cut off 3-4 inches.

Is that a smile I see?  Yes, it is!  A dum dum was the perfect after haircut treat.

I gotta admit I got a little emotional seeing my baby girl growing up right before my eyes.  She looked so much older.  Love this little girl – just wish she’s stop growing up so fast.